Learning Theory Flashcards
What does the learning theory suggest?
Attachments are ‘learned’ rather than innate.
How do behaviourists suggest infants become attached to their caregivers?
Through conditioning.
What does innate mean?
When you are born with the knowledge/information/abilities.
What are the two types of conditioning?
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
What does classical conditioning refer to?
Learning by association.
When we are born, we already know that food is pleasurable and do not need to learn this. This makes food the…
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
The pleasure that is brought from food, the innate knowledge, makes pleasure the…
Unconditioned response (UCR).
The caregiver does not naturally produce a pleasure response, therefore making the caregiver the…
Neutral stimulus (NS).
As the caregiver provides the infant with food, the infant will learn to associate the caregiver with the pleasure of receiving food. This will make the caregiver the…
Conditioned stimulus (CS).
The pleasure that is brought from the caregiver by feeding the infant is known as the…
Conditioned response (CR).
What is the unconditioned stimulus?
The food.
What is the unconditioned response?
The pleasure brought from the food.
What is the neutral stimulus?
The caregiver.
What is the conditioned stimulus?
The caregiver after association is formed.
What is the conditioned response?
The pleasure bought by the caregiver after the association is formed.
What does operant conditioning refer to?
Learning by reinforcement.
What does positive reinforcement mean?
The addition of something positive (food).
What is negative reinforcement mean?
The removal of something negative (crying).
If a behaviour is positively reinforced, it becomes more likely for that behaviour…
To be repeated.
When an infant is hungry, what behaviour do they express to show this distress?
Crying.
When the caregiver feeds the infant, the infant’s discomfort is…
Reduced.
When the infant’s discomfort is reduced by the caregiver feeding the infant, the infant will become more likely to…
Repeat the behaviour (crying to show distress from hunger).
Similarly, the sound of a child crying is _________ for the caregiver.
Distressing.
When the caregiver stops the infant from crying, they are removing something negative (the crying). This is known as…
Negative reinforcement.
Negative reinforcement makes it more likely for the __________ to repeat the behaviour (feeding the baby).
Caregiver.
The child and caregiver learn to _________ reinforce each other and strengthen their attachment.
Mutually.
What are the 5 evaluation points for Learning Theory?
- Harlow (1959).
- Lorenz (1935).
- Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
+ Scientific and plausible explanation. - Tronick et al (1992).
