psyc 2044 exam 3

• methodological behaviorism


  john Watson, focuses only on observable behaviorism and the environment

  fairly extreme and mechanistic (behavior is predictable and reflexive as connections are made between environmental events and specific behaviors

  environmental condition -> behavior (no mental state)
• radical behaviorism


  BF Skinner, fairly extreme, similar to Watson's but less mechanistic (operant behavior flexible but not just reflex

  internal mental states cannot be used to explain behavior (internal states = "private behaviors), but can be explained by previous experience

  environmental conditions-> behavior

  environmental condition -> mental state (but mental state does not -> behavior)
• neobehaviorism


  clark hull, internal states could be measured proposed learning in the form of S->[X]->R

  x=internal intervening variable (usually a physiological process like hunger) that connects the environmental event to the behavior
• cognitive behaviorism


  Tolman: learning isn't so rigid, more broad

  individuals gather general knowledge of their surroundings and form expectations about the consequences of their behavior

  
  

  also, specific reinforcement and motor action might be necessary for performance but not learning

  
  

  environmental conditions->mental state->behavior
• example of cognitive behaviorism (study)


  McNamara, Long, Wilke (1956)

  2 groups of rats in T maze (group 1: behave freely, group 2: pushed in wire basket) Later, both groups tested, equal ability
• example of cognitive behaviorism (concept: latent learning)


  learning that occurs despite the absence of a noticeable change in performance

  1st 10 days: group one gets reward, group 2 gets no reward and makes more mistakes

  11th day: reward for both groups, group 2 became as good ("caught up"), they had learned something
• criticisms of cognitive behaviorism

  there are multiple ways to interpret "cognitive"

  -mental involving the brain (yes, good)

  -ration, goal-directed (but not all associative learning seems rational)
• study that exemplifies criticism

  Fowler and Miller: rats run down a straight alley to receive a food reward (group 1: shock to front paws before food, group 2: shock to back paws before food, group 3: no shock) group one slowed, group 2 ran faster, doesn't fit incognitiveinterpretation
• current trends of cognitive behaviorism

  -cognitive views are popular

  - few people call themselves behaviorists to avoid being "radical behaviorists"
• uniquely human abilities


  -imagination

  -empathy (but...elephants, rat test)

  -understanding own existence, life/death

  -understanding time (forward and back)

  -moral reasoning

  -humor

  
  

  -complex reasoning, concepts (somewhat unique, pigeons)

  -using tools (not unique)

  -language capabilities (not unique)
• is language special?


  most would say yes, skinner thought it was a learned behavior ("verbal behavior" people learn to speak because speaking produces reinforcers, speech is shaped by lots and lots of reinforcers)
• language is differenat than _____

  communication/sharing information

  
  

  most animals can communicate
• How can we demonstrate language? 2 basic structural elements

  1. symbols (words)

  2. grammar (rules for combining symbols)

  also, complexity and creativity are important

  
  

  dolphins, parrots, and apes are popular subjects for this research
• washoe


  -lived in trailer, treated like human child (social enrichment encourages language learning)

  -taught A.S.L (130 signs in 4 years)

  -later, observed teaching her adopted son A.S.L.

  -some creativity shown (new words: swan="water bird", brazil nut="rock berry")
• lana


  -started training at 2.5 years old with 25 symbols

  -pushed geometric symbols on keyboard

  -if symbols were pushed in correct order, she got what she wanted
• Kanzi


  -captive born bonobo

  -6 months: his mother trained to use keyboard, he was curious

  -2.5 years: started using keyboard on his own (almost 250 signs)

  -seems to understand much spoken english

  -came up with about 4 distinct sounds (banana, juice, grapes, yes)
• Do apes have language capabilities? pro arguement

  -using symbols and putting them in logical order

  -some creativity

  -analogies made between apes and 2-3 child abilities
• do apes have language capabilities? con argument

  critics: noam chomsky, HS terrace

  - children get better and improve

  -it is unclear whether apes understand what they say or if its just repetition to get a reward (merely operant conditioning)
• can animals count or tell time?

  yes, to a degree

  
  

  time: rats trained to press levers when lights are off for 4 seconds (not 2 seconds, not 8 seconds)

  count: rats can quickly learn to press 1 lever after 4 beeps and a different lever after two
• can animals understand abstract concepts:

  hernstein/loveland: trained pigeons to only peck when a pic showed a human, then only a particular person

  watanabe: pigeons learned to discriminate between Monet and Picasso, then could generalize to impressionists vs cubists
• what even is a concept?

