Study Guide Learning Motivation QUIZ ONE Lecture One Behaviorism Nativism Behavioral Approach o An approach to psychology and the field of learning that emphasizes the study of external events observable stimuli and responses and avoids speculation about processes inside the organism o Hypothesis that some ideas are innate and don t depend on an individual s past experience o Changed from conceptual to methodological o Five parts old version seven parts new version Public Observation Behaviors must be publically observable Need a way to quantify it Measurement Replication Verification Communication Needs to produce same behavior in the same subject more than once Need to be able to produce the same behavior in a DIFFERENT subject Need to tell other people your findings Focus on external events Look at environment to see if the environment was a trigger for the behavior or not Small behavioral units Complex behaviors broken down to understand environmental triggers Aristotle o Proposed principles of association 3 Association of contiguity Events occur close in time and space the closer they are the more likely they ll be associated with each other Association of contrast Easier to make an association if the events are contrasts Association of similarity Easier to make an association if the events are similar o Suggested NOT proposed frequency of events Empiricists o Picked up Aristotle s principles primary o Made their own secondary Length of time principle Important for events to keep occurring together the longer they coexist the stronger the association The more intense the events the more likely they ll be associated with each Principle of liveliness other Frequency principle Principle of Recency The more frequent events occur the more an association will form Tendency to link things with more recent events Must be free from other strong associations to form new ones o Difference between contiguity recency Contiguity more development learning process Recency more from the point of view of the organism Darwin offspring o Thought behavior is something that develops and function is to survive adapt o If the environment stays the same the survival behaviors will be passed down to surviving o Behavior is in response to environmental pressures o Hedonistic All species seek out pleasurable events and avoid negative events Enhances survival All species do this proposed that all species can learn Proposed animals and humans differ by degrees where at one end it s an earthworm and the other end it s a human Lecture Two Mechanism of Behavioral Change o Maturation Behavior that s changing because of time passing behavior could be slowing down stopping increasing decreasing etc Could be physical physiological psychological etc Cookie example If there s a cookie on the table the child is too small to reach it but when he grows he s able to reach the cookie Reflex An innate movement that can be reliably elicited by presenting the appropriate stimulus Doesn t require higher level processing or thinking Infant examples Animal examples o Head Turn Reflex Child turns head to the side that has been stimulated Looking for nipple disappears after 6 months o Suckling reflex Infant will suckle anything in mouth triggers baby to eat Disappears within the first year o Grasping reflex If you put finger or anything in palm of child s hand they ll grab onto it Grab and hold onto their caregivers first year it disappears o Babbling Start of verbalizing and vocalizing Deaf babies with babble at same approximate age but when the maturation stage ends they stop babbling o Courting mating care giving o Modal action patterns Purely maturational specific behaviors that are done in a particular sequence in reaction to some kind of stimulus called the releasing stimulus o Herring gall bird with red spot Chicks peck at red spot of beak and the parent regurgitates the food and feeds the chicks releasing stimulus for the parent was the pecking o Konrad Lorenz Ducklings imprinted on Lorenz Imprinting Critical period in birds esp ducks where they will bond imprint on another object once they hatch Before that window 16 24 hours after hatching they can t imprint and after they can t bond Will bond to whatever is moving o Motivation Temporary change in behavior that result from temporary changes from Purely maturational color object or movement is the critical trigger for the behavior external or internal states Internal states A drive may produce a tension or need that then motivates behavior o Example hunger and thirst not learning but simply responding to a motivational change o Example If you change study habits or the intensity increases closer to an exam not learning just due to motivation Some behaviors can be combination of learned processes and maturation motivation BUT if you can explain it completely by maturation or motivation then there is no learning involved o Learning Relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience with the environment that cannot be solely explained by maturation motivation or reflexes Relatively permanent because if the environment changes then your behavior changes MUST have environmental stimulus Nonassociative Learning Often doesn t involve higher level processing o Both processes develop through repeated stimulation contact with environment Both do NOT deal with expectations you DON T make a conscious effort to do either o Habituation Decrease in behavior due to repeated stimulation Example Habituating to your chair decrease in fidgeting might mean you ve Tend to see habituation with less intense stimuli less intense stimuli more likely habituated to trigger habituation process Everyday things that aren t life threatening won t require constant alertness Highly stimulus specific if the stimulus changes in any way you dishabituate and Example emergency vehicle sounds used to have the same siren until people habituated to the noise then they changed them Dishabituation When we see a return of the behavior when the stimulus hasn t start reacting again changed Cumulative effect the more exposure you have to a stimulus the longer the repetition of exposure the more likely habituation will last and carry over to subsequent days o Example Perfume soaps shampoos you quickly habituate and put more on each day o Behavioral Sensitization An Increase in behavior due to repeated stimulus Can be due to good events happiness or annoyance frustration etc Behavior increases