Behaviourism and Classical Conditioning

Vocabulary flashcards covering core concepts of behaviourism, empiricism, key researchers, and classical conditioning terminology.

Behaviourism

A psychological perspective from the nurture side of the nurture vs nature debate that favours an empiricist approach to explaining behaviour.

Nurture side

The side of the nurture vs nature debate that believes environment and experience are more influential in human development than biology.

Empiricist

A view that experience shapes human behaviour rather than biology, believing that humans are born on a blank slate.

Watson

The psychologist who proposed classical conditioning and argued that even complex behaviours were learned from accumulating simple associations.

B.F Skinner

The psychologist who forwarded operant conditioning, argued that free will was an illusion, and believed all human action directly resulted from being rewarded.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process created by pavlov - involves pairing a natural stimulus with a reflexive response.

Pavlov

The researcher who originated classical conditioning while studying dog digestion, observing that dogs salivated when seeing lab technicians who brought them food.

Unconditioned Stimulus

The natural stimulus in classical conditioning, which was food in Pavlov's original discovery with dogs.

Unconditioned Response

The reflex response in classical conditioning, which was salivation in Pavlov's original discovery with dogs.