Psych 387 - Chapter 2

Front 1

Explain the meaning of Thomas Henry Huxley's opening quote. (p. 35) Comment: Huxley's quote strikes at the heart of what it means to be a scientist, especially a behavioral scientist. The ability to be guided by one's observations above all else is essential to scientific progress.

Back 1

We cannot enter study of any subject with preconceived notions, or we may skew the data we find.

Front 2

How long have people applied scientific methods to the study of learning?

Back 2

about 100 years

Front 3

Who was interested in learning before this period (when sci method was used to study learning)?

Back 3

Poets, educators, philosophers

Front 4

Why did John B. Watson identify learning as the paramount problem of human psychology? (p. 35)

Back 4

Learning explains why we behave the way we do.

Front 5

What common elements exist between different fields within the natural sciences?

Back 5

Emphasis on physical events

Front 6

Give examples of prescientific explanations in physics and botany.

Back 6

Falling objects wanted to return to earth, plant turning toward the sun was an act of will.

Front 7

How are such prescientific explanations similar to explanations for behavior such as door slamming (inresponse to anger) or pressing a lever to acquire food (rats)?(pp. 35-36)

Back 7

Anger and hunger are abstract concepts, just like the desire/will of the objects/plants. They have nothing to do with physical events

Front 8

Define a circular explanation.

Back 8

the evidence for explanation is the thing being explained.

Front 9

Provide an original example (one that is not in the textbook or study guide) of a circular explanation of human behavior. Why it is circular? (p. 36) Comment: Life is full of circular explanations of behavior. For example, if you ask a boy why he is eating, he will tell you, “Because I'm hungry.” If you ask him why he is riding his bicycle, he might say, “Because I want to.” These are circular explanations because they do not explain the causes of hunger or the causes of a want or desire. Evolutionary processes have not given people the tools they need to describe the causes of their behavior accurately and with scientific precision. As a result, we observe tendencies within ourselves to engage in behavior, and mistake self-observations (tendencies) for the causes of behavior. So, for example, a child can observe himself riding a bike, call that observation a want, and mistake that want for a cause (of bike riding). One of the purposes of a scientific approach to behavior—and one of the purposes of this course—is to get people to stop explaining behavior in terms of inner causes—wants, desires, etc.—and instead focus on identifying environmental causes for behavior. (is this a just cause? Or does it ignore critical parts of what it means to be human? This sounds to me like a psychologist who is desperate to be a hard scientist).

Back 9

Why are you putting on your coat? Because I am cold.

Front 10

Review: Define learning. (pp. 36-37) Some theorists prefer to define learning as a change in the capability of an organism to engage in a behavior, due to experience.

Back 10

Change in behaviour due to experience.

Front 11

Change

Back 11

Not aquired, because sometimes learning means to lose behaviours (like smoking)

Front 12

Behaviour

Back 12

Anything an organism does that can be measured.

Front 13

Experience

Back 13

exposure to events (stimuli) that affect or can affect behaviour

Front 14

What is constructivism? (p. 36)

Back 14

Belief that scientific method is outmoded, because it is just a debate about unknowable reality. Attributed to Thomas Kuhn, who denied that interpretation of his work.

Front 15

What problems are there in defining learning in terms of neural change? The author defines behavior in two ways, one for general purposes and one for purposes of scientific analysis. (pp. 37, 40) Comment: Yet another approach to defining behavior is sometimes known as the dead man's test: if a dead man can do it, it is not behavior. So for example, lying face-up would not be behavior because a dead man could do it, but sitting up would be a behavior because a dead man can't do it. For general purposes, behavior can be defined in terms of what a living organism can do, but for experimental purposes behavior must usually be defined operationally through reference to a set of measurable operations.

Back 15

If learning is just a change in nervous system, behaviour is a symptom of that. However, nervous changes cannot be measured and connected with behaviour yet. Behaviour is the only reliable measurement.Besides, behaviour is important even if we understand everything about the nervous system. (Getting at a deep truth here)

Front 16

What is an operational definition?

Back 16

A definition that specefies the procedure (operation) by which a term will be measured.

Front 17

Give an original example of an operational definition.

Back 17

An operational definition of addiction to tobacco could be how many cigarrettes a person smokes in a day.

