Studies for learning theories

• Aim; to demonstrate that superstitious behaviours could be accuired by animals 
• Procedure; 8 pigeons, given limited food- reduce to 75% normal weight- ensure hungery
• indiv placed in Skinner Box, few mins a day, received a food pellet every 15 secs regardless of beh- fixed interval 
• after several days of conditioning- 2 independent observers recorded birds beh- time interval between pellets increased to 1 min & freq of responding recorded again 
• finally, pigeons given time for accuired beh to extinguish by stopping release of pellets
• in one pigeon, 15 sec interval food pellets reintroduced after 20 mins extinction

Results; 6/8 developed repetitive beh- performed between arival of pellets e.g. turing clockwise

-when time between reinforcers is extended to 1 min, pigeons beh increased until they became frantic

-extinction; slow e.g. 1 bird acquired hopping beh- performed over 10,000 responses until extinction occured- reoccured when recieved pellets at 15 second intervals 

Conclusion; pigeons behaved as though they believed food depended on response even though it didn't

pigeons beh become superstitious and diffucult to distinguish and easy to retrigger 

Aim; to investigate whether exposure to aggression would influence behaviour 

hypothesis; children exposed to aggressive role models would immitate aggression shown & gender difference- boys more likely to immitate aggression than girls 

Method; 72 children, from Standford uni nursery school; 36:36 boys and girls 

- Sample; 8 experimental groups (6 in each) & control group-24.half ppts in experiemental group;  observed aggressive role model, other half- non aggressive role model- split group again- half subjects in non-aggressive and aggressive con. saw same sex role model, other half saw model of opposite sex. 

-to control baseline levels of aggression; (physical, verbal, agression inhibition and aggression towards inanimate objects), ppts rated on each of these charcteristics on 4 seperate 5-point scales- children in each group matched for agression- groups similar 

• Brought into room, asked to sit on small table, instructed how to play with implements eg. potato prints to create a scene. elsewhere in the room there was a tinker-toy set, a mallet and a Bobo doll- inflatable toy-well known object to be punched 
• Ppts individually brought into room, then model arrived. child placed in corner, shown how to draw picture. Model- opposite corner and seated on table with toys- experimenter then left room. Child watched model & overheard experimenter saying it was 'their play area'- had no access to it 
• Aggressive conditions; model initially (1 min) plays with tiner toy set, then turns to Bobo doll set-acts aggressively towards it; distinctive aggressive acts; e.g. laying doll on its side, say on it and punched it repeatedly on the nose. Verbal statements; 'hit him down' 'pow'
• non aggressive con; model say quitly playing with toys and ignoring bobo doll 
• after 10 mins; child taken to another room- given selection of toys to play with- 2 mins later, told not for him but for other children- provoked mild aggression 
• next room; range of toys categorised as (non)-aggressive; 20 mins; beh observed via interval sampling 
• types of beh; imitative verbal aggression 'pow', imitative non-aggressive verbal statements e.g. 'he sure is a tough fella', imitiative physical aggression; e.g. sitting on bobo doll and punhing nose 
• also noticed; mallet aggression- hitting other objects than doll, aggressive gun play-aimed gun at imaginary objects and shoots

Mean no. of 'imitative physical aggressive acts' 

Agressive Male model; boys-25.8 vs. girls-7.2. Female model; 12.4; 5.5

Non aggressive male model; 1.5 vs 0.0.  Control; 2:1.2 

• ppts in aggressive role model condition displayed more aggressive acts- physical and verbal- quantitatively established- mean scores varied considerably 
• key oberservations; partial imitation of model's beh. use of mallet aggression, ppts in aggressive condition more likely to display non-imitative aggression, boys showed more imitative aggression e.g. acts of aggression/language following exposure to male model 
• male model; greater impact on beh of ppts than female model 
• Conclusions; if a child was exposed to agressive model, likely they will imitate beh- boys more likely to imitate same-sex role model 

Generalisability; only children used, only represented upper-middle class white population; lacks generalisability- cultural bias 

Reliability; lab experiment; good degree of control & easily replicable, didn't reply on one observer, agreed beh's between observers used- good inter-rater reliability. found similar findings in later research e.g. vicarious reinforcement model 

Applicability; huge contribution to how children learn, via observation, lead research into effects of TV violnece on children's beh. tho- only researched immediate impact of observation of RM- didn't highlight long-term changes 

Validity; low internal validity; bobo doll deigned to be punched so diffufcult to tell if violence towards doll-direct cause from aggressive role model or schema... overall validity- 'observational learning'- true cause of beh.- demand charcteristics- weaken intergrity of study- agg. beh due to obedience?

