AO1

• assumptions

  Focuses on observable events, believes we are born as a blank slate. Believes behaviour is explained in terms of a basic form of learning known as conditioning.

  Also believes animals and humans learn in the same ways.
• Classical: learning to associate a neutral stimulus with a unconditioned stimulus

  • 9 month old baby boy in an experiment to show the importance of the environment over instinct for learning and behaviour. When shown a range of stimuli (fire, monkeys, dogs ..etc) showed no fear response
  • A white rat would be presented, paired with a metal bar being hit behind his head to make a loud noise.
  • After repeated presentations developed a fear response to the rat, which then generalised to anything fluffy or white. So you could condition a fear response into a baby purely by using the environment.
• Pavlov showed that dogs could be conditioned to salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time that they were given food.

  • Presented with the food (UCS) , they salivated (UCR)
  • Bell (NS) before giving the food. The bell and the food had a temporal association because the two stimuli were experienced close together in time, so an association was formed. After a few pairings the dogs salivated when they heard the bell even when no food was given.
  • Bell (CS) and salivation (CR)
• Operant conditioning – investigated by Skinners rats.  Positive reinforcement – getting something that will make you repeat the action, negative reinforcement which takes away something bad and will make you repeat the action.  Punishment will prevent you from repeating the action.