PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Optimal Foraging Theory, Latent Learning, Social Forces

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jens C Pruessner

Document Summary

Gallistel: various learning mechanisms have evolved to solve specific problems, often adaptive ones. Tolman (cognitive theorist) argued that reinforcement has more impact on performance than learning. The presence of reinforcement doesn"t adequately explain insight learning, but it predicts whether the behaviour is subsequently repeated. Adults with lower incomes discount bigger future payments and accept lower ones right now more than people with higher income. Bickel found that smokers and heroin addicts discount future rewards more greatly than non addicts. Optimal foraging theory: describes how animals in the wild choose their own reinforcement schedules. Even simple behaviours, such as eating, involve a series of calculations to detect the cost and benefits associated with different behavioural options. Bandura"s observational studies: work on observational learning done in the 1960s. Mineka: monkeys trained in the lab aren"t afraid of snakes, but when they see the wild monkeys" reactions of fear; they begin to fear as well.