PSYCH 1F03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Mandelbrot Set, Classical Conditioning, Slot Machine
Document Summary
Instrumental conditioning: involves explicit training between voluntary behaviours and their consequences. [response -> reinforcement: the learning of a contingency between behaviour and consequence. Thorndike(cid:495)s hypothesis: on trials following this discovery of in time to escape in later trials. This wasn(cid:495)t exactly what the correct solution, the cat would then escape immediately when placed in the same puzzle box. Long escape times in the initial trials, would be followed by a dramatic step down happened. Instead, the frequency of the random behaviours gradually decreased over time. Over several trials, the random behaviours that did not lead to escape would occur less frequently, leaving only the correct target behaviour in place. This suggested that animals followed a simple stimulus- response type process with little credit for consciousness. Unlike humans, there was never a distinct (cid:494)aha(cid:495) moment. There was a long trial and error process of discovery. Stamped in: behaviours that were followed by the favourable consequence.
