Classical condition is learning through association, which was accidentally found by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Pavlov was conducting experiments in relation to dogs digestive systems when he stumbled on, what is known as, classical conditioning. Pavlov noticed that dogs did not only salivate when food was placed in front of them, but they also salivated before the food was given to them, and was triggered by other factors such as upon hearing or seeing Pavlov, or the sound of footsteps. Pavlov then discovered that the anticipation of receiving the food made the dogs salivate. Pavlov then modified his experiment to test whether using a stimulus such as meat powder, which caused salivation, could be varied and a conditioned stimulus such as the ringing of a bell could also bring about the unconditioned response of salivation originally caused by being presented with the sight of the meat powder. Pavlov used a soundproof room, to minimise and limit extraneous variables so he could be sure that it was i.e. only the ringing of a bell that was affecting the salivation after the conditioned stimulus. John Watson performed another example of classical conditioning when he experimented on Little Albert in 1920. Behaviourists learning theorists such as Watson suggested that phobias were conditioned emotional responses. Certain stimuli, such as sudden loud noises, naturally cause fear reactions, and stimuli that become associated with them will acquire the same emotional responses. Little Albert was presented with a white laboratory rat to which he showed no fear response. Watson then associated the loud noise simultaneously with the presentation of the rat, Little Albert then associated fear with the rat, and was then able to generalise these response to other fluffy white objects. The study with Little Albert has serious ethical problems. Firstly that he participated in the experiment involuntary and without the consent of his mother. Also Watson reported that they hesitated about proceeding with the experiment but comforted themselves that Albert would encounter such traumatic associations when he left the sheltered environment of the nursery anyway. This is not a very good ethical defence, especially since they believed such associations might persist indefinitely and did not leave sufficient time to remove the fear afterwards, despite knowing that Albert was due to leave.
Classical conditioning can be related to today with the development of therapies using classical conditioning techniques to extinguishing fear. The first technique of therapy is the systematic desensitation, which aims to extinguish the fear response of a phobia, and substitute a relaxation response to the conditional stimulus gradually, step by step. This therapy was developed mainly by Wolpe, who stated that in order for the fear to be removed gradually, a hierarchy of fear must be formed and ranked by the subject from least fearful to most fearful. The subject is then given training in deep muscle relaxation techniques so it can then be used at each stage of the hierarchy starting from the least fearful to the most and only progressing when the subject feels sufficiently relaxed. This method of treatment has a very high success rate with specific phobias, i.e. of particular animals. It is considered to work particularly well because the response of fear and relaxation is said to be impossible for them to exist at the same time. The second techniques of therapy are implosion and the flooding techniques, when both methods produce extinction of a phobia’s fear by the continual and dramatic presentation of the phobic or situation. Wolpe in 1960 forced a girl with a fear of cars into the back seat of a car and drove her around for 4 hours straight until her hysterical fear completely disappeared. Marks et al (1981) say that this kind of therapy works because eventually some stimulus exhaustion takes place, as you cannot scream forever and then the conditioned fear response extinguishes. The technique most similar to classical conditioning is called Aversion Therapy, and is most relevant to today’s treatment of alcoholism, smoking or overeating. The technique aims to remove undesirable responses to certain stimuli by associating them with aversive stimuli, in the hope that the undesirable responses will be avoided in the future. Aversion therapy has been used to treat alcoholism, for example the person is given alcohol with a nausea-inducing drug unsuspectingly, and should then feel sick. The person associates drinking with their intestinal distress and results found that two out of three people did not have any alcohol a year later. Although it has a high success rate, ethical considerations of deliberating causing discomfort to another person through deception must be taken into account. The limitation of this type of therapy is its difficulty to generalise to other situations from where the learning took place.
Operant conditioning involves learning through consequences of behavioural responses. The principles operant conditioning were first investigated by Thorndike, and then thoroughly developed by behaviourist Skinner. Skinner applied them to explain how many aspects of human behaviour are acquired. Thorndike studied the way cats would learn to escape from his puzzle box by trial and error. The Cats has to emit the response of pulling the string inside the box to release to provide escape to a pleasant consequence, such as a piece of fish. The cats did not immediately acquire the desirable escape behaviour, but it was seen over as over time, the timing of escape decreased with each trial. Thorndike found that any response that led to desirable consequences was more likely to occur than to the occurrence of something that led to undesirable consequences, and this is known as the law of effect. Skinner used a ‘Skinner Box’, which was sound proof, gave electric shocks, and gave food pellet rewards. When a hungry rat was placed in the box, it behaved randomly and then accidentally pressed a lever, which issued a food pellet. After many trials of random behaviour the rat’s behaviour became less and less spontaneous and replaced with constant lever pressing. The rat did not acquire a new skill in this situation, it already had the responses necessary to press the lever, the use of a reinforcement, the food pellet, only altered how frequently the lever was pressed by the rat. In both experiments animals are used, ethical considerations of animal research are the learning perspective’s major criticisms. Animals are often used because they are good subjects. They do not try to understand the purpose of the experiment, and are more controllable. The quicker breeding cycle allows tests relating to heredity and environment influences on behaviour be conducted. However the animals tested on often suffer greatly from being part of an experiment. They are used without consent, as they cannot give consent themselves. Their living conditions must be considered, be it cage size, food, lighting, temperature or care routine. They too, are argued, lack ecological validity, than those conducted on humans, so these invalid findings are even less useful as it proves hard to generalise to human behaviour.
