Lecture 4 (Behaviourism & cognitive psychology) Flashcards
what is british associationism
the idea that we form more complex abstractions from simpler thoughts
who coined british associationism
john locke
what is much of the philosophical basis for behaviourism based in
empiricist philosophy
what was david hartley’s neurophysiological theory of mind
psychological processes emerge from the body and there is no separate mental matter
what was hartley’s physiological associationist model of the mind
nerves vibrate and because nerves are so interconnected, the basic mechanism gives rise to an action
what were alexander bain’s 3 core beliefs
psychophysical parallelism - mind and body occur together
hedonism - pleasurable associations more likely to be repeated
voluntarism - voluntary action is important in learning
what were edward thorndike’s core beliefs
the more an association is used, the stronger the connection and vice versa
if an action is followed by a satisftying result, more likely to be repeated
what do edward thorndike’s core beliefs not explain
behaviours such as gambling
what are the three philosophical claims to behaviourism
methodological - psychologists must study behaviourism
psychological - psychology must only be the study of behaviourism
philosophical / logical - language about mental states and terms is just behaviourism dispositions
what is radical behaviourism and who adopted it
adopting all 3 claims of behaviourism - skinner
what was watson’s behaviourist viewpoint
deeply critical of psychology done by james and titchener
argued for the establishment of psychology as a biological science
conducted the little albert study to show that fear could be conditioned
what did wastson believe the objectives of behaviourism were
adjustment and maladjustment
phylogenic continuity
control of behaviour
what were the two types of behaviour watson believed in
somatic - habits, instinctive
visceral - acquired emotions
what did clark hull investigate
the motivations behind behaviours
what did hull believe contributed to motivation
reaction potential
habit strength (prior conditioning)
drive (extent of need to satisfy biological drive)
what is the drive reduction theory (hull)
that his equation of motivation could explain all behaviour
what was tolman critical of
a purely stimulus response account of behaviour
what did tolman believe the study of behaviourism was of
twitches
although tolman was a behaviourist, what did he recognise and why
we cannot escape mentalist terms - goals, appetites, etc
saw evidence of this in animals
what’s a criticism of watson’s points
even if we banish the ideas of thoughts, feelings and desires, a complete psychology would explain these
why is there concern about behaviourism’s limited view of science
many discoveries this century have been beyond direct observation, but we’re sure they’re real
who coined the instinctive drift criticism
breland and breland
what is the instinctive drift criticism
conditioning cannot entirely overcome certain instinctive patterns
what’s an example of instinctive drift learning
learning language
what’s the phylogenetic continuity criticism
the laws of learning may not be the same across species
what does gestaly psychology reject
bundle theory
constancy hypothesis
what is the constancy hypothesis
the idea that conscious sensory object corresponds to stimulation of a sensory organ
what did kenneth craik argue in terms of cognitive psychology
the mind creates mental models of reality and we use these to simulate the future
what was piaget’s model of learning language
a child learns it actively not passively
assumes learning changes as a child develops whereas this is constant in behaviourism
what are computational models of the mind
they emphasise the brain as information processing devices
the brain is hardware, the mind is software
provides a basis for understanding the mind without metaphysics
what did chomsky propose
an internal language acquisition device
a rationalist perspective on language acquisition
who did chomsky criticise
skinner and behaviourism as a way to explain language acquisition
how is behaviourism still relevant today
certain disorders such as addiction are still conceptualised in behaviourist terms