Ethics; Wortman, Loftus and Weaver; unethical & morally wrong- ppts were manipulated to respond in aggressive way, presumptive concent given 

• Aim- see if aggression of film could be imitated.
• Hypothesis; boys would show more imitative aggression than girls
• Method; 48 boys 48 girls, 3-6 yrs old, 3 ex. groups; real-life aggression, filmed aggression, cartoon character being aggressive 
• Same procedure as 1961 study 
• cartoon condition; female model dressed as a black cat, behaved as a cartoon would- artificial scene and music 
• Results (mean total); RL aggression; 83. Human film agg; 92. Cartoon agg; 99. Control; 54
• exposing ppts to agg. increases likelihood of imitating agg, indpendant on type of RM displayed
• Via Wilcoxon test- 3 agg. groups differed sig. vs. control
• qualitative data- clips of children imitating model 
• Concluded- observing filmed aggression via human film model lead to more aggression vs control group- more imitative aggression and aggressive gun play 

• G- similar sample to '61 study & not possible to say all children watching aggression will behave in same way?
• R- same to '61, & experimental method- 3 conditions same accept IV & control condition- scientific credibilty and cause and effect relationship conclusions. Similar findings to '61 study- high reliability 
• A- findings suggest- violence on TV is likely to be moddelled by viewers 
• V- artificial setting, no negative reinforcement- RMs- not punishment for beh- didn't see it as wrong- doesn't reflect RL aggression 

Aim; watched televised model exhibit verbal and physical aggression to investigate whether children would be more aggressive when they viewed a model rewarded for their aggression- investigate the role of vicarious reinforcement 

Method; 33;33 males females ppts, allocated in either; model rewarded for aggressive beh, model punished for agg. beh, or no concequence

ppts followed researcher into room, told before go in 'surprise playroom', have to wait whilst experimenter dealt with some buisness- option to watch TV- 5 min program- model exhibited aggressive beh.- either rewarded, punished or no response (control). 

Film- model walked up to bobo doll & ordered him to 'clear the way', stared at doll, then 4 distinctive agg. responses e.g. laying doll on its side, sat on it and punched it repeatedly on the nose, saying 'pow right in the nose, boom boom'- order of beh repeated 2x during programme- closing scene=concequence 

Conditions of experiment; 

Model rewarded condition; given soft drink and sweets, labelled as 'strong champion'- positively reinforced beh 

Model punished condition; other adult shook finger dissapprovingly, 'you big bully, you quit picking on that clown, I wont tollerate it'. model tripped and fell, adult sat on him with rolled up newspaper, model then ran off- 'give you a hard spanking next time'-positively punished 

No concequence codition; closing scene- no form of reinforcment 

After; ppts taken to other room- bobo doll, mallet, 3 balls, plastic farm animals, doll house etc..- 10 mins - 2 obsevered recorded beh, neither had knowledge which one assigned to-(then brought fruit juices and stickers- told get sticker and more juice for every verbally/phyical agg. act produced- 'show me what Rocky did'/'tell me what he said'- if imitative response- child rewarded immiediately- positive incentive condition

Results; children more likely to imitate aggressive beh if the model was pos. reinforced. boys would perform more imitated responses than girls also supported 

• same evaluation applicable, 
• children more likely to imitate physical aggression than verbal aggression due to age- more capacity to imitate motor actions than verbal actions 
• boys perfomed more imitated aggression than girls- reflects willingness of boy to exhibited aggression than due to identifying with particular role model, girls- more negatively reinforced for agg. beh?

