Exam 3 Flashcards
Descartes and Dualism
human & non-human animals share mechanical principles
encouraged the study of non-human anatomy
Comparative Psychology
Studying animal psychology to learn about human psychology
George John Romanes
Romanes wrote several books on comparative psychology that brought attention to the new field, but he tended to overly anthropomorphize the animals he wrote about
anthropomorphize
to give non-human things human characteristics
Conway Lloyd Morgan
-more objective than Romanes
-Heavily Reliant on naturalistic observation
Morgan’s Cannon
one should not ascribe human traits to an animal if a simpler explanation for their behavior exists
Margaret Floy Washburn
-First female to be awarded a PhD in psychology
-drew conclusions about animal learning from animal experiments
-did NOT conduct experiments herself
Thorndike
-methodological innovation to comparative psychology
-through experimental and control conditions
Connectionism
Thorndike’s theory that learning occurs through the formation of connections between stimuli (what is perceived) and responses (actions taken) in the nervous system. These associations strengthen with repetition and reinforcement.
Stimulus-response (S-R) connections form through experience, creating neural links.
Includes associations between senses and actions, meaning perception can directly influence behavior.
First formal link between sensory
events and behavior, laying the foundation for behaviorism and later learning theories
Connectionism is a combination of:
associationism, darwinism, and the scientific method
Selecting and Connecting (trial and error learning)
consists of associations (or connections) between stimuli and responses.
through trial and error, animals identify connections between a stimulus and a satisfying consequence.
Learning Curve
showing the number of seconds the animal took to escape on each trial
Puzzle Boxes
experiments involved placing a cat into a box and observing how long it took the cat to escape.
their behavior was selected for (nod to Darwin) and a neural connection was formed between that random behavior and the stimuli that invoked it (the puzzle box).
Trial-and-error Learning
selecting and connecting
Incremental Learning
learning that occurs a little bit at a time rather than all at once; the cats were simply strengthening the connection between stimulus and response on each learning trial
Insightful learning
learning in which a solution is reached in a sudden and irreversible way; when solution just clicks and you don’t have to go through trial and error: 2+2=4
The Law of Readiness
Part I: When an organism is ready to perform an act, doing so is satisfying
Part II: When an organism is ready to perform an act, not doing so is frustrating
Part III: When an organism is not ready to perform an act, being forced to do so is frustrating
learning is not
mediated by reasoning
The law of exercise
law of use: stimulus/response associations are strengthened with repeated use
law of disuse: stimulus/response associations are weakened when not used
The law of effect
part I: stimulus/response associations are strengthened if the consequence of the response is satisfying
part II: stimulus/response associations are weakened if the consequence of the response is annoying
Annoyers
things animals actively avoid or abandon
Satisfiers
things animals do not avoid & will alter behavior to obtain
Confirming reaction
when you do something and get a good result, your brain strengthens the connection between the neurons involved in that action.
If a cat presses a lever and gets food, the “press lever” neurons and “get food” neurons form a stronger connection.
The good result (food) causes a change in the brain that makes the cat more likely to press the lever again in the future.
Neutral Trace
when you experience something, the activity in your brain doesn’t stop immediately—it lingers for a short time.
When you see a bright flash of light, you might still “see” it for a moment after closing your eyes.
Varied Response
when trying to solve a problem, a person or animal tries different actions until they find what works.
A cat in a puzzle box might push, scratch, bite, or paw at different parts before finally pressing the right lever to escape.
Dualism
the idea that the mind and body are two separate entities that work together
Darwin
took dualism a step further and erased the line between the human and animal mind
Animal learning is
incremental
Use it or lose it is the
law of exercise
States
the different conditions a learner has before starting a learning task, which can affect how well they learn
If you’re tired or stressed, learning might be harder.
If you’re motivated or focused, learning might be easier.
temporary conditions
short-term physical or mental states that can affect learning but don’t last long.
Fatigue – If someone is really tired, they might struggle to focus, but once they rest, they’re back to normal.
Hunger (drive) – If someone is really hungry, they might be more motivated to find food, but once they eat, that drive goes away.
Permanent Conditions
characteristics of the learner that affect how they learn and tend to stay the same over time.
For example:
Intelligence – Someone’s cognitive ability can influence how quickly or easily they learn, and this tends to remain relatively stable over time.
Experience – Past knowledge or skills can shape how a learner approaches new tasks, and this grows over time but is also a stable factor.
Prepotent Stimuli
aspects that learners pay the most significant attention to
Formal Discipline
the idea that if you practiced something, other related skills related to the practiced skill would also improve
Association Shifting
shifting the connection from one stimulus to another while still maintaining the same response. The new stimulus becomes connected to the same behavior or action
Response by analogy
recognizing similarities in new situations and applying a similar response to a different problem.
