Learning Theory Flashcards
what is one key assumption of the learning approach?
THAT BEHAVIOUR IS MEASURABLE BY USING STIMULUS AND RESPONSE.
THERE IS A FOCUS ON SCIENTITF METHODS.
At the end of the 19th Century people were starting to think about psychological questions. Wundt, an early psychologist, started to use INTROSPECTIVE METHODS which involved participants thinking about their thinking, or how they process information and then explaining it to the researcher.
However, early behavioural theorists believed that we could set up a STIMULUS and OBSERVE what happens as a result of it, this means we can MEASURE RESPONSES quite easily. The assumption therefore leading to the claim that BEHAVIOUR can be studied SCIENTIFICALLY.
About 1900 Thorndike (Behaviourist) based his theory on the idea of the stimulus-response approach – that the stimulus was given to the animal and the response was monitored, which was one of the earliest scientific ways of measuring behaviour that was recorded.
Behaviour is difficult to study and so it is more difficult to draw scientific conclusions in psychology than in chemistry for example, so learning theory psychologists try to isolate a single behaviour and find out what leads to that behaviour.
For example: a single piece of behaviour (a rat pressing a lever for a food pellet) is OBSERVED to see how quickly the rat will learn to press the lever for a reward if a red light flashes a signal the rat will get food a green light signals there is no food.
THAT BEHAVIOUR IS MEASURABLE BY USING STIMULUS AND RESPONSE.
THERE IS A FOCUS ON SCIENTITF METHODS.
At the end of the 19th Century people were starting to think about psychological questions. Wundt, an early psychologist, started to use INTROSPECTIVE METHODS which involved participants thinking about their thinking, or how they process information and then explaining it to the researcher.
However, early behavioural theorists believed that we could set up a STIMULUS and OBSERVE what happens as a result of it, this means we can MEASURE RESPONSES quite easily. The assumption therefore leading to the claim that BEHAVIOUR can be studied SCIENTIFICALLY.
About 1900 Thorndike (Behaviourist) based his theory on the idea of the stimulus-response approach – that the stimulus was given to the animal and the response was monitored, which was one of the earliest scientific ways of measuring behaviour that was recorded.
Behaviour is difficult to study and so it is more difficult to draw scientific conclusions in psychology than in chemistry for example, so learning theory psychologists try to isolate a single behaviour and find out what leads to that behaviour.
For example: a single piece of behaviour (a rat pressing a lever for a food pellet) is OBSERVED to see how quickly the rat will learn to press the lever for a reward if a red light flashes a signal the rat will get food a green light signals there is no food.
what is the second key assumption of the learning approach?
THAT OUR ENVIRONMENT SHAPES OUR BEHAVIOUR.
THERE IS A FOCUS ON THE ENVIRONMENT.
Our behaviour is argued in psychology to come from either INHERITED (nature) or ENVIRONMENTAL (nurture) influences.
Watson claimed that if all our behaviour comes from conditioning and reinforcement between certain stimuli in the environment, then it is the environment that shapes us, and not inherited characteristics. Our environment is everything that we experience, e.g. school, culture, family etc.
The learning approach, by studying what causes an action (the stimulus) and the action itself (the response) assumes that behaviour arises from experiences around us, not from forces within us.
Actions do not come from brain activity, or from our inherited genetic abilities, but from experiences that we have. For example, a baby will babble “m..m..m..” and the mother will respond “mummy” and give the child attention (reinforcement) so the child will repeat the sound and eventually learns to talk. Punishment can also shape behaviour, people are less likely to repeat a behaviour if they are punished for it.
general principle of classical conditioning:
Classical conditioning focuses on STIMULUS RESPONSE, the conditioning of REFLEXES. Human reflexes include a fear response, eye blinking, knee-jerking, fear and breathing. Fear can be conditioned, as fear is a reflexive response, this can explain phobias.