  1] a set of objects or events sharing common features

  2] an internal representation of something

  
  

  definition 1 satisfied pigeon study, unknown whether definition2 hold
• possibly uniquely human abilities

  langue, complex reasing/concepts, empathy, moral reasoning
• is there guilt in dogs?

  no, why?

  they just know how to react to their owner

  tested in video where they blamed dog for something a human did but they still looked shameful when their owner was reprimanding them
• is there empathy in rats?

  some would say yes (saving other rats from contraption and sharing the chocolate chips) but the class said that this is not enough to prove empathy (they could be doing it for selfish/survival reasons)
• what are some other learning abiliites existing in one or more nonhuman species

  navigation, bird song learning, detecting weather/environment changes/responding, learning when/how to protect oneself
• conditioned taste aversion


  avoiding food that makes you ill because cues associated with that food become unpleasant

  important for many specific, strong/specific type of classical conditioning

  - one trial learning is possible

  - can have a long delay from the cue to the unpleasant effect
• what is important to consider in conditioned taste aversion

  type of cue (CS) is important

  Garcia and Koelling: exposed rats to nausea inducing gamma rays following CS:

  1] tone/light combo presented when they drank

  2] sweet flavor in the water

  
  

  rats learned to avoid sweet water, when 2 CS are paired with shockl, rather learned to stop drinking when the tone/light CS was presented
• why do we learn? ecological view

  *preferable over general process view, learning serves a specific purpose for specific species and is subject to natural selection
• adaptations


  specific characteristics that help individuals survive and reproduce in a given environment (ex. camo, running speed)
• why do we learn? general process view

  processes of learning are the same across situations and species

  1. all associative learning occurs through the same process/system

  2. stimuli and responses can be anything, learning will occur in the same way

  3. the process of learning is the same across all vertabrate species
• why is general process view probably not right

  simple associative learningmay besimilar across species, but most leraning is not general process, it varies according to the demands facing different species

  some learning is adaptive for large range of species (painful stimuli, etc) but some is more specific
• what are some propensities/biases that species may share

  being oversensitive to associations that involve our own behavior and being sensitive to stimulus/events that surprise us
• examples of superstitious behavior in experiments

  skinner's pigeons, 6 of 8 learned to do strange rituals (bobbing head)

  wagner and morris: clown 'bobo' dispensed marbles at fixed intervals, children developed strange behavior
• why do we develop superstitions


  it worked the first time so you continue, it is easy so why not, people naturally yearn for an explanation
• example of surprising stimuli in an experiment

  Lieberman: rats learned better in the t maze when picked up by their tales
• SSDR


  species-specific defense reaction, automatic response to a perceived threat
• bolles view on SSDR's

  each species has a hierarchy of SSDR's

  
  

  rats prefer running, freezing when confined (easy run to avoid shock but struggle to press lever to avoid, predispositions interfere with learning)

  gazelles: usually run

  porcupines/turtles: usually freeze
• seligman's view on preparations/surprising


  for a specific learning task, an organism is either

  
  

  - genetically prepared to learn (learning happens quickly)

  -unprepared (proceeds steadily, but slower)

  -contra prepared (learning is slow and irregular)
• gardner's 8 intelligences


  1. linguistic/verbal intelligence

  2. logical-mathematical intelligence

  3. musical intelligence

  4. spatial intelligence

  5. body-kinesthetic intelligence

  6. interpersonal intelligence (others)

  7. intrapersonal intelligence (oneself)

  8. naturalistic intelligence (understanding nature and how it works, accurately classify animals/plants)
• main idea of gardner's 8 intelligences


  individual differences in education, K-12 education needs to address children better in areas of intelligence other than verbal/linguistic and math

  as learners, we choose whether to focus on what we are naturally good at or to enhance our weaker areas