Learning and behaviour

Question 1

Why is learning behaviour important?

Answer 1

If we can’t learn behaviour or learn how behaviour works then how are we meant to change for the better?

Question 2

What is our behaviour repitoire?

Answer 2

Is the set of behaviours containing everything you do.
- responses
- habits and activity patterns
- skills, abilities
- problem solving, language etc

Includes: - past repitoire
- current
- potential (every potential behaviour we could do)

Fundamental feature:
- Variability, lots of different types
- Change, with the right interventions, can change

Diversity:
- across species
- humans of different ages
-cultural differences
- eating behaviours

Sources of variability:
- Biological:- hormonal
- alc/drugs - brain injury

• Developmental processes:
  -emergent behaviours in infants, like smiles
• stage theories of cognitive development, the idea that as we grow we move through different stages of how we interact with the world
• Experience:
• How our experiences shape our behaviour
• the individual experience with physical and social learning

Question 3

What are the two main types of behaviour?

Answer 3

• Respondent Behaviour (Involuntary/ Reflexes)
• Operant Behaviour

Question 4

Describe Respondent Behaviour

Answer 4

• We don’t exert much control over thins, seemed to be pulled put of you in reaction. eg: the feeling you get when you hear your alarm sound in public
  i.e elicited by stimuli
• when respondent behaviour goes wrong we often see emotional or psychological stress disorders
  i.e: respondent- getting flashbacks - triggers
• elicited by a stimulus
• is a result of a stimulus in the environment
• reflexive
  -pavlov dog

Question 5

Describe Operant Behaviour

Answer 5

• These behaviours seem voluntary rather than automatic
• It’s how we operate on the world.
• When operant behaviour systems go wrong we often see innappropriate, deviant or damaging maladaptive behaviour.
  eg. procrastinating
  reaching for alc to avoid something
• is emitted by the individual
• produces a result, a consequence
• controlled by the consequences or learnt rewards
  -Voluntary even though likely subconscious
• to achieve results conscious or not

Question 6

What are the 3 ways we learn new operant behaviours?

Answer 6

• observation
• trial and error
• shaping (giving an old behaviour a new form)

These are called acquisition processes

Question 7

What is observational learning?

Answer 7

• social learning too
• involves at least 2 people
  (the model who already has a particular behaviour in their rep, and the observer/learner who doesnt currently have the behaviour
• Whether or not we observe and then choose to copy is determined by the consequences and reward resulting from said behaviour

Question 8

Who do we imitate?