PYB100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Cognitive Revolution, Little Albert Experiment, Behaviorism
20 Jun 2018
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1. Lecture 6 – Learning
Important to Development
How we change
How we adapt to different stimuli
Defining Learning
Key topic of Behaviourists
Any enduring change in the way an organism responds, based on its experiences
oChange or adaptation in behaviour
oEndures over time
oNecessary for survival in a changing environment
Key issue: learning cannot be observed directly. It is inferred from behaviour that is
observed.
How we use that experience to modify our behaviour to adapt to environment that we are
in
Learning lasts and can be seen in different contexts
Classical Conditioning
Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936, Russian physiologist)
Studied the digestive system of dogs
Associating a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that leads to a reflexive response
All responses are reflexes or autonomic responses – involuntary
oE.g. classically conditioned feelings are not altered by logical reasoning
oPhysiological reactions and or emotional reactions, uncontrollable
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find more resources at oneclass.com
Neutral stimulus to begin with, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned
response, conditioned response
Behaviourism
Watson (1930s, US Psychologist)
Unhappy with psychodynamic theories of human nature
Everything must be learned
Against idea of something happening in our minds of unexplainable happenings that
psychologists need to account for
Classical Conditioning of Emotional Responses
Emotional responses (e.g. phobias) can be learned
Little Albert experiment
If response is conditioned to one stimulus, the organism may also respond to a similar
stimulus (generalisation) but not to a dissimilar stimulus (discrimination)
Classical Conditioning in Advertisement
Subtle conditioning: Think Different Ad by Apple
oClassic conditioning
oMotivating
oApple was not mainstream
oTelling consumers to be ‘different’
Principals of Classical Conditioning
Acquisition
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
oHow we learn new ways of responding to stimulus
oNeutral stimulus creates response
Extinction – weakening of conditioned response when conditioned stimulus is presented
without unconditioned stimulus
oExtinction is not an unlearning of the conditioned response, it is a learned
inhibition of responding
oImportant implications for treatment of phobias
Spontaneous recovery
oRe – emergence of a previously extinguished conditioned response
Biological Constrains on Classical Conditioning
Biological preparedness
oSome stimuli & responses are more likely to be conditioned than others
oGarcia & Koelling (1966) experiment with rats
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Any enduring change in the way an organism responds, based on its experiences: change or adaptation in behaviour, endures over time, necessary for survival in a changing environment. Key issue: learning cannot be observed directly. It is inferred from behaviour that is observed. How we use that experience to modify our behaviour to adapt to environment that we are in. Learning lasts and can be seen in different contexts. Ivan pavlov (1849 1936, russian physiologist) Associating a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that leads to a reflexive response. All responses are reflexes or autonomic responses involuntary: e. g. classically conditioned feelings are not altered by logical reasoning, physiological reactions and or emotional reactions, uncontrollable. Neutral stimulus to begin with, conditioned stimulus, unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned response. Unhappy with psychodynamic theories of human nature. Against idea of something happening in our minds of unexplainable happenings that psychologists need to account for. Emotional responses (e. g. phobias) can be learned.
