Today’s session

1. Today’s session

2. Learning • Classical conditioning • Learning through association of stimuli • Operant conditioning • learning new behaviours through the consequences of past

3. Operant conditioning “Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.” (B.F.Skinner) Behaviour Consequence Likelihood of repetition Reinforcement Punishment

4. Operant conditioning “Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.” (B.F.Skinner) Behaviour Consequence Likelihood of repetition  Reinforcement Punishment

5. Operant conditioning “Behaviour is shaped and maintained by its consequences.” (B.F.Skinner) Behaviour Consequence Likelihood of repetition  Reinforcement Punishment

6. Operant conditioning • Reinforcement • A consequence that strengthens the behaviour that preceded it • Punishment • A consequence that weakens the behaviour that preceded it

7. Shaping • Selective reinforcement of successive closer approximations to a target behaviour.

8. Behaviourist Research • Behaviourists tried to be scientific in their approach to psychology. Which methods do you think they might prefer? Which might they avoid?

9. Behaviourist Research Methods • Experiment • Observation • Quantitative data • Use of animals as models of human learning

10. Evaluating behaviourism • How effectively it explains human behaviour • Evidence on which it is based • Application to real-world problems • Contribution to psychology • Contribution to human understanding