Audrey Quesnel

Thursday March 24th, 2011

MP-3
Advanced Placement Psychology
BIOLOGICAL FACTORS
 The biological basis of learning is of great interest to psychologists.
 In the 1960s, psychologists noticed that neurons themselves could be affected by
environmental stimulation.
 The enriched environment included things to explore and lots of room in which to
move, whereas the deprived environment was just a small, empty cage.
 Donald Hebb proposed that human learning takes place by neurons forming new
connections with one another or by the strengthening of connections that already
exist.
 Eric Kandel, a neuroscientist, examined classical conditioning in aplysia.
 Neuromodulators strengthen the synapses between the sensory neurons (the ones
that sense the touch) and the motor neurons (the ones that withdraw the gill)
involved.
 Long-term potential is what the experiment illustrated a neural basis for learning,
namely, a physiological change that correlates with a relatively stable change in
behavior as a result of experience.

SOCIAL LEARNING
 A third kind of learning is social learning, which is learning based on observing
the behavior of others as well as the consequences of that behavior.
 Because this learning takes place by observing others, it is also referred to as
vicarious learning.
 Albert Bandura conducted some of the most important research on social
learning.
 One example of this research involved having children watch films of adults
beating up and inflatable clown doll called Bobo.
 When the children were allowed to interact with similar dolls, those who
observed the adults acting aggressively tended to attack the doll, while those
who saw the adults ignore the doll did not tend to act aggressively. This
illustrated the power of modeling in effecting changes in behavior.
 Four conditions must be met for observational learning to occur.
o First the learner must pay attention to the behavior in question.
o There must be retention of the observed behavior, meaning that it must
be remembered.
o There must be a motivation for the learner to produce the behavior at a
later time.
o Finally the potential for reproduction must exist, that is, the learner
must be able to reproduce the learned behavior.

COGNITIVE PROCESSES IN LEARNING

 The behaviorist view, championed by Skinner, is that behavior is a series of
behavior-reward pairings and cognition is not as important to the learning
process.
 Audrey Quesnel
Thursday March 24th, 2011
MP-3
Advanced Placement Psychology
 The words do not sound alike, so this pattern of behavior is clearly the result of
a cognitive evaluation of the words, which have related meanings.
 Other evidence for a cognitive component to learning derives from the work of
Edward Tolman.
 The popular behaviorist view of this type of scenario is that only the correct
responses, that is, correct turns in the maze, should be reinforced by the food at
the end of the maze.
 The rats showed latent learning, or learning that is not outwardly expressed until
the situation calls for it.