What is learning
Refers to the mechanisms that lead to enduring changes in behaviour or in the acquisition of new behaviour that results from experience
What are the different mechanisms for acquiring behaviour
- Repeated sequences of movement: cooking
- Mentally rehearsing info: rehearsing the steps to a dance routine
- Consequences of behaviour: opening the tap for water
- Observation: observing our friends in class
- Imitation: of teacher / sports coach
- Repeated stimulation: listening to same music to go w dance routine
- Association btw events and environment: sound of waves – signal vacation
What are other sources of behaviour change (rather than learning)
- Fatigue
- Maturation
- Sickness
- Nature/nurture
- Biology/genes/environment
- Change in stimulus conditions (ex:loud noise during exam: startled)
What is intentional learning
Takes place in school, requires organized instruction, conscious effort to learn (ex: taking a painting class)
What is unintentional learning
Learning simple relationships btw events in the environment,
emotional reactions to stimuli or
simple motor movements
(conditioning, habituation and sensitization)
What is latent learning (incidental learning)
An info is being acquired without any reason for acquiring it
What is the learning-performance distinction
learning is not only the performance of a behaviour: it’s a change in the ability/potential to perform that behaviour (potential might remain unused for a long time)
ex: you can learn and know CPR and never have to do it, but the potential to perform it is there
What are the 3 types of behaviourism
- Methodological (Watson): behaviour of organisms, no mental state, no internal processes of thinking
- Psychological: external stimuli responses, reinforcements, does not deny the existence of mental processes
- Analytical/logical: No mental state (all mental states can be translated into behavioural states)
What are 2 myths about behavioursim
1- It’s “dead”; it is still greatly used in psych
2- it does not acknowledge the mind/mentals states (it does)
What are Asistotle 3 principles for establishing associations
- Contiguity (happening together in time and space)
- Similarity (common look)
- Contrast (perceived difference associated)
What is the dualist perspective (René Descartes)
the body is separate of the mind
René Descarte’s perspective on reflex and brain
Nervous system = hollow tubes, animal spirits flow from nerves to brain
What is the nativist perpective (René Descartes)
Some ideas are innate
What is the rationalist perspective (René Descartes)
I think therefore i am
What is phenomenologism (René Descartes)
introspective study of conscience (using one’s thoughts)
What is empiricism
acquiring knowledge from experience and experimentation
What is epistemology
how we acquire knowledge (using evidence of sense to make inferences about the world)
Study “Dawn of the Modern Era” and part about history
You can do this :)
What do we mean when we think of learning as an experimental science?
Its about how prior experience changes behaviour, identifying essential components of learning
What is the basic questions of learning as an experimental science?
Does a training procedure produces a change in behaviour?
What is the general process approach
An attempt to formulate general laws of learning (generality is assumed to exist)
What is cartesian dualism
Divides behaviour into:
- voluntary: conscious intent to do smth
- Involuntary: reactions to external stimuli (reflexes)
What is hedonism (Thomas Hobbes)
Research of pleasure and avoidance of pain
What are the secondary rules of associations? (Thomas Brown)
- association depends on intensity and frequency of stimuli
- a new association depends on the occurence of previous associations involving the same stimuli
