Chapter 1: Introduction

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Chapter 1 Introduction Historical Developments
in the study of the Mind

• Learning theory can trace its roots to the
  philosophy of Rene Descartes (1596-1650).
• Cartesian Dualism
•  Two classes of human behavior
• Involuntary (Body)
• Voluntary (Mind)

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More Historical developments

• Nativism vs. Empiricism
• Does this argument sound familiar?
• Nature/Nurture argument
• Human behaviors as a result of Nature?
• Human behaviors as result of Nurture?
• Are these concepts every truly separate?
• Always an interaction of nature and nurture

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More Historical antecedents

• Descartes believed that the mind did not function
  in an orderly and predictable manner.
• To maintain Free will?
• The Empiricists disagreed.
• Hobbes the principle of hedonism
• People do things in the pursuit of pleasure and
  avoidance of pain.

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• Empiricists concept of association
• Believed all contents of the mind were learned
• attempted to explain how
• knowledge was derived through the association of
  sensory stimuli.
• Led to the Four Tenets of Association Theory

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Four Tenets of Association Theory

• 1) Temporal Contiguity
• We are better able to associate stimuli that
  occur close together in time.
• 2) Intensity
• More intense stimuli are more easily associated.
  
• 3) Frequency
• The more often we are presented with stimuli
  increases their ability to be learned.
• 4) Similarity
• Some things seem to belong together

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• The Dawn of the Modern Era
• The Darwinian Revolution
• Comparative Cognition and the Evolution of
  Intelligence
• First lets discuss the theory of evolution

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Theory of Evolution

• Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
• Origin of Species (1859)
• There is diversity in living things even within a
  species
• We don't all look alike
• We don't all behave alike
• Those traits can be passed on from parent to
  offspring
• Darwin didn't know how.
• Mendel did Genes
• There is a struggle to survive
• Many organism mass produce offspring and few make
  it.
• There is fairly high infant mortality for humans
  as well in some places

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Theory of Evolution

• Organisms that are best suited to their
  environment have a survival advantage
• Doesn't necessarily mean the strongest
• At times it might be good to be small and quiet
  (early mammals)
• Survival of the fittest
• Those with a survival advantage will produce more
  offspring and pass their traits on to those
  offspring, thus the population will begin to have
  those particular traits
• Natural selection
• Already known from "unnatural selection" breeding
  techniques
• Large boar with large sow large piglet.

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Influence of Darwin on Psychology

• Darwin argued that human intelligence evolved
  from lower organisms.
• The human mind is a product of evolution.
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• George Romanes (1848-1894)
• Animal Intelligence
• tended to evaluate how an animal behaved
  according to how he would have behaved in a
  similar situation
• Freeing trapped ants
• Anthropomorphism?
• Not good science

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• C. Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936) was against
  flippantly attributing human abilities to
  animals.
• Morgans canon
• in no case may we interpret an action as the
  outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical
  faculty if it can be interpreted as the outcome
  of the exercise of one which stands lower in the
  psychological scale.
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Animal Models

• Darwins ideas allowed for the use of animal
  models
• Modern Psychology, Neuroscience, and Medical
  Research relies heavily on animal models.
• Why?

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• Methodological aspects of the study of learning
• Learning is an Experimental Science
• What is the difference between an experimental
  approach and an observational approach to
  science?
• Why emphasize experimentation in learning
  research?
• Observation alone cannot tell us if a behavior is
  learned.
• There are always alternative explanations that
  are not ruled out.
• Put a rat in an operant chamber and provide a
  pellet of food for every lever press.
• I see that lever pressing goes up.
• Conclude that reward increases behavior?
• Known as the learning performance distinction 

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• The learning and Performance distinction.
• There can be many reasons for changes in
  behavior, that are unrelated to learning. 
• Motivation
• Fatigue
• We must rule out these alternative explanations
  with control groups
• Also - sometimes learning can occur without an
  immediate change in performance.
• Childs knowledge of driving?
• Tolman and Honzik (1930)

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HNR Hungry not Rewarded, HR Hungry Rewarded,
HNR-R, Hungry not Rewarded until day 11
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• The General-Process Approach to the Study of
  Learning
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• Thus, comparative psychologists tend to study
  things using simple preparations, and subjects
  that are cheap, and cooperative.
• Operant chambers
• Rats
• pigeons