Download Historical Perspectives on Psychology Minds and Machines since

PSY 3360 / CGS 3325
Historical Perspectives
on Psychology
Minds and Machines since 1600
Dr. Peter Assmann
Summer 2016
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
Term paper
• Due next Thursday (July 21) by midnight
• Upload your term paper to E-Learning:
https://elearning.utdallas.edu
 Late penalty: one letter grade per class period
Why peacock tails are attractive
The origin of species
Evolution
Natural selection
"Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution."
Th. Dobzhansky, 1973
Galton and the Measurement of Intelligence
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23423074
“Chimpanzee Intelligence Is Heritable”
Anthropometry
London International Health
Exhibition (1884)
Measurement of intelligence
 Head size
 Sensory acuity
 Reaction time
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982214006770
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“The Mixed-Up Brothers of Bogotá
James-Lange theory of emotion
Emotion is the psychological
response to physiological events
We see a bear; this triggers a
physiological response, which
leads us to experience fear.
Emotion is caused by bodily
events, not the other way
around.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/12/magazine/the-mixed-up-brothers-of-bogota.html
Psychopathic criminals have
empathy switch
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23431793
Vienna Circle (1920s)
• Logical positivism
• All knowledge is derived from experience.
• Science applies strict criteria of verifiability by
empirical means to test the meaningfulness of
any statement.
• All theoretical terms must be directly linked to
empirical observations.
• Combined formal logic with radical empiricism.
Peirce’s theory of signs
• Signs are stimulus patterns that stand for
something (convey meaning to an observer).
• An icon is a sign that physically resembles
what it stands for.
• An index is a sign that is associated with or
correlated with its object.
• A symbol is a sign that gains its meaning
from its association with other symbols.
Percy Bridgman (1892-1961)
• Bridgman (1927) every abstract concept in
physics must be defined in terms of the
procedures used to measure it.
• Operational definitions provide a basis for
attaching every theoretical construct to
observable empirical phenomena (or data).
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Operationism
• Operationism: insistence that all abstract
scientific terms must be operationally defined.
• Behaviorists attempted to provide operational
definitions of concepts like drive, anxiety,
and intelligence.
Psychology in Russia:
The Reflex School
• Emphasis on the physiological basis of
behavior and learning
• External (physical) causes of behavior
• Psychology as the science of behavior:
Origins of behaviorism
Ivan Michailovich Sechenov (1829-1905)
Ivan Michailovich Sechenov (1829-1905)
 Russian physiologist who trained with Müller and
Helmholtz
 Viewed the mind as an epiphenomenon
 Concluded that introspection was often unreliable
 Major work: Reflexes of the Brain (1863)
 All external manifestations of brain activity can be
attributed to muscular movement.
 All conscious voluntary movements are reflexes.
 Proposed that neural excitation and inhibition
could serve as explanatory concepts in psychology.
 Excitation: an increase in neural activity following
stimulation.
 Inhibition: a process by which neural activation is
reduced following stimulation.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)
 Russian physiologist who
developed the concept of
the conditioned reflex.
 Won the Nobel Prize for
Physiology and Medicine
in 1904.
 Sechenov’s approach was popularized by the Russian
physiologist Vladimir Michaelovitch Bechterev
(1867-1927) who called it reflexology.
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Materialism
•mental processes are unnecessary concepts
• Atomism
•complex behaviors described as the product and
accumulation of many simple elements
• Associationism
•Learned behaviors are the product of chains of
associations or conditioned reflexes
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Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)
 Studied salivation in dogs; discovered that stimuli
other than food can induce salivation.
 Developed methodology of classical conditioning
(also called Pavlovian conditioning) – a neutral
stimulus leads to a response as a result of being
paired with another stimulus that already produces
the response.
Classical Conditioning
 Unconditioned stimulus (US)
 Unconditioned response (UR)
 Conditioned stimulus (CS)
 Conditioned response (CR)
 Pavlov called this a conditioned response.
Classical Conditioning
 Dogs have an innate tendency to salivate at the sight of
food. Food is the US, and salivation is the UR.
 Next, the US (food) is presented with a CS that does
not elicit the response, e.g. the sound of a metronome.
Generalization and Discrimination
 Generalization: Conditioned responses often occur to
stimuli that are similar to (but not identical to) the
original CS.
 After repeated pairing of the CS and US, the CS will
begin to elicit the same response (UR), now called the
conditioned response (CR).
Generalization and Discrimination
 Discrimination (or differentiation): At first animals
respond indiscriminately to a range of stimuli
(generalization). By selective reinforcement, Pavlov
trained his animals to make a conditioned response to
the reinforced stimulus, but not to other stimuli.
Extinction
 Extinction: If the CS is paired repeatedly without the
US, the CR will eventually disappear, or become
extinguished.
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Persistence of Conditioned Response
 Spontaneous recovery: after some time the response
may reappear, and the CS will again elicit the CR.
 Presenting a sudden strong, irrelevant stimulus can also
cause the CR to reappear. Pavlov interpreted this as
evidence that extinction was the result of inhibition.
 Disinhibition resulting from the sudden strong stimulus
displaces the inhibitory process and restores the CR.
Language and Symbolic Behavior
 Problem for Pavlov: how to account for language?
 Symbolic activity that involves a link between an
arbitrary symbol and its referent.
 Pavlov proposed a two-part theory of language:
 First signal system: association between a signal (CS)
and biologically meaningful events. For example, the
smell of smoke can serve as a warning signal.
 Second signal system: process by which we come to
associate arbitrary symbols (words) with events and
objects in the world (“signals of signals”). Eventually
we respond to shouts of “Fire!” in the same way we
respond to the smell of smoke.