Belongingness
the idea that certain things in the learning environment simply belong together for one reason or another
Describe the important changes in philosophy and science that led up to Thorndike
Thorndike built off the philosophy of Descarte and Darwin, as well as the scientific inquiry of Morgan and Washburn
How did Thorndike’s puzzle boxes show evidence for incremental learning?
Each time he placed a cat into the puzzle box, they tended to be a little faster to escape than on previous trials.
What were Thorndike’s views on reasoning?
-Because Thorndike did not find evidence of insightful learning, he also rejected the idea that learning was due to reason.
-IF the cats were using reason to escape the puzzle box, they should have sat quietly for several seconds thinking about the correct course of action before enacting the plan and observing the results. Instead, the cats behaved erratically and randomly, clawing, scratching, hissing and running around (i.e. trial and error).
What revisions did Thorndike make to his different laws of learning?
-Law of Exercise: law of use and disuse were abandoned
-Law of Effect: abandoned half of law of effect (annoying consequences)
- Law of Readiness: no change
How did Thorndike view the relationship between psychology and education?
Thorndike thought education, as an applied use of learning theory, should be studied in a scientific manner.
What were Thorndike’s recommendations for educators?
educators must precisely define what they want their students to learn (1 & 2) and then apply a satisfying state of affairs to situations in which students display that learning (3). It also means that educators should not teach things that are unnecessary to their goals (4 & 5) and that they should structure their instruction to be as close to the real world as possible (6 & 7).
What were Thorndike’s major contributions to learning theory?
Thorndike set the standard for studying learning – His approach became the foundation for future research in psychology.
He proved that consequences affect behavior – Thorndike was the first to show that what happens after an action (the consequence) influences whether that behavior will happen again. This was key to the rise of behaviorism.
He was open to changing his theories – Thorndike wasn’t afraid to admit when he was wrong or when new evidence didn’t support his ideas, even if they went against what was popular at the time.
What were the major limitations of Thorndike’s theory?
-There is no before the fact way to determine what a satisfier is
-Thorndike threw out any role of reason or logic in learning, thus reducing its complexity
After revising his theory of learning, Thorndike decided that reinforcement facilitated learning but punishment did not.
True
For Thorndike, the most important aspect of an organism’s behavior for learning outcomes was repeated variation in their response
False
Of the three major laws proposed by Thorndike, only the Law of Exercise survived rigorous testing and Thorndike’s famous 1929 review?
False
Thorndike said that the cats in his puzzle box experiment learned _______ improving gradually over time instead of all at once.
incrementally
Jeff is sitting at a red light waiting for his turn to go. After the cross traffic is finished the green arrow illuminates signaling the turn lanes to proceed. Jeff is frustrated. This demonstrates Thorndike’s…
law of readiness
Operant Conditioning
responses that are followed by reinforcement are more likely to recur in the future
Radical behaviorism
for psychology to advance as a science it had to extinguish all reference to unmeasurable things and study only those things we could measure (behaviors/stimuli)
Respondent Behavior
automatic reaction to something you already know.
These are natural responses that happen without needing to be learned, like when you touch something hot and your hand jerks away (this is a reflex).
It includes things like Pavlov’s unconditioned responses, where a dog naturally salivates when it sees food, without needing to be trained.
Operant Behavior
behavior that must be learned, and how often it happens depends on the consequences that follow it.
It’s a response to new or unknown stimuli—we learn these behaviors based on whether they’re rewarded or punished.
For example, if a child gets praised for doing their homework, they’re more likely to keep doing it in the future because of the positive consequence.
Type S conditioning
-respondent conditioning (classical conditioning)
-measured by the magnitude of the response
Type R conditioning
-operant conditioning (similar to instrumental conditioning)
-measured by the rate of responding
Reinforcement
-responses followed by a reinforcing stimulus more likely to be repeated
-a reinforcing stimulus is one that increase rate of an operant response
(anything that increases a behavior)
In operant conditioning the reinforcement has to be _______ on a behavior to affect learning.
contingent
Contingent
reinforcement is contingents on the organism’s response
How do you modify behavior?
find a reinforcer, wait until desired behavior occurs, immediately reinforce it
Personality
a set of behavioral tendency that have been in the past reinforced view social interaction with other people.
- we are what we are reinforced to be
Language
parents, peers and other caregivers reinforce infants for making sounds with their articulators and gradually shape (a special form of operant conditioning) those sounds into language
Culture
a unique set of reinforcement contingencies that differ between groups of people.
