Learning
The process of gaining knowledge or skills resulting from experience
Behavoiurist approaches
An approach to learning that states that behaviours are learned through interactions with the environment
e.g
- Classical conditioning
- Operant conditioning
Conditioning
A learned process where an organisms behaviour is dependent on an event or stimulus occuring in its environment
Stimulus
An environmental event that triggers a response in an organism
Response
A behavioural reaction to a stimulus
Type of response in classical conditioning and examples
Involuntary or reflexive one that occurs automatically and unconsciously
e.g
blinking in response to dust blowing in your eyes on a windy day or salivating in response to your favourite freshly baked cookies
When and who did the classical conditioning research
Pavlov’s study
What he was studying
the role of saliva in dogs digestion
~~~
What he made
equipment to measure the amount of saliva that dogs produced in response to food in front of them
What he noticed
dogs started to salivate as soon as the person feeding them entered the room
What he then did
~~~
experimented with other stimuli to see if they also produced salivation
Classical conditioning
Three-phase process of classical conditioning
Before conditioning
During conditioning
After conditioning
The final stage of classical conditioning
Acquisition
process where organism learns to associate two events (NS and UCS)
Unconditioned stimulus
stimulus that produces a naturally occuring response
Unconditioned response
a response that occurs automatically/involuntarily when the UCS is presented
Neutral stimulus
a stimulus (prior to conditioning) that doesnt produce a response
Conditioned stimulus
was the neutral stimulus but, due to repeated associations with the UCS, it produces the CR
Conditioned response
learned behaviour, similar to the UCR and is now triggered by CS after conditioning