The Psychology of Learning and Behavior

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The Psychology of Learning and Behavior

• Chapter 1

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Learning

• Process- change that occurs as a result of an
  organisms experience.
• Acquisition phase of acquiring a new skill.
• Product- long-term changes in an individuals
  behavior that result from a learning experience.
• Performance- stable behavioral patterns or
  steady-state behavioral occur following a
  period of acquisition.

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Scientific Approach to the Study of Behavior

• What is science?
• Methods and procedures used to investigate a
  phenomenon Scientific Method
• Search for general principals or laws with wide
  applicability.

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Scientific Laws

• forcemass x acceleration
• d16t2

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Laws of Behavior

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Science of Behavior

• Learning - acquisition, maintenance, and change
  of an organisms behavior as a result of lifetime
  events.
• Control- humans are concerned with regulating the
  behavior of others.
• Behavior Theory- all behavior is due to complex
  interactions between genetic influence and
  environmental experience.

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Experimental Analysis of Behavior

• A natural science approach to understanding
  behavior regulation (determinism)
• Controlling and changing the factors affecting
  the behavior of organisms.
• Specifying the basic processes and principles the
  regulate behavior.
• Experiments to test these notions.

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Behavioral Analysis

• General Scientific Approach
• Assumptions about how to study behavior
• Techniques to carry out the analysis
• A systematic body of knowledge
• Practical implications for society and culture

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Behavior Analysis

• A comprehensive approach to study of the behavior
  of organisms
• Discovery of laws and principals that govern
  behavior.
• Extension of these principals across species
  (generality).
• Development of an applied technology.

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Applied Behavioral Analysis

• Use of behavioral principals to solve practical
  problems.
• Too many glasses
• Use of seats belts
• Speeding
• Stopping at red lights

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Evolution of Conditioning

• Natural selection favored individuals whose
  behavior could be conditioned.
• Capacity for conditioning is inherited.
• Response selection by consequences.
• Operant behavior naturally varies in form and
  frequency

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Culture and Behavior Analysis

• Contemporary behavior analysis behavior of
  individuals to
• ideals and values of society
• regulation of human conduct
• individual behavior is acquired, maintained, and
  changed through interactions with others

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Fundamental Processes of Learning

• Classical Conditioning
• Reflexes, elicited behavior, environmental events
  acquire control of behavior
• Operant Conditioning
• More complex behaviors, emitted, modified by
  consequences
• Social Learning
• Learning from observations

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Historical Background

• Nativist (nature) vs Empericist (nuture)
• Are a persons characteristics mostly inborn or
  learned?

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Historical Background

• Plato (427-347)
• Plato was chiefly interested in moral philosophy
  and despised natural philosophy (that is,
  science) as an inferior and unworthy sort of
  knowledge.
• Believed we are born with complete knowledge
  within our soul.
• Learning a process of inner reflection to
  discover the knowledge within us.

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History

• Aristole (384-322)
• Knowledge acquired through experience.
• Four Laws of Association
• Law of similarity
• Law of Contrast
• Law of Contiguity
• Law of Frequency

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History

• Descartes- (1596-1650)
• Mind body dualism
• Reflexes and behavior controlled by the mind.
• Dualistic notion of human behavior suggested at
  least some components of behavior could be
  scientifically investigated.

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British Empiricists

• Almost all knowledge is a function of experience
• John Locke (1632-1704) tabula rasa
• John Locke was an Oxford scholar, medical
  researcher and physician, political operative,
  and economist, as well as being one of the great
  philosophers of the late seventeenth and early
  eighteenth century. His monumental Essay
  Concerning Human Understanding aims to determine
  the limits of human understanding.

• In regard to natural substances we can know only
  the appearances and not the underlying realities
  which produce those appearances.

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Structuralism

• Structure of mind can be assessed by
  identification of basic elements through logical
  reasoning and subjective examination of our own
  experiences.
• Introspection- describe conscious thoughts,
  emotions, sensory experiences
• Edward Titchener (1867-1927)

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Functionalism

• William James (1842-1910)
• Psychology study of adaptive processes

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B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

• American psychologist B. F.Skinner became famous
  for his pioneering research on learning and
  behavior. During his 60-year career, Skinner
  discovered important principles of
  operant conditioning, a type of learning that
  involves reinforcement and punishment.
  A strict behaviorist, Skinner believed that
  operant conditioning could explain even the most
  complex of human behaviors.

