Learning theories Flashcards
(65 cards)
Who was classical condiitoning developed by?
Pavlov
PRocess of classical condiitoning
UCS = UCR
NS = No response
UCS + NS = UCR
CS = CR
wHAT IS CLASSICAL CONDIITONING
Classical conditioning is about how a stimulus is associated with a response.
wHAT is a stimulus
A stimulus is something in our environment that affects us; a response is our reaction to a stimulus.
what are UCR?
Unconditioned Responses are reflexes that are innate – like blinking in response to someone poking us in the eye, or fear when we hear loud noises.
FOOD example of classical condiitoning
Food (UCS) -> Hunger (UCR)
Kitchen (NS) -> No hunger response
Food (UCS) and Kitchen (NS) -> Hunger (UCR)
Kitchen (CS) -> Hunger (CR)
Aspects 3 of classical conditionin g
Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Stimulus generalisation
Explain extinction
Extincition = Extinction occurs when the association between the UCS and the CS no longer occurs so after a few trials of separating the two stimuli, the learned response is extinguished.
For example, if you taught your dog to shake hands and you do not get your dog to shake hands for a while, the response will become extinct as the dog will no longer respond to the command when asked.
Explain spontaneous recovery
The reappearance of a CR after it has been extinguished is called spontaneous recovery.
For example, you learnt a fear of shopping due to being frightened by a loud noise such as shouting during a shopping trip.
If you then went shopping and there was no noise or disturbance, then you could unlearn the association, extinguishing your fear of shopping.
However, it might suddenly reappear at a later date without the noise, which would be spontaneous recovery.
After spontaneous recovery, the association can diminish very quickly.
explain stimulus generalisation
The stimulus that evokes the CR in classical conditioning is specific.
However, a stimulus similar to the specific one can elicit the CR and this is known as stimulus generalisation.
For example, someone who experiences an anxiety attack in one particular shop can produce the same response in any other shop, hence the fear of a shop can become a fear of shopping in general.
Supporting evid class cond
- P: One strength is that there is evidence to show that animals learn behaviours through association.
E: Pavlov found that it was possible to condition an automatic reflex to occur in the presence of a neutral stimulus (metronome) as the dogs learnt to associate salivation with sound rather than with food.
C: This shows that behaviour can be learnt through associating a stimulus with a response. - P- One strength is that there is evidence to show that humans can learn through association.
E- Watson and Rayner found that it was possible to train little Albert to associate fear of a loud noise with a white rat.
C- This shows classical conditioning could be used to explain how phobias develop through association of a stimulus and response in humans.
class cond critical evid
P- One weakness is that not all behaviours are learnt through classical conditioning, some are learnt via social learning.
e- Bandura found that children learnt aggression through observation and imitation of a role model and not through association.
This shows that observational learning causes behaviour to be learnt and not association.
- P - One weakness is that some behaviours are learnt via consequences not classical conditioning.
E - Skinner found that when a rat was place in a ‘Skinner box’, it quickly learnt to press a lever for a reward of a food pellet.
C- This shows that giving a positive reinforcement would lead to a behaviour being learnt and not stimulus and response.
Additional supporting evid class cond
One strength of classical conditioning is that it is REDUCTIONIST as it suggests that people learn their behaviour just due to association which is a simplistic explanation of how behaviour is learnt.
This is a strength because predictions can be made about who will and who will not learn behaviour due to associations between stimulus and response.
aDDITONAL crit evid for class cond
One weakness is that classical conditioning does not consider INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES in that learning can occur through unique reflex responses of different people as may be because of different reactions to stimulus and not classical conditioning.
This is a weakness because it does not accurately explain how everyone may learn behaviour in the population.
Whys class cond useful
useful: practical applications like systematic desensitisation to reduce phobias by using counter conditioning by pairing it with a relaxatoion response
What was pavlovs stduy abt
classical conditioning in dogs
Aim of pavlovs study
Investigate if dogs can learn to associate a neutral stimulus of a metronom with receiving food, produing a salivation response (CR)
Pavlovs study sample
35 different dog breeds that were raised in lab conditions
Pavlovs study procedure
Pavlov removed the dog’s oesophagus creating an opening in their throat so the food would fall out and not make it to the stomach to maintain the desire for the UCS of food.
Pavlov’s dogs had a tube attached to their salivary glands, which drained the saliva into a measuring apparatus.
Each dog was placed in an isolated, sound proofed room and restrained in a harness.
Pavlov set up a series of trials to test this and each time the dog was fed a bowl of meat, a metronome was heard for a few seconds or the metronome was then rung and no food was given.
Pavlovs study before learning, during, and after
Before Learning: Food leads to salivation. The sound of a metronome produces no response.
During Learning: The food is repeatedly paired with a metronome, this leads to salivation.
After Learning: The metronome leads to salivation on its own.
pavlods study results
+ quantitative result
The dogs learnt to salivate at the sound of the metronome even when the food was not presented with it.
Pavlov found that the conditioned dog started to salivate 9 seconds after hearing the metronome and, by 45 seconds, had produced 11 drops of saliva.
conclusion at the end of pavlobvs study
He concluded that it was possible to condition an automatic reflex to occur in the presence of a neutral stimulus (metronome).
The dogs learnt to associate salivation with sound rather than with food via a process called ‘signalisation’ in the cerebral cortex.
The sound of the metronome is the signal for food, and the dog reacts to the signal in the same way as if it were food.
Eval of pavlovs study weaknesses
One weakness is that Pavlov used a restricted sample of animals to test classical conditioning.
E - Pavlov used dogs to test if salivation could be conditioned. This is weakness as it is low in generalisability as this may not be representative of how human behaviour is learnt through classical conditioning as human have more complex thought processes than dogs.
This restricted social environment could have caused severe distress to Pavlov’s dogs
E - as he had a tube attached to their salivary glands and a hole cut in their oesophagus and each dog was placed in an isolated, soundproof room and restrained in a harness during a series of trails. This is a weakness as it breaks the caging guideline for dogs who are not usually kept in such confined environment.
evaluation of pavlovs study
strengths
He used a standardised procedure in that
E - all dogs were tested before learning to see that the sound of the metronome produced no response, this was repeatedly paired with the food which lead to salivation. This is a strength as it is high in reliability as it is easy to replicate the study into association to check if learning occurs consistently.
The study is high levels of control to make sure extraneous variables were minimised.
E - All dogs, after being placed in isolation in a room, were presented food and a metronome which led to a salivation response. This makes it higher in validity as he can be sure that the association of food with the metronome caused salivation allowing cause and effect between the stimulus and response to be established.
