cognitive approach - Classical + operant conditioning

Behaviourism definition

• a psychological approach that focuses on studying and understanding human and animal behaviour through observable actions, rather than internal mental states like thoughts or emotions.

• emphasises role of environment​

• sees learning as a change in behaviour that occurs in response to external stimuli.​

Classical conditioning definition

a learning process where an individual forms an association between a previously neutral stimulus and an unconditional stimulus.

stimulus definition

any event or situation that evokes a response

Stages of classical conditioning

• 1. Before Conditioning

• UCS→UCR

• NS → No response

• 2. During conditioning

• UCS + NS → UCR

• 3. After conditioning

• CS → CR

UCS,CS,CR,NS definitions

• unconditioned stimulus - A stimulus that prompts a natural, unlearned response.

• conditioned stimulus - A stimulus that used to be neutral. It became associated with a response because it was connected to an unconditioned stimulus.

• conditioned response - A response learned by pairing a neutral and an unconditioned stimulus.

• neutral stimulus - A stimulus in the environment that does not lead to any natural response.

Applications of Classical conditioning

• behavioural therapy - used to treat phobias through systematic desensitisation

• animal training -teaching animals to associate specific signals with awards

Extinction definition

when a learned conditioned response (CR) gradually weakens and eventually disappears because the conditioned stimulus (CS) is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus (US) that originally triggered it.

Steps in behavioural therapy

• 1. patient is taught how to relax muscles completely

• 2. therapist and patient together construct a desensitisation hierarchy which is a series of imagined scenes, each one causing more anxiety

• patient gradually works their way through the scenes either in vitro or vivo

eventually patient is exposed to fear whilst engaging in relaxation → overcomes the feared situation

vivo vs vitro behavioural therapy

• vitro: by visualising the events whilst engaging in the relaxation response

• vivo: by actually experiencing the events. ​

Operant conditioning definition

a learning process where the likelihood of a behaviour is influenced by it’s consequences.

positive + negative reinforcement definitions

• reinforcement - encourages a behaviour

• positive - adding a pleasant stimulus to encourage behaviour

• negative - removing an unplesant stimulus in order to encourage behaviour

positive + negative punishment definitions

• punishment - decreases the likelihood of behaviour

• positive - adding an unpleasant stimulus to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour

• negative - removing a positive stimulus to decrease the likelihood of a behaviour

Negative reinforcement in phobias

avoid unconditioned stimulus → Fear

Skinners rats procedure - positive reinforcement

• placed a hungry rat in a box

• initially the rat accidently pressed the lever causing a food pellet to drop

• after several trials the rat quickly learned to deliberately press the lever for food

skinners rats procedure - negative reinforcement

• placed a rat in a box with an electrified floor

• as the rat explored it accidently pressed the lever which switched off the current

• After several trials, the rat quickly learned to press the lever as soon as it was placed in the box.

how did Skinners rats show operant conditioning

• positive reinforcement - showed how how consistent reinforcement can shape behavior through learned associations.

• negative reinforcement - The removal of the unpleasant stimulus (the shock) reinforced the lever-pressing behavior, making it more likely to occur again.