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Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

• Russian physiologist and Nobel laureate, best
  known for his studies of reflex behavior. He was
  born in Ryazan', and educated at the University
  of Saint Petersburg and at the Military Medical
  Academy, St. Petersburg from 1884 to 1886 he
  studied in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) and
  Leipzig, Germany. Before the Russian Revolution
  he served as director of the department of
  physiology at the Institute of Experimental
  Medicine (part of the present Academy of Medical
  Sciences), St. Petersburg, and professor of
  medicine at the Military Medical Academy. In
  spite of his opposition to Communism, Pavlov
  was allowed to continue his research in a
  laboratory built by the Soviet Government in
  1935. Pavlov is noted for his pioneer work in the
  physiology of the heart, nervous system, and
  digestive system. His most famous experiments,
  begun in 1889, demonstrated the conditioned and
  unconditioned reflexes in dogs, and they had an
  influence on the development of

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Pavlov

• Making Her Salivate for You

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John Watson (1878-1958)

• American psychologist, born in Greenville,
  South Carolina, and educated at Furman
  University and the University of Chicago. From
  1908 to 1920 he was professor of psychology and
  director of the psychological laboratory at
  Johns Hopkins University. Watson is noted as
  the founder and leading exponent of the school of
  psychology known as behaviorism, which restricts
  psychology to the study of objectively observable
  behavior and explains behavior in terms of
  stimulus and response. His writings include
  Animal Education (1903), Behavior (1914),
  Behaviorism (1925 revised ed., 1930), and
  Psychological Care of Infant and Child (1928).

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Watson
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Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

• American psychologist and educator, born in
  Williamsburg, Massachusetts, and educated at
  Wesleyan, Harvard, and Columbia universities.
  Thorndike joined the psychology faculty at
  Teachers College of Columbia University in
  1899, where he served as adjunct professor of
  educational psychology from 1901 to 1904 and as
  professor of psychology from 1904 until his
  retirement in 1940. From 1922 to 1940 he also
  was director of the psychology division of the
  Institute of Educational Research at Teachers
  College.
• By using trial-and-error experiments with
  animals, Thorndike formulated his so-called law
  of effectthe more satisfying the result of a
  particular action, the better that action is
  learnedand applied it to the development of
  special teaching techniques for use in the
  classroom. He is particularly known for his
  construction of various intelligence and aptitude
  tests and for his repudiation of the belief that
  such primarily intellectual subjects as languages
  and mathematics discipline the mind.

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Thorndike

• Thorndike's learning theory can be summarized as
  follows
• The law of effect - responses followed by a
  reward will strengthen the response
• The law of readiness - chaining a discrete
  responses to achieve a goal
• The law of exercise - associations are
  strengthened with practice, weakened without it,
  and can be diminished with failure or punishment.

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Assumptions of a Science of Behavior

• Determinism
• Behavior is lawful

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Scientific Theories

• Causality- relationship between cause and effect
• Independent variable- cause
• Dependent variable- effect
• Intervening variable- theoretical concepts
• Syntax- rules for measurement and relationship

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Judging Scientific Theories

• Testability (falsifiability)
• Simplicity
• Generality
• Fruitfulness
• Agreement with the data

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Review of Research Methods

• Anecdotes or Case Histories
• Biased sample
• Observational Techniques
• Experimental Techniques

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Behaviorism versus Cognitive

• Heavy reliance on non-human subjects
• Emphasis on external events
• Reluctance to speculate about processes inside
  the organism

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Use of Animal Subjects

• Subject expectancy reduced
• Control of immediate and past history
• Convenience

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Criticisms and Concerns

• Language and other skills
• Generality
• Ethics

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External Events

• Radical Behaviorism/Contemporary behavior
  analysis
• The private world- thinking and feeling are
  activities of the organism they are behaviors not
  the cause of behavior.
• thinking - low probability of action, weak
  control of behavior by a stimulus.
• covert behavior increases the effectiveness of
  practical action
• private behavior regulated by specific features
  of the environment.
• Self-reports of feelings and other covert
  behavior such as intentions are unreliable.

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Determinism

• Determinism- philosophical position all events of
  the world result from physical causes that can be
  discovered.
• Free Will- nonphysical entity can direct human
  behavior.