Learning I - classical Flashcards
What is learning?
– a relatively permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a result of experience
NB. This does not include behaviour change due to
Maturation (like adolescence or ‘terrible twos’)
or ‘temporary conditions’ (like fatigue or drug-induced states)
what is non associative learning?
learning about a single stimulus
1. Habituation and sensitization
what is associative learning?
involves learning relationships among events (i.e. that certain events go together)
- Classical conditioning
- Instrumental conditioning
- Observational learning (AKA social learning)
What was early work in psychology based on?
based on introspection (thinking about what was going on and making assumptions from that)
BUT first explorations into learning was done by psychologists who moved away from that
what did psychologists researching learning argue?
They argued that the subject matter of psychology should not be consciousness but behaviour
So early learning theorists worked from a behaviourist perspective
what was our understanding of developmental psychology at the beginning of the 20th century?
At beginning of the twentieth century most of our understanding of psychological development was from anecdote and opinion
Charles Darwin in “A biographical sketch of an infant” (1877), based on observations and deductions re his own son
Not considered ‘scientific’
What developments were made in developmental psych in the 1920s and 30s?
1920/ 30s USA founded Institutes
These combined
observations and
experiments
looking at normal, abnormal and adjustment
Included Piaget, a very influential psychologist
Also included ‘behaviourists’ who wanted a scientific method of enquiry that was objective and replicable
So they looked at observable behaviour of animals
What does the behaviourist approach propose?
Proposes two main processes whereby people learn from their environment:
classical conditioning and
operant conditioning
What is classical conditioning?
Learning that one event will follow another after repeated pairings
e.g. Baby learns that the sight of the breast will be followed by the taste of milk
What is instrumental conditioning?
An organism learns that a response it makes will be followed by a consequence
e.g. A young child learns that shouting at a sibling will be followed by parental disapproval
what experiment did Pavlov 1930s conduct about classical conditioning?
Pavlov was measuring dog salivation in response to being given food. All dogs salivate when food was placed in their mouth.
He also noticed that after a while the dogs in his laboratory salivated at the sight of the food dish.
Occurred to him that dogs had perhaps learnt to associate the sight of the dish with the taste of food.
Wondered if they could be taught to associate food with other stimuli such as a light or noise.
What did Pavlov find?
What was he doing?
A previously neutral stimulus (food dish) becomes associated with another stimulus (food) through repeated pairings - the dog learns that the two events (the taste of food in its mouth and the food dish) are associated
Therefore the dog salivates at the sight of the dish!
What was the second part of Pavlov’s experiment?
Ticking noise when food is near so dog begins to salivate as much when he hears the ticking as he does when he sees the food. He called this a conditioned response to conditioned stimuli
What is repeated pairings?
The researcher (or psychologist) capitalises on the existence of an unconditioned response – often a reflex (e.g. salivation, eye blink, flinch) Through repeated pairings (of the reflex and a stimuli) Subject learns to do this reflexive behaviour to a new stimuli
What is extended conditioning?
Second-order conditioning is possible
Pavlov found he could condition a dog to salivate to a bell or a light after repeated pairings
If the bell was then paired with another thing (e.g. sound) – then the sound makes dog salivate though never actually paired with the food!!!
Once the bell is a CS it can be paired to pass the conditioned response onto a new CS!
