Abigail Lewis October 3rd 2014 Cognitive Psychology Some people rebelled against Skinner s theory that you are just a collection of behaviors Learning the gaining of information Skinner would argue against this Skinner learning not inside mind 2 complaints It is too subjective inside the subject person mind Wants to be as objective as possible It is unnecessary to go inside the mind How do we know anyone ever learns anything It is always obvious in be havior EX getting driver s license can t just tell highway department you want to drive they demand you behave in 2 ways multiple choice test driving test must respond accurately to their stimulus EX this class can t just call Dr Watson and tell him to put A in grade book just because must respond accurately on the 50 stimulus Then get a grade according to this Skinner s definition of Learning a more or less permanent change in be havior as a result of stimulus experience Permanent some changes are not permanent changes sleeping eating Stimulus Experience not all are bc of this brain damage produces per manent changes without S E Another example maturing this is usu ally not learned Mind it is essential for psychology to hide the mind inside a big black box and ignore it from this point forward takes this from architecture blue print to create power plant there is a generator inside just need to know how big it is don t need to un derstand it Just draw big black box of the generator Just big black box between stimuli and responses The mind is no longer present in psychology contradictory because psychology means to study the mind This kind of thinking used to dominate psychology still present but not as much Psychologist looked at situation and said American psychology has lost its mind Factually true literally threw away the mind in the big black box Meant that this is crazy to have a study of the mind that doesn t study the mind These psychologists believed this insisted we must look inside the mind E C Tolman needed to be objective about subjective life needed imperial demonstration to show this Used a Complex Maze 2 principle locations start box goal box in be tween there is a sequence of pathways dead ends etc Abigail Lewis October 3rd 2014 This procedure 2 groups of rats measure the of errors in Phase 1 and Phase 2 Group 1 reward from goal box every time and took about 11 trails for them to efficiently move throughout the maze to the food In second phase it remains the same Group 2 NO reward group Display high levels of errors in Phase 1 Then in Phase 2 they find food in goal box after they find food they only re quire 2 trials to learn to efficiently get to the goal box The thing that explains this Latent Learning hidden learning Can t see the learning in their behavior but not evident in behavior In Phase 1 the Group 2 rats created a Cognitive Map of the maze develop in their minds a map of the maze Bottom line rats have minds Wolfgang Kohlen German scientist in Canary Islands Interested in prob lem solving behavior Used chimpanzees Sultan the chimp EX put the chimp in a cage with a string at the top and a banana tied to a string Would originally tried to just jump and get it but couldn t Ba nana jumping behavior extinguishes But then noticed toys boxes stuff in cage figured out that he can puts stuff on bottom of cage and then can knock banana down called Insight Learning a sudden understanding of how to solve a problem Insight sight inside the mind Chimpanzees have minds Then assume that persons have minds as well no more big black box this is Cognitivism persons are products of mental operations like memory in telligence Questions How would Skinner react to any attempt to define learning in terms of processes that occur within the mind He would say that it is NOT inside the mind What two main arguments might he present in order to defend his reaction That it is too objective to say that learning is inside the mind It is unnecessary to go inside the mind What would Skinner mean if he were to suggest that the mind should be hidden inside a black box Skinner and many psychologists of his time believed that the mind should be hidden in a big black box that the mind is not relevant in psychology which is very con tradictory Where does the analogy of a black box come from takes this from architecture blue print to create power plant there is a generator inside just need to know how big it is don t need to understand Abigail Lewis October 3rd 2014 th Century emphasis of American psychology it Just draw big black box of the generator Just big black box between stim uli and responses How might Skinner choose to define learning a more or less permanent change in behavior as a result of stimulus experi ence How would this definition be compatible with his S R psychology stimulus would be presented and then the person would respond to the stimulus according to the permanent change How did a British philosopher describe the early 20 on an S R approach to learning What did he mean by this said that they had lost their mind both literally and figuratively he meant that literally they had said that the mind was irrelevant in psychology when psychol ogy literally means the study of the mind he meant figuratively that this was absurd Explain how the research of E C Tolman suggests that explanations of learning in terms of mental processes make sense he studied rats in a complex maze 2 groups the first group was rewarded every time with food and it took them 11 tries to complete the maze accurately and quickly the 2nd group was not rewarded in phase 1 and didn t appear to quickly learn the maze but in phase 2 when the food was placed at the end the rats only needed 2 tries to learn the maze this suggested latent learning their learning during phase 1 was not evident in their behavior but was made obvious the second phase cognitive map What is latent learning According to Tolman how are cognitive maps relevant to an under standing of latent learning latent learning is hidden learning cognitive maps show that there is learning going on inside of the MIND this is hidden from be havior latent learning but becomes obvious later like group 2 phase 2 of the rats Explain how the research of Wolfgang Kohler suggests that explanations of learning in terms of mental processes make sense he showed insight learning through the use of a chimp the chimp couldn t reach a banana but then suddenly decided to use boxes to stack on top of one another and to