Study of Learning Flashcards
(40 cards)
How long have people applied scientific methods to the study of learning?
Learning has only been subject to scientific study for approximately the past hundred years.
What common elements exist between different fields within the natural sciences?
A focus on physical events.
What is circular reasoning?
Circular reasoning is when the argument reinforces itself, as opposed to finding a true explanation or cause. Focusing on physical events avoids this.
What are stimuli?
Stimuli are physical events (anything that can be perceived) that are able to affect or are capable of affecting behaviour. They often have significance beyond their physical properties.
What is an experience?
Experience is exposure to a stimulus.
Measuring learning: a reduction in errors
Measuring error reduction involves tracking how many mistakes someone makes, with fewer mistakes indicating learning.
Measuring learning: changes in topography
A person will trace a figure while looking at a copy of that image in a mirror. The degree to which an individual improves between trials is a way of assessing learning.
Measuring learning: changes in pressure
E.g., increase pressure to opening a door can indicate learning of what is required to execute the action (one might push lightly at the beginning, but as you become more familiar with space, you will remember to use more energy.
Measuring learning: changes in speed
Able to complete the task faster.
Measuring learning: changes in latency
Less hesitation or time that passes before a behaviour occurs can also indicate learning
Measuring learning: changes in rate/frequency
Being able to perform the task at a faster rate can indicate learning (e.g., doing more tasks per minute)
What is fluency?
Fluency is a combination of errors and rate, looking at the number of correct responses per minute.
What are descriptive studies?
The researcher attempts to describe a group by obtaining data from its members, often by conducting interviews or surveys/questionnaires. They are better able than case studies to collect data that can be statistically analyzed due to the greater number of participants, and they also reduce the risk of having an unrepresentative sample. Further, they are better able to incorporate a control group.
Identify and explain the three major reasons for using animals in research on learning.
1) Studying animals makes it possible for us to evaluate the role of hereditary by looking at animals with shorter lifespans by implementing breeding programs that are unethical in human samples.
2) Easier to do than studying identical twins. It also makes one able to house animals from birth in controlled environments with less variability than natural habitats.
3) Allows researchers to conduct experiments that would be unethical for human samples, such as looking at if an experience would trigger depression.
What is the most common objection to using animals in research on learning?
Differences in learning and behaviour among species, so using another species to inform understandings of humans can be flawed. (Researchers are aware of this, though, and substantiate findings with human research.)
Describe how researchers can use both animal and human research to improve our understanding of a field of study.
Basic research is done with animals and applied research is conducted on humans to get a comprehensive understanding of the phenomenon
Why did Watson identify learning as the paramount problem of human psychology?
Watson thought learning was the great problem of human psychology because its interest was widespread, and studying it began to dominate experimental psychology in the USA. (aka, it’s popular)
What is the problem with prescientific explanations for behaviour?
- These explanations are similar to behaviours, in that a man slams a door because he feels angry, but this reasoning is circular because it ends up with saying that a man slams a door because he’s angry and we know that he’s angry because he slammed the door.
- This doesn’t provide an explanation for why he is feeling this way, or what provoked the feeling. We instead need to ask what events provoked the feeling to explain the behaviour, bringing focus back to physical events.
- One of the purposes of a scientific approach is to get people to stop explaining behaviour in terms of inner causes—wants, desires, etc.—and instead focus on identifying environmental causes for behaviour.
What is constructivism?
A philosophy that scientific method is outmoded, and that science is a debate about an unknowable reality.
What problems are there in defining learning in terms of neural change?
- we don’t yet understand what changes take place when learning occurs, so the only reliable measure of learning is a change in behaviour.
- it denies the importance of behaviour, and the changes in behaviour produced by experience are important in their own right, and not merely as a way of studying the nervous system.
What is an operational definition?
How the behaviour is defined in terms of measurement for research purposes.
What problems are there in operationally defining thinking and feeling?
Thinking and feeling can’t be measured directly. Instead, you measuring characteristics of the feeling rather than the feeling itself. This is a debated method.
Are all changes in behaviour due to experience?
No. some changes in behaviour are due to maturation (e.g., being able to walk is more about physical development than simply watching others).
Are all experiences learning experiences?
No. Something that makes a person feel good, like watching a movie, is simply done for the pleasure it elicits