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)
• Law of Exercise: a response is more
strongly linked to a situation the more often
it has been linked with it in the past, and
depending on how strong and long-lasting
the link has been in the past.
• stimulus-response (S-R) learning theory
Experimental Neurosis
• Pavlov observed neurotic behavior
(avoidance of the experiment room and
unpredictable aggressive outbursts) when
the dogs were required to make finer and
finer discriminations between stimuli in a
classical conditioning discrimination
experiment.
• Pavlov attributed this behavior to
unavoidable conflicts between two strong
but incompatible conditioned responses.
Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)
• Instrumental Learning
• Law of Effect: when several responses are
made to the same situation, those which are
accompanied with rewards are more likely
to be repeated, while those accompanied by
punishment are more likely to be avoided.
John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)
• Early life
• University of Chicago
 Jacques Loeb (1859-1924) – tropisms
 Henry Donaldson (1857-1938) –
neurologist; CNS development in rats
 Robert Yerkes (1876-1956) – animal
behavior
 Karl Lashley (1890-1959) – homing
behavior in birds; localization of brain
function; physiological basis of
memory; the problem of serial order in
behavior
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John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)
Psychology as the behaviorist sees it
• Objective basis; no subjective data,
introspection, or interpretation of
conscious experience.
• Goal: predict & control overt behavior
• No accepted division between humans
and other animals; focus on biological
and psychological similarities among
animal species
Radical Environmentalism
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, wellformed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take
any one at random and train him to become
any type of specialist I might select - doctor,
lawyer, merchant-chief and yes, even
beggar-man and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities,
vocations, and race of his ancestors.”
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
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Burrhus Frederic Skinner
Radical environmentalist
Behaviorist
Inventions: Air-crib,
Skinner box
 Operant conditioning
 Reinforcement learning
 Principles of programmed
learning
John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)
• The move to Johns Hopkins
• Instinct as a set of reflexes activated by
heredity
• Conditioned responses
• Conditioned fear: Little Albert
• Scandal
• The move to advertising work
• Origins of the behaviorist movement
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Skinner did not see any
need for abstract
theoretical concepts in
psychology; but insisted
that all methodological
terms be operationally
defined.
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Skinner described two
main forms of learning:
– respondent (Pavlovian)
conditioning
– operant (voluntary,
learned) behavior
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B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
Experimental Analysis of Behavior
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Independent variables
Dependent variables
Locus of variables
Descriptive behaviorism
Respondent vs. operant behavior
Contingencies of reinforcement
Behavior is a product of reinforcement
history
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The Behavior of Organisms (1938)
Walden Two (1948)
Science and Human Behavior (1953)
Verbal Behavior (1957)
The Analysis of Behavior (with J.G. Holland, 1961)
Technology of Teaching (1968).
Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)
Particulars of My Life (1976)
The Shaping of a Behaviorist (1979)
A Matter of Consequences (1983)
Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior (1989)
Skinner Box
B.F. Skinner
• Operant behavior:
– operant response (naturally occurring behavior)
– reinforcement (alters probability of response)
– setting (situation in which behavior is emitted)
• Experimental analysis of behavior: systematic
description of contingencies of reinforcement
• Instrument used to record behavior
• Consists of a rotating drum of paper and a
marking pen
• The marking pen starts at the bottom of the
page and the drum turns the roll of paper
horizontally. Each behavioral response
moves the pen vertically along the paper by
one unit.
Operant Conditioning
Cumulative record
Total number of bar presses
Cumulative recorder
reinforced responses
50
“accidental” responses
25
0
0
15
30
Time in minutes
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Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement
Extinction of an operant response
• Reinforcement strengthens responses
Total number of bar presses
response is extinguished
• Positive reinforcement
50
– Rewards participant while it is present
• Negative reinforcement
25
– Rewards participant when it is withdrawn
0
0
15
30
Time in minutes
Operant Conditioning
• Contingencies of reinforcement
• Reinforcement schedules
Operant Conditioning
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 Continual vs. intermittent reinforcement
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 Interval vs. ratio schedules
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Fixed-interval reinforcement schedule
Fixed-ratio reinforcement schedule
Variable-interval reinforcement schedule
Variable-ratio reinforcement schedule
 Fixed vs. variable schedules
B.F. Skinner
• Operant behavior:
– operant response (naturally occurring behavior)
– reinforcement (alters probability of response)
– setting (situation in which behavior is emitted)
• Experimental analysis of behavior: systematic
description of contingencies of reinforcement
Project Pigeon (1944)
• WW II guided
missiles
• Pigeons trained to
peck at a target to
hold guided missile
on target
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B.F. Skinner
• The innate behavior of animals is shaped
and maintained by its contribution to the
survival of the individual and species.
• Operant behavior is shaped and maintained
by its consequences for the individual.
Skinner’s teaching machine
Behavior Modification
• Change consequences of behavior
– Remove consequences that cause problems
– Arrange new consequences for desired
behaviors that lack strength
Speech and Language
• Verbal Behavior (1957)
– speech and language are forms of verbal
behavior whose reinforcement is mediated by
other people.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/18/Skinner_teaching_machine_01.jpg
Speech and Language
Theories of language behavior
• Verbal Behavior (1957)
– Verbal operants – vocal responses conditioned
through operant learning
• Pavlov – language as conditioned responses
– operant responses
• Lashley – complex planned behavior
– contingencies of reinforcement
– tact: a verbal operant response under the
stimulus control of the environment
– first and second symbol systems
– rejection of telephone switchboard metaphor
– central planning agency for mapping and
controlling long sequences of behavior
– The problem of serial order in behavior
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