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A school of thought that says the scientific method that has serve the world so well for 400 years is now out outdated, that science is just a debate about an unknowable entity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
