Cognitive and Biological factors influence behavioural change

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Cognitive and Biological factors influence behavioural change

"Theories challenging traditional learning theory make the assumption that learning is more than a series of stimulus-response associations."

With reference to this statement, assess the extent to which cognitive and/or biological factors contribute to explanations of behavioural change within the learning perspective.

 

Cognitive and biological factors contribute to the explanations of behavioural change within the learning perspective. Studies on behavioural change suggest that cognitive and biological factors influences learning, such as biological preparedness, imprinting, instinctual drift and the LAD. Phobias are also an example of biological influences on learning, which supports the one-trial-learning theory. Cognitive elements such as cognitive maps and insight contribute to the explanations of behavioural change within the learning perspective.

 

Biological preparedness, in the learning perspective, suggests that learning is influenced by biological factors. For example, the concept of one-trial-learning explains how phobias are learnt. One-trail-learning does not incorporate the original ideas of classical conditioning, as repeated-pair trials are not needed for phobias to be learnt. Furthermore, one-trial-learning does not require repetition, which is normally required in the traditional classical conditioning. An example of 'learning' a phobia is taste aversion. In a study conducted by John Garcia, cayotes were taught to abstain from eating sheep. This was done by giving the cayotes sheep meat containing lithium chloride, hence making the cayotes feel nausea, vomiting and discomfort. The cayotes were wrapped in sheep skin, whist they were feeling sick, thus they became to dislike the smell of sheep. Consequently, they learnt to develop a phobia of sheep. This study illustrates that phobia can be 'learnt' through the concept of one-trial-learning.

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Another similar study on the influence of biological preparedness in learning phobias is the study conducted by Minoke. In the study, monkeys were given 3 different type of stimulus: a toy snake, a gun and a flower. The monkeys were then classical conditioned to fear the 3 different type of stimulus. The results showed that the monkeys were more afraid of a toy snake than the gun or the flower. This depicts the biological preparedness in the monkeys. If there were no biological preparedness in the monkeys, they would have equally feared the toy snake, gun and flower, but ...

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