Behaviourism

Question 1

what was Thorndike’s study?

Answer 1

put animals in various puzzle boxes with food outside the box

had to perform a task to get out such as pull a string

they soon learned the association

Question 2

what is the law of effect?

Answer 2

(Thorndike)

association between a stimulus (cause) and a response (effect)

Question 3

what was the process of Skinner’s rats?

Answer 3

rat got a treat if it pressed the lever when it was green, an electric shock of it was red

negative reinforcement was not recovering the shock

continuous reinforcement is developed where the rat presses the lever when it is green each time

Question 4

what are the strength of Skinner?

Answer 4

conditions animals to show a desired behaviour

shows how the animals are more likely to pick up the behaviour when they are rewarded

Question 5

what are the limitations of Skinner?

Answer 5

can’t be applied to humans and our thought processes

could vary between different animals

ethical issues

Question 6

what is a primary reinforcer?

Answer 6

necessary for survival eg food

Question 7

what is a secondary reinforcer?

Answer 7

one that provides the means to obtain a primary informer eg money

Question 8

what is positive reinforcement?

Answer 8

anything pleasant given to you when the desired behaviour is performed

Question 9

what is negative reinforcement?

Answer 9

when something unpleasant is removed/avoided after the desired behaviour is performed

Question 10

what is classical conditioning?

Answer 10

stimulus response learning

Question 11

what is the unconditioned stimulus?

Answer 11

something that makes a response naturally

Question 12

what is the unconditioned response?

Answer 12

natural response to the stimulus

Question 13

what is the neutral stimulus?

Answer 13

change in environment you have no response to yet

Question 14

what is the conditioned stimulus?

Answer 14

something you’re taught to have a natural response to

Question 15

what is the conditioned response?

Answer 15

response to the conditioned stimulus

Question 16

what does tabula rasa mean?

Answer 16

humans are born as a blank slate

Question 17

what was Pavlov’s study?

Answer 17

each time the dog received his food the bell was sounded for a few seconds and the amount of saliva measured

after several tries the bell was sounded without food being presented, and the dogs still salivated nearly as much as when there was food

the dog had been classically conditioned to salivate at the sound of the bell

Question 18

what is extinction?

Answer 18

if a dog hears a bell on several trials when no food is presented, the association weakens so eventually the dog will not salivate when hearing the bell

Question 19

what is spontaneous recovery?

Answer 19

when the dog is removed from the experiment for a few hours and is then returned, it will salivate (show the CR) when it hears the bell

shows the association has not been completely extinguished

Question 20

what does anthropomorphic mean?

Answer 20

giving an animal (or something else) a human quality

we can’t generalise from animals to humans

Question 21

what are the strengths of classical conditioning?

Answer 21

scientific methods - high reliability

generalisable to humans eg a school bell means it’s time to leave

can be used to treat phobias in humans

Question 22

what are the weaknesses of classical conditioning?

Answer 22

anthropomorphic

too simplistic - classical conditioning is nurture and some things come down to nature

Question 23

what was Watson and Raynor’s (1920) research on?

Answer 23

little albert :

a rat was placed in front of the baby and he seemed happy (NS)

2 months later when the baby was shown the rat, a four-foot metal bar was struck behind his ear, making a loud noise that scared him (UCS)

repeated 5 times a week and twice more 17 days later

Question 24

what was the results in Watson and Raynor’s (1920) study?

Answer 24

when the bar struck he displayed fear

in the second trial he was suspicious of the rat and the next session he turned away from the rat immediately

also scared of a similar objected like a fur coat that was placed in front of him (generalisation)

Question 25

what are the strengths of Watson and Raynor’s (1920) study?

Answer 25

explains how phobias may develop

suggested how learning is the same for humans and animals - challenges anthropomorphism

Question 26

what are the limitations of Watson and Raynor’s (1920) study?

Answer 26

only one participant - not representative

unethical

difficult to explain all phobias such as the dark and heights - we may copy phobias from those around us