Caitlin Juliano-(History & Systems) Comments to Three Journal Entries Written by Classmates

     

Caitlin Juliano

Thurs., 4/3/2020

Psychology (SENIOR SEMINAR): History & Systems***

***Comments on Classmate's Journal Entries posted online on Blogger: 

I tried posting comments and somehow they were not posting properly. I tried to do it multiple times; but it's still not working overall. So, I just decided to improvise and write them like this since my comments aren't properly posting. (I'm not to sure if it may be my laptop or not? I'm not too sure..) 


Reply to Hanna Wilson's 1st Journal Entry: 
Hi Hanna,
     First off, you've got a great discussion post here. It is so thought-out, organized, and easy to understand. I too wrote about thinking and perception in one of my journal entries. Personally, I find those vast topics in overall psych to be so very thought-provoking and deep. In correspondence, I completely agree with your journal entry. I too enjoyed Hunt's fourteenth chapter in his book, our course book for History & Systems. Additionally, I for sure have to point out and say that I specifically agree with you when you mentioned that the neural and cognitive approaches to perception are fascinating aspects of psychology and answer many questions as a whole concept. To conclude on my comment to your very well-written journal entry, I have to comment on your choice of image. I love that choice of picture because not only does it grasp the reader's attention, but it defines the key definition of the intriguing concept of perception. As a sophomore last school year, I remember viewing images like that when I took Professor Berg's Perception course. It truly helped me understand it all so much better. The concept is broad, vivid, deep, and just generally has so much more possibilities for the future as well. Again, I believe that perception and the thought process in the human brain is one of the most thought-provoking concepts in general psychology to learn about and observe about.
Great post! Thanks for sharing, Hanna! :)

Reply to Hanna Wilson's 2nd Journal Entry:
Hi again Hanna, 
     Another great journal entry! Great job! 
   
     I too found Hunt's chapter on personality to be so very interesting as a whole. I think personality is such a crucial and fascinating part of the amazing field of psychology. Learning about personality is one of my favorite concepts to talk about in psychology. I think it is so neat to analyze and understand how people were, how they became who they are now, what and/or who has influenced them, and beyond... There are so many reasonings behind the formation, flaws, changes, and influences on the topic of personality. There are so many questions to this subject matter as well- especially as we all have such different personalities. We all have different traits in our behaviors, attitudes, and beyond. For an example, someone may be short tempered, someone may speak extremely properly... and someone may just be the complete opposite of those traits! We are all so unique, and that is just one of the many reasons that makes this life so great and psychology so inspiring!

All the best,
Caitlin Juliano

Second Journal Entry

Hanna Wilson 

Psychology History and Systems 

Chapter Eleven 

Measuring Personality

Chapter eleven of Hunt’s “The Story of Psychology” explains personality and why people are the way they are. Psychologists throughout the centuries have had many different theories on why everyone’s personality is different. Some early theories relied on the pseudo-science of astrology and physiognomy. Hunt goes into depth on the early theories of personality but also gives clarity on today’s study of personality. 

While psychologists use psychodynamic concepts to understand how personality develops they searched for a way to measure this. I want to focus my journal entry on measuring personality because before reading Hunt’s chapter I did not know this was possible. There are a couple of major methods when measuring personality starting with personal documents and histories. Hunt describes how personal documents can lead to an inaccurate measure of someone’s personality. An interview is another form of personality assessment but can also be misleading and least effective. The problem with this method is how many interviewers may evaluate the same person very differently. Being rated by observers can also give insight on specific traits of someone's personality. With the right conditions and circumstances ratings can be a valid measure in the process of evaluating an individual's personality. A questionnaire is another principle tool in measuring personality. Over the years questionnaires have greatly advanced to give an accurate representation of how someone acts. Lastly psychologists can conduct performance tests where they rate an individual's behavior. This gives useful information that a trained psychologist can use in assessing and measuring someone's personality. 

Overall the main reason for measuring personality is to provide answers on why people act the way they do. Measuring personality can give relevance to things that are going on in a person's life. The tests that are used continue to advance and become more detailed to help psychologists answer important questions about an individual's life. This chapter got me thinking about all the times I could have been taking personality tests. I have never taken a formal test with a psychologist but I have filled out questionnaires about myself which is one of Hunt’s methods in measuring personality. In conclusion assessments are a common way to get information about a persons different personality traits.

First Journal Entry Post

Hanna Wilson 

Psychology History and Systems 

Chapter Fourteen

Two Ways of Looking at Vision

I chose to write my journal post on chapter fourteen because it goes into depth on perception and some of the many questions associated with seeing. The chapter starts off with some history on the psychology of perception and then addresses some of the many questions that have been around for centuries about sight and perception. Reading the chapter I found that some of the most important information came from the sections on the two ways of looking at vision. 