Punishment
weakens behavior
Skinner Box
a box that consisted of a grid floor (to deliver electric shock), a lever, and a food bowl. When the lever is depressed a food pellet is delivered to the food bowl (reinforcement)
-small chamber used to test animal learning
Cumulative Recording
the total number of responses are recorded and graphed cumulatively (never decrease), so that each trial reports the total number of responses for both the current and all previous trials
Key measure in cumulative recording
the rate of response increase
Level-Pressing Response
deprivation, magazine training, lever pressing
-if the rat never decides to press the level he will not be reinforced with food pellets and therefore will not learn.
Shaping
a special form of operant conditioning that enables experimenters, trainers, and parents to generate and reinforce new behaviors in organisms.
Differential Reinforcement
some behaviors are reinforced and some aren’t
Successive Approximation
responses that become increasingly similar to the desired response are differentially reinforced
Extinction
the behavior of the rat will appear to level off instead of returning to “zero”
Operant Level of Response
the natural rate of responding for the particular organism
Noncontingent Reinforcement
reinforcement that is delivered at random points in time.
-when a reinforcer is independent of an animals behavior
Primary Reinforcer
stimuli that is biologically relevant (water, Food)
Secondary Reinforcers
reinfrocers we were learned to want bc they are linked to a primary reinforcer
ex: money
Without paring with ______, even strong secondary reinforcers will eventually extinguish
primary reinforcers
Generalized reinforcers
secondary reinforcers like money, tokens
Functional Autonomy (Allport)
when secondary reinforcers become independent of the primary reinforcer they were originally associated with
Chaining
when one action leads to another, like a chain of responses. Here’s how it works:
The first behavior you do (response) causes a new set of stimuli (something you perceive or experience).
This new stimulus then leads to another response.
Positive reinforcement
Adding something that the organism finds desirable as a consequence to make a behavior more likely to occur in the future
Negative reinforcement
Removing something that the organism finds aversive as a consequence to make a behavior more likely to occur in the future
Positive Punishment
Adding something that the organism finds aversive as a consequence to make a behavior less likely to occur in the future
Negative Punishment
Removing something that the organism finds desirable as a consequence to make a behavior less likely to occur in the future
Corporal Punishment
the use of physical force to discipline a child
reinforcement schedule
a systematic and contingent manner which behaviors will be reinforced and which will not
Continuous Reinforcement
reinforcement is provided every single time the organism performs the desired behavior
-usually used for initial conditioning
Partial Reinforcement
reinforcement is provided every now and then after behavior
- used to sustain behavior
Premack Principle
reinforcers are things that occur more often than the response to be conditioned.
How was lever pressing conditioned in the Skinner box?
Deprivation, Magazine (food dispenser) Training, Lever Pressing
Why is shaping necessary?
it allows conditioners to generate and reinforce new behaviors
How can superstitious behaviors be explained via operant conditioning?
noncontingent reinforcement- reinforcement that is delivered at random points in time
Why did Skinner reject the effectiveness of punishment?
-it did not lead to any long term changes in rate of behavior
-only temporarily suppressed the expression of the punished behavior
Sears, Maccoby, & Levin (1957)
-Investigated effect of reinforcement & punishment with child rearing
-findings: punishment increased probability of response
What are the drawbacks of punishment, in general, and corporal punishment more specifically?
-emotional by-products (fear)
-elicits aggression towards the punisher
-infliction of pain is acceptable
-behavior is okay when punisher is absent
-indicates what not to do, not what to do
- can lead to new, undesired behavior
What are some alternatives to punishment?
-remove triggering stimuli
-let the behavior continue until it fades
-find reinforcing stimuli and remove it
If punishment (especially corporal punishment) is so bad, why do parents often use it?
-it DOES immediately suppress the behavior
-this is reinforcing for the punishing agent (reinforces parent’s behavior)
Research Methods of Operant Conditioning
-Discrete Trials
-Cumulative Recording
-Normative (group) data
-Control Group
-Statistical Analysis
How are Thorndike’s and Skinner’s learning theories different?
-Thorndike: time to solution
-Skinner: Rate of Response
-Skinner’s research methods are closer to modern techniques than instrumental conditioning
Instrumental Conditioning
-Long Periods of Time
-Learning Curve
-Idiographic (individual) data
-no control group
-no statistical analysis
What were Skinner’s recommendations on education?
educators should use immediate feedback (contingent and contiguous reinforcement) to mold behaviors in small steps (shaping) the move from simple to complex behaviors
-defining learning objectives
- extrinsic reinforcement
What are the major contributions of operant conditioning theory?
● Describing a theory of learning that was very straightforward and highly adaptable
● Emphasizing individual differences and behaviors
● Analyzing and describing types of reinforcement and reinforcement schedules
● Emphasizing behavior (easy to measure) and not cognition
What are the major limitations of operant conditioning theory?
● Skinner’s dismissal of punishment and free will which were seen as bad for society
● His refusal to formalize his theories ● The fact that most of his research was observations, which are difficult to refute
One limitation of operant conditioning is that there is no way to condition an animal to perform a completely novel behavior as the process requires an animal to first perform the behavior exactly as desired and then to be reinforced.
false
Skinner argued that punishment was effective for decreasing behavior exactly as desired and then to be reinforced.
false
One reason Skinner said punishment was ineffective is that although it does not inform the organism that a behavior is bad, it doesn’t inform the organism about what the correct behavior is.
true
One reason why parents may continue to use corporal punishment is that the act of punishing a child is _____ for the parent.
reinforcing
Skinner used cumulative recording to track learning in his experiments, one unique feature of cumulative recording is that…
values on the x-axis never decrease
partial reinforcement
reinforcing a response only part of the time
continuous reinforcement
reinforcing the desired response every time it occurs
4 reinforcement schedules
Fixed Ratio (FR):
Reinforcement is given after a set number of responses.
Example: A rat gets a food pellet after pressing a lever 5 times.
Variable Ratio (VR):
Reinforcement is given after an unpredictable number of responses.
Example: A slot machine pays out after an unpredictable number of pulls.
Fixed Interval (FI):
Reinforcement is given after a fixed amount of time has passed, as long as the behavior has occurred.
Example: A weekly paycheck given after working a set number of hours.
Variable Interval (VI):
Reinforcement is given after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, as long as the behavior occurs.
Example: Checking your phone for new notifications—sometimes you get one, sometimes you don’t, and the timing is unpredictable.
Fixed Ratio (FR):
Reinforcement is given after a set number of responses.
Example: A rat gets a food pellet after pressing a lever 5 times.
Variable Ratio (VR):
Reinforcement is given after an unpredictable number of responses.
Example: A slot machine pays out after an unpredictable number of pulls.
Fixed Interval (FI):
hours.
Reinforcement is given after a fixed amount of time has passed, as long as the behavior has occurred.
Example: A weekly paycheck given after working a set number of
Variable Interval (VI):
Reinforcement is given after an unpredictable amount of time has passed, as long as the behavior occurs.
Example: Checking your phone for new notifications—sometimes you get one, sometimes you don’t, and the timing is unpredictable.
Thorndike’s Puzzle Box
created a puzzle box for cats in which they learned tricks to get out of the box and get food
trial and error learning
a theoretical explanation as to why humans learn incrementally … by exploring all options and eliminating wrong choices and strengthening likelihood of making the right choice (we try things)term-16
Varied Response
is a key component of trial and error learning … in order for learning to occur
what type of learning did Thordike believe ALL learning was?
incremental
TRUE OR FALSE After revising his theory of learning thorndike decided that reinforcement facilitated learning but punishment
true
TRUE OR FALSE For thorndike, the most important aspect of an organism’s behavior for learning outcomes was repeated variation in their response
TRUE
true or false Of the three major laws proposed by thorndike only the law of exercise survived rigorous testing and thorndike’s famous 1929 revisions
false
Thorndike said that the cats in his puzzle box experiment learned _______ improving gradually over time instead of all at once
incrementally
Jeff is sitting at a red light waiting for his turn to go. After the cross traffic is finished the green arrow illuminates signaling the turn lanes to proceed. Jeff is frustrated. This demonstrates thorndikes
LAW OF READINESS
TRUE OR FALSE One limitation of operant conditioning is that there is no way to condition an animal to perform a completely novel behavior as the process requires the animal to the first perform the behavior exactly as desired and then to be reinforced
FALSE
TRUE OR FALSE Skinner argued that punishment was effective for decreasing behavior
FALSE
TRUE OR FALSE One reason skinner said punishment was ineffective is that it although it does inform the organism that behavior is bad, it doesn’t inform the organism about what the correct behavior is
true
One reason why parents may continue to use corporal punishment is that the act of punishing a child is ______ for the parent
REINFORCING
Skinner used cumulative recording to track learning in his experiments. On unique feature of cumulative recording is that
VALUES ON THE X AXIS NEVER DECREASE
incremental learning
the time that it takes to escape is decreasing
insightful learning
Learning that occurs very rapidly, is remembered for a considerable length of time, and transfers readily to situations related to the one in which the insightful learning took place.
what is response by analogy is trying to solve? or question about how learning works
thorndike believed that hands on real life experience would help you learn (a more practical approach) i.e. trade schools, internships
thordike did not like lecture because
because he believed it was learning that didn’t apply to the real world therefore not a useful endeavor (moreover, learning latin…etc)
