Learning Theory

Question 1

What does the learning theory suggest?

Answer 1

Attachments are ‘learned’ rather than innate.

Question 2

How do behaviourists suggest infants become attached to their caregivers?

Answer 2

Through conditioning.

Question 3

What does innate mean?

Answer 3

When you are born with the knowledge/information/abilities.

Question 4

What are the two types of conditioning?

Answer 4

• Classical conditioning

- Operant conditioning

Question 5

What does classical conditioning refer to?

Answer 5

Learning by association.

Question 6

When we are born, we already know that food is pleasurable and do not need to learn this. This makes food the…

Answer 6

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS).

Question 7

The pleasure that is brought from food, the innate knowledge, makes pleasure the…

Answer 7

Unconditioned response (UCR).

Question 8

The caregiver does not naturally produce a pleasure response, therefore making the caregiver the…

Answer 8

Neutral stimulus (NS).

Question 9

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…

Answer 9

Conditioned stimulus (CS).

Question 10

The pleasure that is brought from the caregiver by feeding the infant is known as the…

Answer 10

Conditioned response (CR).

Question 11

What is the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 11

The food.

Question 12

What is the unconditioned response?

Answer 12

The pleasure brought from the food.

Question 13

What is the neutral stimulus?

Answer 13

The caregiver.

Question 14

What is the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 14

The caregiver after association is formed.

Question 15

What is the conditioned response?

Answer 15

The pleasure bought by the caregiver after the association is formed.

Question 16

What does operant conditioning refer to?

Answer 16

Learning by reinforcement.

Question 17

What does positive reinforcement mean?

Answer 17

The addition of something positive (food).

Question 18

What is negative reinforcement mean?

Answer 18

The removal of something negative (crying).

Question 19

If a behaviour is positively reinforced, it becomes more likely for that behaviour…

Answer 19

To be repeated.

Question 20

When an infant is hungry, what behaviour do they express to show this distress?

Answer 20

Crying.

Question 21

When the caregiver feeds the infant, the infant’s discomfort is…

Answer 21

Reduced.

Question 22

When the infant’s discomfort is reduced by the caregiver feeding the infant, the infant will become more likely to…

Answer 22

Repeat the behaviour (crying to show distress from hunger).

Question 23

Similarly, the sound of a child crying is _________ for the caregiver.

Answer 23

Distressing.

Question 24

When the caregiver stops the infant from crying, they are removing something negative (the crying). This is known as…

Answer 24

Negative reinforcement.

Question 25

Negative reinforcement makes it more likely for the __________ to repeat the behaviour (feeding the baby).

Answer 25

Caregiver.

Question 26

The child and caregiver learn to _________ reinforce each other and strengthen their attachment.

Answer 26

Mutually.

Question 27

What are the 5 evaluation points for Learning Theory?

Answer 27

• Harlow (1959).
• Lorenz (1935).
• Schaffer and Emerson (1964).
  + Scientific and plausible explanation.
• Tronick et al (1992).