Constraints on What We

Have Learned about

Learning

Behaviourist assumptions

Focus on the observable (behaviour)

All that cannot be observed is ignored
Nearly all behaviour is learned
Focus on experimentation rather than
speculation
Commitment to discovery, not dogma
Parsimony (adoption of the simplest
assumption in a theory)
Environmental determinism: tabula rasa, little
importance attached to genes
Animal research can be generalized to
humans

Biological Constraints:
(Limiting CC)
Animal

research can be generalized

to humans
There are biological predispositions that factor
into an animals capacity for being conditioned
John Garcia challenged the idea that all
associations can be learned equally well

Garcia and Koellings rats

Method: Expose rats to a particular taste,

sight or sound (CS) and later expose them
to radiation or drugs that produce vomiting
and nausea

Findings: The rats avoided the flavour

even if they got sick hours after the
flavoured water was consumed (beyond the
<30s interval)
The rats developed taste aversions but not
sight or sound aversions (thus, not any
stimulus could be a CS )

This indicates that

Natural selection favours traits that

help facilitate survival
Hence the taste aversion rather than the
sight aversion
We most easily learn behaviours and
maintain them when they reflect our
biological predispositions

Why do we associate red with

sex?

Biological Constraints:
Limiting Operant Conditioning
We most easily learn behaviours
and maintain them when they
reflect our biological
predispositions
Reinforcers that are naturally
connected to the behaviours are
more effective
Edible reinforcers shaping digging
or rearing up versus face washing

Cognitive Constraints: Limiting

Classical Conditioning

All that cannot be observed is

ignored

Animals can learn the predictability

of an event and the more predictable
the association, the more predictable
the response

Associations influence attitudes

Knowing that it is the drug causing the nausea

not the liquor overrides the conditioning and
diminishes the efficacy of the treatment

Cognition and Conditioning:

Latent Learning
Cognitive Map: mental representation
of the layout of one's environment.
Latent Learning: learning that occurs
but is not apparent until there is an
incentive to demonstrate it.

Motivation
Intrinsic motivation: desire to perform
a behavior for its own sake and to be
effective.
Extrinsic motivation: desire to perform
a behavior due to promised rewards
or threats of punishment.

Motivation for this course

What motivates you for completing your

homework, studying and preparing for this
course?

Is it intrinsic or extrinsic?

Overjustification

Overjustification effect: promising a

reward for doing what one already
likes to do.
The person then sees the reward, rather
than intrinsic motivation for performing
the task.

Actions are seen as externally

controlled rather than internally
controlled

Locus of control
External

locus of control: The

perception that chance or
outside forces beyond our
personal control determine what
happens in our lives

Internal

locus of control: The

perception that you control your
own fate

How does this relate to

behaviour?

Problem-focused coping versus emotionfocused coping

PFC: Alleviates stress by directly dealing

with the stressor (changing it or changing
how we interact with it)

EFC: Alleviates stress by avoiding or

ignoring a stressor and paying attention to
emotional needs

Learned Helplessness

The hopelessness and passive

resignation of an animal or human
when they have learned to perceive
that they are unable to avoid repeated
aversive events

The Bobo Doll

Experiments:
Banduras social modeling approach to
aggression.

Evolution of behaviourism

Pavlov: Classical conditioning

Skinner: Operant conditioning

Behaviour is not always learned on the
basis of an unconditioned stimulus
Behaviour is determined by past history of
reinforcement
Shaping

Bandura: Social modelling

Albert Bandura:
Social Modeling Approach

Behaviour can be
learned in absence of
reinforcement, by
means of imitating
others
Social Modeling can
account for learning
complex behaviours
such as language

Context and implications

Bobo doll experiment

Behaviouri
sm

Aggression TV and
violence

Design of the Bobo doll

experiment
Subjects
36 boys and 36 girls, from Stanford Nursery,
mean age 4 years 4 months
Total
72 boys and girls

Aggressive
condition
24

Control group
24

Non- aggressive
condition
24

Design of the Bobo doll

experiment
Aggressive
condition

Subject
Male

Model

Non-aggressive
condition
Male

Female

Male

Female

Subject

Model

Control group
24 participants

Female

Male

Female

Design of the Bobo Doll

Experiment
Independent Variables:
Exposure to aggressive model or nonaggressive model.
Exposure to same sex model or opposite
sex model.

