HTL Exam 1: Behaviorism

Epistemology

Beliefs we have about knowledge and how they’re obtained

Learning

A relatively permanent change in behavior, behavior potentiality, mental representations, and/or associations as a result of experience.

Learning is NOT due to

Temporary states, maturation, or innate behavior tendencies

Approaches to learning: 

Behavioral, cognitive, humanistic, social, and neurological

Behavioral approach:

Focuses on overt, observable behavior

Cognitive approach:

Internal representations mediate between stimuli and behavior

Humanistic approach: 

The person is studied as a whole; their motivations, emotions, and identity

Social approach:

Others affect our behavior

Neurological approach:

Is compatible with other theories

Looks for the underlying biological basis of learning and memory

Searching for changes that take place in the neural and chemical pathways during learning and cognition

Measuring learning:

Overt behavior, physiological responses, verbal reports

Overt behavior example

Dog tricks

Physiological responses example

Heart rate (changes if you recognize the person in a photo or not)

Pupil dilation (changes based on attraction, learning)

Verbal reports

Free recall, primed recall, relearning

Free recall example

What do you remember of the commercials?

Primed recall example

You saw 4 commercials - what do you remember? (Forced choice with multiple choice, true/false, etc)

Relearning example

The second time you teach someone something, they should “get it” quicker

Ways to measure change in response

Speed of behavior, intensity of behavior, complexity of behavior (multitasking), responding differently to the same stimulus

What makes psychology a science? 

Empirical experimentation

The goal of psychology is to

Describe, explain, and predict what people do.

Theories

Provide explanations about the underlying mechanism involved in the learning process

Theory characteristics

Theories make testable predictions, called hypotheses (statements about the relationship between two or more variables)

Constants

Qualities that never change in a selected population (ex: gender)

Variables

Qualities expected to change or vary within a population or between individuals (ex: GPA)

Independent variables

What you manipulate

Dependent variables

What you measure

Nominal

Scores can’t be ranked, and are mutually exclusive (categorical)

Nominal examples

Eye color, state of birth, etc.

Ordinal

Ordering scores by “less than” or “more than”

Ordinal examples

Highest GPA/”more than” for valedictorian

Interval

A precise value with a unit of measure, but zero is arbitrary

Interval examples

Temperature, difference between this year and 5 years ago

Ratio

A precise value that has a possibility of real zero

Ratio examples

Inches, pounds, seconds

Methods for Investigating Hypotheses

Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Quantitative research

Numbers: correlational, quasi-experimental, and experimental research

Qualitative

More open ended

Correlation

Takes two measures from a sample, can be used to calculate correlation coefficient

Quasi-experimental

Participants based on some characteristic (eye color, ethnicity, etc)

Accepted, but effects may still be due to a confounding variable

Experiments

Systematically vary variables of interest

Variables must be manipulated by experimenter

Random assignment of participants to conditions

Between subjects testing example

2 groups, one gets alcohol and one doesn’t. Test both groups’ reaction time

Within subjects testing example

Test 1 person’s reaction time before and after drinking alcohol

Random sampling

IDEAL, but not what often happens

Allows generalization to the population

What behaviorists are trying to figure out

How much does our environment affect our behavior?

Behaviorism: internal states…

don’t matter or determine your behavior!

Basic assumptions of behaviorism

Internal processes don’t matter, learning = behavior change, stimulus-response psychology, equipotentiality, organisms are blank slates, learning from environment, simplest theories are true

Equipotentiality

All living organisms respond similarly (I can teach a dog and human to sit)

Ivan Pavlov

Physiologist measuring salivation, had serendipitous findings

Classical (Pavlovian, respondent) conditioning

Association between two or more events in an experimentally determined temporal relationship

Elements of Classical Conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus, unconditioned response, conditioned stimulus, conditioned response

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

Event that leads to a certain response without being learned (food smell, puff of air, overwhelming stress)

Unconditioned response

Reflex, response elicited by UCS (drooling, eyes closed, panic attack)

Conditioned stimulus

Previously neutral stimulus (bell, musical tone, margarita)

Conditioned response

Response to CS (drooling, eyes closed, panic attack)

Factors that affect conditioning

Number of pairings, order of pairings, timing

Order of pairings

Delayed, trace, simultaneous, backward

Variables influencing conditioning

Nature of CR, nature of US, role of CS

Nature of the US

Intensity (Dr. Beale’s margaritas)

