Behaviourist Approach - Psychology

Behaviourist Approach

→ The behaviourist approach is related to learning:

1. Believes that people and animals learn to behave in response to their environment.
2. This is done either by stimulus-response or reinforcement.
3. What is important to focus on behaviour not on what is happening in the mind.
4. The process of learning involves simple principles.

→ In the beginning:

• Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, studied the secretion of stomach acids and salivation in dogs as a response to different types of food. He became aware that there are some things that dogs don’t need to learn (ex: they don’t need to learn to salivate whenever they see food), this reflex is innate.

• Pavlov also noticed that his dogs would begin to salivate whenever he entered the room, even when he didn’t bring them food. He showed the existence of the unconditioned response by presenting a dog with a bowl of food and then measuring its salivary secretions. He realised that he had made an important scientific discovery, and he devoted the rest of his career to studying this type of learning.

  

• Salivation, before conditioning, is an unconditioned response (a stimulus-response association doesn’t require learning). An unconditioned stimulus = Food leads to an unconditioned response = Salivation.

• After conditioning, the dog learned an association between the bell and the food and a new behaviour had been learnt. Because this response was learned/conditioned, it’s called a conditioned response. The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus. A conditioned stimulus = Bell leads to a conditioned response = Salivation.

• Classical conditioning - (1) The unconditioned stimulus produces an unconditioned response in an organism (2) A neutral stimulus is associated with an unconditioned stimulus. After conditioning the neutral stimulus will then become known as the conditioned stimulus (3) Now the conditioned stimulus has been associated with the uncondtioned stimulus to create a new conditioned response.

• Sequence and timing - the uncoditioned stimulus usually must be associated with the neutral stimulus on a number of ocsasions for learning to take place. Studies have shown that conditioning is most efficient if the neutral stimulus is presented by between half a second and several seconds before the unconditioned stimulus - depending in the type of response being conditioned. Occasionally, one trial learning can happen. This refers to instances when it’s not necessary for an association to be strengthened over time (such as feeling unable to drive after a very serious traffic accident).

→ Questions:

1. What would happen if pavlov’s dog stopped receiving food when the bell sounded?

The weakening and eventual disappearance of a conditioned response. Some fears however, aren’t extinguished easily, which is mostly due to the fact that organisms are unlikely to be in touch with the conditioned stimuli they’ve learnt to be afraid of.

2. Once conditioning has been extinguished, has it vanished forever?

Not necessarily, because of Spontaneous Recovery. The reappearance of a previously extinguished response after time has elapsed without exposure to the conditioned stimulus. Usually these responses are weaker and more easily extinguished.

3. What is the blocking effect?

The lack of a conditioned response (fear and avoidance) to a conditioned stimulus (noise) if another conditioned stimulus (light) already predicts the onset of a response.

→ Kamin’s Experiment (1969):

• He conducted an experiment with rats. Time 1 = Two groups of rats: Group 1- received training-> a shock every time a light came on. Reaction= fear and avoidance every time the light went on. Group 2- no training. Time 2 = Both groups received training with a combination of light and noise followed by a shock. Time 3 = Both groups received only the tone. Group 2 responded with fear and avoidance to the tone but Group 1 didn’t.

→ Role of Biology in Classical Conditioning:

• John Garcia (1966) and others found it was easier to learn associations that make sense for survival. Food aversions can be acquired even if the unconditioned response (nausea) doesn’t immediately follow the NS (ex: when acquiring food aversions during pregnancy or illness, the body associates nausea with whatever food was eaten).

→ John Watson- The Little Albert experiment:

• Watson and Rayner (1920) conducted a study known as the ‘Little Albert’ experiment. Little Albert was 9 months old. He was described as a remarkably stable infant who rarely displayed fear of anything. Albert wasn’t afraid of animals, including the white laboratory rat. He was, however, afraid of loud noises.