Intro Flashcards
Behaviour
activity of an organism that can be observed/measured (ex: attending class)
Learning
permanent change in behaviour - results from an experience (ex: knowledge you learn from attending class)
Classical Conditioning
involuntary (ex: drooling to food)
A NS is presented which elicits an involuntary response
environment induces a change in behaviour
stimulus is presented before behaviour
Operant Conditioning
voluntary (pressing a lever to get food)
behaviour induces change in the environment
strengthening or weakening of a behaviour as a result of its consequences
behaviour comes before the reward
associative learning
an association is learned between 2 stimuli or a behaviour + stimulus
Structuralism
believed it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements that compose it
*INTROSPECTION - accurately describing one’s own thoughts, emotions, experiences
looked at parts… not the whole
Functionalism
assumed the mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us
criticisms with structuralism + functionalism, what did it lead to?
dillema of objectivity
behaviourism
Behaviourism (John Watson)
he said we’re unable to directly observe another persons thoughts/ feelings (rejected introspection -> he said it was subjective and not quantified)
The study of environmental influences on observable behaviour (objective science)
the observable behaviour can give us insight to human behaviour
Learning = connection of an environmental event (stimulus) and a specific behaviour (response) -> SR theory
Neobehaviourism (Clark Hull)
disagreed with the rejection of introspection
- ex: chemists can make inferences of things they can’t observe (gravity) but can define it
internal events might mediate between the environment and the behavior
-> Stimuli yields responses with internal events mediating
ex: hunger drive - feeling it and knowing what it means but not knowing how to explain it to someone
SR learning
Cognitive Behaviourism (Tolman)
Disagreed with Watson + Hull (learning is more than just a chain of stimuli and responses
behaviour is goal-directed -> gestalt view (how the parts form the whole and not the individual parts themselves)
the internal cognitive processes = expectations + hypotheses
Cognitive maps (Tolman)
mental representations of our spatial surrounding based on our experiences + expectations
ex: how to do an interview
Social Learning Theory (Bandura)
observing a models behaviour facilitates the development of a behaviour in an observer
ex: how children develop a bad behaviour
This theory hasn’t always worked: violence and video games
doesn’t dismiss the value of innate and conscious mental processing
ex: date and telling a joke
Radical Behaviorism (Skinner)
emphasized the influence of the environment on overt behaviours
rejects internal events to explain behaviour
still a relationship between behaviour, internal events and environment… but the environment is the ultimate cause