Most behaviour goes beyond just a reflex so classical conditioning is quite limited.
general principle of operant conditioning:
Proposes that behaviour is for most part VOLUNTARY rather than reflexive and so operant conditioning looks at how reinforcement and punishment shapes behaviour. For example, school children work hard for a reward of gold starts, so their behaviour (working hard) is repeated for the REINFORCEMENT (a gold star). Some children might not work hard and be PUNISHED by being given detention.
general principles of social learning theory:
Social Learning Theory was first proposed in 1960. It involves people learning through OBSERVATION of others. Role models (someone you look up to or admire) are more favourable to observe and copy. SLT therefore proposes that not all behaviour is reinforced (operant conditioning) or based on stimulus-response reflexes (classical conditioning), and that some behaviour is based on what we see around us.
overview of classical conditioning:
Classical conditioning is a theory of learning that examines how a response is associated with a stimulus to cause conditioning.
A stimulus is something that produces a response, which in classical conditioning is either a reflex or an automatic behaviour. These responses to stimuli are involuntary responses i.e. showing a startle response like fear to a sudden noise.
Pavlov originally trained as a medical doctor and conducted research on the nervous system and digestion which won him the Nobel Prize in 1904. He established the world’s first clinic and operating theatre to be used exclusively for animals which was maintained to the highest standard because he realised that he would not get reliable results if the animals were suffering or in distress from other reasons than their illness or what was being done to them.
Pavlov deduced that dogs responses behaved in ways that showed anticipation of the situation and based his theory of classical conditioning on this principle.
Classical conditioning argues that there is an association between an UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS (UCS), which is a naturally occurring stimulus, and an existing UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE (UCR), which is a naturally occurring response.
describe extinction is classical conditioning:
Refers to when the association (CS and CR) is no longer there, it is extinguished. So when the association is extinguished the bell (CS) will no longer cause salivation (CR). This can be achieved by presenting the UCS (food) without the CS (bell). The association between the two stops, and therefore the bell returns to being a neutral stimulus. So, the UCS of food presented without CS of bell results in CR of salivation. The CS of bell will then begin to result in no response, therefore the bell returns to original state of NS.
describe spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning:
This is when, after extinction, you might find that a previously paired conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus suddenly and without reconditioning reappears for no reason. For example above, despite extinction, you ring a bell and the response of salivation occurs again.
describe stimulus generalisation in classical conditioning:
Is another term of classical conditioning is stimulus generalisation, which refers to the extending of the original association between a CS and CR to include one or more similar stimulus. For example, if a dog becomes conditioned to salivate to a particular bell sound (CS), then it might generalise and salivate to some other bell sounds (CR).
describe discrimination in classical conditioning:
This is the opposite of stimulus generalisation. It is when the conditioning is associated with only one specific conditioned stimulus, and only that specific CS can result in the conditioned response. For example, having a fear of pink buttons but not any other type of button shows a discrimination between the types of button.
describe pavlol salivating dogs experiment:
Prior to the experiment, the dogs would salivate (UCR) in response to the meat powder food but not to the sound. During the conditioning phase the meat powder was presented at the same time as a metronome, with repeated pairings of meat powder and metronome CONDITIONING resulted.
As a result of the pairings, the NS (the metronome) had become a CONDITIONED STIMULUS (CS) capable of producing the behaviour of salivating which is a CONDITIONED RESPONSE (CR).
2 strengths for classical conditioning:
Olson and Fazio (2001) used a laboratory study and found that classical conditioning contributes to the development of some gender-related attitudes therefore providing support for stimulus response behaviour.
Classical Conditioning can explain the acquisition of some aspects of behaviour, where a particular response is associated with a particular stimulus e.g. Gulf War Syndrome can also be explained as a learned reaction to the war environment.
2 weaknesses of classical conditioning:
Pavlov studied non-human animals and then applied their findings to humans which are difficult to generalise because animal cognitive and biological systems are not the same as humans.
