Animal Studies and Learning Theory

• Learning theory:

  A set of theories from the behaviourist approach to psychology, that emphasise the role of learning in the acquisition of behaviour. Explanations for learning of behaviour include:

  • Classical conditioning = learning through association.
  • Operant conditioning = learning through consequences.
• Who proposed that caregiver-infant interaction can be explained by learning theory?

  Dollard and Miller
• Learning theorists Dollard & Miller (1950) proposed that caregiver-infant interaction can be explained by learning theory. It emphasises the importance of the attachment figure as a provider of food. Children learn to love those who feed them.
• Learning theory draws on the concept of drive reduction:

  Primary drives are innate or biological motivators (hunger)

  Sears et al. (1957) suggested that as caregivers provide food, the primary drive of hunger becomes generalised. Attachment is thus a secondary drive.
• How does the child learn to associate the caregiver with food?

  This is done through classical conditioning:

  Food is an unconditioned stimulus which is associated with pleasure (unconditioned response). At the start the carer is a neutral stimulus, that is, a stimulus that produces no response. Over time, when the carer regularly feeds the child, he/she becomes associated with food and becomes a conditioned stimulus which evokes pleasure (conditioned response).
• How does the child maintain an association of the caregiver with food?

  This is done though operant conditioning:

  If a behaviour results in agreeable consequences it is likely to be repeated and if it results in disagreeable consequences it is likely to decline.

  If crying results in feeding, then the consequences are pleasant and crying is reinforced, escaping from an unpleasant stimulus is also agreeable so it is a reinforcer.
• Give an example of how a caregiver may be negatively and positively reinforced.

  Most carers dislike hearing a baby cry so the sound of crying is a negative reinforcer encouraging the carer to behave in such a way that the child stops crying. Smiling by the child is very rewarding and is therefore a positive reinforcer so the carer behaves in such a way as to evoke smiling.
• Classical and operant conditioning help to form an attachment bond between the carer and the child.
• Animal studies are carried out on non-human animal species rather than on humans for ethical and practical reasons
• Animal studies have looked at the formation of early bonds between non-human parents and their offspring.

  Why is this of interest to psychologists?

  This is of interest to psychologists because the attachment-like behaviours is common to a range of species and so animal studies can help us to understand attachment in humans.
• What was the aim of Harlow & Harlow's study?

  To investigate the idea that a soft object serves some of the functions of a mother.
• Harlow & Harlow's Procedure:

  16 baby monkeys were reared with two wire model ‘mothers’.
• Harlow & Harlow's Procedure:

  In one condition milk was dispensed by the plain wire mother whereas in the other condition the milk was dispensed by the cloth covered mother. The amount of time the baby rhesus monkey spent with each mother was recorded, alongside how long they spent feeding at each one.
• Harlow & Harlow's Procedure:

  To test for mother preference during periods of stress, the monkeys were startled with a loud noise and their responses recorded. A larger/unfamiliar cage was used in some conditions in order to observe the degree of exploration by the baby rhesus monkeys.
• Harlow & Harlow's Findings:

  The baby monkeys cuddled the soft object in preference to the wire one and sought comfort from the cloth one when frightened regardless of which dispensed milk. When startled by the loud noise, the baby monkeys would cling tightly to the soft ‘towelling mother’. When given larger caged conditions, greater exploration behaviour was seen by the baby monkeys with the ‘towelling mother’ surrogate, which is indicative of emotional security.
• Harlow & Harlow's Conclusion:

  Harlow concluded that baby rhesus monkeys appear to have an innate drive to seek contact comfort from their parent suggesting that attachment is formed through an emotional need for security rather than food.
• What was the aim of Lorenz's research into attachment?

  To investigate the phenomenon of imprinting in non-human animals (where the offspring follows and forms an attachment bond to the first large moving object they see after birth).
• What was the procedure in Lorenz's research into attachment?

  A clutch of goose eggs were randomly divided, half were hatched with the mother goose in their natural environment the other half hatched in an incubator where the first moving object they saw was Lorenz.
• What were the findings of Lorenz's research into attachment?

  The incubator group followed Lorenz everywhere whereas the control group (hatched in the presence of their mother), followed her.  When the two groups were mixed the control group continued to follow their mother and the experimental group followed Lorenz (due to imprinting).
• What was the conclusion of Lorenz's research into attachment?

  Lorenz noted that this imprinting only occurred within a critical period of 4–25 hours after hatching. This relationship persisted over time and proved to be irreversible. If imprinting does not occur within this time, the chicks did not attach themselves to a mother figure.