The big difference between behaviorist and cognitive learning perspectives is that behaviorism is more about explaining things through ones outward behavior or something that can be observed. Cognitivism is more based around cognitive processes like decision making and memory.
Behaviourism
Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning which states all behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment through a process called conditioning. Thus, behavior is simply a response to environmental stimuli.
Behaviorism is only concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviors, as they can be studied in a systematic and observable manner.
The behaviorist movement began in 1913 when John Watson wrote an article entitled 'Psychology as the behaviorist views it,' which set out a number of underlying assumptions regarding methodology and behavioral analysis.
Classical Conditioning Terminology:
Definition: Classical conditioning is a process that involves creating an association between a naturally existing stimulus and a previously neutral one. The classical conditioning process involves pairing a previously neutral stimulus (such as the sound of a bell) with an unconditioned stimulus (the taste of food).
The point is, we learn to associate a stimulus with a response, and eventually our body does this automatically in the presence of the stimulus.
!! Our response is involuntary.
Unconditioned stimulus: not dependent on previous experience
Conditioned stimulus: effects depend on association with U.S
Conditioned response: response to C.S alone
Unconditioned response: response to U.S
Anxiety and extinction failure:
Many anxiety disorders thoughts to reflect a failure of extinction.
Extinction is also the foundation of exposure therapy
Throught repeated exposure to things that an individual fears and avoids, anxiety is lessened because they habituate to the thing they feared.
Operant Conditioning Terminology:
Definition: Operant conditioning is the process of learning through reinforcement and punishment. In operant conditioning, behaviors are strengthened or weakened based on the consequences of that behavior. Operant conditioning was defined and studied by behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner.
Process of conditioning voluntary, controllable behaviours, not the automatic physiological responses in Classical Conditioning.
With Operant Conditioning, the Response comes before the Stimulus
There are four types of operant conditioning: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment.
Positive reinforcement: Adding something to the equation to make a behavior more likely to occur in the future. (action is rewarded or followed by rewarding stimulus. E.g: giving a sweet for the right answer on a quiz)
Negative reinforcement: Removing something from the equation to make behavior more likely to occur in the future. (when an action is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus. E.g: complete the quiz and leave class early)
Positive punishment: Adding something to the equation to make a behavior lesslikely to occur in the future. (when an action is followed by an aversive stimulus. E.g: if you skip class you get slapped.)
Negative punishment: Removing something from the equation to make behavior less likely to occur in the future. (when an action is followed by the removal of a positive stimulus. E.g: if you skip class you dont graduate)
What about complex behavious?
Shaping is a process of reinforcing a series of responses that increasingly resemble the desired final behavior
When a desired behavior occurs rarely or not at all, we use shaping
First reinforce any response that in some way resembles the desired behavior, then one that is closer ect.
(small thing in small steps)
Evaluation
External rewards may diminish intrinsic motivation. Studies where participants work on an interesting task (ex. puzzles), experimental group is given a reward when finished while the control group is not. Reward results in participants spending less time on task.
Pizza Hut used to give away free pizza to kids who read a certain amount of pages. This practice was discontinued as it actually eroded students intrinsic motivation to read.
More critiques…
Behaviourism doesn't account for anything that isn't observable behavior - there is more than what is observable, doesn't there ?
Behaviorism only accounts for learning through direct experience with the environment (not observational learning)
Can ALL behavior be explained this way?
What about language? - We know about 35,000 words.
Cognitive psychology
The study of how people perceive, learn, remember, and think. E.g: How people perceive various shapes, Why they remember some facts and forget others or How they learn a language
Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of the mind as an information processor.
Cognitive psychologists try to build up cognitive models of the information processing that goes on inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language, memory, thinking, and consciousness.
Cognitive psychology became of great importance in the mid-1950s. Several factors were important in this:
Dissatisfaction with the behaviourist approach in its simple emphasis on external behavior rather than internal processes.
The development of better experimental methods.
Comparison between human and computer processing of information.
Influence of the revolution:
There were some reactions against behaviourism (animals misbehave, studies shows conditioning doesn't work.
Artificial intelligence (add short def)
Computer science (…)
Neuroscience (…)
Linguistics (example with Chomsky and Skinner
Alan Turing
He developped the first computers. His colossus computer helped the german enigma codes during WWII, and it has been estimated that his work shortened the war in Europe by 2 years.
He talked about an analogy between computers and human minds. Hardware (brain) and Software (mind). He thought that thinking can be described in terms of algorithmic manipulation of some information. These ideas gave rise to the information processing paradigm in psychology - cognitive psychology.
Cognitive psychology makes a lot of basic assumptions such as "Humans are information processors", "Mediational processes occur between stimulus and response" or "Psychology should be seen as a science".
Cognitive Psychology and Memory:
Baddeley and Hitch made a research in 1974 to see how the short-term memory works, they analysed the number of errors made after a certain amount of people were given strings of digits of varying length while being asked to do a spatial reasoning task. What they found out was that the time to complete the task changed as the digit span rose but the number of errors stayed the same.
Thanks to this and multiple other studies, the Working Memory model was created, and that the short-term memory was replaced with the working memory.
Working Memory (closer look):
Central Executive: The central executive directs attention and gives priority to particular activities. The central executive is the most versatile and important component of the working memory system
Governs use of the stores - what should be there, what needs to be done with it.
The two short term stores have independent roles; Verbal (phonological store) and Visual Spatial (visuo.spatial sketch pad)
Phonological Loop: The phonological loop is the part of working memory that deals with spoken and written material. ... The phonological store (linked to speech perception) acts as an inner ear and holds information in a speech-based form (i.e., spoken words) for 1-2 seconds.
You "hear" or "rehearse" in an internal voice.
Phonological Similarity Effect - recall of characteristics more difficult if the series has greater phonological similarity:
Letters PVCG are harder than XRFY
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