• Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

The Learning Perspective

Extracts from this document...


The Learning Perspective History and cultural context: - Origins from the start of the 20th century - A contrast to introspection and psychoanalytical theory - Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson developed a which emphasized environmental stimuli and behavioural response - It grew in popularity the first fifty years - It became the dominant framework for experimental research. Framework: Key concepts: -Classical conditioning: "the study of learning which involves reflex responses, in which a neutral stimulus comes to elicit an existing reflex response due to learning." -Pavlov found that ringing a bell and then immediately giving the dog some food, the bell came to evoke the same response as the food itself - salvation. -Salvation at the presence of food is a basic neural reflex that requires no learning. -Reflex responses; unconditional responses (a reflexive response produces by a specific stimulus, such as pupil contraction to bright light) -The stimulus which elicits (triggers) an unconditional response (like food)is called an unconditional stimulus; (a stimulus which elicits (triggers) a reflexive (unconditioned) response.) -conditioned refers to learned -the bell = neutral stimulus which normally has an orienting response, (a stimulus which initially produces no specific response other than provoking attention; as conditioning proceeds the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus) -the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus. -salivating which is the response is called a conditioned response, since it comes from the bell, the conditioned stimuli (a response to a previously neutral stimulus which has become a conditioned stimulus by repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus) ...read more.


Higher Order Conditioning: a form of classical conditioning in which a previously established conditioned stimulus is used as if it were an unconditioned stimulus to create conditioning to a new stimulus. (like Pavlov and a dog who learned to salivate from the sound of a buzzer, where introduced to a black square, and then pushing the buzzer, and then the dog started to salivate) (Pavlov couldn't put a third stimulus on when it was food, but he could do that with leg withdrawal (from an electro-shock), that may tell us more about the significance of aversive stimuli like electric shock than it does about higher order conditioning as such.) (some speculate on how language learning may be closely linked to higher order conditioning.) Conditioned Emotional Response (little Albert): an emotional response such as fear which is established through classical conditioning. Conditioned Drug and Immune Responses: a dog was given a drug together with a specific sound, this drug made the dog vomit, and then the dog started vomit just by the sound. This is also usually seen in normal life. Reinforcer: A reinforcer is a stimulus which, when it follows a response, results in a change in the probability of the response recurring. Reinforcement is the process by which a reinforcer increases the probability of a response. Primary reinforcer: a stimulus whose capacity to act as a reinforcer is based on an innate biological significance, such as food, water or electric shock. ...read more.


Here are the parents the discriminative stimuli.) A stimulus which signals the contingency of reinforcement available. Non-contingent reinforcement: a situation where reinforcers sometimes occur independently of any specific response: chance forms of reinforcement. (like finding money on the pavement) Behaviour modification: the application of conditioning techniques to altering human behaviour, particularly those behaviours identified as abnormal. Contiguity: the principle that a reinforcer must occur immediately after a response in order for learning to occur. Aversive control of behaviour: negative reinforcer, the way organisms react to negative reinforcers. As noted previously, there are two ways in which aversive control is used: punishment is used to reduce the frequency of a response, whereas negative reinforcement is used to increase a response. Autonomic conditioning: (also called learned operant control of automatic responses) the conditioning of changes in autonomic (involuntary) responses (such as heart rate or blood pressure) by means of operant reinforcement. Biofeedback: a general term for application of the process of autonomic conditioning; the name refers to the fact that in humans reinforcement is based on providing an individual with information (feedback) about physiological processes (bio) which are not normally observable. Species-specific behaviour: behaviours which are characteristics of all members of a particular species; these response patterns (sometimes popularly called instincts) apply to behaviours such as mating, finding food, defence and raising offspring. Preparedness: a concept developed by Martin Seligman to describe the degree to which physiological structure influences the occurrence of behaviour. ...read more.

The above preview is unformatted text


Found what you're looking for?

  • Start learning 29% faster today
  • 150,000+ documents available
  • Just £6.99 a month

Not the one? Search for your essay title...
  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

See related essaysSee related essays

Related International Baccalaureate Psychology essays

  1. An Investigation of the Effect the Presence of Different Genres of Music Have on ...

    The uncertainty is 0.01 which is the lowest value measurable in seconds. Example Calculation to Find Mean for Subject 1 Reaction Time with No Music: Mean = (0.413+0.391+0.530+0.377+0.642) �5 = (2.353) �5 = 0.471 Total Average Reaction Time in Presence of No Music (seconds�0.001)

  2. Examine the Concepts of Normality &amp;amp; Abnormality

    The exemption of behaviour caused by bereavement is, thirdly, the culmination of the first two underlying principles, for not only is this grief allowed a much longer period for its dissipation, but also that the exhibition this grave sadness is itself considered acceptable by social norms - which is certainly different in a Buddhist culture.

  1. Understanding Childrens Behaviour. The purpose of this writing is to explore the theoretical ...

    Little babies learned to either hit, or not hit a bobo doll, but only the ones that saw the "model" receive no reinforcement or positive reinforcement for beating up the doll actually engaged in that activity. He also came up with the concept of insight learning, which dealt with monkeys

  2. Critically evaluate the Learning Perspective in terms of the following categories: a) Reductionism ...

    Their main target should be to have freedom from influences of experimenter's values, interests, expectations and prejudices. All these ideas are strongly associated with the learning perspective, since it is know secret that learning psychologists aim for objectivity in their research, at the same time making strong use of numbers and quantitative data in general.

  1. To what extent is psychodynamic effective in its application to everyday life?

    Empirical studies suggest that dream pleasantness leads to higher levels of hope and openness towards conflict resolution, whereas unpleasant dreams have a negative impact on clients' progress, as remind to the dreamer the unresolved conflicts or impeding threats. Dream interpretation appears to constitute an effective therapeutic tool; dream interpretation, when

  2. The behavioural approach is the assumption that behaviour is learned. Experience and interactions with ...

    The best known example is social. Learning theory which was an attempt by Albert Bandura to reformulate learning theory to include a role for cognitive factors. The principle of social learning theory is that we learn through indirect rewards, as well as through direct rewards.

  1. Psychology IB Abnormal Notes and Essay Plans

    the other group of viewers were told beforehand that the man was a patient 3. Result: job applicant was thought to be conventional looking, attractive. Patient was described as tight, defensive, dependent, frightened 4. Evaluation: use any evaluation of lab studies Paragraph 3 Cultural bias in diagnosis 1.

  2. The Effect of Interfering Stimuli on Naming Colours Experiment.

    The ability to distinguish between information which is not needed from meaningful information is an important part of cognition. Sometimes, during a task, a major part of the information we perceive is not relevant to the task immediately needed to be completed.

  • Over 160,000 pieces
    of student written work
  • Annotated by
    experienced teachers
  • Ideas and feedback to
    improve your own work