Lecture Introduction to Behaviourist and Cognitive Approaches to Learning

L1- Introduction to Behaviourist + Cognitive Approaches to Learning

Hierarchy of adaptive behaviour
ReflexesFixed action pattern (FAP) Habituation Classical + instrumental conditioning

Behaviourist psychology
 Behaviourist movement- around 1900- response to the dominant method of
introspection (Wundt)

 Originally- theories based on OBSERVABLES= stimuli + responses

 ‘LEARNING’= main theme of behaviourist psych

Behaviourismcognitivism= stimulus, response + problem of ‘internal’ representation

Cognitive psychology
 1950s- certain types of human + animal behaviour= too complex to be explained by
behaviourist theory

 Cognitive processes= storage, retrieval + transformation of information- ‘internal’
(mental) representations that these processes can operate

 Computer metaphor of human mind (e.g. memory)- focuses on information processing
at a symbolic level

LEARNING= process by which relatively long-lasting changes occur in behavioural potential
due to experience

MEMORY= relatively permanent record of the experience that underlies learning

Early research on learning + memory
 Learning
- Pavlov- Classical conditioning
- Thorndike

 Memory
- Ebbinghaus

Classical conditioning
 An unconditioned (naturally occurring) stimulus e.g. food

 An unconditioned (NOT been learnt/ innate) response e.g. salivation to the taste of food

 A conditioned stimulus e.g. bell + unconditioned stimulus e.g. food- the organism learns
to ASSOCIATE the pair