PSYC 1200 Lecture Notes - Walter Mischel, Albert Bandura, Edward C. Tolman
9 Dec 2013
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Any change in the tendency or capacity to engage in a behaviour or thought process. Strengthening or weakening the association between stimuli in the environment and some response. Initially interested in canine digestion; he drained saliva from dogs and measured the amount produced in various situations. Noticed that salivation occurred even without placing food in the dog"s mouth (e. g. when brought into the lab, the smell of food). Experience with situations associated with food influence the unconscious process of salivating. Reflexes are unconscious/automatic responses or unconditioned responses (ur) to some stimulus which is called an unconditioned stimulus (us) (e. g. us = heat from stove, ur = hand-jerk, us = taste of food, ur = salivation). When an unconditioned stimulus (us) is presented many times with a neutral stimulus, the neutral stimulus will produce the unconditioned response (ur) even when the unconditioned stimulus (us) is absent. This process of acquiring a conditioned response through learning.
