Psychology 1000 Lecture : Psych1000- Chapter 7 Learning and Adaptation.docx

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Erica Lawson

Document Summary

Learning- is the process by which experience produces relatively enduring change in an organism"s behaviour or capabilities. Measure learning by actual changes in performance. Learning makes to possible for us to adapt to changes. Learning as a process of personal adaptation to the ever changing circumstances of our lives. Learning was guided by two different perspectives on behavior: behaviourism and ethnology for a long time. Behaviorists focused on how organisms learn, examining the processes by which experience influences behavior. Assumed that there are laws of learning that apply to all organisms. Treated organism as a tabula rasa, or blank tablet, upon which learning experiences were inscribed. Most of research done in lab settings with non-human species. Explained learning solely in terms of directly observable events. Behaviourists explained learning solely in terms of directly observable events and avoided speculating about an organisms unobservable mental state . Ethology arose within the discipline of biology, in europe.