PSYA01H3 : Ch. 7 notes
Document Summary
Our behaviour is changeable in response to experience. Learning: an adaptive process in which experience changes the tendency to perform a particular behaviour. Cannot be observed directly but inferred from changes in behaviour. Not all changes in behaviour caused by learning. Experience alters the structure and chemistry of the brain. the response of the nervous system to subsequent events also alters. Performance: the behavioural change (new behaviour) produced by internal change. Evidence is imperfect because fatigue, and motivation also affect behaviour. Three kinds of learning: habituation, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning. Habituation: simplest form of learning: learning not to respond to an unimportant even that occurs repeatedly. Animal: with very primitive nervous systems are capable of habituation (snails) Evolutionary perspective of habituation: saves energy (not responding) Long-term habituation: animals w more complex nrvous systms. Learning about conditions that predict the occurrence of a significant event. Much of our behaviour is acquired through clsscl cndtnng.
