Psyc 397 History Of Psychology - Unit 5 (Ch. 13, 14, 15)

Front 1

Behaviorism

Back 1

more than a system of psychology

spilled into literature, philosophy, political science, sociology.

founder: John B. Watson

philosophical roots = ancient Greek atomic theory (only the atoms and the void are real)

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Ivan Sechenov

Back 2

Pavlov's immediate predecessor

founder of Russian physiology

wrote the first "objective psychology" based on natural science

his system was based on materialistic monism

fundamental unit of study = the reflex, consisting of:

1) afferent activity

2) central connective processes

3) efferent activity

radical environmentalism (learning over heredity)

Front 3

Ivan Pavlov

Back 3

won Nobel Prize

interested in salivation dogs produce when presented with food reward

salivation at mere SIGHT of reward = "action at a distance" or "psychical reflex"

psychical reflex could be unconditioned or conditioned (permanently subject to fluctuation)

nervous activity consists of: inhibition & excitation

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Pavlov's basic paradigm

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an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) produces an unconditioned response (UCR)

a conditioned stimulus (CS) used to be neutral, but after repeated pairings with the UCS, it produced a conditioned response (CR)

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Pavlov:

1) delay conditioning

2) simultaneous conditioning

3) trace conditioning

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1) conditioning = best when CS precedes UCS by fraction of a second

2) CS & UCS paired at same time = less efficient

3) CS & UCS are initially paired, but then the temporal interval between them is increased (CS precedes UCS)

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Pavlov key research areas

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1) Extinction: CS repeatedly presented without UCS, reverses conditioning process

2) Spontaneous recovery: following a period of rest, the CS may again elicit the CR

3) Disinhibition: CS is associated with inhibition. A UCS will be exciting & release inhibition, causing salivation.

4) Stimulus generalisation: stimuli similar to CS may also elicit CR

5) Discrimination: dog learns to salivate to a circle, not eclipse. Can be used to test discriminatory capacity of animals

6) Temperament: inhibition & excitation distributed in different temperaments. 4 types

7) Experimental neurosis: stress producing situations result in "ultramaximal inhibition" (+ 3 different after-effects)

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Pavlov: "ultramaximal inhibition" + 3 different after-effects

Back 7

shock-like symptoms like unresponsiveness or stereotyped responding

3 after effects:

1) equivalent phase: dog responds with same amount of saliva regardless strength of a stimulus

2) paradoxical phase: strong stimulus produces a weak response and vice versa

3) ultra-paradoxical phase (radical shift in personality & response system after trauma): stimuli that previously produced a positive response, produce a negative response and vice versa

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Galen: 4 general types of temperament

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1) choleric: quick tempered, excess excitation

2) sanguine: warm, balance of excit. & inhib.

3) phlegmatic: not easily excited, balance of excit. & inhib.

4) melancholic: depressed, excess inhibition

Pavlov believed balanced types (2, 3) = more resistant to stress

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Pavlov & problem solving

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conflict with Gestalt psychology

Koehler (Gestalt): primates show evidence of true insight, achieved not trough mechanical means = holistic approach

Pavlov: mechanistic & reductionistic approach

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Bekhterev

Kornilov

Back 10

advanced an objective psychology based on idea that REFLEX = fundamental category of inquiry = reflexology

importance of social and economic forces in shaping human reactions = reactology

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Edward Lee Thorndike

Back 11

precursor to behaviourism, but he remained sympathetic to functionalism

but favoured an objective psychology with focus on observable behaviour (behaviourism)

= America's most productive psychologist

pioneer in study of animal behaviour, developed "early learning theory" = connectionism (studied cats)

one foot in camp of associationists/empiricists (Hartley, Locke), one foot in camp of Galton, who emphasized heredity.

confirmed heredity plays powerful role (twin research)

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Thorndike's "early learning theory" or connectionism

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while learning to escape from 15 different puzzle boxes, the cats exhibited random behaviour, like "trial & error"

but in time, irrelevant movements dropped out and a specific sequence of action ensued

learning involves strengthening connections (one of earliest S-R psychologies)

formulated "law of exercise": connections are strengthened through use or repetition, and weakened through disuse

formulated: "law of effect":connections are strengthened or weakened depending on their consequences

