Conditioning

Overview

Behaviourism is different to other approaches as people (and animals) are viewed as controlled by their environment, and specifically that we are the result of what we have learned through our environment.
The two types of conditioning are:
- Classical Conditioning
  - Learning where behaviour is controlled by association.
- Operant Conditioning
  - Learning where behaviour is controlled by reinforcements and punishments.

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Skinner conducted operant conditioning experiments of voluntary and involuntary behaviour, using the famous Skinner Box.
He felt that some behaviours could be explained by the person's motive, therefore behaviour happens for a reason.
The three main behaviour shaping techiques are:
- Positive reinforcement
  - Presenting a motivating item to a person or animal after the desired behaviour is exhibited, making it more likely to happen again in the future.
    - Example. Giving a child a sweet if they behave well.
- Negative reinforcement
  - Removing a negative outcome when the desired behaviour is exhibited.
    - Example. Taking painkillers to remove a headache negatively reinforces the action of taking the painkiller.
- Punishments

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Ivan Pavlov conducted experiments based on classical conditioning on dogs and their digestive systems by measuring salivation levels.
Dogs began to salivate as the lab assistant entered the room with the food.Pavlov speculated that the dogs had learned to associate the lab assisant with the food.
- Pavlov found this unusual, as he previously thought that dogs only salivated when food touched the dog's tongue
Salivation is an automatic response (not learned) and Pavlov named this an unconditioned response.
Food automatically led to this response, so Pavlov named this an unconditioned stimulus.
Food was then preented at the same time as a ringing bell - a neutral stimulus.
Over several trials, the dog learned to associate the bell with the arrival of food so he salivated even when the food wasn't present.
It was a conditioned response (salivation) to a conditioned stimulus (the ringing bell).

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Infants forming attachments to their caregiver which they learn to associate with food.
Unconditioned stimulus is the food, leading to the unconditioned response of feeling full and content.
Overtime, the conditioned stimulus (the caregiver) is associated with food and the unconditioned response of feeling full and content.
Therefore, caregiver = food + comfort.

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It underestimates the complexity of human behaviours.
Animals of the studies are hard to generalise to humans and cannot explain some behaviours, for example, the speed at which we pick up language.
Could there be biological factors involved?

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