Front 18

What problems are there in operationally defining thinking and feeling? (pp. 38-39)

Back 18

If they can be measured, they can be studied. There a wide variety of ways we could try to measure thought/emotion, but it is difficult to make these measurements objective.

Front 19

What is a stimulus?

Back 19

An event that affects of can affect behaviour

Front 20

Provide original examples of a stimulus. (pp. 40-41)

Back 20

A cow getting poked by a cattle prod.

Front 21

What is experience?

Back 21

exposure to events (stimuli) that affect or can affect behaviour

Front 22

Are all changes in behavior due to experience? Give original examples.

Back 22

No. Changes due to anging, injury, drugs or disease do not count. A child with severe autism may mimic a phrase in a movie (echolalia) but we do not say the behaviour is due to learning. A smoker may cough, but we do not say the behaviour is learned.

Front 23

Are all experiences learning experiences? Give original examples (p. 40)

Back 23

No. Experiences that do not change behaviour are not learning experiences. E.g. Reading a book about cooking to an infant will not enable the baby to cook. Better: if I hit my thumb with a hammer and keep swinging the hammer the same way, my experience has not been a learning experience.

Front 24

Describe the following ways of measuring learning:

Back 24

Reduction in errors, topography, intensity, speed, latency, rate/frequency

Front 25

Describe: reduction in errors, Give original example

Back 25

Measure the number of mistakes made to complete a task: number of times I get the wrong answer for the back of a flashcard. Number of times a person smokes in a day?

Front 26

Describe: changes in topography, Give original example

Back 26

The form a behaviour takes: ie. The path a rat follows the first time through a maze, compared with the second time.

Front 27

Describe: changes in intensity, Give original example

Back 27

How hard a smoker sucks on a cigarette (cm3 of air?), how loud a baby cries for/asks/yells for food.

Front 28

Describe: changes in speed, Give original example

Back 28

How long it takes to read one page

Front 29

Describe: changes in latency, and Give original example

Back 29

How long it takes to write an essay? How long it takes the dog to come when called, or the baby to respond when asked to do something.

Front 30

Describe: changes in rate or frequency. Provide original examples of each. (pp. 41-45)

Back 30

Number of pages read in one minute

Front 31

What is a cumulative recorder?

Back 31

An apparatus (or software) that records every occurrence of a behaviour, thereby producing a cumulative record.

Front 32

What is a cumulative record?

Back 32

a graphic record of behaviour, each point of which reflects the total number of times a behaviour has been performed as of that time.

Front 33

What device has replaced cumulative recorders in contemporary research?

Back 33

Computer software (such as Med Associates' Med-PC)

Front 34

Explain how to interpret the slope of cumulative records. (pp. 45-46)

Back 34

The steeper the slove, the higher the rate, the flatter the line, the lower the rate.

Front 35

What is fluency? Provide an original example. (p. 46)

Back 35

Number correct per minute. E.g. The number of words typed without error in a minute. (Cognitive psychologists call this automaticity.

Front 36

What is anecdotal evidence?

Back 36

First or second hand reports of personal experiences

Front 37

What problems are there with anecdotal evidence? (pp. 47-48)

Back 37

Exaggeration, ignorance of unseen variables, personal bias, dependence on common wisdom, which is not always right

Front 38

What are case studies?

Back 38

Examines a particular individual in considerable detail.

Front 39

What problems are there with case studies?

Back 39

1 Takes lots of time, 2 few participants may not represent group, 3 cannot answer some questions about behaviour (ie. Cannot establish causation with it), 4 often data does not come from direct observation

Front 40

What advantages do case studies have over anecdotal evidence? (pp. 49-50) Comment: One problem with psychology textbook criticisms of anecdotal evidence is that they portray those using anecdotal evidence as foolish, assuming that better evidence is available. They fail, however, to acknowledge that there are no sources of pristine scientific data available for making many day-to-day decisions. For example, selecting a marriage partner is undoubtedly a significant decision, but it isn't feasible or practical to do experimental research on prospective partners to select the most suitable one. The issues surrounding the use of anecdotal evidence in day-to-day life have not been properly understood within psychology. Anecdotal evidence is explored in a critical-thinking module available on the Athabasca University Psychology Website.

