PSYCH101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: B. F. Skinner, Thiamine, Classical Conditioning
2 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Cognitive Psychology
Behaviourism - the attempt to understand observable activity in terms of observable stimuli and
observable responses
-John B. Watson
-B.F Skinner
-Only observable behaviour can be studied. Internal states too subjective.
Learning Processes
Behaviourism
-The most basic learning processes
-Operant conditioning
Association by Contiguity
Classical Conditioning
-Classical conditioning - learning and pairing of reflexes
-Pavlov’s Dogs
-Digestive reflexes and salivation
-Problem: Psychic secretion
-Neutral stimulus -> no reaction
-Unconditioned stimulus -> reflex action (eventually paired with neutral stimulus)
-Unconditioned/Neutral Stimulus -> Reflex
-Conditioned Results -> Conditioned results
Classical Conditioning Phenomena
-Extinction
-lack of reinforcement and the resulting decline in response rate
-Spontaneous recovery
-renewal of the conditioned reflex
-Generalization
-stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus will elicit the conditioned response
-Discrimination training
-can abolish generalization
Examples of Classical Conditioning
Learning what to eat
-Food preference learning
-Experiments with rats and thiamine
-laced food with odourless and tasteless thiamine
-they ate a little bit of each food spread out with long period of time
-grew a preference for food laced with thiamine
-Drug Tolerance - repeated use of a drug leads to reductions in its psychological
-Need higher dose to feel same effect
-Classical Conditioning is involved
-Case study
-Patients always receives morphine in bed. Moves to living room. Takes morphine.
Overdose.
-So removing the bedroom removes the conditioned response of preparing the body. Leads
to overdose because with no Bedroom, no preemptive physiological changes.
Cognitive Psychology
Operant Conditioning
-Early - reinforcing natural behaviours
-E.L Thorndike (1898)
-Puzzle boxes and cats
-Law of Effect: produce responses, increase ones with desirable outcomes
-Terms
-Consequences
-what happens after a response
-positive and negative reinforcement
-reinforcement always increases responding
-positive and negative punishment
-punishment always decreases responding
Reinforcement Schedules
Time vs. # of Responses
Ratio schedule - quick reputations of responses
Interval scale - more reliably spaced out, less intense
Variable - harder to distinguish
Example
Positive Reinforcement - adding something to
apparatus to reinforce something
A mom gives her child candy for finishing his
homework so he gets in the habit of always doing
his homework
Negative Reinforcement - removing something
to apparatus to reinforce something
A teacher says you can skip quizzes if you do well
on homework so a child always tries hard on h/w
to avoid quizzes
Positive Punishment - decrease a behaviour by
adding something
You’re running late and are speeding and you get
a speeding ticket, so you never speed again
Negative Punishment - decrease behaviour by
removing something
After fighting with his sister a parent tell his child
that he can’t watch tv for a week, so he never
fights with his sister again
Interval (time between
responses)
Ratio ( number of responses)
Fixed (set reinforcement
schedule)
Reinforce a response after a
seamount of time has elapse
Reinforce a response after a set
amount of responses
Variable (slightly altered
reinforcement schedule)
Reinforce a response around but
not at the same time period
Reinforce around but not after
the same number of responses
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Document Summary
Behaviourism - the attempt to understand observable activity in terms of observable stimuli and observable responses. Classical conditioning - learning and pairing of re exes. Unconditioned stimulus -> re ex action (eventually paired with neutral stimulus) Lack of reinforcement and the resulting decline in response rate. Stimuli that resemble the conditioned stimulus will elicit the conditioned response. Laced food with odourless and tasteless thiamine. They ate a little bit of each food spread out with long period of time. Grew a preference for food laced with thiamine. Drug tolerance - repeated use of a drug leads to reductions in its psychological. Need higher dose to feel same effect. So removing the bedroom removes the conditioned response of preparing the body. Leads to overdose because with no bedroom, no preemptive physiological changes. Law of effect: produce responses, increase ones with desirable outcomes. Positive reinforcement - adding something to apparatus to reinforce something.