--> reformulated to: truncated law of effect (doubt about punishment as a means of weakening connections)

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Thorndike & transfer of learning

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collaborated with Robert Woodsworth on transfer of training:

before: "doctrine of formal discipline": certain academic subjects (i.e. latin) improved intellectual ability in general (mind = mental muscle, strengthened by exercise)

Thorndike & Woodsworth: "identical elements transfer theory": the degree of similarity between 2 tasks establishes the amount of transfer between them

Investigated effects of a variety of high school courses on subsequent problem solving activity: found suprisingly small transfer effects of various subjects on problem-solving.

now educators emphasized relationship between content in school and demands of daily life.

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Thorndike & industrial psych

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encouraged research on worker satisfaction & dissatisfaction

interested in ways to humanize capitalism

published research on psychology of labor & of the profit motive

Front 15

John B. Watson

Back 15

Angell = mentor & father figure

founder of behaviourism

Inspired by Pavlovian conditioning, he designed behaviourism as an alternative to Titchener's introspection & Freud's psychoanalysis

affair with graduate student --> controversy. Went into advertising/sales and died wealthy.

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Watson's criticisms of older psychologies

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1) divisions of consciousness are arbitrary

2) psychology is too human centered

3) introspection = unreliable & esoteric

4) older psychologies are dualistic

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Watson's psychology

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psychology = a behavioural science

= a purely objective, experimental branch of natural science; closest to physiology

psychology's goal = prediction & control of behaviour

prediction & control can be achieved through environmental conditions

methods: unlike introspection, he relied on quantification & standardization

central concept = habit

personality = a complex system of habits and habit conflicts can lead to weaknesses in personality or even illness

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Watson & fear conditioning

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Little Albert: white rat presented with loud noise --> conditioned emotional response to the rat (cried & crawled away). he also showed this response to similar objects (rabbit, fur coat, dog)

Later, he supervised research of Mary Jones, involving elimination/extinction of fear --> important for later behavioural therapies

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Watson & emotions

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infant have only 3 responses: fear, rage, love

these = broad & undifferentiated response patterns

which are later differentiated in specific ways through conditioning

Front 20

Watson & instinct

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changed his opinion

defined as: a hereditary pattern reaction, its elements are muscle movements

1) early: "there are 3 kinds of instincts"

2) then: "there is no clear separation between instincts and emotions"

3) later: "there are no instincts, what is important is conditioning & habit"

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Watson on thinking & speech

Back 21

thinking: much mystery around the mind (because it cannot be observed), but natural science approach to thinking is possible & productive

speech: as we learn to do sth, we learn the specific language & vocab of that activity: words can substitute for actions/objects

believed we speak with our whole body (brain does not work in isolation from body)

when kids play alone they often talk to themselves, in time this talk is transferred "inside" = thought/cognition

thinking = subvocal speech

do we think only in words? yes, or in word substitutes (i.e. a shoulder shrug)

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Cognitive revolution in the 1950's & 60's

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psychologists who once focused on study of mental processes via introspection, moved on to the study of behaviour via more objective methods.

Front 23

Behaviorism & Learning

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learning = foundational to psychology

study of learning = a means of understanding & controlling behaviour

Front 24

Operationism

Back 24

developed by Percy Bridgman

points to importance of precision & clarity in behaviourism

=a programmatic attempt to tie scientific terms to measurements of an experiment

i.e. you can measure a concept like "hunger drive" in terms of (operatinalized into) hours of food deprivation

challenged the idea of absolute meanings. All meaning is relative

criticism:

1) it merely provides a label

2) the idea that measurement points to sth beyond itself

influenced neobehaviourism

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logical positivism

Back 25

strong emphasis on precision & clarity

neobehaviourists were in accord with logical positivism

the ultimate basis of knowledge rests upon public experimental verification or confirmation rather than upon personal experience.

also called: critical/scientific empiricism

grew out of school of philosophy: Vienna Circle (promoted a unified science devoid of metaphysical concepts)

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Neo behaviorism & experimentation

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Neo behaviorism in 30s, 40s, 50s produced outpouring of research

criticism: employ powerful methodologies to explore trivial problems.

