Learning Approaches

• What does Tabula Rasa mean?

  You are a blank slate which must be written on by the chalk of experience. A mind not yet affected by experience and impressions.
• What are the underlying assumptions of the behaviourist approach?

  • behavioural psychology studies behaviours that are observable and quantifiable
  • behaviours are mostly learnt from interaction with our environment, this supports the nurture approach
  • humans and animals exhibit very similar learning patterns, so conclusions from animal experiments can be generalise/extrapolated to humans
  • In line with its objective and scientific approach to psychology, experiments conducted by the behavioural approach are mostly lab controlled
• What was Pavlov’s process to Classical Conditioning?

  1. Dog salivated (unconditioned response) when provided with food (unconditioned stimulus).
  2. Then the bell (neutral stimulus) was rung whenever food was presented.
  3. Gradually after repeated pairing, the dogs salivated at the sound of the bell even when no food was given. The bell became the conditioned stimulus, and the salivation became the conditioned response.
• What is Operant Conditioning?

  • When humans or animals respond to the environment, their actions are followed by consequences
  • If the result is positive, the behaviour will be repeated. If the consequence is unpleasant, the behaviour will be avoided
• What is Positive Reinforcement?

  Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences that are pleasent when they happen. I.e. food for the rat, Giving a child sweets when they clean their room.
• What is Negative Reinforcement?

  Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences that are pleasant when they stop. I.e. Aspirin to get rid of a headache. In simple terms, it is behaviour that makes something unpleasant go away.
• What is Positive Punishment?

  Adds an undesirable consequence to make behaviour less appealing
• What is Negative Punishment?

  Removing a pleasant stimulus to decrease behaviour.
• What does ‘Extinction’ mean in Operant Conditioning?

  When the reward stops so the conditioned behaviour stops.
• What are the ABCs of behaviour?

  • Antecdant
  • Behaviour
  • Consequence
• What does the Schedule of Reinforcement mean?

  The rules that determine when and how often a behaviour will be reinforced.
• What were Skinner’s ideas on Freewill?

  Freewill is an illusion, everything is determined by our environment
• What was Skinner’s experiment?

  1. Skinner put a hungry rat in a box
  2. The box had a lever on the side, as the rat moved it would knock the lever
  3. Food was released when lever pressed
  4. The rat learnt to press the lever to get food
• What was Skinner‘s second experiment?

  • Skinner placed a rat in a cage and subjected it to mild electric currents. The rats moved around due to discomfort from the electric currents.
  • The electric currents stopped whenever the rat pressed the lever. After being subjected to the same situation a few times, the rat quickly learnt to press the lever to avoid uncomfortable electric currents.
  • This is negative reinforcement
• Support for Behaviourist Approach:

  • Based on well-controlled research
  • Principles of conditioning have been applied to real-world behaviours and problems
• Challenges to Behaviourist Approach:

  • Behaviourists may have oversimplified the learning process
  • Sees all behaviour as conditioned by past conditioning experiences
• What does Indirect Learning mean?

  Being taught skills and knowledge from role models, through observation and imitation
• What are the 4 Meditational processes of Social Learning?

  • Attention - have to notice the reward being given
  • Retention - remember what the reward, behaviour and outcome are
  • Motor Reproduction - have to be able to physically do it
  • Motivation - have to want the reward so imitate behaviour
• What is Vicarious Reinforcement?

  A type of learning that occurs when someone observes others being rewarded for a behaviour and then imitates the behaviour themselves.
• What was Bandura’s experiment with the Bobo doll?

  The adult would initially play with the toys but then started beating up the Bobo doll and screaming for 10 minutes. The children (3-5 years old) started beating up the Bobo doll as well - they copied the behaviour exactly