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History > Task 6 - Behaviorism > Flashcards

Task 6 - Behaviorism Flashcards

1
Q

Behaviorism

A
  • all behaviors are either reflexes or consequences of an individual history
  • We can measure surrounding (input) and behavior (output)
  • > what happens in the brain? We don’t really are
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2
Q

First American psychology - functionalism

A
  • Americans were strongly interested in Darwins evolutionary theory
  • eugenics
  • nation of common-sense businessmen, not interested in abstract science
  • > interested in practical accomplishments that at the same time made money, revealed God’s glory and advanced the American dream
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3
Q

Public image of psychology

A

-associated psychology with phrenology, mesmerism, spiritualism and other paranormal subjects

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4
Q

Phrenology

A
  • view that mental functions are localized in the brain
  • capacity of a function corresponds to size of brain part devoted to it
  • started with Joseph Gall
  • > Spurzheim applied it to predict character, personality and propensity to crime
  • > he exported it to Uk and USA
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5
Q

First American psychology: functionalism

A

-strongly interested in evolutionary theory

…

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6
Q

Mesmerism

A
  • Mesmer claimed that he could cure patients by restoring their animal magnetism
  • > became popular after Parisian Charles Posen in 1830-40s gave a series of lectures
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7
Q

Spiritualism

A
  • belief that spirits of the dead could be contacted by mediums
  • started in mid 90s with Fox sisters
  • spread rapidly, the more because Civil War claimed many lives
  • first psychologists were invited to investigate spiritual sessions
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8
Q

Inspiration from animal research

-> preservation of races in struggle for life

A
  • Darwin and spencer -> individuals became interested in animal behavior
  • looked for similarities between human and animal behavior
  • searched for evidence of intelligent behavior passed from generation to generation
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9
Q

Early research - trying to understand the animals mind

A
  • George Romanes: mental processes in animals were thought to be same sort as you would expect to find after introspection of your own consciousness
  • anthropomorphic interpretation
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10
Q

Anthropomorphic interpretation

A
  • interpreting behavior of non-human living creatures by attributing human motives and human-like intelligence to them
  • popular in second half of 19th century
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11
Q

Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)

A
  • American
  • father of comparison psychology (1898)
  • first to study animal psychology in an objective way
  • > placing an animal in controlled environment and drawing conclusion on basis of the animal behavior
  • instrumental conditioning
  • law of effect
  • educational psychology -> identified 3 main areas of intellectual development (abstract intelligence,mechanical intelligence and social intelligence)
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12
Q

Thorndikes Puzzle box

A
  • put hungry animals in box
  • > need to solve puzzle to reach food outside of box

Findings: law of effect

  • cats who watched other cats solve the puzzle were not better at solving when put in the box themselves
  • > instrumental conditioning
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13
Q

Law of effect

A
  • refer to the fact that behaviors followed by positive consequences are strengthened and more likely to be repeated
  • behaviors not followed by such consequences -> not repeated
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14
Q

Instrumental conditioning

A
  • name introduced by Thorndike
  • refers to learning on the basis of law of effect
  • called operant conditioning by skinner
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15
Q

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

A
  • Russian physiologist (1849-1936)
  • studied digestive system of animals
  • after 1900: interest in why organs secret fluids before food was presented
  • > started research on CC
  • thought that psychology could be reduced to physiology: thinking consisted of reflexes
  • big impact on development of behaviorism
  • supported a totally objective psychology and Watson’s behaviorism
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16
Q

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

A
  • American psychologist
  • PhD in animal Psychology
  • editor of journal ‘Psychological Review’
  • > published behaviorist manifesto
  • criticized that introspection has failed
  • importance of observation and behavior rather than introspection and thoughts
  • > influenced by evolutionary theory, natural selection
  • little Albert
  • said he could take any child and turn in in whoever he wants just by changing/controlling environment
  • consciousness is an irrelevant concept -> important: study of actual, observable behavior
17
Q

Watson and link to evolutionary theory

A
  • behaviorism is a direct outgrowth go studies in animal behavior
  • animal psychology was a product of evolutionary theory
19
Q

