#8728 - Learning - Edexcel Psychology

The learning approach

Define the learning approach

Assumption 1

• Assumes behaviour is determined by experiences within the environment (nurture) rather than genetically or by the biochemistry of the brain or hormones within the body (nature)

• Individuals behaviour is shaped by his or her ‘reinforcement history’ or past experiences of reward or punishment

• The philosopher john Locke used the term ‘tabula rasa’ to describe a new-born baby, like a ‘blank slate, waiting for experience to leave its mark and write the script for future behaviour and interaction

• This philosophy was adopted by behaviourists or learning theorists such as john Watson who started the approach in 1913

Assumption 2

• More objective and scientific to study observable behaviour and that the idea of mental events and emotions should not be studied as part of psychology

• This is an example of empiricism; gathering data that can be directly observed through the senses rather than making inferences about abstract ideas, in an attempts to make general laws or principles which govern behaviour

• Systematic desensitisation is an example of the way in which learning theorists have successfully applied the importance of focusing on behaviour rather than cognition and emotion

• Here psychologists use the principles of classical conditioning to help people overcome their phobias. This is a highly effective treatment which demonstrates that it is not necessary to focus on cognition or emotion in order to create positive outcomes for people who are suffering

• Another example of this is the use of behaviourist principles in the management of children’s behaviour, where the focus is explaining what function their behaviour serves (i.e. what is the rewarding consequence which maintains their behaviour) without concentrating on what the child is thinking or feeling

• Again, this can be highly successful although many psychologists would argue that ignoring of a child’s cognition and his or her interpretation of what is happening to them may not be helpful

Terms and definitions

Classical conditioning

• Also known as associative learning and refers to the way in which an individual can learn new triggers (stimuli) for existing involuntary behaviours, (reflexes). Pavlov discovered that when dogs anticipate that their food is coming they begin to salivate.

• This is a conditioned response as they have learnt to associate certain aspects of their environment (the stimulus, e.g. his lab assistants walking toward the food cupboard) with the coming of food (the unconditioned stimulus).

• He tested this idea and was able to elicit salivation (conditioned response) to the sound of a bell (a neutral stimulus which became a conditioned stimulus).

• In real life classical conditioning provides a clear explanation of how apparently irrational fears may develop. All the behaviour elicited in classical conditioning are involuntary (reflexes) over which we have no control. For example, when a dentist’s drill hits a nerve (UCS) this causes pain and discomfort (UCR). As this happens in a dental clinic which has a distinct smell (NS), this smell becomes associated with the pain (UCS) and in the future the smell alone (CS) may be enough to trigger a bodily response such as the increased heart rate, associated with anxiety (CR).

Extinction in classical conditioning

• Extinction is one of Pavlov’s principles of learning and it means that a conditioned stimulus no longer elicits a conditioned response.

• This happens when the individuals has experienced the conditioned stimulus several times without the unconditioned stimulus; gradually the association becomes unlearnt and the conditioned response disappears.

• Certain songs often elicit physiological and emotional reactions because at some point they have been played when the person was experiencing those feelings. For example, if a song was played at a funeral, whenever that song is played in the future, the person may suddenly become upset without necessarily even remembering the funeral. Gradually as the person hears the song over and over again in neutral situations, such as on the car radio, the response will become extinct as the song is no longer associated with bereavement, indeed new associations may have been made which have over-written previous learning.

Spontaneous recovery in classical conditioning

• Spontaneous recovery refers to the way in which a conditioned response which was thought to have become extinct may suddenly reappear.

• This can happen ‘out of the blue’ and could be quite distressing if the response if a negative one since the person may have thought that response had long disappeared.

• For example, following a car accident, a person may have suffered from distressing flashbacks and physiological stress reactions wherever they saw stimuli present at the time of the accident, e.g. red traffic lights, similar vehicle etc. As time progressed the reactions may have decreased and the person thinks that they have been cured of their trauma. One day they experience a panic attack triggered by some minor aspect associated with the original experience.

• Spontaneous recovery demonstrates that stimulus-response units may never be broken completely but that the bond between them becomes weaker but not eliminated completely.

Stimulus (in classical conditioning)

• Some aspect of the environment which triggers a specific response.

• Some stimuli are unconditioned meaning that they require no specific learning in order to trigger a response, they are innate. An example of this is the red spot on the beak of a herring gull. In comparative psychology, this is called an ‘innate releasing mechanism’; baby herring gulls are born with an innate reflex to peck at red spots (this has survival value as the mother gull will regurgitate food into the chick’s mouth and so pecking her beak encourages her to feed her chick).

• Some stimuli only trigger responses because they have been presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus. Learning has to have taken place in order for this aspect of the environment to become a trigger.

• An example of a neutral stimulus is the bell in Pavlov’s study whereby the bell triggered salivation in the dogs but only because it had been previously paired with food being put into their mouths (unconditioned stimulus).

Response (in classical conditioning)

• A response is a specific behaviour which is displayed as a reaction to a specific stimulus.

• Some responses are unconditioned and these are called reflexes; we have no conscious or voluntary control of these behaviours. They are innate and had survival value in our evolutionary environment of adaptation, 35, 000-3 million years ago back in the African savannah. An example of an unconditioned reflex is salivation when food enters the mouth. The startle reflex occurs as a reaction to loud and sudden noises which could indicate danger.

• Some responses are only triggered when a learning experience has taken place. For example it would not be normal for a baby to show fear when presented with a pet rat, however this is exactly what happened with 10 month old Little Albert who was classically conditioned by Watson and Rayner, (1920). The rabbit had been paired with a loud crash of steel bars behind his head (unconditioned stimulus) which, unsurprisingly created a startle response. After several learning trials the conditioned startle response was elicited on presentation of the rat.

Operant conditioning

• Also known as trial and error learning, was first explored by American psychologist, Burrhus F Skinner in the 1930s. He revealed that the behaviour of lab rats could be controlled by altering the consequences of that behaviour.

• All behaviours were voluntarily emitted as the rats explored the cage but when the rat accidentally trod on a lever, this was either rewarded with a food pellet or punished with a mild electric shock. When lever pressing was rewarded it became more likely (stamped in), but when it was punished it became less likely (stamped out).

• This learning is not confined to rats alone. An example of operant conditioning in everyday life is the use of token economies with small children. Tokens can be given to reward desirable behaviour with the intention of improving the child’s behaviour and taken away to punish undesirable behaviour. These tokens (secondary reinforcers) can be exchanged for treats (primary reinforcers) after a set period.

Positive reinforcement (in operant conditioning)

• Positive reinforcement means that an individual is given something which he or she finds pleasant following a desired behaviour.

• Positive reinforcement results in the preceding behaviour becoming more likely. Rewards need must be presented fairly swiftly in order for operant conditioning or instrumental learning to take place.

• An example of positive reinforcement in the laboratory is when Skinner presented his rats with food pellets when they trod on the lever which results in an increase in lever pressing. An example of positive reinforcement in real life might be that when a teacher uses praise and encouragement in response to a student’s contribution in class, the student will volunteer to answer more questions. This will only happen however, it the student finds the attention from the teacher positive and desirable. A student who does not like the attention or believes the response to be empty praise may not respond with increased contribution. Something is only an example of reinforcement if the behaviour becomes more likely. Thus the terms reinforcement and reinforcer have a...