Lecture 4 (Behaviourism & cognitive psychology)

Question 1

what is british associationism

Answer 1

the idea that we form more complex abstractions from simpler thoughts

Question 2

who coined british associationism

Answer 2

john locke

Question 3

what is much of the philosophical basis for behaviourism based in

Answer 3

empiricist philosophy

Question 4

what was david hartley’s neurophysiological theory of mind

Answer 4

psychological processes emerge from the body and there is no separate mental matter

Question 5

what was hartley’s physiological associationist model of the mind

Answer 5

nerves vibrate and because nerves are so interconnected, the basic mechanism gives rise to an action

Question 6

what were alexander bain’s 3 core beliefs

Answer 6

psychophysical parallelism - mind and body occur together

hedonism - pleasurable associations more likely to be repeated

voluntarism - voluntary action is important in learning

Question 7

what were edward thorndike’s core beliefs

Answer 7

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

Question 8

what do edward thorndike’s core beliefs not explain

Answer 8

behaviours such as gambling

Question 9

what are the three philosophical claims to behaviourism

Answer 9

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

Question 10

what is radical behaviourism and who adopted it

Answer 10

adopting all 3 claims of behaviourism - skinner

Question 11

what was watson’s behaviourist viewpoint

Answer 11

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

Question 12

what did wastson believe the objectives of behaviourism were

Answer 12

adjustment and maladjustment

phylogenic continuity

control of behaviour

Question 13

what were the two types of behaviour watson believed in

Answer 13

somatic - habits, instinctive

visceral - acquired emotions

Question 14

what did clark hull investigate

Answer 14

the motivations behind behaviours

Question 15

what did hull believe contributed to motivation

Answer 15

reaction potential

habit strength (prior conditioning)

drive (extent of need to satisfy biological drive)

Question 16

what is the drive reduction theory (hull)

Answer 16

that his equation of motivation could explain all behaviour

Question 17

what was tolman critical of

Answer 17

a purely stimulus response account of behaviour

Question 18

what did tolman believe the study of behaviourism was of

Answer 18

twitches

Question 19

although tolman was a behaviourist, what did he recognise and why

Answer 19

we cannot escape mentalist terms - goals, appetites, etc

saw evidence of this in animals

Question 20

what’s a criticism of watson’s points

Answer 20

even if we banish the ideas of thoughts, feelings and desires, a complete psychology would explain these

Question 21

why is there concern about behaviourism’s limited view of science

Answer 21

many discoveries this century have been beyond direct observation, but we’re sure they’re real

Question 22

who coined the instinctive drift criticism

Answer 22

breland and breland

Question 23

what is the instinctive drift criticism

Answer 23

conditioning cannot entirely overcome certain instinctive patterns

Question 24

what’s an example of instinctive drift learning

Answer 24

learning language

Question 25

what’s the phylogenetic continuity criticism

Answer 25

the laws of learning may not be the same across species

Question 26

what does gestaly psychology reject

Answer 26

bundle theory

constancy hypothesis

Question 27

what is the constancy hypothesis

Answer 27

the idea that conscious sensory object corresponds to stimulation of a sensory organ

Question 28

what did kenneth craik argue in terms of cognitive psychology

Answer 28

the mind creates mental models of reality and we use these to simulate the future

Question 29

what was piaget’s model of learning language

Answer 29

a child learns it actively not passively

assumes learning changes as a child develops whereas this is constant in behaviourism

Question 30

what are computational models of the mind

Answer 30

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

Question 31

what did chomsky propose

Answer 31

an internal language acquisition device

a rationalist perspective on language acquisition

Question 32

who did chomsky criticise

Answer 32

skinner and behaviourism as a way to explain language acquisition

Question 33

how is behaviourism still relevant today

Answer 33

certain disorders such as addiction are still conceptualised in behaviourist terms