Role of the CS

Detection (deaf dogs wouldn’t salivate to a bell, novelty (CS pre-exposure effect)

Stimulus generalization

If you train dogs with 1 bell, they might also respond to another similar one

Stimulus discrimination

If you train dogs with 1 bell, they probably won’t respond to another, more different, bell

Higher (2nd order) conditioning

Pair a new CS (bell) with a US (food). Then a new CS (buzzer) is paired with first CS (bell). Dogs now salivate to the buzzer without it ever being paired with food

John Watson

Wanted to prove that humans were shaped solely by experience, not genetics (blank slate), and that Classical Conditioning would work

Counter conditioning

More effective than extinguishing

Incompatible with conditioned response

Gradual introduction

Systematic desensitization

Doing the scary thing in steps

Thorndike

Emphasized the role of experience strengthening or weakening the stimulus-response relationship

The Law of Effect (Revised)

Behaviors that are followed by a “satisfying state of affairs” will become strengthened. Behaviors that are followed by no reward will be weakened.

Classical conditioning

Stimuli then response (naturally occurring behavior)

Operant conditioning

Response then reward

BF Skinner

Created operant learning

Operant conditioning

Reinforcer: any behavioral consequence that strengthens behavior

Must follow the response

Must follow immediately

Must be contingent on the response

Primary (unconditioned) reinforcers

Meet primary, biological needs and are found to be reinforcing for almost everyone

Secondary (conditioned) reinforcers

Have become associated with unconditioned reinforcers

Ex: children learn to associate money with primary needs, but it’s not innate

Reinforcers

Material: toys, etc

Social: positive feedback

Activity: extra playground time

Intrinsic: personal joys/accomplishments that don’t technically involve a reward (puzzles, etc)

Premack principle

An opportunity to engage in more probable responses will reinforce less probable responses

Positive reinforcement

Increases the likelihood of a behavior by adding something

Negative reinforcement

increases the likelihood of a behavior by taking away something

How to reinforce a behavior that an animal doesn’t already do the behavior

Shaping, chaining

Shaping

Reinforcing successive approximations of the desired behavior

Chaining

Reinforcing a sequence of events

Non-contingent reinforcement

Reward is given regardless of whether the behavior happens (Ex: grandma giving cookies)

Extinction

What happens when you stop reinforcing a behavior

Extinction-induced variability

Behavior shows changes in rate or form under extinction

Extinction bursts

Vending machine isn’t responding so you hit the button harder, then shake it, get angrier, etc

Schedules of reinforcement

Continuous reinforcement

Intermittent reinforcement schedules

Ratio vs interval schedules

Ratio schedules (responses)

Fixed ratio

Variable ratio

Interval schedules (time)

Fixed interval

Variable interval

Fixed ratio schedule

Provides reinforcement only after a certain (“fixed”) number of correct responses have been made

Ex: every 3rd time; 10 card punches for 1 free coffee

Variable ration schedule

Provides reinforcement after a variable number of correct responses, usually working out to an average in the long run

Ex: slot machines

Fixed interval schedule

Provides reinforcement for the first response made after a specific time interval

Ex: studies spike around scheduled exams; work 2 weeks for 1 paycheck

Variable interval schedule

Provides reinforcement after a variable amount of time has elapsed

Ex: boss has a meeting every day at 9, then when he walks back to his desk you want to look busy (meeting could end early/late, you want to be busy for a while)

Extinction of responses by schedule

All things being equal, extinction of responses tends to take longer when an individual has been on an intermittent schedule rather than a continuous one

Punishment

Response is followed by an aversive outcome in order to decrease the behavior

Positive or negative

Positive punishment

Something unpleasant added

Negative punishment

Something pleasant removed

Types of punishment

Time out, response cost, verbal reprimand, restitution, institutional overcorrection

Time out

Time out 

Doesn’t work for every kid

Response cost

Have to give back a perviously earned reinforcer

Ex: swear jar out of allowance

Verbal reprimand

Scolding/disappointment

Restitution

Pay back the bad thing you did

Ex: child makes a mess & they have to clean up just that mess

Restitutional overcorrection

Pay back the bad thing you did and then make it better

Ex: child makes a mess and they have to clean not just that mess, but the whole room