Skinner

Skinners experiments and findings were actually based on Thorndike’s conclusions, but skinner believed that the animals used their minds. Skinner used rats and doves in between other animals to conduct his experiments. He would place a rat inside a box and give him rewards whenever he got closer to its goal and whenever he would go to farther he would get a punishment. So the rat got to learn what he had to do to get the reward and step by step he got to its goal. With the pigeon, there were differnet cases, but it was relatively the same.

What reinforcement does is that it increases behavior and what ounishment does is to decreasse behavior. What negative means is when you take something away as a reinforcement or as a punishment and positive means that you give something as a punishment or reinforcement.

Thorndike!

A cat is placed in a "puzzle-box." The door of the box is held by a simple latch. Outside the cage is a piece of salmon on a dish. The cat moves around the cage trying to find a way out. The cat moves to the part of the cage closest to the salmon, and begins extending its paws through the bars toward the fish. The cat reaches more and more vigorously, and begins scratching at the bars. After a while these responses cease, and the cat begins to actively move around the cage. A few minutes later, it bumps against the latch. The door opens and the cat scampers out and eats the fish. The cat is placed back in the box and a new piece of fish is placed on the dish. The cat goes through the same responses as before and eventually, bumps into the latch once more. This is repeated again and again. Gradually the cat stops extending its paws through the bars and spends more of its time near the latch. Then the cat begins to direct almost all of its activity near the latch. Ultimately, the cat develops a quick and efficient series of movements for opening the latch. The Law of Effect states that if you do something that brings you positive effects, then you will keep on doing what brought you positive effects, and what brings negative effects then you will stop doing. The law of exercise states that if you want to learn an action that brings positive effects, you won’t learn by only looking but by practicing constantly. The more you practice the better you get to it.

WATSON!

         Watson´s experiments basically consisted of placing a baby , little albert, in a room where he was presented a rat, At first the baby began playing with the rat and presented no fear, but once they made a really loud sound that woud scare little albert, he would begin crying. After many times of doing this, little albert was again presented with the rat, but this time he would feel uncomfortable and scared around the rat.

          Introduction of a loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response), a natural response.

Introduction of a rat (neutral stimulus) paired with the loud sound (unconditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (unconditioned response).

Successive introductions of a rat (conditioned stimulus) resulted in fear (conditioned response). Here, learning is demonstrated.

          The limitations of this experiment was that it was only used on one baby and that this experiment couldnt be replicated. Also this didnt aply to all people and cultures because other cultures or people could have reacted differently to or have different fears. Watsons law of frequency states The more frequent a stimulus and response to occur in association with each other, the stronger that habit will become. The law of recency consists of making a sound or an actions that affects future stimulus.

Watson thought that our behavior is determined by our enviornment and that they shouldnt study mental process becaus you cannot see it but you can see behavior.

Pavlov

Before Pavlov discovered the theory of classical condition, he was only studying the functions of dog’s saliva in their digestion. But he found something more fascinating to him. His experiment consisted of: Pavlov’s dogs, were kept in an experimental chamber, they took  meat powder to the dog and they had their saliva collected via a surgically implanted tube in their saliva glands. After some time, he noticed that his dogs began salivation before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or by a clicking noise produced by the device that took the meat powder to them. Later, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli like the ringing of a bell. After the meat powder and bell (auditory stimulus) were put together several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, responded by salivating to the sound of the bell (without the food). The bell began as a neutral stimulus. However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the salivation response. Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-response bonds are formed. He dedicated much of the rest of his career further exploring this finding. The meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus, the dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response, the bell is a neutral stimulus until the dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus which produces the conditioned response of salivation after repeated pairings between the bell and food. Extinction occurs when the conditioned stimulus is given a number of times without the unconditioned stimulus but if they keep ringing the bell without giving the dog any food (unconditioned stimulus), eventually the dog will disassociate the bell from the food and it will no longer salivate. Extinction occurred when the dog has no effect on the bell.