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Edexel A-Level Psychology - Learning Theories
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ALL OF LEARNING THEORIES
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Social learning: refers to learning through observation. For example a girl mayobserve her older sister bake a lovely cake and then copy the behaviour later.
Observation: with reference to social learning theory refers to watching a model’s
behaviour. For example, a girl might watch her older sister putting on her makeup.
Imitation: refers to copying a behaviour after it has been modelled. For example, a
boy may play
with a toy gun in the same way his friend does.
Modelling: refers to learning the new behaviours by observing other people. The
modelling process involves the following processes: attention, retention, reproduction
and motivation. For Example a boy may pay attention to his father playing the guitar
and retain the behaviour. In order to reproduce the behaviour, he will need to
practice the guitar. Finally, to successfully imitate his father’s playing ability, he needs
to be motivated to copy the behaviour.
Vicarious reinforcement: refers to a behaviour being reinforced because another
person has
been observed receiving a reward for it. For example, a boy I more likely to work
hard on his
Classical conditioning
● process of learning by association.
● occurs when we make associations between stimuli and automatic, reflexive
responses.
○ E.G. a dog might salivate to the sound of a bell on its own because it is
associated with the food with the bell. Fear can be conditioned. Fear
response of the lift and stress could occur
A stimulus → is something that causes a response
A response → a reaction to a stimulus
Extinction → when a conditioned response is suppressed - this occurs when the
conditioned response is no longer paired with the unconditioned stimulus
Spontaneous recovery - occurs when the conditioned response lies dormant but
them suddenly reappears again
Pavlov was a physiologist, working on the salivary reflex in dogs.
He measured the amount of saliva secreted by dogs.
Pavlov gave scientific name to the part of this procedure:
, ● Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) - the stimulus which automatically triggers a
specific reflex response
● Unconditional response (UCR) - the automatic reflex response to the
unconditioned stimulus eg. salivation
● Neutral stimulus (NS) - a stimulus that would not normally trigger a specific
reflex response eg. bell does not normally trigger salivation
● Conditioned stimulus (CS) - the NS now triggers the reflex response eg. the
bell now triggers salivation
classical conditioning in humans: vasoconstriction, a reflex action which closes the
blood vessels of the extremities of the body in very cold temperatures, can be
classically conditioned
Summarized procedure:
Food (UCS) ---------> salivation (UCR)
Bell (NS) + food (UCS) -----------> salivation (UCR)
Bell (CS) -------------> salivation (CR)
Other features of classical conditioning:
Extinction
● if dog hears a buzzer on several trial when no food is presented, then the
association between food and buzzer weakens so that eventually the dog will
not salivate upon hearing the buzzer.
○ this is called extinction because the learned response appears to have
been extinguished
Spontaneous recovery
● when the dog is removed from the experiment for a few hours and is returned,
it will salivate (show the CR) when it hears the buzzer.
○ this is called spontaneous recovery and shows the association
between the buzzer and salivation has not been completely
extinguished
Generalisation
● Pavlov also found that the dog salivated to a buzzer, which had a similar tone
to the original one (the CS). the more similar the tone, the greater quantity of
saliva produced by the dog
○ this is generalisation because the conditional response was triggered
by a similar stimulus
, Discrimination
● when buzzers are sounded which are more and more different from the
original tome (the CS), the dog will no longer salivate
Evaluating classical conditioning
+ The theory can explain the acquisition of some aspects of behaviour.
Classical conditioning shows how the environment can determine behaviour
through stimulus – response mechanisms
+ i.e. Little Albert initially showed no fear of rats but through his
experience developed a phobia.
+ The theory has a range of practical applications in the real-world.
+ The principles of classical conditioning are used successfully in
behavioural therapies such as aversion therapy and systematic
desensitisation. Such therapies can be used to help cure phobias and
addictions.
- Classical conditioning can only account for the appearance of involuntary
reflex responses in new situations.
- It cannot explain the acquisition of entirely new behaviours.
- In contrast, operant conditioning aims to explain why some voluntary
behaviours e.g. pressing a lever, are repeated or maintained through
reinforcements.
PAVLOV 1927 → EXPERIMENT WITH DOGS
AIMS
● Pavlov wanted to know how the cerebral cortex works and he chose dogs
because they have some higher-order thinking and yet are manageable.
● He wanted to look at reflex behaviour to see if he could work out pathways to
the brain.
PROCEDURE
● Discovered that the cerebral cortex is needed for survival, not just reflexes
(dogs with damage to the cerebral cortex would not survive in spite of reflexes
being intact)
● Pavlov chose salivation as it is measurable (drops can be counted or the
amount can be seen in a glass tube).
● The researchers found that even the stimuli from one experimenter led to
associations and learning so they had to build a special chamber for the dog
where the dog would not even hear footsteps.
● Pavlov and the researchers carried out their many experiments by varying the
stimuli that paired the unconditioned stimulus.
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