PSYC 4470 Lecture Notes - Reinforcement, Thermostat, Homeostasis

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 4470
• Professor: Anthony Winson

Document Summary

Regulatory behaviours: tends to bring physiological conditions back to normal, thus restoring the condition of homeostasis. Homeostasis: process which physiological characteristic (body temperature, blood pressure) are regulated so that they remain at their optimum level. Negative feedback: a process whereby the effect produced by an action serves to diminish or terminate that action. Regulatory systems are characterized by negative feedback loop. Optimum level hypothesis: organisms will perform behaviour that restores the level of arousal to an optimum level: attempt to explain positive and negative reinforcement, when arousal is too high, less stimulation is reinforcing and vice versa. Diversive exploration: response to understimulation (boredom) that increases the diversity of the stimuli the organism prefers. Specific exploration: response to overstimulation that leads to the needed item, decreasing drive level. Hebb studied arousal"s affect on effectiveness of behaviour. Problem with theory is again that drive cannot be measured, so can"t say what optimum level is.