2.2 Early Learning Theory: Pavlov, Hull & Tolman Flashcards
What are the 2 separate scientific traditions in the study of behaviour?
Natural History
Physiological
Describe natural history study of behaviour
Observational Species differences Function Evolutionary theory Darwin, Romanes
Describe the physiological study of behaviour
Experimental
Looking at general mechanisms in animals and how this can be applied to everyday
Reflex theory
Thorndike, Watson, Pavlov
What is reflex theory?
The biological system works on a complicated mass of reflexes
What did Pavlov’s original research look into?
The digestive system of dogs
Discuss the classic setup of how the dog was studied
Fistulla - hole in the cheek where a tube comes out to collect the saliva that can then be measured
Smoked paper drum and needle - each time there was a drop of saliva the needle would jerk so there is a record on the paper drum of how many times the dog salivated
What did Pavlov observe while studying salivation in dogs?
Different foods elicited different kinds of saliva released
Found that when the student entered the room, the dog started to salivate even though they were yet to receive the food
What was a psychic reflex?
The dog salivating at the sight of the human rather than actual food
What did Wolfsohn find when conducting experiments looking at conditioned reflexes?
Different kinds of saliva produced depending on what the animal is presented with
eg. tin of sand = watery saliva, tin of meat = mucus thick saliva full of enzymes
What did the discovery of hormonal control of digestive processes do to Pavlov’s theory?
Undermined it because Pavlov believed that everything was controlled by the nervous system
What was a main limitation of Pavlov?
Working out how the brain works - his concept was outdated by 1910
His idea was that everything was interconnected and did not take on board that the brain is made of neurons connected by synapses
When was the Skinner box invented and what was it used to investigate?
1930
Used to investigate instrumental learning procedures - this is different to Pavlovian conditioning
How did Pavlov refer to conditioned reflexes?
A connection in the brain
Bell – food centre in the brain – salivation
What did the American theorists who took Thorndike’s view refer to conditioned reflexes as?
A direct link between bell and salivation
Argued that the arrival of food is like the Law of Effect
Arrival of food acts to reinforce and strengthen the connection
The bell automatically elicits salivation, not because the dog expects food
How did Sheffield prove the American behaviourists wrong?
Using omission procedures
