Module 4 Behaviorism Eliminating Associations How might we describe what we can observe in terms of stimuli and responses A stimulus is some environmental event that we hear see feel smell or taste A response is something that we do after detecting a stimulus So for example when you smell a food that you really like stimulus your mouth starts to produce more mouth watering saliva response What does it mean to say that a response has been classically conditioned Classical conditioning involves learning that a stimulus that would otherwise have no biological meaning is associated with something that does o How did Pavlov initially demonstrate classical conditioning with dogs How can we describe classically conditioned associations in terms of Ivan Pavlov 1849 1936 a Russian scientist studying the biological processes involved with digestion is widely considered the father of classical conditioning because he scientifically demonstrated that a biological response drooling could be triggered by a stimulus sound if dogs learned to associate the sound with food o How did Watson s study with Little Albert demonstrate that fear can be explained by classical conditioning Watson showed that a child could learn to fear response something it previously was not afraid of stimulus if it was associated with something naturally scary unconditioned stimulus At first Little Albert was not afraid of the white rat but when paired with a loud bell Albert began to cry Then when Albert is just shown the rat without the bell he still cries Previously Albert was not afraid of the rat but when associated with something scary he ultimately feared the rat A neutral stimulus NS Albert had no experience with white rats previously so the presence of the white rat had no particular meaning Therefore the white rat was a neutral object to Albert There is no naturally wired response to the neutral stimulus An unconditioned stimulus UCS A baby just like an adult or another mammal will have a startle response to a loud noise Albert was not conditioned to have this response to the gong he did not learn to have that response It is natural and automatic So in this study the gong is the UCS An unconditioned responses UCR Crying is the natural and automatic response to a scary noise In this study the gong UCS triggered the unconditioned response UCR of crying A conditioned stimulus CS After repeatedly pairing the white rat NS with the gong UCS the baby learns the association What was neutral now has a conditioned meaning so the rat has gone from a NS to a CS A conditioned response CR If Albert sees the rat or anything else white or fluffy for that matter he now begins to cry even without hearing the scary sound The unconditioned crying response UCR has now becomes a conditioned response CR to the presences of the rat CS How would you go about establishing a classically conditioned association How would you Teach a dolphin that the sound of a whistle is a good thing Feed the dolphin every time you whistle Every time the dog goes on the pillows you can spray the dog with water Keep a pet off your couch by making it want to avoid the pillows on it Make a young child excited to earn a gold star sticker on her homework Make a young child avoid things that are labeled with the symbol for poison Give her a lollipop along with the gold star Teach child to stay away from the cabinet with the poisonous items by taking away a toy every time he goes near it If we want to establish an association why is forward short delay the best way Forward short delay is the best way to establish an association because the CS is presented first and is still present when the UCS appears in the procedure Using several difference examples how can you erase an undesired association e g fear using Habituation also known as flooding expose a person to fear as much as possible until they get over phobia Systematic desensitization step by step exposure to fear to get comfortable with it Counter conditioning use positive stimulus to help person get over fear Can you reduce a negative reaction with a positive stimulus using classical conditioning Yes counter conditioning paid every time you encounter fear Can you reduce a positive reaction with an aversive stimulus using classical conditioning When we try to counter condition away a positive response with an aversive stimulus this is called Aversion Therapy Ex Reduce craving for donuts using electrical shocks Since both techniques use multiple exposures what is the key difference between habituation and systematic desensitization Systematic desensitization is a more gentle or humane way of addressing an undesired association by slowly working toward the actual fear With habituation the person must face their fear right away without working up to it What is the Garcia Effect and how does it explain why some people just can t even think about eating certain foods A person cannot eat a food that they ate when they were sick EX Cannot eat baked lays because they had the swine flu and threw up the baked lays THE FOOD ITSELF DOES NOT CAUSE THE SICKNESS How is it unusual in terms of being a single trial forward long delay pairing The Garcia Effect is unique compared to other forms of classical conditioning because it can happen after only one occurrence Why from an evolutionary perspective is the Garcia Effect helpful for survival How did researchers Nicolaus et al 1983 use the concept to protect endangered birds and farm chickens from egg eating crows Nicolaus and colleagues 1983 showed that taste aversion could be used to control crow predation on eggs a problem for bird sanctuaries and farmers with outdoor chickens The researchers put a sickness causing agent in several eggs and then left them where crows could get them This eliminated the egg eating habit in a population of crows How did Thorndike support his Law of Effect using cats in a box The main idea here is key a behavior is more likely to occur if it leads to a desirable effect Thus ever very complicated behavior can be explained in terms of trail and error learning rather than intelligent insight Who is B F Skinner and what did he contribute to psychology B F Skinner 1904 1990 is generally considered the father of Radical Behaviorism the theoretical argument that the environment determines all behavior No attention or importance is given to the mind to Skinner it is all about rewards and punishment He used operant conditioning to prove that a
View Full Document
Unlocking...