PSY260H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Thalamus, Rede Ferroviária Nacional, Cerebellum
Lecture 2:
Recall: Nonsense words + List learning: If it took you 10 minutes to learn the list the first time
around you only relearn the list one more time, at a delay of anywhere 0-800 hours.
Insert Delay screenshots into text here:
Thorndike:
Thorndike place cats in a “puzzle box” —a small chamber they disliked with a pulley that
allowed them to escape. They would randomly pulled at the levers but eventually they would by
chance figure out which pulley it was and would escape. Of course, they learned which pulley it
was and pulled at it again.
With repeated exposures to the box
Cats initially tried many behaviours
would often escape “by accident” at first
Over time, behaviours that opened the box became more frequent and behaviours that weren't
useful disappeared
Law of Effect: behaviours with positive effects are repeated; behaviours with negative effects are
not
• Likened learning to natural selection of behaviour
Before Behaviourism
• Dominant School of Psychology: – Primarily Freudian psychoanalysis, saw human behaviour
as primarily irrational and driven by subconscious forces. This was the idea that people were
doing things without being fully aware that they were doing them (at the time was a novel idea).
• Methods:– Dream analysis, introspection, debate • Subjects:– Only humans, as we are unique
mentallyBased on everything which he learned he concluded that out behaviour was driven by
subconscious forces and he was ridiculed by his peers and that he lacked the rigour of hard
science and that his science didn't have standardization or hard facts.
• Human Motivation:– Our behaviour is driven by subconscious drives
• Impact: – Ridiculed by many of the “hard” sciences for a lack of objectivity, infighting
among analysts, perceived lack of progress
It is still alive and well but no longer the dominant school of thought.
Behaviourists: Key Figures
• These three researchers were critical in re-orienting psychology to emulate the physical
sciences. thought it was a hard science unlike what they thought psychology was.
John Watson (Father of behaviourism) (1878-1958) Clark Hull (wanted to qualify psychology)
(1884-1952)
B.F. Skinner (wanted to take ideas into the lab, work with rodents). Radical behaviourist—NO
FREE WILL (1904-1990)
John Watson: “Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch
of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection
forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the
readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The
behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line
between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms
only a part of the behaviorist’s total scheme of investigation.... In a system of psychology
completely worked out, given the response the stimuli can be predicted; given the stimuli the
response can be predicted.”
The Reign of Behaviourism: Principles
• Focus on Behaviour: Behaviour is observable, objective, and quantifiable; mental processes
such as dreams, feelings, and the subconscious are not directly observable and therefore can’t be
studied scientifically (This is huge because, they thought that everything like dreams or thoughts
which isn't observable cannot be studied and quantified in this way)
• Empiricism: Behaviour is shaped by experience and can be controlled by regulating experience
• Evolutionary Perspective: Humans are basically the same as any other animal; what works for a
rat will work for a human (Can be seen in Watson’s quote above) So studying an animal tells us
a lot about people which explains why so many behaviourists studied animals (Ie: Skinner and
cats).
• Quantitative: Like physicists, try to identify basic mathematical laws that will generalize to
many behaviours
• Law of Effect: Our behaviour is not shaped by the subconscious but by past experience; we
seek to repeat rewards and avoid punishments
Mental Processes: Behaviourist Critique
Freudian approached emphasized subconscious motivations which to a response, behaviourists
however would only care about the behaviour. The why was irrelevant. All that matters was the
observable part of the behaviour — Only objective part of the equation.
Behaviourists argued that mental processes are not only subjective, but also irrelevant: given the
stimulus, the response can be predicted without worrying about what goes on in the mind
The Reign of Behaviourism: Tolman
Conducted research on rats and showed that rats when faced with a maze would explore until
they would find the path/route which would take them to the food quickest. However if you were
to block this route the rat still finds a path to the food and it finds a quick novel way to get there
even though that was not what was being reinforced which caused some problems with the
behaviour and response approach. He was thinking that something must be happening between
the stimulus and response so there is some level of motivation happening which he was really
interested in studying. He also came up with the idea that the rats probably have some sort of
cognitive map (representation of this space) in the black box area. This was the transition
towards Cognitive...
• Tolman’s research showed that stimulus->response misses something important • He found that
rats trained on a maze can find novel ways to the goal when encountering an obstacle
E Tolman (1886-1959)
• Since the route was novel, there could have been no prior association between the stimulus
(food) and the response (novel route)
• Tolman argued that his results indicated something happened between stimulus and response:
• The rat wants something (food) • The rat has a cognitive map, a mental layout of the maze
Cognitive Approach: Key Figures
W.K. Estes (1919-2011) He defied Skinner and Skinner said he had brain damage at war.
2
PSY260H1 Full Course Notes
Verified Note
2 documents
Document Summary
Recall: nonsense words + list learning: if it took you 10 minutes to learn the list the first time around you only relearn the list one more time, at a delay of anywhere 0-800 hours. Thorndike place cats in a puzzle box a small chamber they disliked with a pulley that allowed them to escape. They would randomly pulled at the levers but eventually they would by chance figure out which pulley it was and would escape. Of course, they learned which pulley it was and pulled at it again. Cats initially tried many behaviours would often escape by accident at first. Over time, behaviours that opened the box became more frequent and behaviours that weren"t useful disappeared. Law of effect: behaviours with positive effects are repeated; behaviours with negative effects are not: likened learning to natural selection of behaviour. Before behaviourism: dominant school of psychology: primarily freudian psychoanalysis, saw human behaviour as primarily irrational and driven by subconscious forces.
