The Developmental Area

Question 1

What is classical conditioning?

Answer 1

A type of conditioning where you pair a naturally occurring response caused by one stimulus with another “neutral” stimulus

Question 2

Definition of unconditioned response

Answer 2

The innate response to a stimulus that has not been conditioned

Question 3

Definition of conditioned response

Answer 3

The reflexive response that occurs after exposure to the conditioned stimulus

Question 4

Definition of unconditioned stimulus

Answer 4

A stimulus that causes the reflex response before conditioning

Question 5

Definition of conditioned stimulus

Answer 5

The stimulus which after repeated pairings with the unconditioned stimulus, produces the response

Question 6

What research illustrates Classical Conditioning?

Answer 6

1. Pavlov’s Dog (1902) - Stimulus-response pairing of food and saliva to make the dog learn to produce the same response to a “neutral” stimuli (bell)
2. Little Albert (Watson & Rayner, 1920) - demonstrating the learning of phobias by conditioning a fear of animals. They changed his unemotional response to animals via “neutral” stimuli of loud banging

Question 7

Describe Pavlov’s Dogs research

Answer 7

• Before conditioning - Food (unconditioned stimulus) caused dog to salivate ( unconditioned response) + bell ( neutral stimulus) did not cause the dog to salivate
• During conditioning - Food and Bell are presented together, dog salivated in response to food which is collected in a tube from salivary gland
• After conditioning - Dog would hear bell ( conditioned stimulus) and salivate (conditioned response)

Question 8

Describe Little Albert (Watson & Rayner, 1920) research

Answer 8

-Before conditioning - Loud bang ( unconditioned stimulus) caused Little Albert to cry ( unconditioned response) + animals (neutral stimulus) did not make him cry
-During conditioning - Loud bang and animals presented together, Little Albert would cry
-After conditioning - After repeated experiment, the animals (conditioned stimulus) would make Albert cry (conditioned response)

Question 9

Give six Behaviourist assumptions

Answer 9

1. Behaviourism is concerned with observable behaviour - focus on external events and not internal
2. Behaviourism is a science - research done in a controlled environment to establish a cause and effect
3. When we are born, our mind is a “blank slate”
4. Animals and humans learn in similar ways
   5.Behaviour is a result of a stimulus
5. All behaviour is learnt from environment - either classical or operant conditioning

Question 10

Definition of operant conditioning

Answer 10

A type of conditioning where an animal learns through consequences, both positive and negative, of behavioural responses

Question 11

Types of reinforcements and punishments

Answer 11

positive reinforcement - strengthens behaviour to increase chance of getting reward
Negative reinforcement - strengthens behaviour by getting rid of unpleasant stimuli
Positive punishment - weakens behaviour by giving unpleasant consequences
Negative punishment - weakens behaviour by taking away desirable consequences

Question 12

Two research methods that illustrates operant conditioning

Answer 12

1. Skinners rats (Skinner, 1948) - rats voluntary action of pressing a lever due to positive reinforcement of food
2. Thorndike’s cats (Thorndike, 1898) - cats voluntary action of escaping a box from learnt behaviour to reach food outside of box.

Question 13

Describe Skinners rats research

Answer 13

1. Rats put in a box and it would accidentally knock a lever which releases food pellet
2. Rats learnt that lever results in food
3. Rats placed inside the box would run straight to lever for food.

Question 14

Describe Thorndikes cats research

Answer 14

1. Cats are placed in a cage and used food outside of cage as unconditioned stimulus.
2. Cats would accidentally press a button to be let out and access food
3. Cats that have been in the experiment learnt this and as soon as they are placed in the box, they would escape to get to the food

Thorndike would time the experiment to see how long it would take for the cats to escape.

Question 15

Differences between classical and operant conditioning

Answer 15

CLASSICAL: response is reflex + involuntary. OPERANT: response is a voluntary action
CLASSICAL: stimulus is new. OPERANT: behaviour is new
CLASSICAL: Stimulus to response. OPERANT: response to stimulus
CLASSICAL: association occurs whether stimulus is. OPERANT: pleasurable reward leads to repetition of behaviour
Pleasant or unpleasant

Question 16

Evaluation of the behaviourist perspective

Answer 16

STRENGTHS. WEAKNESSES
1. Useful applications in many areas. 1. Reductionist - only takes into account nurture
2. Scientific - experimental method establishes cause + effect. 2. Deterministic - ignores free will
3. High reliability as it is replicable 3. Low ecological validity
4. Quantitative data gathered 4. Lack of qualitative data
5. Ethical issues