2.1 Comparative Psychology and Early Behaviourism Flashcards
What did Morgan criticise Romanes on?
Ignoring previous opportunities for an animal to learn some behaviour
Confusing objective (testable) to subjective (non-testable) inferences from behaviour to mental events
Being too ready to explain an animal’s behaviour in over complex terms, unnecessary
What did Morgan argue about trial and error learning with accidental success?
One-off observations of an animal’s behaviour can lead the person to think “how clever!”
Repeated observations can reveal how the behaviour develops often through means of trial and error
What does Morgan’s canon state in simple terms?
There are various ways of understanding the complex behaviour of an animal - the most simple explanation is the preferred one
What does Morgan’s canon relate to?
Occam’s Razor
What is Occam’s Razor?
Simple explanation over complex
What were Morgan’s 2 basic assumptions?
- Need systematic study
2. Simple psychological processes can interact with the environment to produce highly complex behaviour
Give an example of simple learning processes producing complex behaviour
2-pigeon model - 1 sender pigeon, 1 receiver pigeon
Sender receives the signals (red v green keylight)
Receiver makes the choice (left v right key) eg. red - go left
Both pigeons are reinforced when receiver makes a correct choice
Discuss what happens in the 2-pigeon model experiment
- Receiver develops position preference
- For sender, green predicts grain
- Sign-tracking (autoshaped pecking): sender pecks at green only
- Discrimination learning by receiver: chooses right only when sender pecks; starts to move to other side when sender fails to peck
- Omission learning: sender has to learn to continue pecking at green, but to withhold pecks to red, even though the latter has now become a signal for food
What was Thorndike’s aim?
Systematic, quantitative experiments on the trial and error learning in animals (instrumental conditioning)
What was Thorndike’s puzzle box?
Placed cats and dogs in a box with various kinds of devices for opening the door and placed food outside to motivate the animal
Timed how long it took for the animal to get out of the box
What did Thorndike’s results show?
No evidence for learning through imitation
Evidence for memory as animals did not forget what to do over time - compared this to human motor learning
Give an example of human motor learning
Learning to ride a bike
What is Thorndike’s Law of Effect in simple terms?
Responses that result in a satisfying effect are more likely to occur again and vice versa
Involvement of a reinforcer here
There is evidence for satisfiers stamping in habits
What was Watson’s 1913 behavioural manifesto?
You can learn how animals learn through studying their behaviour
Which law did Watson prefer over the Law of Effect?
Law of Frequency