response: it is better to understand trivial processes than to have speculative knowledge of more complex ones (--> basic experiments)

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Mc Dougall

Back 27

early behaviorist

emphasis on activity, conduct & behaviour

psychology should study both experience (mental events) and behaviour

central feature of psychology = goal seeking = "hormic" (urge)

wanted to reconcile a purposive mind with a deterministic body

pluralistic methodology

one of the first to emphasize importance of social psychology

Front 28

Holt

Back 28

influenced by William James

mentor to Tolman & Gibson

his view of behaviour was more broad than Watson's: organisms are goal directed and goal-directed activity is based on purposes, wishes and plans.

emphasis on "molar behaviour" = purposive/goal directed behaviour (molar = large behavioural units, things organisms do, i.e. building a nest)

Front 29

Hunter

Back 29

avoided extreme positions marked with terms like "nothing but", "all", "every".

preferred "anthroponomy" to "psychology" because of the latter's mentalistic connotations.

open to variety of methods

most famous research: delayed reactions in animals & children:

cats and dogs only made the correct response (get the food) as long as they displayed their bodily orienting response. If the delay is so long as to them losing their orienting actions, they will "forget" and not get the food.

= a way of testing cognitive processes

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Liberals of the behaviourist movement?

Back 30

Holt & Hunter

Front 31

Karl Lashley

Back 31

influenced by Watson, sympathetic to behaviourism

focused on specific problems in learning

major interest: cerebral localisation of learning & discrimination (--> his work would better fit into Gestalt tradition)

Front 32

Lashley on the cerebral localisation of learning & discrimination

Back 32

prior it was believed that brain functions involve point-by-point connections (like a telephone switchboard)

Lashley taught an animal a habit & then lesioned various areas in the cortex

--> found no evidence for localisation of function for learning tasks

--> found that certain functions (esp. sensory & motor) are realized

--> found no evidence for a learning center

Front 33

2 principles that grew out of Lashley's work:

1) Mass action

2) Equipotentiality

Back 33

1) Mass action: rate, effciency and accuracy of learning depends on amount of cortex available (site of brain injury = less important than amount of brain that's injured)

2) Equipotentiality: one part of the cortex can take over function of another part

Front 34

Clark Hull

Back 34

leading figure in experimental psych from 1930-50

because: he presented his ideas with an unknown degree of rigor and analytic detail

his approach = mathematical & deductive

interest in aptitude testing & hypnosis

central figure in developing quantitative approaches to behaviour: focus on stimuli & response, but also intervening variables (drive, fatigue, strength, incentive)

Front 35

stimulus intensity dynamism

Back 35

= V = a term in one of Hull's formulas

= some stimuli have stronger influence on behaviour than others

Hull's formula indicates that reaction potential = a joint, multiplicative function of habit strength (H), drive strength (D), nature of stimulus (V) and incentive motvation (K)

Hull's formula's were suggestive & predictive

Front 36

Hull & reinforcement:

Back 36

law of reinforcement = stimuli that reduce drive stimuli are reinforcing

secondary reinforcement = any stimulus consistently paired with primary reinforcer, takes on reinforcing properties

Front 37

Hull & extinction

Back 37

reactive inhibition: each response generates some inhibition as an after-effect. It dissipated with time & it is increased when responses require higher effort, or when many responses are required close in time

conditioned inhibition: build up during dissipation of "reactive inhibition". The dissipation of "reactive inhibition" is reinforcing (includes permanent extinction)

Front 38

Hull & insight

Back 38

learning = continuous

did not deny terms like insight, purpose, intention but wanted to show that these are only secondary principles

Front 39

Hull & Learning

Back 39

reinforcement plays crucial role in learning

his theory accounts for learning in terms of complex interactions of a variety of variables.

Front 40

Appraisal of Hull's theory

Back 40

the rigor of his approach was both a strength & a weakness

criticism: sterile, artificial, irrelevant to real-life problems

Front 41

Edward Guthrie

Back 41

unlike Hull & Tolman, he avoided technical language & formal theory construction

believed that such constructions hampered search for new knowledge

general skepticism towards deductively proven "truths"

believed reinforcement has no direct logical or causal relationship to learning

Front 42

Guthrie's law of contiguity

Back 42

= the only law of learning

we learn, when stimuli are arranged in a way that allows them to act as effective cues for a desired response

contiguity = necessary condition for learning and based on close temporal/spatial conjunction.

