Essay on Cognitive Maps in Rats and Men

After reading through chapter six, I began reading chapter seven of our psychology text titled, Learning. Learning is something we do everyday even we don’t realize it. While reading chapter seven, I learned that there are three different types of learning, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and cognitive learning. Classical conditioning stands for two types of stimuli linking providing us the tools to have a reaction; this is the type of learning that involves automatic behaviors. Operant conditioning is the type of learning that causes a change in behavior, in reaction to consequences; this is the behavior that involves choosing of choices. Lastly, cognitive learning is the obtaining of new skills, behaviors, and information through

One of the main reasons that Tolman chose to execute this study was because he wanted to prove that rats could be studied in the same manner as humans when it came to cognitive processes; Tolman suggested that there was no need to study these processes directly when the mental processes themselves could be observed through the behavior of the organism, like how a rat may act when using a cognitive map––a mental layout of the environment that an organism uses to navigate itself from one destination to another.

This essay will attempt to make a analytical comparison between two psychological perspectives, cognitive and behaviourism on what they believe about their approach to learning and also explain what the theories of two psychologist that are associated with both perspectives, highlighting the similarities and differences.

Thereby, Skinner produced experiments whereby rats would navigate through mazes to achieve the goal of a box containing food. His interest was the behaviour of the rat, taking the right turn to achieve the desired result, food. To begin with the rats would take the wrong turn but with experience, they became more skilful. The rats learning behaviour was measured in two ways, firstly the length of time it took from start to end and secondly, the reduction in errors. This was a lengthy experiment which led Skinner to produce ‘the Skinner box’. Whereby, rats learnt to press a lever and pigeons learnt to peck a key in order to attain food, also known as behaviour shaping. This experiment lacks ecological validity as the animals are kept in a controlled environment which is dissimilar to their natural habitat. However, the results which were attained could not have been possible in natural circumstances. Skinner wanted to observe if behaviour could be learned through reaching a desired outcome such as positive reinforcement which needed to be

Behaviourists regard behaviour as a response to a stimulus; pioneering the belief that internal cognitive processes are unnecessary when explaining behaviour. This view is supported by the behaviourist John Locke who proposed that children are born as ‘blank slates’ (‘tabula rasa’) whereby children are shaped by experience (Neaum, 2010). The behaviourist approach assumes that the process of learning is the same in all species; therefore concluding that human and animals learn in similar ways. Early behaviourists include Edward Thorndike, Edward Tolman and Edwin Guthrie conducted experiments on animals, under carefully observed conditions (Collin, 2011). However the three theorists, most associated with behaviourism are: Ivan Pavlov, John Watson and B.F. Skinner. These theorists identified two types of associative learning: classical and operant conditioning; these methods underpin the behaviourist perspective.

In Psychology learning is seen as a change in behaviour caused by an experience. Behaviorism, is seen as a learning theory; an attempt to explain how people or animals learn by studying their behaviour. The Behaviourists Approach has two theories to help explain how we learn, Classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In this task I will attempt to describe and evaluate this approach.

In Behaviorism, learning is a change in observable behavior. The environment causes behavior and there is a one-way correlation between the interactions among behavior, environment, and personal factors (Walsh, 2016). In Cognitivism, learning is related with distinct changes among states of knowledge rather than with changes in the odds of response. It focuses more on the notion of the learning process and the information is accepted, organized, saved, and restored by the brain. In the Social

The theory assumes that a human’s environment or external stimuli determine his or her behavior, and there is little difference between the learning process of humans and that of other animals.

For many of years, psychologists and theorists have studied and tracked what influences a human 's growth, learning, and overall development. Although there are many different views of why people may develop the way they do, there is no true "correct" answer. According to learning theorist, B.F Skinner, he believed that all human behavior was determined by environmental influences. This is what as known as behaviorism. "Skinner referred to his own philosophy as 'radical behaviorism ' and suggested that the concept of free will was simply an illusion. All human action, he instead believed, was the direct result of conditioning" (Cherry, 2005). Throughout this paper my focus will be on learning theories- specifically the concept of behaviorism.

The cognitive theory argues that behavior is based on knowing about a situation in which the

Behaviorists and cognitive psychologists have debated for many years. It is from these two schools of thought that dueling informational ideas have been born. Originally, behaviorism was the leading school of thought being led by John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner. Later new ideas regarding the mind became more prominent. Edward C. Tolman was one of the more prominent figures of this field. Behaviorists looked for more evidence of behavior and rejected any ideas about the mind. An idea that was highly looked into by cognitive psychologists.

Though this theory mainly focuses on Skinner, another theorist named John B. Watson is mentioned. Watson believed that human behavior is the result of specific stimuli that elicited certain responses. His basic idea was that the conclusions about human development should be based on the observation of overt behavior rather than speculation. Watson was also a professor of psychology at Hopkins University and “By the time he left the field for good in the early 1930s, behaviorism had succeeded in taking center stage within American psychology” (Wozniak, 1997).

Many ideas were shared between Watson, Tolman, and Skinner who all played a role in the forming of behaviorism. They did, however, differ on some of their beliefs as well as their methods of study. At this time, methods of studying psychology as well as psychology in general were in the developing stages. Watson was largely credited with the foundation of behaviorism, however, he was by no means the only one to make contributions. There has been some debate as to whether Watson’s contributions were enough to make him the “founder of behaviorism.” It is important to examine contributions from several of the early

Tolman. Rats were put into a maze and split into three groups: group 1 received food at the end, group 2 received nothing, and group 3 received no food for the first ten days and food at the end on the eleventh. Group 1 rats finished the maze quickly, group 2 rats wandered around the maze, and group 3 rats demonstrated similar behavior as group 2 rats until the eleventh day, when they learned to rush through the maze as quickly as group 1. Group 3 rats thus showed latent learning by using the knowledge they gained without the incentive (wandering around) to finish the maze much more quickly.

Behaviourism and Cognitive Constructivism are two prominent theories exploring the ways in which people learn. However, they both take rather different approaches to explain how learning occurs. The leading thinkers in Behaviourism are John Watson and B.F. Skinner and here, their considerations will be compared to and contrasted with, those of Jean Piaget, the pioneer of Cognitive Constructivism. Behaviourism is based on the creation of associations between stimuli and responses by the learner, through forms of conditioning. Piaget’s Theory of Cognitive Development centres on the premise that people learn differently at different ages.