Dependent variables:
Imitation/behaviour (clearly operationalised)
Imitation of physical aggression: [] striking the Bobo
doll with the mallet, sitting on the doll and punching it
in the nose, kicking the doll, and tossing it in the air.
Imitative verbal aggression: Subject repeats the
phrases, "Sock him," "Hit him down," "Kick him,"
"Throw him in the air," or "Pow"
Imitative nonaggressive verbal responses: Subject
repeats, "He keeps coming back for more," or "He sure
is a tough fella."
Mallet aggression: Subject strikes objects other than
the Bobo doll aggressively with the mallet.
Sits on Bobo doll: Subject lays the Bobo doll on its side
and sits on it, but does not aggress toward
it.

Hypotheses
H1. Subjects exposed to aggressive models
would reproduce aggressive acts
resembling those of their models and would
differ in this respect both from subjects who
served nonaggressive models and from
those who had no prior exposure to any
models.
H2. It was further predicted that observation
of subdued nonaggressive models would
have generalized inhibiting effect on the
subjects' subsequent behavior, and this
effect would be reflected in a difference
between the nonaggressive and the control
groups, with subjects in the latter group
displaying significantly more aggression.

Hypotheses
H3. One would expect subjects to
imitate the behavior of a same-sex
model to a greater degree than a model
of the opposite sex.
H4. Since aggression, however, is a highly
masculine-typed behavior, boys should
be more predisposed than girls toward
imitating aggression, the difference
being most marked for subjects exposed
to the male aggressive model.

Results

Scores of
children in the
aggressive
condition were
significantly
higher than
those of either
the nonaggressive or
control
groups.

Banduras Conclusions:

Aggression is a learned behaviour, not an

in-built instinct
Learning can take place in the absence of
any reinforcement via observation and
modeling
Modeling is a powerful and fast way of
learning particularly effective if the
model is the same gender as the learner
Implications for parents, teachers,
psychotherapists (treatment of phobias)

Further studies does

reinforcement or punishment
factor
Bandurain?
observed three different groups
of children:
One group of children saw the child
praised for aggressive behavior
A second group saw the child punished
for aggressive behavior. They were told
to go sit down in a corner and the child
was then not allowed to play with the
toys.
A third group saw a film with the child
simply walking out of the room.

Further studies does it matter if

the models are real, filmed or
cartoons?

What do the Bobo doll studies

really tell us about the effects of
TV on children?

Films used in the study differ markedly

from real movies (no plot, no causal
justification for the models behaviour,
which is quite bizzare)
Participants in an experiment know they
are expected to play a particular role
Look, Mummy, this is the doll we have to
hit (Nobel, 1975)
Does not test long-term effects
Aggresion towards an inanimate toy only,
not a living being can we assume
generalization?
What else can you do with the Bobo doll?

What do you think?

There has been a tremendous amount of

research on the effects of TV violence on
children and adolescents over the past 40
years. Yet theorists still do not agree on
this. Do you think violence on TV and in
video games causes violence in the
watchers/players?

Hollow Claims about Fantasy Violence

by Richard Rhodes
Is there really a link between entertainment and
violent behavior?
The AMA, the APA, the American Academy of
Pediatrics and the National Institute of Mental
Health all say yes. They base their claims on
social science research that has been sharply
criticized and disputed within the social science
profession, especially outside the United States.
In fact, no direct, causal link between exposure
to mock violence in the media and subsequent
violent behavior has ever been demonstrated,
and the few claims of modest correlation have
been contradicted by other findings, sometimes
in
the same studies.
SEPT17, 2000