Chapter 1: Behaviorism Flashcards
Empircists
infants must learn to interpret sensations
Nativists
René Descrates
- shift from understanding how human behaviour can be studied and understood, identified a class of behaviours: reflexive behaviours eg, pulling your hand away from a hot stove
- Spinal cord can stop behaviours from happening and continue other behaviours
- Being able to come up with a science of the behaviour, if x happens then y occurs
Enrichment Theory (Piaget)
Cognitive schemes are needed to make sense of sensory information
Eg, you have the concept of what a stool looks like, how we perceive things that we already know
Differentiation Theory (Gibson)
Sensory information can be interpreted on its own
Children learn to detect distinctive features
Eg, how do we know it is a stool? It has a flat top, no back, 4 legs (look at all the components and add them up)
What are the three features of learning?
- Individual thinks, perceives or reacts to environment in a new way (something changes)
- Change is the result of experience (create new connections)
- Change is relatively permanent
Classical Conditioning
BEFORE: unconditioned stimulus to unconditioned response (physiological) food makes you salivate, reflexive response
DURING: Pair a neutral stimulus, there is no connection between salivating and the bell
AFTER: the bell starts to illicit salivation, CR (conditioned response) - caused by a neutral stimulus to a conditioned stimulus (CS)
Habituation
- Learning what not to respond to and how to filter out non-relative information
- Learn what not to respond to
Individual differences that predict later competencies:
1. Language acquisition
2. Intelligence test scores
Thorndike’s 3 Laws:
The Law of Exercises
The more frequently a stimulus and response are associated, the more likely the response will follow the stimulus (practice)
The more I do something, the better I get at it
Thorndike’s 3 Laws:
The Law of Readiness
Learning is dependent upon the learner’s readiness to act
There is has to be readiness from the learner
Thorndike’s 3 Laws:
The Law of Effect
Any behaviour that is followed by pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated (if the cat gets cat food once it gets out it will do it again) , any behaviour that is followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped (if the cat gets out and it gets shocked it won’t do it again)
Thorndike’s 3 Laws:
Primacy
Things learned first create a strong impression
Unteaching wrong first impressions is harder than teaching them right the first time
A part of our jobs is to create a environment for the children to lear
Thorndike’s 3 Laws:
Recency
Things most recently learned are best remembered
Ex, midterm; the material learned closer to the midterm will be easier for us to remember
Tell them more then once
Thorndike’s 3 Laws:
Intensity
The more intense the material taught, the more likely it will be retained
Ex, you will have a hard time remembering your 6th birthday party unless something really important happened at the birthday because it is more intense
What consequences are the child learning from the result of their behaviour, set the change
Operant Conditioning
The outcome of responses can predict the probability of the response occurring again
An initial voluntary response elicits a pleasant or unpleasant consequence
How our behaviours ‘operant’ on the environment
What adds something to a behaviour?
positive
What removes something from a behaviour?
negative
what always increases behaviour?
reinforcers
what always decreases behaviours?
punishment
can babies learn from operant condition?
yes
do older infants learn faster?
yes, their are fewer trials
continues reinforcement schedule
reinforcement after every response
fixed interval schedule
reinforcement after a set period of time
variable interval schedule
reinforcement after varying lengths of time
fixed-ratio schedule
reinforcement after a set number of responses
variable ratio schedule
reinforcement after a varying length of responses
step 1 of behaviour learning principles to change behaviour?
clearly specific the behaviour to be changed and note the current level
step 2 of behaviour learning principles to change behaviour?
Plan a specific intervention using antecedents (before, classical conditioning), consequences (after, operant conditioning) or both (ex, antecedents leading to the behaviour,
step 3 of behaviour learning principles to change behaviour?
Keep track of the results, and modify the plan, if necessary
Premack Principle
High frequency behaviour (a preferred activity) can be an effective reinforcer for a low frequency behaviour ( a less preferred activity)
dishes and Netflix example
shaping
Involves reinforcing progress instead of waiting for perfection
Useful for building complex skills, working toward difficult goals, and increasing persistence, endurance, accuracy or speed
positive practice
Practise correct behaviour as soon and as much as possible
Ex, when a child is nice to someone who is typically rude and therefore that reinforces that behaviour
Handling Undesirable Behaviour:
Negative Reinforcement
Allow students to ‘escape’ from mildly unpleasant situations
Handling Undesirable Behaviour:
Reprimands
Soft, calm, and private reprimands most effective
Handling Undesirable Behaviour:
Social Isolation
Remove highly disruptive student for short period of time
cautions about punishment
Punishment in and of itself does not lead to any positive behaviour or compassion for others, and it may interfere with developing caring relationships with students
part 1 of effective punishment is?
First, carry out the punishment and suppress the undesirable behaviour
part 2 of effective punishment is?
Second , make clear what the student should be doing instead and provide reinforcement for those desirable actions
Behavioural Approaches to Teaching and Management: Group Consequences:
Basing reinforcement for the whole class on the behaviour of the whole class
Pro: if we all finish our homework, we will have a pizza party
Con: the one child was does not, therefore the child can be picked on
Behavioural Approaches to Teaching and Management: Contingency Contracts
The teacher draws up an individual contract with teach student describing exactly what the student must do to earn a particular privilege or reward
Behavioural Approaches to Teaching and Management: Token Programs
Students earn tokens (points, checks, holes punched in a card, chips etc) for both academic work and positive classroom behaviour
what is a functional behaviour assessment?
A teacher studied the antecedents and consequences of problem behaviours to determine the reason or function of the behaviour
What is the actual underlying reason for their behaviour
what are the 4 problem behaviours
Need for attention
Escape from unpleasant situation
Gain item or activity
Meet sensory needs
what is positive behaviour support?
The actual interventions designed to replace problem behaviours with new actions that serve the same purpose of the student
what is self-management?
Students can apply behaviour analysis on their own to manage their own behaviour
how can teachers encourage self-management?
Goal setting
Keeping track of progress
Evaluating accomplishments
Giving their own reinforcers
Be sure to emphasise learning and not just good behaviour!
