PSYC 331 Lecture Notes - Classical Conditioning, Reinforcement, Operant Conditioning

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 331
• Professor: Ariel Fenster

Document Summary

Psychologists operating in the learning (behavioural) paradigm view abnormal behaviour as responses learned in the same ways other human behaviour is learned. The goal of psychology was to learn more about what went on in the mind by analysing its elementary constituents through introspection. John b. watson replaced introspection, investigations on learning in animals became the dominant focus of psychology which switched from thinking to learning. Behaviourism can be defined as an approach that focuses on observable behaviour rather than on consciousness. Positive reinforcement: refers to the strengthening of a tendency to respond by virtue of the presentation of a pleasant event, called a positive reinforcer. Mediational theory of learning: holds that an environmental stimulus does not initiate an overt response directly, rather it does so through some intervening process, or mediator, such as fear or thinking. The mediator is conceptualized as an internal response.