A reinforcer has nothing to do with learning per se, but it acts as a strong stimulus and it keeps the organism in a situation where the necessary cues are available

Front 43

Guthrie & learning

Back 43

learning occurs in one trial

response = actually many smaller responses

stimulus = also a multifaceted affair

we learn in one trial but sometimes many small connections must be established to produce the appropriate response.

connections made in one trial are not always visible

emphasized importance of recency in learning situations

Front 44

Guthrie & extinction

Back 44

extinction = really new learning

What's important for extinction is important for all learning: contiguity of stimulus & response

Front 45

Appraisal of Guthrie

Back 45

weakness of his theory - its anecdotal nature may also be a strength:

concerned with transitions from laboratory to the world. --> real life problems

some of his students later formalised his theory so it could be subjected to experimental scrutiny

Front 46

Edward Tolman

Back 46

developed new formula of behaviourism: cognitive behaviourism --> greater sensitivity to real-life problems

accepted behaviour as the subject matter of psychology, but rejected Wundt's stark system of stimulus-response.

enjoyed many honors in his life time

forerunner of cognitive psychology

called his system: molar behaviourism in contrast to Watson's molecular behaviourism. Molar = large units, global behaviour seen in everyday life.

also called it "purposive behaviourism" (behaviour = goal directed)

molar behaviour = not like a reflex, it is teachable (docile), purposeful and cognitive

Front 47

Tolman & intervening variables

Back 47

believed psychological processes intervene between stimulus & response = intervening variables

Front 48

Tolman & reinforcement

Back 48

distinguished between learning & performance

classic experiments on latent learning:

rats in maze, some get food reward after each successful run, some don't get any rewards.

When food was placed in the box for the rats that hadn't been rewarded previously, their speed & error scores improved dramatically.

--> there is latent learning during the non/rewarded trials

Front 49

Toman & extinction

Back 49

when stimuli no longer have value, expectation changes and so does response.

experiments on latent extinction have provided evidence for cognitive interpretations of extinction.

extinction results from changing conditions that are influenced by stimuli in the environment (opposite of Hull's response-produced inhibition theory)

subjects who were exposed to the now empty reward box before the extinction trials began, extinguished faster later --> latent extinction

Front 50

Tolman & Cognitive Maps

Back 50

stimulus-stimulus connection are vital for concept of cognitive map

how do we get from A to B? have we learned a complicated chain of stimulus-response connections? No, we learn a cognitive map.

at first it includes only a vague sense of location and layout, plus many possible pathways connecting various locations

Front 51

Tolman & Insight

Back 51

avoided the term, but was friendly to its meaning

realized that learning is often marked by radical discontinuities

Front 52

Appraisal of Tolman

Back 52

1) provided the intellectual spadework for the cognitive movement in 50's

2) his work was a springboard for developments in the 50's/60's in: motivation, clinical, neuropsychology, mathematical learning theory

3) fist to publish research on selective breeding for maze learning in rats

4) his work is one of the most important bridges between classical behaviourism & psychology of today

Front 53

Skinner

Back 53

pleasant childhood, no punishments

inspired by: Darwin, Morgan, Thorndike, Pavlov, Watson

behaviour = lawful, notion of free will = counterproductive to science & society

followed Bacon's inductivist tradition!

(denied that he constructed hypotheses or tested formal theories/models. Focused on descriptive observations of behaviour instead of grandiose theory production)

first used term "behaviour therapy"

father of applied behaviour analysis

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Behaviourism was dominant when?

