PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Tabula Rasa, B. F. Skinner, Learning
Document Summary
Inborn patterns of behaviour elicited by environmental stimuli. A relatively permanent change in behavior or the capacity for behavior that occurs due to experience. Examined processes by which experience influences behaviour. Discovered laws of learning that apply to virtually all organisms. Explained learning solely in terms of directly observable events. Everybody is born as a blank sheet of paper: behaviourism and associative learning: Occurs when we form connections among stimuli and/or behaviors. Based on internal responses to naturally occuring stimuli. Is a natural response - no learning involved. Notes dogs salivated at sounds (footsteps, tone) Whatever the stimulus the dogs could be conditioned to produce saliva. Controlled response and the unconditioned response are same thing but what elicits them is different. Many advertisers attempt to make their products conditioned stimuli that elicit pleasant emotional responses by pairing their products with attractive or popular people or sexual imagery. Contiguity + less contingency = reduced learning.
