PS261- Midterm Exam Guide - Comprehensive Notes for the exam ( 72 pages long!)
Document Summary
Maturation and learning are the two mechanisms of change for animals. Learning involves forming an association or connection b/w events. The field of animal learning has 2 parents: philosophy and biology. Before descartes, it was believed all behaviour was solely determined by free will. Cartesian dualism: human behaviour can be either voluntary or involuntary. Sense organs detect something and send signal to brain. Voluntary behaviour thought to originate in the mind. Believed only humans possessed a mind and other animals were restricted to reflexes. Locke and hume believed our minds at birth are tabula rasa. Agreed that much of what we know comes from our experiences but we are born knowing some basic things such as how to make associations. Sechenov theoried faint stimulus could produce very strong response. Took idea further to say thoughts are reflexive responses to faint external stimuli.