Back 54

1920's - 50's

by the 60's: growing consensus that their vision was too narrow

Front 55

Skinner & operant conditioning

Back 55

introduced "operant" as alternative to Pavlov's "respondent conditioning"

Pavlov looked at relationships between conditioned & unconditioned stimuli

Skinner looked at the relation of the response & reinforcement.

it involved modifying behaviour as a consequence of reinforcement.

any consequence that increased probability of future response = a reinforcer

similarity to Thorndike (reward over punishment)

Skinner box: animal learned sth and could be rewarded through food dispenser

Front 56

Skinner & verbal behaviour

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verbal behaviour = learned & modified by ensuing consequences

critics like Chomsky: too simplistic & reductionistic (Chomsky: nativism, Skinner: environment)

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Skinner: developmental & educational psych

Back 57

invented air-crib (large well-lit chamber with temp. control for child rearing)

interested in children education: proposed programmed instruction

designed programs with immediate feedback for each student response --> self-paced mastery of the subject

Unfortunately negotiations collapsed, project was never realized

Front 58

Skinner & Military

Back 58

project pigeon research

his most unconventional idea

trained pigeons to operate an armed glider = an automated bomber

results were disappointing & government stopped funding

Front 59

Skinner & Walden Two

Back 59

Walden Two = a book by Skinner (= life ina hyoptehtical colony designed by behavioural engineering

inspired the creation of an experimental community (1967, Virginia)

only marginally successful, but led him to reformulate role of motivation, education & sexuality

Front 60

Criticisms of Skinner

Back 60

1) criticism from scientific community (i.e. Chomsky): too simplistic

2) blamed for a mechanistic science that dehumanizes the individual

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Gestalt psychology

Back 61

started 1910

golden era in 1920's

challenged Wundt's elementary system as well as behaviourism.

founded by Max Wertheimer, as well as Koehler & Koffka

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Max Wertheimer

Back 62

extended Gestalt vision into humanistic concerns, like truth, ethics, democracy & freedom

his Gestalt vision was a worldview

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Wolfgang Koehler

Back 63

his work in Tenerife resulted in classic work of Gestalt tradition" The Mentality of Apes"

--> helped shape comparative psychology in Germany

found that Apes solve problems in insightful (!) ways!

heroic struggles against Nazis

published "Gestalt psychology"

Front 64

Kurt Koffka

Back 64

discovered Gestalt psychology while studying

with Wertheimer & Koehler.

published "growth of the mind" --> showed relevance of Gestalt principles to developmental psychology

published "Principles of Gestalt psychology" = major systematic treatise on Gestalt system

first to write on Gestalt psychology in English

Front 65

Gestalt background: philosophy

Back 65

Immanuel Kant: mental processes are organized in an a priori fashion and are not always the results of mechanical associations. Instead ordering principles interact with sensory experience.

Gestalt theory should not be placed in either rationalist or empirical traditions

emphasis on conjunctions, meanings, patterns in the natural flow of experience (instead of: meaningful experiences are built from separate mechanical elements, held together by glue of association.

sensitive to context of observer & "frame of reference". Inspired by Einstein's work on electrodynamics of moving bodies

Front 66

Ehrenfels

Back 66

form qualities are different from the elements from which they are composed

the whole is more than the sum of its parts

Front 67

Gestalt school vs. Jamesian approach

Back 67

Agreed on:

1) James's attacks on atomism & his radical empiricism

2) begin with experience

3) methodological pluralism

Disagreed on much else!!

Front 68

Phi Phenomenon

Back 68

Gestalt tradition, Max Wertheimer

= apparent movement (2 lights on 2 different locations at slightly different times --> illusion of movement)

= demonstration that quality of the whole is DIFFERENT from the sum of its parts

Front 69

Koffka's Perceptual Gestalt Principles

"why do things look the way they do"

Back 69

1) figure-ground

2) similarity

3) proximity

4) closure

5) good continuation

Front 70

Law of Praegnanz

Back 70

perceptual organization = as good as possible under prevailing conditions

we see our world as orderly and coherent as the conditions allow

Front 71

Wertheimer on Thinking

Back 71

reproductive thinking = repetition, conditioning, drills, habits

productive thinking = new ideas, insights, breakthroughs. Is based on capacity to grasp structural features and envision structural reorganization.

Front 72

Learning in the Gestalt tradition

Back 72

ask subject to select the darker one of 2 squares. Choosing the darker one correctly yields a reward.

phase 2: the formerly rewarded square is now paired with a new, darker square.

