A-Level Psychology key content part 1

what is the first assumption of the learning process

all behaviour is learned

what is the second assumption of the learning process

learning of behaviour can be understood by the principle of modelling and conditioning

what is the third assumption of the learning process

what is learned can be unlearnt using the same ideology

what is the fourth assumption of the learning process

the laws can be applied to human or non-human behavior

what is the fifth assumption of the learning process

doesn’t focus on the mind and only on observable actions

what are the 3 types of learning

classical conditioning, operant conditioning and social learning

what is classical conditioning

learning via association ( 1 or more objects which are associated with another object)

what is operant conditioning

learning via reinforcements (e.g. experiences) such as getting punished when doing something wrong

what is social learning

learning from watching and observing others as well as learning from influential role models e.g parents

what are the 2 behaviourist learning approaches

classical conditioning and operant conditioning

where did Pavlov get the idea to conduct the classical conditioning experiment

saw a technician feeding a dog and salivating

what was the aim of the experiment

see if another object that is associated with eating could trigger the salivating

what did he do to test this theory and what did this mean

played the sound of a bell and saw the dog didn’t salivate meaning the bell is a neutral stimulus

what did he do after finding the neutral stimulus

played the bell when the food was presented which created an association between the bell and food

what did the bell ringing then do to the dog once the association was created

it made the dog start to salivate as it believed that when the bell rung, the food would be served

if someone wanted to un-condition the dogs response to the bell and food what could they do

ring the bell and not serve the food

what is an unconditioned stimulus

something that naturally triggers a reflexive response without prior learning or conditioning

what is an unconditioned response

an automatic response to a stimulus that occurs naturally

what is a neutral stimulus

an element in the environment that before conditioning doesn’t influence any specific automatic response

what is a conditioned stimulus

a previous neutral stimulus that has been conditioned to trigger a response, needs to be conditioned with an unconditioned stimulus first

what was the unconditioned stimulus in pavlov’s experiment

food

what was the unconditioned response in pavlov’s experiment

salivating

what was the neutral stimulus in Pavlov’s experiment

the bell

what was the conditioned stimulus after Pavlov’s experiment was done

the bell

what was the conditioned response after Pavlov’s experiment

salivating when the bell rung

operant conditioning was discovered by who

Bf Skinner

what did skinner believe

organisms spontaneously produce different behaviours which produce consequences

what is positive reinforcement

when a behaviour results in a pleasurable consequence then it will likely be repeated

what is negative reinforcement

when behaviour results in an unpleasurable consequence it is unlikely to be repeated

what is punishment

if behaviour results in an unpleasant consequence it is unlikely to be repeated