Transcript Famous Experiments

Famous
Experiments
A look at behaviorism, observational learning,
and obedience to authority
Topic: Authority and Obedience
Experiment: Dr. Stanley Milgram’s “shock” experiment
 Research question: Will people do things they find morally objectionable if an
authority figure asks them to do so?
 Procedures: Subject is told to deliver increasing voltage of electric shock to “memory
test subject” in adjacent room. As screams and pleads of “stop” are heard, subject is
told by authority figure (psychologist in labcoat) to “please continue.”
 Findings: 63% if subjects continue delivering shocks to end
 Conclusion: People will go against their own conscious (moral code) when pressed to
do so by someone in authority
Show Milgram British redovideo
SO WHaT?
Topic: Conformity to social pressure
Experiment: Dr. Solomon Asch line experiments
 Procedures: 1 subject in room full of
“plants”. Plants give obviously incorrect
answer. Will subject trust his/her own
perception and give honest answer or bend
to norm?
 Findings: 76% of subjects will go with group
at least once; 25% never bent to group’s
opinion; 5% always bent to group’s opinion
 video clip
Topic: Bystander Apathy
 Darley and Latane (1968)
 Subjects are in separate rooms engaged in discussion over intercom
 1 of the people in discussion starts to have epileptic seizure and pleads
for help
 What happens?
 Greater # of people in group, slower people are to respond to help
 Video clip
 What would you do?
Independent reading and notes: Pavlov’s theory of classical
conditioning
 Read and annotate the handout.
 Take notes on loose leaf/spiral
 Be sure to identify and define key words associated with the
theory
 If any processes are described, create a flow chart that depicts
the process
 video clip The Office
Classical Conditioning: Pavlov and “Pavlovian Response”
Russian Dr. Ivan Pavlov, M.D. (1849-1936) studied effects of external environment on reflex responses

“Classical conditioning focuses on the learning of involuntary emotional or
physiological responses such as fear, increase heartbeat, salivation, or sweating,
which are sometimes called respondents or reflexes because they are automatic
responses to stimuli” *
Procedures: FACT: dogs have an instinctual reflex (Unconditioned Response) to start salivating when
they smell food.
 Pavlov paired a neutral stimulus (sound of bell ringing) with the unconditioned stimulus (food)
 US + NS  UR
 Repeat multiple times. NS becomes CS. UR becomes CR.
 Remove US. Perform CS only (bell ring)
 CS CR

Conditioned response (CR) :The behavior that starts as an unconditioned response (UR or UCR) to
an unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS) the experimenter is trying to elicit from the subject using
the neutral stimulus (NS)
 salivation

Neutral stimulus (NS): A stimulus (sight, sound, smell, feeling) that is unrelated to the desired
behavior response prior to conditioning.
 Sound of bell

Unconditioned stimulus (US or UCS): a stimulus that leads to an involuntary response by a subject
without any training.

Food
NS becomes conditioned
stimulus (CS)
After repeated paired
exposures of NS and
US, NS becomes CS;
subject begins behaving
in same involuntary way
it would to unconditioned
stimulus (US) after US
has been removed
Generalization: Stimulus similar to CS will elicit same CR
--Different bells elicit salivation
Discrimination: Animal learns to ignore stimuli that are similar to CS
If similar stimuli never accompany original US
--Sound of different bell NEVER paired with food
Extinction: CR will stop after repeated exposure to CS without US
--Original bell rung many times without exposure to food
Practical applications of Pavlovian Response
In simple terms: you can train an animal (and a person) to
respond in a desired way (perform a behavior or extinguish
a behavior!) by training the person to associate desired (or
undesired) behavior with a simple stimulus
 help people stop wetting the bed
 stop coyote from eating sheep by poisoning sheep carcasses
 eliminate phobias (pair the feared stimulus with a positive
stimulus)
 1920 John Watson experiment “Baby Albert” video
Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner

Skinner (died 1990) American behavioral psychologist

Designed the “Skinner Box” to prove that animals (rats, pigeons) could be trained to do noninstinctual behaviors if rewarded for the desired behavior

2 kinds of “reinforcers”


Positive--reward like money or food
Negative --removal of a negative stressor (loud noise, bright light, shock) (NOTE: This is not the same
as punishment!!)

Animals can be trained to extinguish (stop doing previously learned behaviors) if punished for
performing the behavior or if reinforcement stops

Punishment does NOT work very well to make behavior extinct IF reward outweighs punishment

Show video

Video clip 2
Skinner’s additional findings
 Schedules of reinforcement:
 Continuous reinforcement—Reward every time behavior occurs
 fixed ratio schedule—same amount of reward every time behavior occurs
 fixed interval schedule—reward given if behavior occurs in set amount of time

variable schedules—reward appears in random amounts and random time intervals and
after random occurences of behavior
 Which Schedule of reinforcement works best?
 Variable interval works best!! Reinforcer loses effectiveness if happens
every time!!
 Shaping: animals can be trained to do difficult, multi-step tasks (such as
navigating through a maze or operating a complex machine) if rewarded
for behaviors that are similar to desired behavior AND rewarded for each
step of process
Practical Applications of Operant
Conditioning
 Gambling—slot machines used variable interval schedules
 systematic desensitization –Behaviorist Joseph Wolpe teaches people to
relax muscles while exposed to incrementally scarier situations if have a phobia

Behavior modification (B-mod)—” Extinguish an undesirable behavior (by
removing the reinforcer) and replace it with a desirable behavior by
reinforcement. It has been used on all sorts of psychological problems -addictions, neuroses, shyness, autism, even schizophrenia -- and works
particularly well with children” (Boerce 2006)
Boerce, G. PhD. 2006. “Personality Theories. B.F. Skinner” http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.html
Practical Applications of Operant
C0nditioning READING
On loose leaf, respond with complete sentences (OR a flow
chart for questions 1 and 2):
 . How might a psychologist use B-mod to help a child stop
acting out in class? To help a smoker stop smoking?
 2. How might a parent use shaping to help teach a child
who is a picky eater to try/like new foods?
 3. What is the Token Economy1, where and why is it used,
and what is a drawback about it?
Social Learning (Observational Learning) Theory
Bandura
 Bandura wanted to know how much social modeling and
reinforcement of behaviors affects individual’s behaviors
 Bobo Doll experiment (see video link to original Bandura experiment)
 If people see a behavior rewarded, they will replicate it
 Practical applications? Media, older peers, parents set standards for
behavior
 “Do as I say, not as I do” does NOT work!!
 “Children see, children do”
Zimbardo’s Stanford Prison
Experiment
 Video
 How does environment and status affect people’s
behavior?