THE LEARNING APPROACH - LEARNING THEORIES Flashcards
What are the key points of classical conditioning?
Learning by association
Pair a new stimulus with an existing stimulus-response association
Typically the conditioned stimulus must come before the unconditioned stimulus in order for the conditioning to work (forward conditioning)
Simultaneous and backward conditioning are ineffective in creating behavioural responses
You can add another layer of association to first order conditioning to get second order conditioning (eg present dog with light, bell then food)
What are the stimuli and responses if: when you are in the shower and hear the hot water tap in the kitchen being turned, the water in the shower becomes cold and you jump back
UCS water turning cold
UCR - jumping back
NS - the shower
CS - hearing the hot water tap downstairs
CR - jumping back
What are applications of classical conditioning?
Principles have been used in advertisement
Can be used to explain phobias as they associate a neutral stimulus with anxiety, fear or stress so try to avoid them
Can be used to explain depression as they learn to associate one unavoidable situation with a depressed feeling and generalise it to more situations
Seligman placed dogs in harnesses and gave them unavoidable electric shocks then once harnesses were removed the dogs made no attempt to escape showing learned helplessness
Used for aversion therapy as they associate something unpleasant/aversive with a behaviour they want to stop
Yet this can be used negatively, for example conversion therapy
What are the strengths of classical conditioning?
Duker and Seys showed that self harm in 41 children with learning difficulties was reduced using aversion therapy (gave them an electric shock every time they self harmed) showing how classical conditioning can be applied to real life situations
However it didn’t work in the long term
Rackman got an unconditioned stimulus (boot) and paired it to pornography, generating a conditioned response of physiological response
Pavlov noticed than when dogs encounter the simulation of food, the salivary glands produce saliva, and then associated a bell with the food resulting in the dogs having a conditioned response of saliva to the noise of the bell
Siegel et al had three groups of rats, one had never taken heroine and the two others had been conditioned with 15mg of heroine
First group given 15mg and 96% died
Second group given 15mg in normal location and 32% died
Third group given 15mg in new location an 64% died
Supports context dependent overdosing as the response is conditioned faster in a new situation
Has applications to the real world (eg phobias and depression)
What are the weaknesses of classical conditioning?
Most supporting research used animal meaning the results may not be generalisable to human behaviour
Only focuses on the nurture side of behaviour, yet it’s possible to be born with predispositions towards behaviour
Ignores the role of cognition, for example individual differences in behaviour
Freud argued that a lot of self destructive behaviour becomes from thought processes in the unconscious mind and cannot be learned
What are the weaknesses of classical conditioning?
Most supporting research used animal meaning the results may not be generalisable to human behaviour
Only focuses on the nurture side of behaviour, yet it’s possible to be born with predispositions towards behaviour
Ignores the role of cognition, for example individual differences in behaviour
Freud argued that a lot of self destructive behaviour becomes from thought processes in the unconscious mind and cannot be learned
What are the key points of operant conditioning?
Learning through consequences
Explains learning completely new behaviours unlike classical conditioning
Continuous ratio/interval reinforcement is where every time a behaviour is exhibited it gets a reward
Fixed ratio/interval reinforcement is where the reward is given after a fixed number of times the behaviour is done
Variable ratio/interval reinforcement is where the reward is unpredictable
Positive reinforcement - repeat behaviour to get reward
Negative reinforcement - repeat behaviour because it removes something unpleasant
Positive punishment - stopping behaviour because it adds something unpleasant
Negative punishment - stopping behaviour because it removes something desirable
What are the applications of operant conditioning?
Token economy programmes - given a token that has itself no value (secondary reinforcer) and is purely instrumental and can be exchanged for a primary reinforcer
Form of treatment where people repeat or stop behaviour in order to received secondary reinforcer and exchange it for a primary reinforcer (eg food, love etc)
Escape learning and avoidance learning can be applied to phobias, as it reinforcers the fear when avoiding it
What are the strengths of operant conditioning?
Thorndike put a cat in a box and it insanely tried to get out, once it had repeatedly seen that in order to escape the latch had to be pulled it repeatedly pulled the latch
Example of positive reinforcement
Skinner put a pigeon in a box and it received a reward every 15 seconds regardless of behaviour, and then the time interval was increased to 1 minute etc
The observed behaviour extinguished when stopped the release of a reward
6/8 pigeons engaged in repetitive behaviours suggesting they thought that their behaviour was being rewarded
Example of fixed interval reinforcement
Pickens and Thompson fitted each rat with a device that allowed them to self administer cocaine, there was a high behaviour response as they kept on pressing the lever in order to get the reward until they passed out with exhaustion
Example of fixed ratio reinforcement
Token economy programmes have been proven to work effectively
Hobbs and Holt showed that TEP worked to reduce antisocial behaviour in a juvenile detention centre
Can be applied for therapies
What are the weaknesses of operant conditioning?
Research evidence is mainly on animals meaning the results aren’t generalisable to humans due to different brains and cognitive functions
Focuses entirely on nurture however its possible to be born with predispositions towards behaviours
Ignores cognitions and individual differences
Freud argued that a lot of self destructive behaviour becomes from thought processes in the unconscious mind and cannot be learned
What are the key points of social learning theory?
Learning by observation
We learn new behaviours through observing significant role models that are similar to us
We okay Attention to the behaviour of those significant to us, Retain it and attain it, Reproduce the behaviour due to Motivation - ARRM
Need self-efficacy to reproduce the behaviour, which is an individual’s confidence in their own abilities
Modelling effect - someone does behaviour they’ve seen and wouldn’t have done before
Eliciting effect - someones observes a behaviour and copies it a bit differently
Disinhibiting effect - behaviour is done that someone would not have thought was okay but saw it with no negative consequences
Inhibiting effect - someone sees a role model punished for behaviour so doesn’t copy it
Vicarious reinforcement - model behaviour of role models that have been rewarded
Vicarious punishment - don’t model behaviour because seen it punished
Vicarious extinction - stop behaviour as it has no consequences
What are the strengths of social learning theory?
Bandura and Becker et al support it with their classic studies
Cook and Mineka had monkeys watch a video of another monkey reacting to a snake with fear, they then avoided snakes when getting food
Can be applied to real life situations (eg phobias)
What are the weaknesses of social learning theory?
Supporting research was carried out on animals or children, meaning there may be problems generalising the results to adult humans
Ignores nature as it’s possible to be born with predispositions to behaviours
Doesn’t explain people who don’t copy behaviour of their role models
Can apply the weaknesses of Bandura and Becker et al
How can classical conditioning explain phobias?
Create a stimulus response association
Dollinger, O’Donnell and Staley looked at children who got struck by lightening and they’d been conditioned to fear lightening
Watson and Rayner found that you can condition the response of fear
HOWEVER Hekmat looked at students with various animal phobias and found only 23% had direct conditioning experiences
Seligman - argued we more readily acquire phobias to some things more than others because it was beneficial for the survival of our ancestors (eg spiders and snakes)
How can operant conditioning explain phobias?
Explains how phobias are reinforced and maintained, not how they start and develop
Escape learning and avoidance learning reinforce phobias