Subjects chose the darker square, even though it was not associated with the reward

--> what is learned is the relational discrimination (darker than) rather than a response to a reward (behaviourism)

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Koffka on Learning

Back 73

much of early learning = sensory motor learning

a great deal of learning occurs by imitation

highest type of learning = ideational learning, which makes use of language.

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Gestalt tradition & method

Back 74

accused established psychologies to overemphasise quantitative methods while ignoring qualitative considerations

Koehler: concerned that psychologists would conduct elegant but fruitless experiments (o.e. in psychophysics)

methodology should be adapted to the subject matter

As with Jamesian psychology, Gestalt science found inspiration in vision, not method.

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Gestalt perspective mind-brain problem

Back 75

= isomorphism

= structural correspondance between experience & underlying brain processes

common erroneous belief: pictures in our head correspond to physical structures

It does not refer to a correspondance between physical events & brain processes, but rather to the relationship between EXPERIENCE and brain processes

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The authority of the gestalt approach was felt in 3 ways:

Back 76

1) systematic approaches to sub-disciplinary areas inspired by Gestalt psychology

2) Gestalt concepts found their way into mainstream psyc textbooks

3) Gestalt findings served as powerful stimulus for other systems

Front 77

Kurt Lewin

Back 77

broadened Gestalt perspective to include motivation, personality, social psychology, conflict resolution.

he was an intellectual democrat (like William James) and characterized by his openness

developed "field theory" (interdependence of person & environment)

Front 78

Lewin's psychology

Back 78

developed "field theory" (interdependence of person & environment)

B= f (p,e) behaviour is a function of person AND environment

key concept = life space = every psychological fact that is influential to a person at a given time

Front 79

Lewin's "life space"

Back 79

= every psychological fact that is influential to a person at a given time

consists of physical events, personal/biographical facts and social facts.

goal of education = to extend the life space

in the life space, objects have positive or negative features, called "valences". Valences fluctuate with needs.

led to his work on conflicts

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Lewin: common types of conflict

Back 80

1) caught between 2 objects with comparable positive valences (= approach-approach conflict)

2) an object has both positive AND negative valences (= approach-avoidance conflict)

3) caught between 2 objects with comparable negative valences (= avoidance-avoidance conflict)

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Zeigarnik Effect

Back 81

tendency to recall uncompleted tasks better than completed tasks

by Lewin

explanation: the tension from an uncompleted task remains and motivates person to recall it more accurately

suggests that a study unit should best be ended with a question

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Group Dynamics

Back 82

study of effects of groups on individuals and vice versa

by Lewin

Front 83

Karl Duncker

Back 83

2nd generation of Gestalt psychologists

induced motion = people tend to perceive movement if their body is stationary, but an object in their perceptual field is in motion

(car pulls up next to you, while your car is standing --> illusion of rolling backwards)

Under Wertheimer, conducted research on problem solving.

Found that many subjects exhibited "functional fixedness" (= inability to find productive solutions to new problems )

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Hedwig von Restorff

Back 84

2nd generation of Gestalt psychologists

Research assistant for Koehler

in classic experiment they found: isolated items are recalled better than homogenous (similar) ones

(numbers against background of nonsense syllables is easier to remember than numbers on numbers)

= Koehler-von Restorff effect

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Soloman Asch

Back 85

2nd generation of Gestalt psychologists

social psychology

he substituted the dichotomy between individual & group with an integrated view of social interaction

group pressure & line length research

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Gestalt therapy

Back 86

nothing to do with Gestalt approach set forth by Wertheimer, Koehler, Koffka

Front 87

Common misunderstandings of gestalt psychology

Back 87

1) gestalt therapy (nothing to do with it)

2) it opposes analysis (untrue, if a unit is part of a whole then it should be investigated)

3) it is nativistic, more emphasis on heredity than environment (actually, they reject the nature/nurture distinction & find it too simplistic)

4) it neglects past experience (untrue, insight & productive thinking would be impossible without considering the past)

Front 88

1) Arnheim

2) Katona

Back 88

1) used Gestalt therapy to explore psychology of art

2) book on memory & education (Organising & Memorising):

understanding based on insightful grouping (=meaningful learning) will yield superior results to simple memorisation of unorganised materials (= senseless learning)