Find concepts and theories of psychological science. I include definitions, examples, names of theorists, and references to conceptual articles and research studies. This blog is for educational purposes only. No clinical services are provided. See a mental health provider for diagnoses and treatment. I may earn income from purchases of advertised products or links.
The recency effect is a serial position effect evident by a person's better recall of more recent information than recall of earlier information.
The effect is based on the work of Hermann Ebbinghaus who studied the capacity to remember lists. Items at the end of the list (the most recent items) were recalled better than those in the middle. Those items at the beginning were also recalled better than those in the middle (primacy effect).
Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website iswww.suttong.com
Classical conditioning is a type of learning that occurs when a neutral stimulus elicits the same response after it is paired with an unconditioned stimulus that naturally produces a response. After frequent pairings of the neutral stimulus with the unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus produces the same response and is therefore referred to as a conditioned stimulus.
The discovery is attributed to the work of Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov in the 1800s. In psychology texts, Pavlov conditions a dog to salivate to the sound of a bell without food after the bell had been paired with the presentation of food. The salivation was a natural response to food but after the bell was paired with the presentation of food, salivation became a conditioned response.
Classical conditioning has been applied to psychotherapy.
Some phobias can be reduced or eliminated when the eliciting (trigger) stimulus is successfully paired with a stimulus that produces a calm and relaxed emotional state.
Other interventions based on a classical conditioning model include:
Aversive conditioning
Systematic Desensitization
Exposure Therapy
Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website iswww.suttong.com
Operant
Conditioning is a learning process in which reinforcers strengthen a new behavior.
Operant conditioning is one type of learning process
based on scientific evidence that organisms learn some new behaviors when a behavioral
action is followed by a reinforcer. The learning becomes evident when the new
behavior is repeated.
Operant conditioning is also called instrumental
conditioning.
Organisms- The word organisms in the definition makes it
clear that both humans and animals learn some new behaviors this way.
Reinforcers: Reinforcers are
consequences that strengthen behavior. The key word is strengthen. Consequences
that weaken behavior are punishers. It cannot be determined if something is a
reinforcer until after it has been delivered following a behavioral response
because evidence of an increase in the targeted behavior is the key evidence
supporting the conclusion that the behavior was strengthened, that is,
reinforced.
There is confusion over the concepts of positive and
negative reinforcement. The way to think about positive and negative is as
arithmetic terms of addition and subtraction.
Positive reinforcers are stimulus events
that measurably result in an increase in behavior when added to the behavioral
response -> consequence sequence. Example: a consumer learns to buy more
products when they earn points for purchases. If buying increases then the
points functioned as a positive reinforcer.
Negative reinforcers are stimulus events
that measurably result in an increase in behavior when subtracted (removed
from) the behavioral response -> consequence sequence. Example: a consumer
learns to pay for an online video service to remove (subtract) annoying
advertising. Negative reinforcement is not punishment.
Rewards are not necessarily reinforcers. Although some
writers refer to reinforcers as rewards, that is not scientifically accurate.
Reinforcers refer to anything that follows a behavioral response and causes an
increase (strengthens) in future responding (strengthens) as is evident by
plotting the results of learning trials when the reinforcing stimulus is
presented following a specific target behavior.
If a consequence results in a decrease in behavior,
the behavior has been punished. Example: If a child is brought to the front of
an audience of peers and given an award for their behavior, but the behavior
declines following the award (such as due to feeling embarrassed or bullied)
then the award event is a punisher despite the efforts of the people
thinking they were rewarding good behavior.
If the consequence does not result in a change in
behavior, the behavior has not been reinforced or punished. The stimulus event
is neutral. Example: If a child does not learn appropriate behavior after being
sent to their room then the consequence is neutral. The proposed reinforcer
doesn’t work and is classified as a neutral reinforcer.
Psychologists and Operant Conditioning
American psychologist Edward L. Thorndike (31
August 1874 – 9 August 1949) studied learning in cats in the early 1900s. They learned to press
a level opening a door so they could obtain food. Following repeated trials,
the cats quickly learned the procedure. The finding was called the Law of
Effect, which influenced B. F. Skinner’s work on the process of operant
conditioning. Thorndike's learning apparatus was called a puzzle box.
American psychologist B.F. (Burrhus
Frederic) Skinner (20 Mary 1904 – 18 August 1990) studied pigeons who
learned new responses following food reinforcers delivered in a laboratory
device called the Skinner box (an operant conditioning chamber).
VIDEOS
Thorndike and a cat video from YouTube
B. F. Skinner and pigeons playing ping pong- The B. F. Skinner foundation video
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Geoffrey W. Sutton, PhD is Emeritus Professor of Psychology. He retired from a clinical practice and was credentialed in clinical neuropsychology and psychopharmacology. His website iswww.suttong.com
