Skinner

Question 1

What is the most important aspect of psychology?

Answer 1

The explanation of behavior

Question 2

Psychology should be _____, less “____”

Answer 2

reductionist, complex

reductionist - breaking down concepts into smaller parts

Question 3

What are the 5 “rules” of behaviorism

Answer 3

1. The explanation of observable behavior is the most important aspect of psychology
2. Psychology should be reductionistic, less “complex”
3. The most basic explanation of behavior is through the environment
4. Learning is the most important process to people
5. Learn via experimentation

Question 4

What is the most important process to people?

Answer 4

Learning

Question 5

How was personality psychology different from behaviorism

Answer 5

Personality psychology:
Personality is general, enduring, largely functional

Behaviorism:
Personality is specific, temporary, and largely functional

Question 6

How do we learned?

Answer 6

Classical conditioning

Question 7

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 7

An unconscious process where an automatic, conditioned response becomes associated with a specific stimulus.

US – > UR
CS, US –> UR
CS –> CR (final step where you associate a stimuli with a response)

Question 8

Why is classical conditioning important in behaviorism?

Answer 8

Often used to explain emotional reaction

Ex: Having fear of dark alleys because you once got mugged in a dark alley

Question 9

What is extinction in classical conditioning?

Answer 9

The gradual weakening of a conditioned response that results in the behavior decreasing or disappearing

Question 10

How do we learn?

Answer 10

Instrumental conditioning (aka operant conditioning)

Question 11

What’s instrumental conditioning

Answer 11

Learning method that uses rewards and punishment to modify behavior

Question 12

What are the types of reinforcement?

Answer 12

Positive: Increases frequency of behavior (ex: giving treat to dog associated with doing specific trick)

Negative: Increases frequency of behavior by taking away negative stimulus (ex: teacher removing hw to praise kids for doing a good job)

Question 13

What are the types of reinforcers (aka rewards)?

Answer 13

Primary: innate reinforcers (ex: food, pain)

Secondary: rewards that are learned to be valued (ex: money)

Question 14

Difference between classical conditioning and instrumental learning

Answer 14

Classical conditioning: environment elicits a response

Instrumental learning: person acts and the environmental reaction follows

Question 15

If behaviors must precede reinforcement, how do we learn/teach new things? (Hint: 4 of them)

Answer 15

1. Shaping
2. Generalization
3. Discrimination
4. Superstitious Behavior

Question 16

What’s Shaping?

Answer 16

Use of successive approximations (teach a dog to roll over)

Question 17

What’s Generalization?

Answer 17

Take learning from one environment and bring it to other similar environments (bringing a pen to class)

Question 18

What’s Discrimination?

Answer 18

Doing a behavior in certain circumstances

Question 19

What’s Superstitious Behavior?

Answer 19

Learning from random reinforcement may impact personality

Question 20

What are the 2 schedules of reinforcement?

Answer 20

Continuous: Fastest learning, quickest extinction

Partial: slower learning but more resistant to extinction
- fixed ratio
- variable ratio is most resistent to extinction
- Fixed interval
- Variable interval

Question 21

What is prepared learning?

Answer 21

Some things are easier to learn than others perhaps due to phylogenetic reasons

ex: taste aversion, fear of spiders/snakes

Question 22

What is the name of the approach that systemically applies learning principles to change behavior?

Answer 22

Behavior Modification (often used in therapy)

Question 23

What are the 4 basic main steps to behavior modification in therapy?

Answer 23

1. Functional Analysis: the stimuli and reinforcers which influence behavior are ID’d
2. Intervention: Control situation; use reinforcement for desirable behavior
3. Token Economies: method of positive reinforcement
4. Learning modules