Behaviourism Flashcards
(14 cards)
What is one assumption of the behaviourist approach
Humans are born as a blank slate
What are the two main theories proposed by behaviourists?
Classical and operant conditioning
What did pavlovs study explain?
How. behaviour is learnt through stimulus response and association
What is the neutral stimulus paired with?
It is paired with an unconditioned stimulus which produces an unconditioned response
What does the individual learn to associate if pairing is repeated?
They learn to associate the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus
The neutral stimulus becomes the conditoned stimulus which creates…
the conditioned response of fear
What was the UCS in Pavlovs study
food
What was the neutral stimulus in pavlovs study?
the bell
What was the unconditioned response
salivation
What does operant conditioning emphasise the importance of?
It emphasises the importance of consequences of our own actions. He focused on the importance of reinforcement in increasing a behaviour and punishment in stopping a behaviour
What is positive reinforcement?
Where a reward is given for a behaviour which encouraged the behaviour and it is repeaed to gain the same reward
What is negative reinforcement?
Performing a behaviour to avoid an unplewsant consequence so the behaviour is repeated to avoid the unpleasant consequence again
What did skinner do to investigate positive reinforcement on the rats?
Skinner placed the hugnry rat in a box and everytime the rat pressed a lever it was rewarded with food. The behaviour was repeated as the rat was conditioned to press the lever through positive reinforcement to get the same pleasant outcome
How did Skinner investigate negative reinforcement on the rats?
Skinner ran an electrical current across the floor which caused the rat discomfort and the rat would move around until it knocked the lever that stopped the current. The rat would then repeat this behaviour as it learnt that by pressing the lever it would avoid the negative consequence of pain
