Study of Learning

Question 1

How long have people applied scientific methods to the study of learning?

Answer 1

Learning has only been subject to scientific study for approximately the past hundred years.

Question 2

What common elements exist between different fields within the natural sciences?

Answer 2

A focus on physical events.

Question 3

What is circular reasoning?

Answer 3

Circular reasoning is when the argument reinforces itself, as opposed to finding a true explanation or cause. Focusing on physical events avoids this.

Question 4

What are stimuli?

Answer 4

Stimuli are physical events (anything that can be perceived) that are able to affect or are capable of affecting behaviour. They often have significance beyond their physical properties.

Question 5

What is an experience?

Answer 5

Experience is exposure to a stimulus.

Question 6

Measuring learning: a reduction in errors

Answer 6

Measuring error reduction involves tracking how many mistakes someone makes, with fewer mistakes indicating learning.

Question 7

Measuring learning: changes in topography

Answer 7

A person will trace a figure while looking at a copy of that image in a mirror. The degree to which an individual improves between trials is a way of assessing learning.

Question 8

Measuring learning: changes in pressure

Answer 8

E.g., increase pressure to opening a door can indicate learning of what is required to execute the action (one might push lightly at the beginning, but as you become more familiar with space, you will remember to use more energy.

Question 9

Measuring learning: changes in speed

Answer 9

Able to complete the task faster.

Question 10

Measuring learning: changes in latency

Answer 10

Less hesitation or time that passes before a behaviour occurs can also indicate learning

Question 11

Measuring learning: changes in rate/frequency

Answer 11

Being able to perform the task at a faster rate can indicate learning (e.g., doing more tasks per minute)

Question 12

What is fluency?

Answer 12

Fluency is a combination of errors and rate, looking at the number of correct responses per minute.

Question 13

What are descriptive studies?

Answer 13

The researcher attempts to describe a group by obtaining data from its members, often by conducting interviews or surveys/questionnaires. They are better able than case studies to collect data that can be statistically analyzed due to the greater number of participants, and they also reduce the risk of having an unrepresentative sample. Further, they are better able to incorporate a control group.

Question 14

Identify and explain the three major reasons for using animals in research on learning.

Answer 14

1) Studying animals makes it possible for us to evaluate the role of hereditary by looking at animals with shorter lifespans by implementing breeding programs that are unethical in human samples.
2) Easier to do than studying identical twins. It also makes one able to house animals from birth in controlled environments with less variability than natural habitats.
3) Allows researchers to conduct experiments that would be unethical for human samples, such as looking at if an experience would trigger depression.

Question 15

What is the most common objection to using animals in research on learning?

Answer 15

Differences in learning and behaviour among species, so using another species to inform understandings of humans can be flawed. (Researchers are aware of this, though, and substantiate findings with human research.)

Question 16

Describe how researchers can use both animal and human research to improve our understanding of a field of study.

Answer 16

Basic research is done with animals and applied research is conducted on humans to get a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon

Question 17

Why did Watson identify learning as the paramount problem of human psychology?

Answer 17

Watson thought learning was the great problem of human psychology because its interest was widespread, and studying it began to dominate experimental psychology in the USA. (aka, it’s popular)

Question 18

What is the problem with prescientific explanations for behaviour?

Answer 18

• These explanations are similar to behaviours, in that a man slams a door because he feels angry, but this reasoning is circular because it ends up with saying that a man slams a door because he’s angry and we know that he’s angry because he slammed the door.
• This doesn’t provide an explanation for why he is feeling this way, or what provoked the feeling. We instead need to ask what events provoked the feeling to explain the behaviour, bringing focus back to physical events.
• One of the purposes of a scientific approach is to get people to stop explaining behaviour in terms of inner causes—wants, desires, etc.—and instead focus on identifying environmental causes for behaviour.

Question 19

What is constructivism?

Answer 19

A philosophy that scientific method is outmoded, and that science is a debate about an unknowable reality.

Question 20

What problems are there in defining learning in terms of neural change?

Answer 20

• we don’t yet understand what changes take place when learning occurs, so the only reliable measure of learning is a change in behaviour.
• it denies the importance of behaviour, and the changes in behaviour produced by experience are important in their own right, and not merely as a way of studying the nervous system.

Question 21

What is an operational definition?

