PSYC 2210 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Edward Thorndike, Lithium Chloride, Kenneth Spence
10 Jan 2014
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Document Summary
Informal reflection suggests that individuals perform instrumental responses because they are motivated to obtain the goal or reinforcer that results from the behaviour. The motivation of instrumental behaviour has been considered from two radically different perspectives. The first originated with thorndike and involves analysis of the associative structure of instrumental conditioning. As this label implies, this approach relies heavily on the concept of associations and hence is compatible with the theoretical tradition of pavlovian conditioning. It focuses on individual responses and their specific stimulus antecedents and outcomes. To achieve this level of detail, the associative approach examines instrumental learning in isolated behavioural preparations. Because associations can be substantiated in the nervous system, the associative approach also provides a convenient framework for studying the neural mechanisms of instrumental conditioning. The second strategy for analyzing motivational processes in instrumental learning is behavioural regulation.
