Psychology GCSE: Learning

• noticed that the dogs salivated when they heard the food buckets being brought (salivation is the reflex response so he knew the dogs had learnt to salivate to the sound of the food buckets)

• set up a series of trials where each time the dog was fed, a bell was rung for a few seconds and the saliva produced was measured

• bell rung and no food given

• amount of saliva was the same as when food was given

Aim: to see if the emotional response of fear could be conditioned in a human being
Method: Little Albert (11 months old) seemed to like the white laboratory rat and had no fear of white furry objects. In the conditioning trials, the rat was shown to little albert and a metal bar was hit with a hammer behind his back as he reached for the rat. Repeated several times
Results: after 7 times, when the rat was present again, albert screamed and tried to get away even though the bar was not hit and there was no loud noise. Albert also screamed when shown a Santa Claus mask and a fur coat
Conclusion: Watson and rayner showed that fear responses could be learnt in the way suggested by classical conditioning

Advertising agencies want the audience to associate something positive e.g. A nice person, with their product so we might want to buy that product more often

• designed a puzzle box to place a cat inside. the cat had to escape by pulling a piece of string that would lift a latch resulting in the door opening

• when the cat was first placed in the box, it moved around and accidentally pulled the string to release the door

• after about 20 trials, the cat started to escape very quickly

• cat had learnt through trial and error to pull the string in order to escape

• the pleasant consequence (escaping) encouraged the cat to pull the string - thorndike called this the law of effect

• placed a hungry rat in the Skinner box and it would produce actions such as sniffing, exploring and grooming

• accidentally press the lever and a pellet of food would immediately drop into the food tray

• every time the lever was pressed, this behaviour was positively reinforced (rewarded) by a pleasant consequence (food pellet) and therefore increased the likelihood of the rat repeating the behaviour

• sometimes in the skinner boxes there would be an electric shock running through the floor that would turn off when the rat pushed the lever

• this is negative reinforcement as the unpleasant experience is being taken away therefore increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated

• sometimes in the box, the rat would push a button and this would produce and electric shock so the rat quickly learnt not to push the button - punishment

Flooding and systematic desensitisation

• involves immediate exposure to the feared thing until no fear response

• exposed repeatedly and rapidly to the thing they fear - flooded with thoughts and actual experiences

• works by the person unlearning the connection between the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response

• not allowed to escape as initial response is to run away

• learn that their anxiety levels will drop the more times they’re exposed to their fears

• will be successful when the person realises they are not in danger and this happens quite quickly

Aims to extinguish fear by replacing it with relaxation

• teach client deep muscle relaxation techniques

• create hierarchy of fears

• client exposed to (or asked to visualise) each step of the hierarchy of fears

• only move onto the next level when the client is completely comfortable on that stage of the hierarchy

• length of therapy depends on the individual client

• eventual aim is that they’re completely relaxed at their most feared situation

Aversion therapy and token economy

Aim of the therapy is to get the patient to develop an extremely negative reaction - based on classical conditioning

• an emetic (UCS) causes vomiting

• when the emetic is given and alcohol it causes vomiting so the patient is then conditioned to vomit when they drink alcohol

Involves giving a person tokens to reward a desired behaviour that can be exchanged for things they want

• a token acts as a secondary reinforcer that can be exchanged for a primary reinforcer which the person needs in order to survive

• based on the principles of operant conditioning

• individuals receive tokens immediately after displaying desirable behaviour

Hospitals and prisons