Classical conditioning proposed that behaviour is the result of stimulus-response association, this is not the only explanation of human behaviour, social learning theory suggests that it is due to imitation and modelling and not stimulus-response.
overview of operant conditioning:
Operant conditioning relates to learning through consequences. The idea is that if you are given a consequence for a specific behaviour you will either repeat it, or stop it.
Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning because the consequences come after the behaviour whereas in classical conditioning the behaviour (reflex) comes before or at the same time as the stimulus.
THORNDIKE (1911)
Check your notes about Thorndike on page 6 of this booklet.
Thorndike (1911) researched reinforcement using a kitten in a puzzle box. Initially when the kitten was placed in the box it behaved randomly, however once it accidentally hit a lever that opened the door it received food.
After several trials the kitten escaped from the puzzle box faster, pressing the lever to open the door immediately – demonstrating that it had learned by trial and error.
This is Thorndike’s (1911) Law of Effect; a behaviour (pressing lever) followed by a pleasant consequence (food) tends to be repeated, while a behaviour (pressing button) followed by an unpleasant consequence (loud noise) tends not to be repeated.
Such a procedure differs from Pavlov’s classical conditioning because the cat only received the food as a consequence of performing the desired behaviour.
The increased success of the kitten opening the box for the food is shown in the graph below. The increased success of opening the box for food is LATENCY
This reduction in LATENCY time from about five minutes to as little as five seconds over the trials indicated that the cats were learning the puzzle.
SKINNER (1930)
In order to test Thorndike’s ideas further and to maximize the OBJECTIVITY, ACCURACY and EASE of recording behaviour in experiments, Skinner developed a specially made chamber in which an animal, e.g. a rat or pigeon, could learn a specific response.
The apparatus, a Skinner Box, could present stimuli (known as ANTECEDENT) which allowed responses (BEHAVIOUR) to be measured and recorded. CONSEQUENCES followed the performance of a particular desired behaviour.
The antecedents (a) included lights and noises, the behaviour (B) where the animal presses or pecks at a disc and the consequences (C) were food or electric shocks.
describe reinforcement and punishment concepts:
Reinforcement refers to a consequence of a behaviour, used to encourage repetition.
Punishment refers to a consequence of a behaviour, used to prevent repetition
Positive means to receive (i.e. to add +) a consequence.
Negative means to remove (i.e. to take away -) a consequence.
POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE DO NOT, NEVER HAVE, NEVER WILL AND NEVER SHALL BE ASSOCIATED WITH THE DESIREABILITY OF THE BEHAVIOUR SHOWN! IT’S ABOUT ADDING AND TAKING AWAY (+ AND -) NOT WHETHER YOU ARE GOOD OR BAD!
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT is when something desired is received in response to a particular behaviour. So, if a child tidies their room, they receive (+ positive) extra pocket money. They have been positively reinforced to tidy their rooms because they desire the consequence of receiving pocket money.
POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT ENCOURAGES REPETITION OF BEHAVIOUR.
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT is when something undesired is taken away in response to a particular behaviour. So, if a person does not like the loud music in a particular restaurant (undesired), they will go to a quieter restaurant because they want to remove (- negative) the loud music. They have been negatively reinforced to go to the other restaurant because they desire the consequence of removing the music.
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT ENCOURAGES REPETITION OF BEHAVIOUR.
POSITIVE PUNISHMENT is when something unpleasant is received (+ positive) in response to a particular behaviour. So, a child who did not complete homework (behaviour) might be given (+ positive) detention. They have been positively punished for not doing homework because the consequence of receiving detention is undesired.
POSITIVE PUNISHMENT DISCOURAGES REPETITION OF BEHAVIOUR.
NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT is when something pleasant is removed (- negative) in response to a particular behaviour. So, a child who did not complete homework (behaviour) might have their phone taken off them, so removing (- negative) something they enjoy. They have been negatively punished for not doing homework because the consequence of removing their phone is undesired.
NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT DISCOURAGES REPETITION OF BEHAVIOUR.
