The Learning Approach
(Behaviourism)
Is behaviour learnt (nurture) or genetic
(nature)?
NATURE
NURTURE
Where do you stand?
Are some behaviours more nature than
nurture?
• Consider the following:
• Obedience
• Academic Intelligence
• Musical talent
• Artistic talent
• Phobia of flying
• Gambling Addiction
Task:
• In groups, role play how we learn a new behavior from our
environment.
• You have 3 minutes
Watson (1878-1958)
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed,
and my own specified world to bring them up and
I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train
him to become any type of specialist I might
select-- doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes,
even beggarman and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations,
and race of his ancestors."(Watson, 1930)
What is it all about?
We are born as “blank
slates” (tabula rasa)
All we have at birth is the
capacity to learn
All behaviour is learned
from the environment
Focus of the approach:
observable behaviour
using the scientific
method
Some definitions....
Stimulus :
Any change in the environment that an organism registers.
Response :
Any behaviour that the organism emits as a consequence of a
stimulus.
Can you think of some?
Classical conditioning
Learning by association
That’s a
reflex
Dog hears the lab
technician
What’s
going
on?
How does it work?
Before conditioning
Bell: Neutral stimulus (NS)
Food: unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Salivation: unconditioned Response (UCR)
During conditioning
Pairing
Bell: Neutral stimulus (NS)
Food: unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Salivation: unconditioned Response (UCR)
After conditioning
Bell: Conditioned stimulus (CS)
Salivation: Conditioned response (CR)
Classical Conditioning
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI
Work it out....
1. A child is afraid of spiders. One day he is in a lift and notices a
spider. Now he is afraid of lifts.
2. A child sneezes when there are flowers about. She often
visits her grandmother’s house, where there are flowers.
Even when there are no flowers at her grandmother’s house,
she still sneezes.
Unconditioned response (UCR)?
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?
Neutral stimulus (NS)?
Conditioned stimulus (CS)?
Conditioned response(CR)?
More definitions: match up the correct
definitions
• Unconditioned Stimulus(UCS): behaviour elicited by the Conditioned Stimulus (salivation).
• Unconditioned Response(UCR): the new stimulus-response relationship we created by
associating a new stimulus with an old response
• Neutral Stimulus (NS): a behaviour that is already elicited by a stimulus (salivating).
• Unconditioned Reflex: an existing stimulus-response connection.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS):a thing which is not associated in the unconditioned relationship (bell).
• Conditioned Response (CR): a thing that can already elicit a response (food).
• Conditioned Relationship: a new stimulus we deliver the same time we give the old stimulus (the
bell)
Quick check
1. Which is the correct pairing part of the classical conditioning procedure?
•q UCS + CS
•q NS + CS
•q NS + UCS
•q UCS + NS
2. In Pavlov’s procedure, what was the CR?
•q research assistant
•q bell
•q salivation
•q food
3. The final step in the classical conditioning procedure is to present the NS alone to see if it:
•q elicits the CR
•q elicits the CS
•q elicits the UCR
•q elicits the UCS
Inducing a phobia: Little Albert
Task
• Complete the CC review activity
• Evaluate Watson and Raynor’s (1920) study of Classical Conditioning.
(8 marks) (Remember what evaluate means!!! (4 A01 and 4 A03)