PSY 0160 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Little Albert Experiment, Classical Conditioning, Behaviorism
Document Summary
Behavior must be explained in terms of causal influence of the environment. An event is caused (determined) by some prior event (environment) Cause = something able to be understood according to basic laws of science. Vie(cid:449)ed as (cid:862)(cid:271)eha(cid:448)iors(cid:863) that are (cid:272)aused (cid:271)(cid:455) the e(cid:374)(cid:448)iro(cid:374)(cid:373)e(cid:374)t. Behavior expected to vary significantly in different environments. Focus on observable (cid:271)eha(cid:448)iors (cid:894)if it is(cid:374)"t o(cid:271)ser(cid:448)a(cid:271)le, it is (cid:374)ot i(cid:373)porta(cid:374)t(cid:895) Manipulate environmental variables (to observe the effect on the individual) Animals have enough similarities to provide valuable information but is not totally generalizable. Our complexity poses challenges (practical and ethical issues) Reflexive processes (salivating when confronted with food: salivating before the food got there = anticipation. Before conditioning (food = salivation, a tone = no salivating) Conditioned response = salivating when hearing the bell. Generalization: consistently paired with another stimulus. Extinction: conditioned response dies out as it is used less and less, spontaneous recovery: conditioned response can come back.