behaviourist approach

• what are the 3 key assumptions of behaviourist approach?

  all behaviour is learned/acquired through experience and can be explained in terms of classical conditioning and operant conditioning;

  only observable behaviour is relevant and references to mental processes are unnecessary;

  human behaviour is qualitatively no different from non-human behaviour, both are built of stimulus-response links
• what does classical conditioning apply to?

  reflex responses only
• who was ivan pavlov?

  physiologist interested in digestion of dogs, developed a technique for collecting and measuring their saliva but noticed that dogs would salivate at hearing footsteps of person who fed them alone
• what is present before classical conditioning?

  unconditional stimulus (UCS) and unconditional response (UCR)

  neutral stimulus (NR) that elicits no response yet
• what happens during conditioning?

  if neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired/associated with unconditional stimulus, unconditional response will initially occur due to presence of UCS
• what happens after classical conditioning?

  neutral stimulus becomes conditioned stimulus (CR)

  UCS becomes conditioned response (CR) to CR
• what is generalisation? 


  CR spontaneously transfers to similar stimuli (but different from) to original CS
• what is discrimination? 


  CR won't generalise to stimuli that is very different to original CS.
• what is extinction? 


  if CS continues to be presented without UCS, the CR will begin to fade =conditioned response weakens and eventually goes extinct
• who was B.F Skinner heavily influenced by?

  watson's behaviourist ideas, although he realised these ideas had serious shortcomings
• how did skinner develop upon classical conditioning?

  classical conditioning assumes organisms are essentially passive, but skinner acknowledged that animals and humans actively engage with their environments: an organisms behaviour is determined by the consequences of its past behaviour
• what is operant conditioning based on?

  how organisms operate in their environment as an explanation for voluntary behaviour
• what does skinner's theory state?

  likelihood of future behaviour is determined by consequences of past behaviour; if behaviour has no consequence then its chance of repeating has not changed
• define positive reinforcement


  a pleasant consequence that encourages behaviour to be repeated, e.g giving treats/food
• define negative reinforcement


  removal of an unpleasant thing encourages behaviour to be repeated e.g removing painful stimuli
• define positive punishment


  adding an unpleasant consequence decreases likelihood that behaviour is repeated e.g electric shock
• define negative punishment


  removing something pleasant decreases likelihood of behaviour repeating e.g taking away toys
• what were the aims of Skinner's experiment on rats?

  to demonstrate the principle of learning via operant conditioning
• what is a skinner box? 


  piece of apparatus designed by skinner, with an electric grid with shock generator and food pellet dispenser triggered by a lever
• what was the procedure of skinner's test of positive reinforcement?

  placing hungry rat in box who would eventually accidentally press the lever, releasing a food pellet. rat would learn the connection between pressing the lever and receiving food, reinforcing it to increase its pressing of the lever
• what happened in Skinner's test of negative reinforcement?

  used unpleasant consequences such as a loud noise which could be stopped by pressing lever, this increased lever pressing
• what happened in Skinner's test of punishment?

  delivered an electric shock to rat when they pressed the lever, this decreased lever pressing
• how did Skinner demonstrate that learning could be extinguished?

  if reinforcement is no longer provided when lever is pressed, rat unlearns the connection between lever pressing and reward so rat stops pressing it
• what are schedules of reinforcement?

  if reward is not given for every time behaviour is done, but to a predetermined set schedule, different response patterns will emerge
• what did Skinner discover about different ratio schedules?

  unpredictable reinforcement was more successful for conditioning behaviour than continuous reinforcement
• what is shaping? 


  complex behaviour is broken down into a series of simple behaviours, taught one by one using reinforcement and punishment and gradually combined to create desired complex behaviour
• why is shaping important?

  humans learn most of their skills in this step by step manner, it is important in behaviour modification where behaviour can be learned in simple strategic way