What are these rats learning and how?

Today’s session You will learn how to...You will learn about... Describe and apply psychological approaches & theories Assess the strengths and weaknesses of psychological approaches (including methods) Behaviourism Operant conditioning Using animals in psychological research

Learning Classical conditioning – Learning through association of stimuli Operant conditioning – learning new behaviours through the consequences of past

Operant conditioning BehaviourConsequence Likelihood of repetition “Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.” (B.F.Skinner) Reinforcement Punishment

Operant conditioning BehaviourConsequence Likelihood of repetition “Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.” (B.F.Skinner) Reinforcement Punishment

Operant conditioning BehaviourConsequence Likelihood of repetition “Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.” (B.F.Skinner) Reinforcement Punishment 

Operant conditioning Reinforcement – A consequence that strengthens the behaviour that preceded it Punishment – A consequence that weakens the behaviour that preceded it

Shaping Selective reinforcement of successive closer approximations to a target behaviour.

Behaviourist Research Behaviourists tried to be scientific in their approach to psychology. Which methods do you think they might prefer? Which might they avoid?

Behaviourist Research Methods Experiment Observation Quantitative data Use of animals as models of human learning

Evaluating behaviourism Introduction of scientific methods Application to real-world problems Emphasis on external behaviour rather than internal mental processes Position on the nature-nurture and free will- determinism debates