Answer 21

How the behaviour is defined in terms of measurement for research purposes.

Question 22

What problems are there in operationally defining thinking and feeling?

Answer 22

Thinking and feeling can’t be measured directly. Instead, you measuring characteristics of the feeling rather than the feeling itself. This is a debated method.

Question 23

Are all changes in behaviour due to experience?

Answer 23

No. some changes in behaviour are due to maturation (e.g., being able to walk is more about physical development than simply watching others).

Question 24

Are all experiences learning experiences?

Answer 24

No. Something that makes a person feel good, like watching a movie, is simply done for the pleasure it elicits

Question 25

What is a cumulative recorder?

Answer 25

• A cumulative recorder is an electrical device that tallies the rate of a behaviour with an inked pen on a sheet of paper that moves under the pen at a steady pace, with the pen moving to a slight right angle when the behaviour occurs.

Question 26

What device has replaced cumulative recorders in contemporary research?

Answer 26

Computer software such as Med-PC, although it works essentially the same as the original recorder.

Question 27

What is a cumulative record?

Answer 27

• A cumulative record, which has a given point on the line that indicates the total number of times that the behaviour occurred.

Question 28

What is anecdotal evidence?

Answer 28

Anecdotal evidence consists of first/second-hand reports of personal experiences.

Question 29

What advantage does case study have over anecdotal evidence?

Answer 29

They collect the data in a systematic way.

Question 30

What problems are there with case studies?

Answer 30

• take a lot of tim
• difficult to generalize to the rest of the population
• cannot answer certain questions about behaviour because it is difficult to detect a trend without numerous people or a control group
• collecting data from what the participant and others report about the participant’s behaviour, rather than direct observation, is unreliable (similar to anecdotes)

Question 31

What advantages do descriptive studies have over case studies and anecdotal evidence?

Answer 31

• better able to collect data that can be statistically analyzed due b/c have more participants
• reduce the risk of having an unrepresentative sample.
• better able to incorporate a control group

Question 32

What are the limitations of descriptive studies?

Answer 32

They cannot test their hypotheses because of the lack of control for confounds. Differences should not be misconstrued as causes.

Question 33

Describe typical IV and DV of learning studies.

Answer 33

The IV is often an experience or event, and the DV is a behaviour.

Question 34

Compare and contrast within-subjects and between-subjects experimental designs.

Answer 34

You do not need as many participants in a within-subjects design vs a between-subjects in order to obtain adequate statistical power in each cell. There are also differences in control: between-subjects are largely controlled through random selection and random assignment, whereas within-subjects extraneous differences are controlled by comparing against themselves, in that if they are in both the experimental and control groups the differences are irrelevant because there will be no systematic differences between groups.

Question 35

What is a field study?

Answer 35

Field experiments are done in natural settings, allowing the research to test laboratory-derived principles in more realistic ways, offering external validity to internally valid concepts

Question 36

What is the most common objections to using animals in research on learning?
Are there valid grounds for this objection?

Answer 36

• Important differences in learning and behaviour among species, so using another species to inform understandings of humans is flawed
• Concerns are valid, but researchers are also aware of these differences. Other research is used to substantiate relationships of other species as generalized to humans, and in most instances, these extra studies do corroborate the animal studies

Question 37

What are other objections to using animals in research on learning?

Answer 37

• there’s no practical value to animal research because it only provides information that a theoretician could find useful (this has been countered with treatments of many mental disorders being informed by animal studies, and in some instances animals can benefit too by revealing better training techniques, etc.)
• unethical [but to counter this, people argue that there are at least some ethical uses of animals (e.g., amusement of pets, farm labour, etc), so why not research?]

Question 38

Describe how researchers can use both animal and human research to improve our understanding of a field of study.

Answer 38

• Using animals provides more control over the study due to ethical guidelines and creates a starting point for human studies. From this point on, human studies can be conducted in natural settings to substantiate this research and generalize the findings to our species.
• Basic research is done with animals and applied research is conducted on humans to get a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon.

Question 39

How do you interpret the slope of a cumulative record?

Answer 39

The higher the slope, the more that the behaviour occurred, indicating more learning has occurred.

Question 40

What’s the problem with anecdotal evidence?

Answer 40

Experiences and understandings are not always correct, so scientific evidence is needed.