learning: Behaviourists Flashcards
definition of learning
A lasEng change in observable and non- observable behaviour or funcEon due to an animal adapEng to its environment
– Can be evident at the behavioural or physiological level
returning to the dawn of psychology
Wundt (1879) Leipzig – Structuralism – Method: introspecEon
• ReacEons to Wundt’s Structuralism – FuncEonalism (James) – goals
– Gestalt (Wertheimer) – sum is greater than is parts – Psychodynamic approach (Freud) - unconscious – Behaviourism . . .
Behaviourism (1900-1960) – JB Watson (1913)
– BF Skinner (1948) Walden Two
• Basic tenets of Behaviourism
– anE-mentalisEc
– measure overt behavior – characterize all animal behaviour
• “Learning” is synonymous with Behaviorism
behaviourism
Watson’s 1913 Manifesto
- Subject of psychology is not the mind but behavior (i.e., observable acEons).
- Goal of psychology is to idenEfy environmental condiEons that cause individuals to behave in certain ways.
- Only describe environment-behavior relaEonships; no reference to the mind.
- No difference between human and animal behavior.
psychology of learning
Much study was devoted to learning in the early 20th Century
• Early Behaviourists were: Pavlov, Watson 7 Skinner
• Believed that the process of learning was the same regardless of who was learning what
– Any child/person from any background could be educated to do anything
• To study learning, they tended to use animals in simple situaEons to try and discover the basic law of learning
more on psychology of learning
They argued that:
– All complex situaEons could be broken down into simple parts
– Once you know how learning works in simple situaEons, you can translate this into how humans learn
• Instead of discovering one law that covered all learning, they discovered many laws for learning in various animals
• Many of these laws, form the basis of much modern understanding and are the basis of methods used to treat some disorders
different types of learning
• HabituaEon& SensiEsaEon • CondiEoning – Classical/Pavlovian – Instrumental/Operant • CogniEve approaches to learning
habituation
• Simplest form of learning
• The decline in response to a sEmuli once the sEmuli has become familiar
• Wyers, Peeke & Herz (1973) – HabituaEon allows animals to ignore the familiar and focus on more important informaEve events
• HabituaEon is clearly reliant on memory
– We compare the sEmulus to what we know about
similar ones from previous experience
– If it is familiar or harmless we don’t ahend to it
– If it is unfamiliar we will ahend to it as it may be dangerous
dehabituation
A previously predictable stimulus changes, causing the organism to renew its attention to the stimulus.
sensitisation
The opposite of HabituaEon
– Organisms become more sensitive to environmental sEmuli
– E.g. amer a painful experience, heightened sensory sensiEvity
• Modulated by arousal
– Habituation and sensitisaEon are in competition – Behavioural outcome is a combinaEon of both
ascociative learning
Thinking of learning as a series of associaEons has
been around since the 1600’s (John Locke) • Pavlov was the first to experiment with this
pavlovian conditioning:in classical conditioning
animals learn about the associaEon between one sEmulus and another.
example in humans is the association between smells and songs…the emotional experience
classical conditioning
SystemaEc pairing together of a natural response and some neutral sEmulus causes an associaEon between the two
before and after conditioning
- Before condiEoning:
- an uncondi2oned s2mulus (US, such as food)
- elicits an uncondi2oned response (UR, such as salivaEon) • Condi2oned s2mulus (CS) is something neutral
- Amer condiEoning:
- Amer repeaEng pairings of the CS and the US, the CS comes to elicit the Condi2oned Response (CR)
features of classical conditioning
• AcquisiEon • Second/higher order condiEoning • ExEncEon • Spontaneous recovery • SEmulus GeneralisaEon • SEmulus DiscriminaEon • Temporal ConEguity • Predictability – Tuning responses – Intensity – ExpectaEons – Blocking Effects
features of classical conditioning: acquisition
• MulEple pairing or single pairing
– Depends on the strength of the iniEal UR – One-trial/Single trail Learning
example:
The amount of saliva a dog produces when only the CS is presented
higher order conditioning: second order conditioning
When a CS-US relaEonship is well established, the CS can be preceded by a second, neutral sEmulus.
extinction
Trials in which the CS is presented without the US lead to ex2nc2on
operant or instrumental conditioning
is the learning process in which an acIon’s consequences determine the likelihood that the acIon will be performed in the future
means of conditioning by consequence
Thorndke
•showed The Law of Effect
– Behaviour is governed by its consequences
– Performance is strengthened if it’s followed by a reward and weakened if it is not
Thorndykes cats
Would try many random moves to get out of the box and get a treat but would fail until they learn of the leaver and each time responded faster
what is a reinforcer
is a stimulus that is presented after a response and increases the likelyhood of the behaviour being repeated
Only a reinforcer if the desired behaviour is repeated
B.F. Skinner
- Focused on the observable behaviors of pigeons and rats rather than the study of the mind through introspecIon
- Skinner’s systemaIc studies led to many of the principles of learning we know today and have been influenIal in many areas from classrooms to clinics
reinforcers:primary
those satisfying basic biological needs
reinforcers:secondary
those that do not satisfy basic biological needs and are learned through classical conditioning e.g. money Eg money
Antecedants
An animal must lear the relationship between a response and a reinforcement and the conditions in which this association will hold
the animal will learn in which condition it will hold
e.g. when light is on and bar is pressed for will come but when light is off and var is pressed food will not come
Many responses in instrumental learning are behaviors that fall into an animal’s natural repertoire
Less “natural” behaviors can be shaped by reinforcing successive approximations of the behavior.
schedules of reinforcement: partial reinforcement
Less “natural” behaviors can be shaped by reinforcing successive approximations of the behavior.
intervals between reinforcement must be fixed or variable
