Behaviorism Flashcards
Assumptions (5)
psychology is a science
little difference between the learning in animals compared to humans
behavior is a result of a stimulus and response
when born our mind is a blank slate
all behavior is learnt from the environment
Classical conditioning (3)
both humans and animals can be conditioned classically due to the ways they interact with their environment to learn behavior
learning occurs when an association is made between a previously neutral stimulus and reflex response
reflex response can be positive or negative depeneding on the association
Classical conditioning; Pavlov’s dogs
Pavlov measured the amount of saliva produced by the dog when they knew they were going to be fed.
Pavlov noticed that the dogs salivated when the experimenters (dressed in white lab coats) didn’t have any food
Pavlov showed the neutral stimulus (the white coat) and how it was associated by the dogs as food due to the salivation as a response
Operant Conditioning (4)
it is the principle of consequence using positive/negative reinforcement and punishment
positive reinforcement = being rewarded when a certain behavior is performed making you more likely to do it
negative reinforcement = increases the likely hood of it happening again as it involves the removal of, or escaping from, unpleasant consequences
punishment = an unpleasant consequence of behaviour
Operant Conditioning; Skinner’s rat
placed rats in a box and when it performed a trick it was rewarded with a treat (+ reinforcement)
if the rat didn’t perform the trick it was given an electric shock (punishment)
positives (4)
experimental
makes psychology a science
real life application; schools (hero cards)/ autistic children
cognitive
negatives (5)
deterministic - learns everything from scratch relies too much on lab experiments nature/nurture debat animals are experimented on haven't got any free will