Operant Conditioning relates to today with the practical uses of animals and token economy programmes. Tokens act as secondary reinforcers, and many studies have shown that both animals and humans will emit behaviour for tokens that are exchangeable for primary reinforcers at a later time. Each time an appropriate behaviour is demonstrated by the inmate, such as making their bed or brushing their teeth, then a token is issued – and the more desirable the behaviour, the greater number of tokens, i.e. 6 tokens for washing up the dishes. These tokens can then be used to buy desired rewards, i.e. 3 tokens to watch a favourite TV show. They have been seen in education and performing chores around the house. Shaping of behaviour works in animal training, when teaching to perform certain tasks or tricks. This is used to train dogs for search and rescue operations, to detect drugs and explosives, and guide dogs for the blind and physically impaired. Other animals, such as dolphins, are used as military tools to deliver mines to the hull of enemy ships or pigeons to deliver messages.
Social learning theory was developed mainly by Bandura and Walters, who suggested that much behaviour, including aggression, is learnt from the environment through reinforcement and the process of modelling. Modelling involves learning through observation of other people, models, which may lead to imitation if the behaviour to be imitated leads to desirable consequences. Bandura et al, 1965, had three groups of children; both boys and girls to avoid gender bias, watching an adult model interact with an inflatable Bobo doll. The doll was seen being thrown around the room, hit with a hammer, and yelled at. One group saw the model’s aggression being rewarded, and after being put in a playroom with the doll showed high levels of imitation. Another group saw the model’s aggression being punished, and this resulted in less imitative behaviour when in the playroom with the doll. The third group saw the model’s behaviour with no specific consequences, which resulted with less imitation. If all the children were offered rewards for doing what the model had done, all groups showed high levels of imitation. Bandura manipulated the independent variable of exposure of aggression to see what effect it had on the dependent variable of imitation of aggression in children under controlled laboratory conditions. With this kind of research many ethical issues arise with Bandura’s research whether it is right to produce aggression in children experimentally, even if they may acquire it from their own environment anyway. Bandura’s social learning theory laboratory experiments have been accused of being overly artificial, of inducing demand characteristics, in which the children may believe that they had to show acts of aggression.
Observation learning is relevant to today and is seen in practice in Harrison’s research in 1992. J Kline Harrison used the principles of observation learning in his research regarding cross-cultural training. It is a training program to prepare people for work in a location that has a culture, or way of life that is different than the culture in their usual place of residence. The type of training is particularly relevant to Australian and American companies who have employees working around the world, and in most cases Asia and Europe. The participants of his study were 65 civilian employees (mangers) of the United States military agency responsible for housing the military around the world. They were all managers or trainee mangers. The training conducted related to working in Japan. Harrison pre-tested participants for their existing knowledge of Japan and found no significant difference between groups on their knowledge nor did other variables such as age, gender, education, affect their test results. Harrison used two approaches in the groups and even combined both. The two approaches were the cognitive and experimental. The cognitive dealt with knowledge gained through learning factual information about the country and culture. The experimental approach’s knowledge was gained through experiencing the behaviour appropriate and acceptable in the culture. It was found that in regard to the participants’ behaviour, those who were given combined training scored significantly higher than all other groups. It is seen that preparing behaviour for a new culture with cross-cultural training is beneficial for employees relocated overseas.
The learning perspective developed in first part of they 20th century with many factors affecting its rise such as Pavlov, Watson and the criticism of introspection. With each component of the learning perspective it is seen that it is beneficial to people today. Each has helped many people, being those with phobias or alcohol problems in relation to classical conditioning. Or Operant conditioning having its relevance in practical animal uses and token economies, and lastly observation learning and the social learning theory which is beneficial for those relocating to another culture to observe behaviour that would be considered acceptable. The learning perspective is still very much relevant in today’s world.
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Hill, 2001, A Level Psychology