Chapter 2- The Study Of Learning And Behaviour Flashcards
What common elements exist between different fields within the natural sciences? Give examples of prescientific explanations in physics and botany and explain how such pre-scientific explanations are similar to explanations for behaviour such as door slamming or pressing a lever to acquire food?
Common element: an emphasis on physical events
Pre-scientific explanations: the ancient Greeks explainedd the behaviour of falling bodies by theorizing that the object feels the need to return to its natural place, the earth, but the modern physicists explanation has to do with the relative masses of the objects in of the earth and of the distance separating them.
In the past, natural philosophers may have interpreted of plans tendency to turn towards the sun as an active will buy the planned, but the modern botanist explains the phenomenon by pointing to physical changes in the plant produced by sunlight.
We have been slow to apply the emphasis on physical events to behavior. We say that a man slams the door because he feels angry or that a rat press is a lever because it knows lever pressing produces food, but these explanations are circular, the evidence for the explanation is the very thing that is being explained
Give an original example of a circular explanation
The mother smiled because she was happy. Why did she smile? Because she was happy. How do you know she was happy? Because she smiled.
What is constructivism?
A school of thought that says the scientific method that has serve the world so well for 400 years is now out outdated, that science is just a debate about an unknowable entity
What problems are there in defining learning in terms of neural change?
Two problems: we don’t yet understand what changes take place when learning occurs. It denies the importance of behaviour
The author defined behaviour into ways, one for general purposes and one for purposes of scientific analysis:
General purposes: anything an organism does
Scientific Analysis: anything in organism does that can be measured
A definition that specifies the operation or procedure by which a term will be measured
Operational definition
Example: The learning of a song is measured by how many correct words a person can recall
What problems are there in operationally defining thinking and feeling?
They cannot be measured directly, although to some extent we can measure their neurological correlates
Any event that affects or is capable of affecting, behaviour
Stimulus
Stimuli are physical events, for example, sound, sight, touch. Example, an electric shock
Refers to exposure to events that affect, or are capable of affecting behaviour
Experience.
Not all changes in behaviour are due to experience, and not all experiences are learning experiences. Behaviour changes may be attributed to aging, injury, drugs, or disease
Example: a person who is drunk and who begins to talk louder than usual as probably not learned to do so but is just being affected by the alcohol
One way of measuring learning is to look for a reduction in errors. Give an example of this
A person learning to speak French makes fewer word errors
A way to measure learning which refers to the form a behaviour takes
Change in the topography of behaviour
Example: a person learning to handwrite can follow the curve of the letters more neatly and correctly
You may measure learning by noting changes in the intensity of a behavior. Give an example
A person who learns to spin faster to feel dizzy
One way to measure learning is to measure a change in the speed with which a behaviour is performed. Give an example of this:
A person learning to handwrite can finish writing a sentence in a much faster time than the first time they did it
This measure of learning is a change in the time that passes before a behaviour occurs
Change in latency
Example: when teaching a student multiplication, the time before the student answers begins to get smaller
A dog will perform a trick sooner or without hesitation eventually
Learning is often measured as a change in the rate or frequency at which a behaviour occurs. These terms refers to the number of occurrences per unit of time. Give an example
A person who wants to lose weight through exercising learns that they must do more jumping jacks per minute
What are seven ways of measuring learning?
Reduction in errors, changes in topography, changes in intensity, changes in speed, changes in latency, and changes in rate or frequency
And apparatus or software that records every occurrence of a behavior, thereby producing a cumulative record
Cumulative recorder
How long have people applied scientific methods to the study of learning?
Only about 100 years
A graphic record of behavior, each point of which reflects the total number of times a behavior has been performed as of that time
Cumulative record
What device has replaced cumulative recorders in contemporary research? Explain how to interpret the slope of cumulative records
Replaced by computer software such as med associates med PC but the record is a essentially the same
In a cumulative recorder, and ink pen moves at right angles each time a response occurs
The number correct per minute
Fluency
A person learning French words calls out 12 words with nine correct in one minute. There fluency measure is nine correct per minute
First or second hand reports of personal experience. What problems are there with this type of evidence?
Anecdotal evidence
Problem: not always correct
Detailed study and description of a single case. Usually used in a clinical settings.
What problems and advantages does this have?
Case studies
Problems: takes a good deal of time, generalizations are often based on very few participants, these participants may not be representative of the group they represent, and conclusions about that group may be in error.
Cannot answer certain questions about behaviour
Much of the data obtained comes not buy direct observation of the participants behavior, but from what the participant or other people report about the participants behavior-secondhand reports are notoriously unreliable
Better than anecdotal evidence because at least the data are obtained in a fairly systematic way
A study in which the researcher attempts to describe a group by obtaining data from its members
Often by conducting interviews for administering questionnaires
What are the advantages over case studies and anecdotal evidence and what are their limitations?
Descriptive study
Using descriptive studies over case studies reduces the risk that a few unrepresentative participants will the stork the findings
Limitations: cannot test hypotheses
A research design in which the researcher measures the effects of one or more independent variables on one or more dependent variables
Experiment
in an experiment, the variable that the researcher controls. Usually expected to affect the dependent variable
Independent variable
The variable by which the outcome of an experiment is measured. Expected to vary with the independent variable
Dependent variable
An experimental design in which the independent variable is made to vary across two or more groups of subjects.
Between-subjects experiment
In a between-subjects experiment, those subjects exposed to the independent variable
Experimental group
In a between-subjects experiment, those subjects not exposed to the independent variable
Control group
A procedure for reducing extraneous differences among subjects in between-subjects experiments by matching those in the experimental and control groups on specified characteristics, such as age, sex, and weight
Match sampling
A research design in which the independent variable is made to vary at different times for the same subject. Thus, each subject serves as both an experimental and control subject
Within-subject experiment
In a within-subjects experiment, a period of observation, often designated A, during which no attempt is made to modify the behaviour under study
Baseline.
A type of within-subject experiment in which behaviour is observed before and after an experimental manipulation. The original condition is restored, sometimes followed again by the experimental condition
ABA reversal design
Compare and contrast within-subjects and between-subjects experimental designs
Differ in the number of participants and in the use of statistics. An important difference has to do with the way in which extraneous differences among participants are controlled. In between-subjects experiments, differences are controlled mainly through random assignment and matching. In within-subject experiments, differences are controlled by comparing participants against themselves
What is the chief limitation of experimental research?
Although experiments give more control over variables, this control makes the experiment more artificial than real life
What are three major reasons for using animals in research on learning?
Make it possible to get control over the influence of heredity
Makes it possible to control a participants learning history
Makes it possible to do research with animals that, for ethical reasons, cannot be done with people
What is the most common objection to using animals in research on learning?
The results obtained tell us nothing about people
Has no practical value, it is intrinsically unethical