Back 40

Systematic dat collection

Front 41

What are descriptive studies?

Back 41

Attempts to describe group by obtaining data from mebers (via interviews or questionnaires)

Front 42

What advantages do they (descriptive studies) have over case studies and anecdotal evidence?

Back 42

1 better representation of group

Front 43

What are their (descriptive studies’) limitations? (p. 49)

Back 43

1 Can suggest hypotheses, but can't test them (ie. Findings are not necessarily results of variables identified)

Front 44

What are experimental studies?

Back 44

Researcher maniupulates variables and measures effects on other variables.

Front 45

How do they (experimental studies) differ from descriptive studies and from case studies? (p. 50)

Back 45

They carefully manipulate/control variables.

Front 46

Define independent and dependent variables. Provide original examples of each. (p. 50)

Back 46

IV - manipulated/event; DV responding/behaviour

Front 47

What is a between-subjects experimental design?

Back 47

Two or more groups chosen, IV varied across the groups. Extra: 1 similar groups needed 2 random assignment 3 large groups better 4 matched sampling useful 5 stats analysis necessary

Front 48

What is an experimental group?

Back 48

The group exposed to the IV

Front 49

A control group?

Back 49

The group not exposed to the IV

Front 50

Provide original examples of between-subjects designs, identifying the experimental and control groups.

Back 50

Effect of exercise on quitting smoking: EG exercises and tries to quit, CG does not exercise and tries to quit.

Front 51

Define matched sampling as used in between-subjects designs. (pp. 50-52)

Back 51

Participants with identical features (age, sex, IQ, education, income, etc) are identified and one is assigned to each group.

Front 52

What is a within-subjects experimental design?

Back 52

Participants behaviour observed before experimental treatment, then during or after it. Each participant is experimental 'group' and control 'group' at different times.

Front 53

Define a baseline period

Back 53

Period before treatment where behaviour is observed

Front 54

Define ABA reversal design

Back 54

A (baseline) B (treatment) A (baseline) B (treatment) reinstate experimental (B) condition again/repeatedly.

Front 55

Provide an original example of a within-subjects experimental design in the form of an ABA reversal design. (pp. 52-54)

Back 55

Number of times a person gets sick in a week A: normal routine, B: drinking 3 glasses grapefruit juice daily A: normal routine

Front 56

Compare and contrast within-subjects and between-subjects experimental designs. (p. 54)

Back 56

Most important: 1 control of extraneous differences among participants: between subjects: random assignment/matching. Within-subject: comparing participants against themselves.Large numbers are unnecessary for within subject design, and stats analysis not normally required.

Front 57

What is the chief limitation of experimental research?

Back 57

Creates an artificial world/artificial view of behaviour

Front 58

Define laboratory and field experiments and compare and contrast them.

Back 58

Lab: control needed to derive clear-cut principles. Field: done in natural settings: test lab derived principles in more realistic ways.

Front 59

How does the use of field experiments help to overcome the main limitation of experimental research? (pp. 54-55)

Back 59

Tests the lab's findings in more realistic ways

Front 60

Identify and explain the three major reasons for using animals in research on learning. (p. 56)

Back 60

1 control over influence of heredity 2 control over participant's learning history 3 can do research on animals that is not ethical to do to people

Front 61

What is the most common objection to using animals in research on learning? Are there valid grounds for this objection? Explain.

Back 61

animal research tells us nothing about people. Some merit. There are important differences between us and rats.

Front 62

Identify two additional objections to using animals in research and the counter arguments to these objections. (pp. 56-60)

Back 62

1 People are not rats 2 no practical value (only theory, so useless) 3 Intrinsically unethical Counterarguments: 2 animal researches has provided treatments for many serious conditions and improved child rearing. Has also improved how humane animal training is (reduces aversives) 3 Pets are mistreated, animals are used in hundreds of ways (ie. farm work, work with disabilities) + there are intense standards for animal care in labs, aversives minimized in research. Unethical because uneccessary? Computer rats. But we have to know the behaviour to program it.

Front 63

Describe how researchers can use both animal and human research to improve our understanding of a field of study. (p. 57)

Back 63

Animal study plus descriptive studies gives good confidence in findings.