One point of view is the neural approach which covers how sensory nerves transmit sensations to the brain and how the brain turns those incoming impulses into vision. These types of physiological based questions were all researched by the nineteenth century psychologists. Through the years of researching psychologists found that the receptors that respond to specific stimuli send their messages separately to the striate or primary area of the visual cortex. This concept starts with the retina where rods are sensitive to low levels of illumination and cones are responsive to different wavelengths of visible light. From here the brain puts it all together using the primary visual cortex which integrates impulses and blends the information from the two eyes. The striate region then sends the information to higher areas of the brain and the information is then seen and recognized by the mind. The principles of the neural approach tell us about the working of visual perception on a micro level. The neural approach fails to recognize the point of view on the experiencing perception. 

The other perspective is the cognitive approach which deals more with the mental processes of perception. The mental processes of visual perception are organized mass effects of neural phenomena expressed by mental laws. Many of the models of perception have to do with higher mental processes and recognizing symbols of the external world. Researchers have been trying to formulate a cognitive theory on how these processes work and what that looks like. What they have concluded is that perception involves a higher level of the brain and a lot of problem solving. Trying to decide if what we are perceiving is real or true requires a lot of energy and mental thinking. This is why the cognitive approach is grounded in mental processes. 

Over the centuries psychologists have come to many conclusions on perception but a great deal still remains unknown. After reading this chapter of Hunt’s book I found the neural and cognitive approaches to perceptions to answer many questions. But after reading I also still question the process of perception and wonder if what I am seeing is actually real or just something interpreted by my mental process. Overall the author gives a good logical explanation of perception. 

Caitlin Juliano-(History & Systems) Third and Final Course Book Journal Entry Post

     Throughout lecture #10, it discusses all about Hunt's 18th chapter. This chapter is a bit lengthy, but full of so much vast detail and overall information. Personally, I found the Subliminal Self-Help section in the lecture and chapter to be vary thought-provoking. The overall concept of this how and why someone perceives something in the way or ways that they do. For an example, many companies even use this technique- which is found it to be very effective and intriguing. I found it to be really interesting in the popcorn and soda ad. It was actually a really smart ad, especially in the movie theater industry. The purpose of the eat popcorn-drink soda ad was to get people convinced to buy and consume those products in general, but especially when watching a movie wherever that may be...more specifically in the vast movie theater business. This overall concept was created and initiated James Vicary in the 1950s- specifically in the year of 1957. His intelligent methods increased 18% and 58% in the popcorn and Coca-Cola sales. Today, this major tool in business is still used today. For an example, if you were to go to the Regal movie theaters right now, prior to your movie starting there is a loud, fun, and vibrant commercial that is played in the beginning to advertise the concession stands and the overall theater- in addition to its feature- such as: hosting events, like Birthday parties. This aids in an increase in soda, slushie, popcorn, candy, and other snack sales. 

        

     Here are some examples of old-fashioned and modern movie theater ads with subliminal self-help, Mr. Jim Vicary's method: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=205&v=26pQNKEOXjo&feature=emb_title  

& 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHY56TvNTcs  

& 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6o6ZlefvOo

^^^Don't these ads just make and ultimately convince you want to go to the movies and go buy some movie theatre snacks?!?

     Correspondingly with Hunt's intriguing 18th chapter, I found the Mozart Effect to also be yet another interesting concept in this chapter and in overall psychology. The experiment, with examples on pages 40 and 41, placed some participants to just simply listen to the Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major. In addition, the participants assisted in a spatial reasoning task from Stanford-Binet. Despite the effect being rather minor as a whole, it was still a thought-provoking study to prove and demonstrate this theory in pat and modern-day psychology.

     Here is an example of this theory: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=116&v=cBlgurKd9NU&feature=emb_title

      *To note, this theory also remind me of Fall 2019's class that I took (Psychology of Learning); and during our lab days with our rats, Professor Berg would play classical music (i.e. Mozart and Beethoven) because it would calm down all of the rats rapid nerves. It shows how well classical and clean music can help people and even animals too! Personally, I can even recall some middle and high school teachers that would quietly play classical music for us, as their students, during exams and quizzes. It was very calming. 

Caitlin Juliano-(History & Systems) Second Online Journal Post

   

     While reading through Hunt's chapters and our online course lecture slides, I decided to focus this second journal entry all on lecture #9. The ninth course lecture discusses all about Hunt's eleventh chapters in words, pictures, and videos. Personally, I too found this chapter and overall lecture to be clear, concise, and just simply full of both so much depth and clarity. Hunt's ability, as an educated and scholarly author, to voice so much written data, facts, and opinions of this subject (in addition to psychology's extremely vast history, present, and optimistic future) is truly both interesting and inspiring. This chapter was extremely relevant and unique as whole, especially since it discussed the crucial and essential subject matter of personality.

