Learning - Developmental Psychology
- Created by: meghampton
- Created on: 02-05-16 18:40
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- Learning
- Classical Conditioning
- Watson suggested - it is able to explain all aspects of human psychology
- involves learning a new behaviour via process of association
- 3 stages
- Stage 1 - unconditioned stimulus creates an unconditioned response
- stimulus in environment - produced behaviour/ response - UN-learned
- neutral stimulus - does not produce a response until paired with the unconditioned stimulus
- Stage 2 - neutral stimulus is associated with the unconditioned stimulus - then known as conditioned stimulus
- neutral stimulus + unconditioned stimulus must be paired on a number of occasions
- Stage 3 - conditioned stimulus has been associated with unconditioned stimulus to create a conditioned response
- Stage 1 - unconditioned stimulus creates an unconditioned response
- Little Albert - Watson + Rayner 1920
- 9 months old
- became scared when a hammer was struck against a steel bar behind his head
- presented a white rat in front of him and loud noise seconds after
- done 7 times over the next 7 weeks
- each time - started crying
- developed phobias of similar objects e.g. Santa
- known as generalization
- showed a phobia could be created from classical conditioning
- after 10 days - fear became less
- known as extinction
- Evaluation
- emphasies the importance of learning from the environment - nurture
- under-estimates complexity of human behaviour
- scientific - easily experimented on
- deterministic - does not allow for any degree of free will in the individual
- Operant Conditioning
- intentional actions that have an effect on the surrounding environment
- based on reinforcement
- Skinner Box - 1938
- positive reinforcement
- strengthens a behaviour by providing a consequence an individual finds rewarding
- placed a hungry rat in his box
- lever on side of box - rat accidentally knocked it - food pellet dropped in
- quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times
- negative reinforcement
- removal of an adverse stimulus -rewarding to the animal/person
- placed rats in a box + added electric current
- rats accidentally knocked lever - current switched off
- rats quickly learned to go straight to the lever after a few times
- positive reinforcement
- 3 types of responses
- neutral operants - neither increase or decrease probability of a behaviour being repeated
- reinforcers - increase probability of a behaviour being repeated
- punishers - decrease the probability of a behaviour being repeated
- Evaluation
- fails to take into account the role of inherited and cognitive factors in learning
- suggests that humans can learn automatically through observation rather than personal experience
- animal research studies raises the issue of extrapolation
- cannot generalize results
- Social Learning Theory
- Bandura agreed with the conditioning theories but adds 2 important ideas
- mediating processes occur between stimuli + responses
- attention - extent to which we notice a behaviour
- retention - how well the behaviour is remembered
- reproduction - ability to perform the behaviour demonstrated
- motivation - the will to perform the behaviour
- behaviour is learnt from the environment through observational learning
- individuals that are observed - called models
- children pay attention + encode their behaviour
- more likely to imitate those similar to them - therefore the same sex
- people around - respond to the imitated behaviour with reinforcement or punishment
- if rewarding - child likely to continue behaviour
- child also considers what happens to others when deciding to copy behaviour - vicarious reinforcement
- Identification occurs with another person and involves taking on behaviours, beliefs + attitudes of person you are identifying with
- Evaluation
- takes thought processes into account
- cannot account for how we develop a range of behaviour - thoughts and feelings
- only explains nurture - under estimates complexity of human behaviour
- not a full explanation for all behaviour
- Learning Styles
- Visual
- likes images, remembers pictures, enjoys drawing
- Auditory
- using CDs, music, thinks in words, visualises ideas well, spells well
- Kineaesthetic
- physical sensations, shows how to do, hands-on activities
- Advantages
- use best way to teach individual student
- can vary all learning styles - make sure all will learn
- select subjects based on learning style - GCSE
- use methods in revision
- Disadvantages
- most classes are too big to suit each learning styles
- other things teachers do have more impact
- different subjects require different learning styles
- not all methods of teaching will work in exams - GCSEs
- Visual
- Classical Conditioning
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