PSY 2105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Little Albert Experiment, Clanging, Observational Learning
3 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
PSY2105A Dr. Isabelle Boutet
Chap 1 Theories of Development & Learning Principles 01.05.18
Questions that Child Development Researchers Try to Answer
1. Domains of development – what develops? What behaviors or other aspects of the individual have changed
over the relevant time period?
2. Type of Change – what are the patterns and speed of development? Were the changes slow and gradual or
abrupt and dramatic?
3. Mechanisms of change – what are the mechanisms of change throughout development?
• Main debate is nature vs nurture – inborn and biological influences (genetics) vs. environment and
experiential factors
• Interactionist: both nature and nurture are important but emphasis on one or the other
4. Individual/Population differences – are there individual and/or population differences in development?
Four Main Theories of Development
1. Cognitive Developmental Approach
2. Sociocultural Approach
3. Environmental/learning approach (nurture)
• Muh of hilden’s typial ehaio is auied through conditioning and learning principles
• Learned behaviors are distinguished from biological processes – conditioning, social learning
Learning: relatively permanent change in behavior that results from practice or experience
• Associated with behaviorism – can be described w/o recourse to internal events, theories of behavior
must be based on direct observations of actual behavior
• Loke, Palo, Thondike, Watson, Skinne, Bandua…
4 types of learning:
• Habituation: decreased in response to repeated or continued
stimulation i.e habituation to house noises
o There are certain situations that pose a threat and cause high
levels of stress (can result in minimal/non-visible reaction)
• Classical Conditioning (John Watson) – automatic responses
o Unconditioned stimulus = food; unconditioned response =
saliva; neutral stimulus = whistle
o After several pairings of NS and UCS the NS becomes a CS
which elicits a conditioned response
o i.e Little Albert – John Watson Behaviorism
▪ conditioned Albert to fear all furry things by associating a loud clanging noise with a rat
▪ NS – mouse/white fur; US – loud noise; CR – crying; CS – furry things = crying response
o Counterconditioning – used in behavioural therapy (treat phobias), associated pleasure with the
conditioned stimulus (needs to be higher influence than threatening stimulus)
▪ i.e Little Peter was conditioned to fear white rabbits, counter conditioned to feel happy
with white rabbit after pairing with sweet treats
• Operant conditioning: reinforce wanted behavior and punish unwanted behavior
o Reinforcer – any consequence that makes a response more likely to occur again
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