Behaviourist approach

 Behaviorist assumptions:  

• Behavior should be observable and measurable. (Moving away from William Wundt).  

• Animal behavior is comparable to human behavior. 

• All behavior learned is from the environment.  

Classical conditioning – Ivan Pavlov: 

Aim of study. 

Process of classical conditioning. 

C.C. is learning through association. 

He wanted to see if he could associate dog food with a bell to see if dogs would salivate from the sound of the bell alone.  

• Neutral stimulus (the bell) - It doesn't produce a response. 

• Unconditioned stimulus (when a dog is presented with food,  

• it naturally salivates. It doesn't need to learn this it is an Unconditioned response. 

• N.S. and the U.S. are associated together 

• When this happens, it leads to the same response as before (salvation) unconditioned response. 

After lots of repeated pairings the unconditioned stimulus (food) is removed. 

•  You are left with the bell which because of the previous pairing is no longer a neutral stimulus but a conditioned stimulus. It leads to a (salivation from the dog) conditioned response.  

Other key concepts: 

Generalization:  

Discrimination: 

Extinction:  

Spontaneous recovery: 

When the conditioned stimulus (bell) could be generalized to other sounds. (The volume or tone could change and still produce salivation).  

Where the sound becomes too different from the original bell sound that no salivation occurs. 

The gradual weakening of a conditioned response.  

If the conditioned stimulus continues to be presented but the real unconditioned stimulus never appears, the association eventually weakens and becomes extinct. 

Sudden display of behavior that was thought to be extinct.  

What is Operant conditioning? 

Learning through consequences.  

What is reinforcement?  

What is punishment? 

Doing something that increases the likelihood of a particular behavior being repeated.  

It strengthens the behavior. 

A consequence that decreases the likelihood of a particular behavior being repeated. 

It weakens behavior. 

Skinner box.  

Positive reinforcement version: 

Punishment version: 

When the rat was placed in the box, it moved around and would accidentally press the lever, releasing a food pellet. The rat learned the behavior of pushing the lever because of the reward. The positive reinforcement of the food pellet. This strengthened the behavior. 

If the rat pressed the lever, they would receive an electric shock this would decrease the behavior.  

Types of reinforcement: 

Positive and negative. 

Both make you more likely to repeat behavior. 

Positive means to add something i.e. praise a sticker etc. 

Negative means to take something away i.e. taking away the threat of a detention.  

Types of punishment: 

Positive and negative. 

Both make you less likely to repeat behavior.  

Positive – add something i.e. bad phone call home or tell someone off in front of people.  

Negative – take something away i.e. take away break or lunch time.  

Schedules of reinforcement:  

Extinction: 

Example of extinction:  

Continuous reinforcement: 

Partial reinforcement: 

Can have an impact on how resistant a behavior is to being extinguished. 

When the behavior that was reinforced now stops being reinforced this makes it less likely that the behavior will be repeated and may eventually cease to continue.  

I.e. if your teacher suddenly stops giving you those gold stickers then you might be tempted to put in so much effort with your homework and even stop handing it in on time. 

When behavior is reinforced every time, it occurs.  

Problem – Eventually over time the reinforcement has less of an impact 

When behavior is reinforced some of the time. 

More resistant to extinction. 

 There are four types of P.R.: