What was behaviourism a reaction against?
The study of behaviourism was a reaction against psycho dynamic theories and their unscientific approach. It was irrational and monolithic and many of their findings were simply speculation.
What is behaviourism?
Behaviourism is the study of observable, overt behaviour. Originally, behaviourists would not talk about anything that goes on in the mind. (They wanted to make sure that they were completely separate from Freud and his followers) They wanted to be like the lab sciences and conducted their studies in a similar manner. (Cause and effect) It is a deterministic theory. (Input - output - they don’t look at anything in-between) Behaviour was not linked to the mind or goals.
Define learning - according to behaviourists
An experience that results in a relatively permanent change in the state of the learner.
What is associative learning?
In behaviourist contexts, people are seen as blank slates and associative learning is when we connect one thing to another.
What is classical conditioning?
Teaching subjects to associate two stimuli through a series of trials.
Who first coined classical conditioning?
Ivan Pavlov. He was studying dogs and interested in their salivation. He had hooked them up to these machines that collected their saliva and he noticed that the dogs started salivating before the food was in their mouth. Up until that point, salivation was thought of as an innate response - biological and helps us break down our food. But, this discovery suggested that salivation could be learned.
Explain the dog-food-metronome trials. Use the correct terminology.
Food (unconditioned stimulus) and the response from the dog is salvation. (unconditioned response) - there was no training involved in this.
Ticking metronome (neutral stimulus - doesn’t naturally elicit the target behaviour) and the response is no salivation. (no unconditioned response) -
Ticking metronomes (neutral stimulus/conditioned stimulus) and food (unconditioned stimulus) are paired together - the dog always gives the unconditioned response of salivating.
Ticking metronome (during the critical trial - don’t know what type of stimulus this is) - will the dog salivate or not? If the dog does salivate, the metronome becomes a conditioned stimulus and the salivation is a conditioned response.
What is classical conditioning?
When a neutral stimulus produces a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally produces a response; first studied by Ivan Pavlov.
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS or US)
Something that reliably produces a naturally occurring reaction in an organism. It reliably produces a target response.
Unconditioned response (UCR and UR):
An unlearned, naturally occurring, or reflexive reaction that is reliably produced by an unconditioned stimulus. (It occurs without conditioning)
First order response - response that occurs without conditioning
Neutral stimulus (NS):
A stimulus that does not have an initial tendency to elicit the UCR (the tuning fork in Pavlov’s experiments)
Conditioned stimulus (CS):
A previously neutral stimulus that has through conditioning acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.
Conditioned response (CR):
A learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus and occurs as the result of previous conditioning.
Trial
Any presentation of a pair of stimuli (the NS and UCS)
Explain the classical conditioning that they did to Little Albert.
(Could also describe the actual process) They caused little Albert to be afraid when he saw a white rat by presenting the whit rat with a loud noise over and over again until he was conditioned to be afraid when he just saw the rat.
Acquisition
The phase of classical conditioning when the NS and the US are presented together.
Text calls the NS the CS
Learning is established and gradually strengthened throughout the trials.
The previous NS comes to evoke the CR.
Second-Order Conditioning
Conditioning where the US is a stimulus that acquired its ability to produce learning from an earlier procedure in which it was used as a CS. (Daisy chain)
Dog example photo
Extinction
Gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency. (The gradual elimination of a learned response that occurs when the US is no longer presented.) This shows that classical conditioning isn’t permanent.
CR grows weaker with repeated presentation of CS without the UCS
Food is not being presented with the metronome - just the metronome - and the conditioned response will disappear.
Spontaneous Recovery
the tendency of a learned behaviour to recover from extinction after a rest period. (Shows that the association has made it into our memory)
Return of the CR to the CS after extinction
Response rate is higher than previous extinction phase but not as high as acquisition phase.
Generalisation
A process by which the CR is observed even though the CS is slightly different from the original one used during acquisition.
Tendency of an organism to respond in the same way to stimuli similar to the CS.
E.g little Albert (CS- White rat…show white bunny…fear) - The white bunny has become a conditioned stimulus and fear is its conditioned response.
What are the different types of conditioning?
Simultaneous: UCS and NS
Short-delayed: NS begins and then the UCS
Trace conditioning: NS begins and ends and then they start the UCS.
What does the eye-blink study on rabbits tell us about classical conditioning?
It revealed that in conditioning there is:
- Cerebellum activation
- During trace and delay conditioning: The hippocampus is activated (especially in delay) This makes a lot of sense as we know the hippocampus is involved in learning.
- When a fear response is being conditioned, the amygdala is activated.
What does the Rescorla-Wagner model propose about conditioning?
This model brought a bit of the mind back into behaviourism. They suggested that conditioning occurs when the organism has learned to expect and outcome/event. (Memory is involved)
What are the evolutionary elements of classical conditioning?
Again, with evolutionary theories, it all comes back to how things help us to survive. So, they propose that adaptive behaviours help us to survive. Taste aversion is an example of classical conditioning. We can acquire them in relatively short trials or over a long conditioning period. We are more likely to develop taste aversion to novel foods. This shows biological preparedness. (A propensity for learning particular associations over others.)
