PSY-220 Study Guide - Final Guide: Little Albert Experiment, Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning
1 May 2018
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Final Exam Study Guide
Classical Conditioning
▪ Pioneered by Ivan Pavlov
▪ Pairing two stimuli changes the response to one of them
o Conditioned stimulus
o Unconditioned stimulus
▪ Before the organism has been conditioned, there are two things being observed
o The unconditioned stimulus (US): Any object or event that produces an
involuntary or reflexive reaction in the subject, when the subject notices the
object/event
o The unconditioned response (UR): The involuntary of reflexive reaction to
the US
▪ Always (Action) + the thing that caused the response
• Ex: salivated TO THE FOOD
▪ After the conditioning, there are four things being observed
o The US
o The UR
o The conditioned stimulus (CS): A formerly neutral stimulus that has been
paired with the US, until the subject responds to either one with an involuntary /
reflexive reaction
o The conditioned response (CR): The UR … but in response to the CS alone
Instrumental conditioning (Also known as operant conditioning)
o Individual’s response followed by reinforcer or punishment
o Reinforcers: Events that increase the probability that the response will occur
again
o Punishment: Events that decrease the probability that the response will occur
again
Primary Difference between Classical and Instrumental Conditioning
▪ In instrumental conditioning: the individual’s response determines the outcome
reinforcer or punishment
▪ In Classical Conditioning: the CS and US occur at certain times regardless of the
individual’s behavior
John Watson… (The “father of behaviorism”) Not true father of behaviorism
o DID two important things
▪ As the president of the APA, wrote an opinion paper stating that operant
conditioning was the most important advance of all time in psychology
▪ Conducted the (in)famous Little Albert experiments
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
2
▪ However, there are several reasons to consider Watson a trivial figure, if not an outright
fraud
o Only published three things on operant conditioning in his lifetime
o Hid the fact that Little Albert was a developmentally abnormal child
o Evidence strongly suggests he cherry-picked which Little Albert results he
published
B.F. Skinner
o The first (and most famous) “radical behaviorist”
o Prolific author
o Lifetime champion of the notion that all learning and memory could be explained
by conditioning
o Created the “Skinner Box”
o Established (with theory AND evidence) the principle that reinforcement and
punishment would work equally well, if done correctly
o Systematically showed that more practice = better learning
o Showed that we can learn without getting the “reinforcer” every trial (called
partial reinforcement schedule)
o The only problem is that Skinner didn’t actually do any of those things
first
The actual Father of Behaviorism … E.L. Thorndike
o Thorndike worked with cats
o Built ever-more elaborate escape mechanisms from the cages
o Timed the cats in solving the cages … and in whether the cats remembered the
solution after days, weeks, or months
Operant Conditioning
• Operant conditioning is voluntary learning
o Reinforcement
▪ If you want to increase a target behavior, you provide the subject a
stimulus (incentive) that will motivate them to do so
o Punishment
▪ If you want to decrease a target behavior, you provide the subject a
stimulus that will motivate them to do so
• Reinforcement and punishment also come in two varieties each: positive and negative
o Positive Reinforcement
▪ If you do what I want you to, I will give you a reward (allowance, food
pellet, gold star)
o Positive Punishment
▪ If you do what I don’t want you to, I will give you a punishment (time out,
electric shock, spanking)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Operant Conditioning
• “Positive” OC: means giving the subject something after they do the target behavior
• “Negative” OC: means taking something away after the target behavior
o Negative punishmentTake away your phone, ground you
o Negative reinforcementSitting in my daughter’s room until she does her
homework
Lashley’s Search for the Engram** don’t need to know his name for the test
• Lashley is most famous for trying to find these proposed locations, which he called the
Engram
o A physical representation of what had been learned
▪ Example: a connection between two brain areas
o Hypothesis: a knife cut between the two brain areas should abolish the newly
learned responseHypothesis disproven
• Lashley’s experiments showed that learning and memory do not rely on a single
cortical area
• Lashley’s principles about the nervous system
o Equipotentiality: all parts of the cortex contribute equally to complex functioning
behaviors (e.g., learning)
o Mass action: the cortex works as a whole, and more cortex is better
Lashley’s Faulty Assumptions
• The cerebral cortex is the best or only place to search for an engram
• Studying one example of learning is equivalent to studying any other one
Types of Memory
▪ Hebb (1949) differentiated between two types of memory:
o Short-term memory: memory of events that have just occurred
▪ The study of this construct actually gave birth to the sub-discipline
“Cognitive Psychology”
▪ The famous paper: “The Magical Number 7, ± 2”
• We remember 7 things at one time (plus or minus 2 things)
o Long-term memory: memory of events from times further back
Differences Between Short- and Long-Term Memory
• Short-term memory has a limited capacity, but long-term memory does not
• Short-term memory fades quickly without rehearsal, while long-term memories
persist
• Long-term memories can be stimulated with a cue/ hint
o Short-term memories cannot
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Instrumental conditioning (also known as operant conditioning: individual"s response followed by reinforcer or punishment, reinforcers: events that increase the probability that the response will occur again, punishment: events that decrease the probability that the response will occur again. In instrumental conditioning: the individual"s response determines the outcome reinforcer or punishment. In classical conditioning: the cs and us occur at certain times regardless of the individual"s behavior. Operant conditioning: operant conditioning is voluntary learning, reinforcement. If you want to increase a target behavior, you provide the subject a stimulus (incentive) that will motivate them to do so: punishment. If you want to decrease a target behavior, you provide the subject a stimulus that will motivate them to do so: reinforcement and punishment also come in two varieties each: positive and negative, positive reinforcement. If you do what i want you to, i will give you a reward (allowance, food pellet, gold star: positive punishment.
