PSYC10003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 26: Edward C. Tolman, Albert Bandura, Psychoanalysis
COGNITIVE AND SOCIAL LEARNING
From a behaviourist point of view: you don’t have free will, sentient or any kind of
agency. You’re a black box—you’re affected by stimuli and responses after learning
has taken place
A cognitive psychologist would disagree with a behaviourist on this point
➔ Cognitive and social approaches to learning acknowledge and focus on
internal, mental processes and not just stimulus-response
Overview:
• Cognitive Learning
Edward Tolman, rats and maze
• Insight Learning
Wolfgang Koehler, monkeys and new puzzles
• Social/Observational Learning
Albert Bandura, children and adults
• Mirror Neurons
Neurons that like it when someone else does sth interesting
Basic Principles of Learning: Cognitive Learning
- Modern psychology:
• The only precursor to the behaviourist school was the psychoanalytic school
• Behaviourists take a very polarized view of learning, saying that we are all
products of stimuli and responses
• In the 50s-60s: the ‘Cognitive Revolution’. Cognitive psychologists believe that
there are more going on in the process of learning than just stimulus-
response, and that could be demonstrated through experiments:
o There are internal cognitive processes, even in non-human animals
o Organisms interpret the stimulus before they respond
o Organisms are not a “black box”, as the Behaviourists stated, but they
actively perceive, anticipate, and ‘think’ about stimuli in the world
o These cognitive processes strongly contribute to learning
• Cognitive experimentation: all about precision
- Edward Tolman:
• Believed cognitive processes play an important role in learning of complex
behaviours
• Did cognitive experimental designs to demonstrate organisms were not just
responding and learning as a function of reinforcement but were actually
mentalizing, using mental processes to perceive stimuli to perceive and
evaluate stimuli, to engage in a mental process that help them solve a
problem
• Studied the problem-solving strategies of rats in mazes → demonstrate rats
use a mental process to help them solve a spatial problem like a maze
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
o In the maze, the rats would start at point A, to the circular chamber and
then to the protruding tunnel that eventually leads it to the food
o In the first maze, this was a fairly easy task
o In the second maze, the tunnel that originally led the rat to the food was
blocked off. If the behaviourist argument was true, the rat would most likely
choose the tunnels that are closest to the one that it was reinforced to
choose in the first place (which is tunnel 9 or 10). But in fact, the rat chose
tunnel 6, which is the direction of where the food was before.
➔ Evidence that the rat has built up a mental, spatial representation through
exploration and familiarity with the original maze to find out that choosing
tunnel 6 would lead it to where the food was originally located.
➔ The rat isn’t doing what a Behaviourist says it would.
food
start
start
?
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
From a behaviourist point of view: you don"t have free will, sentient or any kind of agency. You"re a black box you"re affected by stimuli and responses after learning has taken place. A cognitive psychologist would disagree with a behaviourist on this point. Cognitive and social approaches to learning acknowledge and focus on internal, mental processes and not just stimulus-response. Wolfgang koehler, monkeys and new puzzles: social/observational learning. Albert bandura, children and adults: mirror neurons. Neurons that like it when someone else does sth interesting. Modern psychology: the only precursor to the behaviourist school was the psychoanalytic school, behaviourists take a very polarized view of learning, saying that we are all products of stimuli and responses. In the maze, the rats would start at point a, to the circular chamber and then to the protruding tunnel that eventually leads it to the food. In the first maze, this was a fairly easy task food start.
