Title: PSY 451A Learning and Memory
1PSY 451A Learning and Memory
- Introduction and syllabus
- Questions and discussion
- The curious case of neuromarketing
- Attention and eye-movement measures
- fMRI The medial prefrontal cortex and liking
- EEG studies
- Measures of emotion
- Can we be made, by environmental cues alone, to
do something we dont really want to do?
2Explanation in science and human behavior
- What is an explanation?
- Why do we want to understand?
- Clive Wearing
3Science and human behavior
- Aquinas (1225 - 1274) and Newton (1642 -1727)
Two-fold truth - The demise of vitalism
- The success of science spreads
4Determinism vs. free will
- To what extent is behavior lawful?
- Clearly, some thoughts and behaviors are
influenced by genetic and environmental
factorsat least some of the time. - Milgrams obedience studies (1963, 1974)
- Male violence (Caspi et al., 2002)
- Advertising (eg. Smith Engel, 1968)
- Sexual attraction (eg. Dutton Aron, 1974)
- Neural determinism
5What is an explanation?
- Explanation connects two variables
- Causes and effects
- Necessary causes vs. sufficient causes
- In scientific explanations, causes
- are external to effects
- initiate processes leading to effects
- are necessary under the circumstances
- are sufficient under the circumstances
- can be generalized as laws or explanations
6Teleological explanations
- Teleological explanations add cognitive variables
- Purpose
- Belief
- Expectation
- Deliberation
7Forming explanations
- Forming hypotheses
- Malaria is caused by bad air.
- Testing hypotheses
- Seeking confirming data
- Seeking disconfirming data
- The 2 x 2 contingency table
- Choosing explanations
8Why do we want to understand?
- So we can intervene Control
- So we can feel better Retrospective control
- So we can satisfy our values
- But notice that we can predict and control some
things without being able to explain them.
9Roots of learning theory
- Philosophical roots
- Empiricism and rationalism
- Associationism
- Biological roots
- Physiology
- Evolutionary theory
- Challenges to learning theory
10Philosophical history of learning theory
- Empiricism and the Ionian cosmologists
- Rationalism and the Platonic idealists
- Aristotle and controlled observation
- Augustine of Hippo (354-430) and the Patristics
11And more philosophical history
- Ibn Sina (Avicenna) (980-1037)
- Ibn Rushd (Averroes) (1126-1198)
- Rene Descartes (1596-1650), centralized
authority, and a new dualism Interactionism - Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) Humans as machines and
laws of the mind Endeavors - Locke (1632-1704), the demise of the Stuarts, and
the tabula rasa
12The rise of associationism John Stuart Mill
(1806-1873)
- The first four laws of association
- 1. Temporal contiguity
- 2. Repetition or exercise
- 3. Spatial contiguity
- 4. Intensity of sensations
- continued...
13The rise of associationism Mill
- The last four laws of association
- 5. Similarity of sensations
- 6. Recency of pairing of sensations
- 7. Context complexity
- 8. Distinctiveness of association
14Biological bases of learning theory
- Empirical challenges to Descartes
- Swammerdam (1637-1680) and Galvani
- The biological basis of reflex Helmholtz
- Reflexes in the mind Sechenov
- The influence of DarwinRandom variation, natural
selection, and species continuity - Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) and the evolution of
intelligence - PavlovAssociationThorndikeEvolution
15Challenges to learning theory
- Representations
- Insight
- Preparedness
- The substitutability test
- Ethology Lorenz and Wilson
- Birdsong learning and the critical period
- Nest-provisioning in the digger wasp
- Navigation in bees
16The substitutability test
Substitutable Non-substitutable
Tone
Strength of Response
Taste
Taste
Tone
Shock Food Shock Food
17Ibn-Sinas faculty psychology
- A hierarchy of faculties
- Vegetative soul Faculties of reproduction,
growth, and nourishment - Sensitive soul Faculties of sensation, common
sense, retentive imagination, combination,
creativity, estimation, memory, and recollection,
avoidance of pain, approach to pleasure - Rational soul Faculties of practical intellect
and contemplative intellect