Task 6 - Behaviorism Flashcards
(38 cards)
1
Q
Behaviorism
A
- all behaviors are either reflexes or consequences of an individual history
- We can measure surrounding (input) and behavior (output)
- > what happens in the brain? We don’t really are
2
Q
First American psychology - functionalism
A
- Americans were strongly interested in Darwins evolutionary theory
- eugenics
- nation of common-sense businessmen, not interested in abstract science
- > interested in practical accomplishments that at the same time made money, revealed God’s glory and advanced the American dream
3
Q
Public image of psychology
A
-associated psychology with phrenology, mesmerism, spiritualism and other paranormal subjects
4
Q
Phrenology
A
- view that mental functions are localized in the brain
- capacity of a function corresponds to size of brain part devoted to it
- started with Joseph Gall
- > Spurzheim applied it to predict character, personality and propensity to crime
- > he exported it to Uk and USA
5
Q
First American psychology: functionalism
A
-strongly interested in evolutionary theory
…
6
Q
Mesmerism
A
- Mesmer claimed that he could cure patients by restoring their animal magnetism
- > became popular after Parisian Charles Posen in 1830-40s gave a series of lectures
7
Q
Spiritualism
A
- belief that spirits of the dead could be contacted by mediums
- started in mid 90s with Fox sisters
- spread rapidly, the more because Civil War claimed many lives
- first psychologists were invited to investigate spiritual sessions
8
Q
Inspiration from animal research
-> preservation of races in struggle for life
A
- Darwin and spencer -> individuals became interested in animal behavior
- looked for similarities between human and animal behavior
- searched for evidence of intelligent behavior passed from generation to generation
9
Q
Early research - trying to understand the animals mind
A
- George Romanes: mental processes in animals were thought to be same sort as you would expect to find after introspection of your own consciousness
- anthropomorphic interpretation
10
Q
Anthropomorphic interpretation
A
- interpreting behavior of non-human living creatures by attributing human motives and human-like intelligence to them
- popular in second half of 19th century
11
Q
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)
A
- American
- father of comparison psychology (1898)
- first to study animal psychology in an objective way
- > placing an animal in controlled environment and drawing conclusion on basis of the animal behavior
- instrumental conditioning
- law of effect
- educational psychology -> identified 3 main areas of intellectual development (abstract intelligence,mechanical intelligence and social intelligence)
12
Q
Thorndikes Puzzle box
A
- put hungry animals in box
- > need to solve puzzle to reach food outside of box
Findings: law of effect
- cats who watched other cats solve the puzzle were not better at solving when put in the box themselves
- > instrumental conditioning
13
Q
Law of effect
A
- refer to the fact that behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened and more likely to be repeated
- behaviors not followed by such consequences -> not repeated
14
Q
Instrumental conditioning
A
- name introduced by Thorndike
- refers to learning on the basis of law of effect
- called operant conditioning by skinner
15
Q
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
A
- Russian physiologist (1849-1936)
- studied digestive system of animals
- after 1900: interest in why organs secret fluids before food was presented
- > started research on CC
- thought that psychology could be reduced to physiology: thinking consisted of reflexes
- big impact on development of behaviorism
- supported a totally objective psychology and Watson’s behaviorism
16
Q
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
A
- American psychologist
- PhD in animal Psychology
- editor of journal ‘Psychological Review’
- > published behaviorist manifesto
- criticized that introspection has failed
- importance of observation and behavior rather than introspection and thoughts
- > influenced by evolutionary theory, natural selection
- little Albert
- said he could take any child and turn in in whoever he wants just by changing/controlling environment
- consciousness is an irrelevant concept -> important: study of actual, observable behavior
17
Q
Watson and link to evolutionary theory
A
- behaviorism is a direct outgrowth go studies in animal behavior
- animal psychology was a product of evolutionary theory
19
Q
Ideas behaviorists took from philosophers to further develop scientific psychology (3)
A
1) requirement of operational definitions
2) distinction between dependent and independent variables
3) science relies on verification
20
Q
Operational definition
A
-definition of a variable in terms of how the variable has been measured
-> allows description of the variable in quantitative form
Example: weight expressed in Kg
21
Q
Independent and dependent variables
A
- on basis of this distinction -> psy. Research could be defined as study of impact of a stimulus ( indep. V.) on the response (dep. V.)
- > behaviorism also became known as S-R-psychology
22
Q
Need for verification
A
- statements were only useful if they could be verified by empirical observation
- ruled out religious and introspective statements
23
Q
Skinner (1904-1990) - radical behaviorism
A
- Operant conditioning
- learning language = conditioning
Radical behaviorism:
- denies relevance of information processing in mind and holds that all human behavior can be understood on the basis of S-R associations
- lack of free will in humans
24
Q
Tolman - purposive behaviorism -1930s, 40s
A
- behavior as goal-related (means to an end)
- animal psychology -> maze running rats appear to think before making some decisions
- goal-directedness can be studied in an objective way
- agreed with other behaviorists that psychology should be based on observable behavior
- tolman and hull same Generation
- > skinner later
25
Q
Hull
A
Mathematical equations with operationally defined variables that allow detailed predictions of behavior in specified circumstances
26
View of behaviorists on psychology
- Psy has failed to become a natural science because mental states are object of study and introspection is only direct method of studying them
- P has been preoccupied with questions that are not open to experimentation
-> P is only an objective and experimental branch of natural science
27
Thorndikes relation to John B. Watson
- thorndikes work set basis for next major movement: behaviorists
- Watson built upon Thorndikes studies with animals on operant conditioning
- Watson: strong emphasis on impact of environmental influences on behavior
- Thorndike: differences in parental behavior of men and women were due to biological rather than cultural reasons
28
Cognitive revolution
- understanding: the mind = Brain
- > actually possible to study
- techniques to map mental processes
- lack of explanation for phenomena
- rise of computers/ artificial intelligence
-> changes view on cognitive psychology
29
George Boole
- British mathematician/logician
- wrote ‘laws of thought’
- Boolean logic
- > Binary system (and, or, not, true, fasle)
30
Claude Elwood Shannon
-mathematician -> came up with idea that information is quantifiable
-working with electrical circuits
-
31
John von Neumann
- Mathematics
- developed the famous computer model
- wrote ‘the computer and the brain’
32
Alan Turing
- enigma machine for encrypting in WW
- developed the ‘bombe’ (machine) -> a reason why war ended earlier
- Turing machine
- > hypothetical device with simple rules
33
Turing machine - cognition ?
- can human mind be explained by set of Turing machine?
- > they can (in theory) -> many philosophers were convinced of that
- by simulating human thinking/perception, one gains insights in the underlying processes
34
Turing test
Can machines think?
-> or is it just following simple rules?
Task: participant has to decide whether he is talking to a computer or a human being
35
Rise of computers led to:
- analogies between computer hardware and physiology of the brain
- the mind as computer software, and psychology the study thereof (input , steps that manipulate this input according to rules, output)
36
Chomsky
- against skinners theory of language learning
| - apparently, an internal mechanisms exists
37
George miller
- educated as behaviorist
- tried to explain language in behavioristic way
- > he realized that behaviorism had no future
- started first cognitive research center
-working memory can contain 7 +/- 2 items
38
Donald Broadbent
- British psychologists
- cocktail party effect
- showed how attention works
39
Problem Behaviorism
- failed to explain certain phenomena
- certain mental processes were successfully studied scientifically
- more disciplines started to focus on cognitive dimension
- from 1975: cognitive psychology started to dominate the scientific realm, leaving behaviorism behind
