PSYC 3450 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Contiguity, Cognitive Map, Edward C. Tolman

• School: Northeastern University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3450
• Professor: Andreano

Document Summary

Global theory of behavior: attempts to explain all behavior with single theory (ex: learning + motivation = behavior) Implicit assumption: single common mechanism underlies all learning and behavior. Mechanistic theory: no need to refer to thoughts or mental states. Learning is the acquisition of responses to environmental stimuli. Involves mental representation: idea that learning involves representing the world inside your mind. Learning is coming to understand the associations and relationships between events. Believed that all behavior could be explained in terms of conditioned response to stimuli. Believed that all behavior was about drive reduction. Acquired drive: important element of this theory, notion that environmental cues can acquire the ability induce drive through associations with conditions of high drive (pavlovian) If an animal if frequently exposed to test environment in a food- deprived conditioned, thus environment can come to inspire hunger. Model: driven by operant conditioning (thorndike), with elements of pavlov. Conditioned drive cues (acquired drive) = more drive.