Bandura 1961; 

• watched aggression, non aggression, control group 
• girls-verbally aggressive, boys-physically aggressive 

Bandura 1963;

• Real-life, human filmed aggression, cartoon aggression, control group
• filmed and cartoon aggression-much more agg. than control group 

Bandura 1965;

• Model rewarded, punished, no concquence
• model rewarded- more aggression vs punishment, but direct reward fot ppt wipes out difference 

Aim; to find out if a fear response could be condtion into a 9 month year old baby boy & if fear response could be generalised to other animals and objects & duration of conditioning 

IV; before/after conditioning and presented with white rat vs. other white, fluffy animals or objects- repeated measures design- before and after conditioning- Albert experiences every condition 

DV; no. of fearful behaviours Albert shows when presented with stimuli- 'fearful behaviours'- observable 

Albert- 9 months old, healthy and quite fearless 'practically never cried' -opportunity sample 

• Albert tested with white rat, a rabbit, cotton wool and other stimuli- provoke fear reaction- he didn't- thus objects- NS
• Checked fear response by banging iron bar- cried at loud noise- noise-UCS, crying-UCR
• 2 months later; Albert-conditioned. shown white rat 3x- each time paired with striking iron bar- started to whimper- week later, conditioned again- rat presented 3x, paired with noise- 7x- at start didn't cry, then crawled away quickly at the sight of rat- rat became CS, crying-CR
• 17 days later- stimulus generalisation occured- presented with rabbit- leaned away, whimpered then burst into tears- similar with other stimuli 
• Towards end of study- relocated study to lecture room- observe effect of surroundings- control context effects- fear reactions still evident in Albert

Results; tested a month later; same reactions, though slightly weaker; sucessfully conditioned baby to fear white rat and generalsise to other animals e.g. rabbits 

Conclusions- above innit 

G-done on single child- unrepresentative sample, though deliberately selected for normalacy- seemed fearless and emotionally stable- represent normal reactions of any baby-Cosh points out- Albert died of hydocephalus at 60 possibly sick during experiment- thus cannot be generalised to all children 

R-highly reliable; standardised procedures, carefully documented and filmed-replicable but ethical issues- filming of procedures ensures inter-rater reliability 

A-credible; widens knowledge about phobias- lead to techniques like Systematic desensitisation 

V-careful controls e.g. hid behind curtain when striking iron rod- Albert assoiated noise with rat, not him/bar & tested him for pre-existing phobias- internal validity. tho lacks ecological validity-away from playroom/familiar nurses, tho with mother throughout. study fits with well-established theory- constrctive validity 

E- highly unethical; deliberate distress on infant and continued throughout- didn't extinguish fear reaction- long term phobias? ignores principal of reducing harm-tho mother took him away and gave presumptive consent and RTW

Aim; invetigate the effect of prolonged exposure of television on attitudes to eating and eating behaviours in Fijian adolecent girls 

Procedure; naturalistic experiment- used prosepective multi-wave cross sectional design- 2 separate sample of girls. 1st-63 studied in 1995, several weeks before introduction of TV. 2nd- 65 girls studied 3 years later-1998.

combination of qualitative and quantitative methods to investgate impact of culture on pppts feelings and attitudes and eating beh.s

Key question; would exposure to TV, which introduced images and programmes from developed world e.g. US, have an effect on the traditional values and eating habits associated with Fijian culture- pref. for robust body, discourgement of dieting and excercise 

both groups completed Eat-26 surbey- invesigated binge eating/purging beh.-self reporting method allowed obtaining quantitative data about ppts attitudes of eating- 20- high- ppts with this score asked to take part in semi-structured interview 

second sample, further questions added on body image and dieting & relationship with parents- 30/65- range of eating disorderded habits- followed up with interview- open ended ques, probing 

2 sig. differences noted between groups 

1. % of subjects with Eat-25 score 20+ doubled-12.7%- 29.2

2.proportion of sample using self-induced vomiting to control weight- 0%-11.3%

Qualitative data; 

admiration for characters seen on TV- tendancy for women to imitate role models- changebeh, fashion, hair style- 83% sample interviewed felt TV influenced the way they and their friends views their bodies-77% influenced body image 

beleif that eating less- improve career status- 40%

generation differernces towards eating- more vs less

Conclusion; introduction of TV infeunced changes to eating atitudes in women, which opposed traditional attitudes towards eating and body image- previously dominated culture 

G-cross-sectional design- matched but not direcltly comparabe- possibility of cohort effect- thus problematic to compare groups- only 65 girls- not representative of entire population 

R- good reliabiliy- draws similar conclusions about influence of media to previous studies- concurrent validity 

Validity- EAT-26 isn't formal diagnosis- thus can't equate responses to actual eating disorders- different cultures-self-induced vomiting coincides with eating disorders in western culture- may not in Fijian? tho high ecological validity- naturally occuring event thus impact can be assesed in wider context of conflcting values

A- emphasis infuence of media and eating disorders

ignores other factors e.g. peer influence