124210
Description
Flashcards by Leanne McMahon, updated more than 1 year ago
|
Created by Leanne McMahon
over 11 years ago
|
|
| Question | Answer |
| Criticised for ignoring role of cognition and other internal processes in human behaviour. | Behaviourism is important because it is hugely influential with explanatory power. It has practical applications such as systematic desensitisation. |
| Classical Conditioning. A form of learning based on innate reflexes, first developed in experiments carried out on dogs by Pavlov. It involves a neutral stimulus being paired with an unconditional stimulus which then elicits an unconditional response. | For example Bell + Food = Salivation, The neutral stimulus then becomes a conditional stimulus triggering the conditional response of salivation. A human example of this is Watsons Little Albert experiment. This is therefor a comparative approach. |
| Learning is described as an S-R association being formed automatically when the pairing of the NS and UCS occurs close together in time. This can also be explained in terms of expectancy i.e the bell leads to the expectancy of food thus triggering reflex salivation. | This is important because it contributes to our understanding of learning, and in particualr how it can happen without awareness to conscious intention to learn. It was used by Watson to challenge the value of interospection and so changed the emphasis of psychology from subjective to one of objective measurable data (behaviour) and the influence of the environment on learning. It can be used in therapy such as systematic desensitization. |
| Operant Conditioning. Pioneered by Skinner who believed that learning is the result of an association between behaviour and consequence. The Law of Effect states positive consequences of behaviour will reinforce that behaviour, e.g. rats and levering pressing for food leading to more lever pressing. | This is known as positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement is when the behaviour stops a negative experience e.g. lever pressing stopping an electric shock. Punishment is when behaviour leads to an aversive out come or something pleasant being removed for example smacking a child or taking a toy away in response to bad behaviour. |
| Behaviour can be shaped by reinforcing successive approximations of what is required. Skinners see's learning as evolution but on the timescale of an individuals lifespan. This apporach has been criticised for ignoring the role of cognitive processes. | Operant Conditioning is important because Skinners experiments lead to the development of techniques which could be used for behaviour modification in classrooms e.g. reinforcing good behaviour in the classroom by use of tokens or praise later to be exchanged for pleasant activites such as listening to music. |
| Category Learning. An example of the cognitive approach to learning, see's learning as information processing. It proposes that humans and non-human animals learn general relationships i.e. concepts. This has been demonstrated in dolphin. | Bruner et al theorized that hypothesis testing underlay category learning and that people used different strategies to category learn e.g. successive scanning, testing one category at a time, and conservative focusing, trying to eliminate classes of hypothesis; the latter strategy is faster. He found that more meaningful material interfered with the underlying processes as a result of 'real world' knowledge. |
| However Murphy and Allopenna, using meaningful material, found that relevant background knowledge was used to link attributes thematically. Past experience is not always reliable (the induction problem) which challenges the idea of hypothesis testing. An alternative, produced by Fodor, is that knowledge of categories is not learned but innate. | However, this is an extreme view, and can be criticised on the basis that knowledge develops and changes, so learning must be involved. However, people may learn categories in ways rather than hypothesis testing.This is important because it emphasizes the role of cognitive processes in learning and demonstrating the influence of past experience. It also raises questions about the extent to which categories must be learned, and therefore suggests that there may be different aspects to learning. |
| Sociocultural Perspective. This perspective proposes that learning always involves the use of cultural tools i.e.physical tools (e.g. computers) or psychological tools (e.g. language). Learning is embedded in interpersonal relationships, which are in turn embedded in social and cultural systems. It focuses on the ways in which contexts provide or constrain learning opportunities, and gives central importance to the role of culture. | Mediated action is the interplay between learner and tools. Appropriation refers to 'making tools your own', they become part of how we understand the world, act on it and interact with others. Through enculturation we learn specific cultural practices and learn to behave in ways consistent with our culture. |
| Complex interrealtionships exists between tools and power and authority, in terms of access, opportunity and equity, e.g. Keoghs study of boys and girls on computers, finding boys dominated. Social interaction is seen as central to learning, whereby meaning is jointly constructed by learners as demonstrated by Mercer's analysis of classroom interaction investigating how childrens interaction is constructed through talk. | This approach is important because it offers an alternative view of learning to the offered by say conditioning theory, and emphasizes the practical applications and educational intervention. |
| Behaviourism. Approach initially proposed by Watson who claimed introspection was unscientific. | He believed objective scientific methods should be used in the field of psychology and that more focus should be given to environmental factors. As mental states are not observable then only behaviour could be used to study psychology. |
| Basic principles were established through studying simpler organisms such as rats, which could then be extrapolated to humans, thus making it a comparitive approach. | He focused on learning in terms of classical and instrumental/operant condtioning and his most famous study was that of Little Albert. |
Want to create your own Flashcards for free with GoConqr? Learn more.