Learning Approach - The behaviourist approach

what is the behaviourist approach

a way of explaining behaviour in terms of what is observable in terms of learning

what to behaviorist believe about behaviour

behaviour is learned

what is the behaviourist approach interested in

observing behaviour that can be measured

What do behaviorist assume about babies

they describe a baby’s mind as a blank slate that is written on by experiences

why did behaviorist use animals to replace humans as experimental subjects

following Darwin - behaviourist suggested that the basic processes of learning are the same for all species.

who is john B Watson and what did he add to the assumptions of behavioursit

an early behaviorist

who rejected introspection because it involved too many concepts that are vague and difficult to measure

so they try to maintain objectivity within the research - lab studies

what are the two different ways of learning identified by behaviourist?

operant conditioning

classical conditioning

What is classical conditioning ?

This is learning by association and occurs when two stimuli’s are repeatedly paired together

what is the equation for classical conditioning

unconditioned stimuli-=unconditioned response

natural stimuli = unconditioned response

unconditioned stimuli + unconditioned response = unconditioned response

conditioned stimuli = conditioned response

what did Ian Pavlov demonstrate ?

showed how dogs could be conditioned to salivate to the sound of a bell.

if that sound was repeatedly presented at the same time as the food they were given then the dogs would associate the bell (stimulus) with food. = would produce the salivation response

showing that a neutral stimulus = bell can elicit a new response through association

What did B.F Skinner suggest ?

that learning is an active process whereby humans and animals operate on their environment behavior is shaped by experiences

what is positive reinforcement?

is receiving a reward when a certain behaviour is performed

this could be praise

what is negative reinforcement ?

occurs when an animal avoids something unpleasant the outcome is a positive experience - handing in an essay to not get told off

what is punishment ?

it is an unpleasant consequence of a behaviour

what do both positive and negative behaviour have in come

they increase the likelihood of the behaviour while punishment decreases the likelihood of a behaviour

exlpain the Skinner box experiment A

conducted an experiment with rat and pigeons in a specially designed cage known as skinner’s box

every time the rat activated a lever (pecked disc in the case of a pigeon ) within the box it was rewarded with a food pellet

from then on the animal would continue to perform this behaviour

explain skinners box B

Skinner showed how rats and pigeons could be conditioned to perform the same behaviour to avoid unpleasant shock.