Ideas behaviorists took from philosophers to further develop scientific psychology (3)

A

1) requirement of operational definitions
2) distinction between dependent and independent variables
3) science relies on verification

20
Q

Operational definition

A

-definition of a variable in terms of how the variable has been measured
-> allows description of the variable in quantitative form
Example: weight expressed in Kg

21
Q

Independent and dependent variables

A
  • on basis of this distinction -> psy. Research could be defined as study of impact of a stimulus ( indep. V.) on the response (dep. V.)
  • > behaviorism also became known as S-R-psychology
22
Q

Need for verification

A
  • statements were only useful if they could be verified by empirical observation
  • ruled out religious and introspective statements
23
Q

Skinner (1904-1990) - radical behaviorism

A
  • Operant conditioning
  • learning language = conditioning

Radical behaviorism:

  • denies relevance of information processing in mind and holds that all human behavior can be understood on the basis of S-R associations
  • lack of free will in humans
24
Q

Tolman - purposive behaviorism -1930s, 40s

A
  • behavior as goal-related (means to an end)
  • animal psychology -> maze running rats appear to think before making some decisions
  • goal-directedness can be studied in an objective way
  • agreed with other behaviorists that psychology should be based on observable behavior
  • tolman and hull same Generation
  • > skinner later
25
Q

Hull

A

Mathematical equations with operationally defined variables that allow detailed predictions of behavior in specified circumstances

26
Q

View of behaviorists on psychology

A
  • Psy has failed to become a natural science because mental states are object of study and introspection is only direct method of studying them
  • P has been preoccupied with questions that are not open to experimentation

-> P is only an objective and experimental branch of natural science

27
Q

Thorndikes relation to John B. Watson

A
  • thorndikes work set basis for next major movement: behaviorists
  • Watson built upon Thorndikes studies with animals on operant conditioning
  • Watson: strong emphasis on impact of environmental influences on behavior
  • Thorndike: differences in parental behavior of men and women were due to biological rather than cultural reasons
28
Q

Cognitive revolution

A
  • understanding: the mind = Brain
  • > actually possible to study
  • techniques to map mental processes
  • lack of explanation for phenomena
  • rise of computers/ artificial intelligence

-> changes view on cognitive psychology

29
Q

George Boole

A
  • British mathematician/logician
  • wrote ‘laws of thought’
  • Boolean logic
  • > Binary system (and, or, not, true, fasle)
30
Q

Claude Elwood Shannon

A

-mathematician -> came up with idea that information is quantifiable
-working with electrical circuits
-

31
Q

John von Neumann

A
  • Mathematics
  • developed the famous computer model
  • wrote ‘the computer and the brain’
32
Q

Alan Turing

A
  • enigma machine for encrypting in WW
  • developed the ‘bombe’ (machine) -> a reason why war ended earlier
  • Turing machine
  • > hypothetical device with simple rules
33
Q

Turing machine - cognition ?

A
  • can human mind be explained by set of Turing machine?
  • > they can (in theory) -> many philosophers were convinced of that
  • by simulating human thinking/perception, one gains insights in the underlying processes
34
Q

Turing test

A

Can machines think?
-> or is it just following simple rules?

Task: participant has to decide whether he is talking to a computer or a human being

35
Q

Rise of computers led to:

A
  • analogies between computer hardware and physiology of the brain
  • the mind as computer software, and psychology the study thereof (input , steps that manipulate this input according to rules, output)
36
Q

Chomsky

A
  • against skinners theory of language learning

- apparently, an internal mechanisms exists

37
Q

George miller

A
  • educated as behaviorist
  • tried to explain language in behavioristic way
  • > he realized that behaviorism had no future
  • started first cognitive research center

-working memory can contain 7 +/- 2 items

38
Q

Donald Broadbent

A
  • British psychologists
  • cocktail party effect
  • showed how attention works
39
Q

Problem Behaviorism

A
  • failed to explain certain phenomena
  • certain mental processes were successfully studied scientifically
  • more disciplines started to focus on cognitive dimension
  • from 1975: cognitive psychology started to dominate the scientific realm, leaving behaviorism behind

History (10 decks)

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