PS261 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Tabula Rasa, Contiguity, Neurology
Document Summary
People do things to receive pleasure and avoid pain: rules of associations. Bell and magendie separate sensory and motor paths. Sechenoc provided a reflexive model of voluntary behaviour. Pavlov showed not all reflexes are innate. Lines of work that led to the study of animal learning: comparative cognition. Natural selection implies continuity between human and animal. A behaviour should not be explained by a complex mental process if it can be explained with a simpler one. Committed to the principle of nervism: all physiological functions are governed by the nervous system. Studied the conditioning of reflexes to learn about the function of the nervous system. Investigation of learning under conditions that are simpler, easily controlled and less expensive. Similarity between model and behaviour of interest. Major players in early learning experiments: thorndike. Noticed dogs salivated in response to cues that preceded the delivery of food: watson. Important influence of environment on development: skinner.