        This eleventh chapter by Morton Hunt talks all about personality. The topic of personality is a deep-rooted and diverse one. Personality depends specifically on the individual. Correspondingly, personality also depends on various traits- such as: how you were raised (childhood), how you handled various situations growing up, or how you overcame certain obstacles in life. Personally, for me when I was growing up I was extremely shy. I was always known, especially by close family friends, as "the cute little girl that was obsessed with Disney princesses, but never said a word". I always found that to be so funny. After some time, I was in the fourth grade and I was becoming a big sister for the first time. Hence, at just nine years young, this was such an exciting and monumental time for me- especially as I have always wanted to become a big sister. I finally began to "come out of my shell". I found myself feeling more talkative and just overall really social- whether I was close with that person or not. When I was little I would only talk more if I knew the person well (i.e. a close family friend and my childhood friends) or was related to them (i.e. my family members), so now it's amazing (and quite funny, to be honest) to see how much I have evolved. Today, I am very social and just very talkative (in a good and non-annoying way, of course). Now I am even confident and fairly comfortable at public speaking, but if you asked to do something like that when I was a little girl...I would have shook my head and said, "Heck no!" (Lol)

        Anyways, Hunt's chapter really focuses on how to measure personality. The tests that were used were things like, the structured and projective testing. While all of the testing methods had their similarities and differences, the main viewpoint of this chapter's details are, "Why do we act like this? How did we get this way" Again, this is such a vast, expansive, and thought-provoking topic. Personally, as psychology major, I for sure think that personality is one of the most interesting matters to learn, discuss, and observe in psychology. I have always loved how it has such a detailed past and a varying present and future. It is a constantly changing topic, which is why it's so fascinating because there is ALWAYS something new and intriguing to learn!  While the key concepts of this chapter were being exposed, Hunt's detailed chapter showcases the people that were involved in these specific and special studies- such as: Christina Morgan [1935], Herman Rorschach (He's most well-known for his popular and useful inkblot example.), and Henry Murray [1935] too. In conclusion of this well-written and organized chapter, it is understood and concluded that personality traits are solely internally based and originated. We are all so unique and special in our own ways- that's what makes us all so interesting!

     

Caitlin Juliano-(History & Systems) First Online Journal Entry

Caitlin Juliano
Professor Berg
Psychology: History & Systems
Wednesday, April 1st 2020

(History & Systems) First Online Journal Entry on Lecture #7 [Chapter 10 of the *course book*]

   














      While reading the tenth chapter of our course book after Spring break, I found Hunt's chapter to be both informative and clear. The author of this book, Morton Hunt, discussed various and in-depth topics in a very organized and thought-provoking style. Hence, I noticed the clarity throughout his chapter because it allowed me, as the reader, to fully understand what he was stating and claiming as the author. His use of clarity, in addition to organization, permitted me to ultimately feel more confident that I fully grasped and enjoyed what I just read- which can be difficult at times for different authors, especially in such specific topics like these one in psychology.


     

      The topic in this chapter is Gestalt Psychology. The influence and overall broadness on this topic also interested me as well. The viewpoint of Gestalt Psychology, which had roots of philosphy, also included certain core aspects of rationalism and empiricism. This theory and overall viewpoint of psychology was inspired by views of experience. This form of psychology has been passed down many times throughout several years, as it has formed over time from the initial start by Max Wertheimer. To note, Max Wertheimer promoted Gestalt Psychology as an overall and diverse worldview. Correspondingly, it, as an overall theory and viewpoint, has been utilized in numerous ways and has been both influenced and expanded as a whole. In simpler words, the subject of Gestalt Psychology is the psychology behind the process of thinking. The key concept of this all really is, "How do we think?" Why?" To develop a firm conclusion on these studies, various people studied these theories on both humans and animals too (i.e. primates). All in all, this type of psychology is applied in both psychology as a whole- but in the broad and intriguing field of science too. The eight elements truly apply so greatly towards this course, the journal entries, and Hunt's book.

     -->> When the time comes, I know that those eight elements will even help with replying to other students journal entries- in addition to writing my book report on my group's book: The Optimism Bias.  (This book by Tali Sharot is so interesting! I highly recommend it to the class, especially while all of us our stuck in quarintine. It truly gets you thinking...A LOT! It's a GREAT read. )

Welcome Spring 20' History & Systems Students

This is where you will post your journals and book reports :)

Learning to Love the Foods We Hate

The biology of learning is quite fascinating, for it displays how our biological make-up is constantly learning, just like us! That may have seen like a really broad explanation, but let me go further. First, a basic need that all living organisms share is the need to eat (hunger). If food is presented in front of us, we are more than likely going to eat it, especially if it is something that is of particular interest to us. However, if someone were to place something in front of you that has previously made you sick (food poisoning, too many shots one night, etc.), you probably would not eat/drink that particular substance. This phenomena is called taste aversion. The components of taste aversion arise from classical conditioning, because a once unconditioned stimulus becomes conditioned to make you sick or un-pleasurable. Is there a way to eat something that we don't like? Of course! By combining the food that was once aversive with a pleasurable food, the once aversive food is not so aversive anymore. For example, all of my life I have hated tomatoes. I accidentally ate one thinking it was a sweet food when I was younger, and I would get a sick feeling anytime anyone offered me tomatoes on something. But recently, there were tomatoes on a burger that I usually order at one of my favorite restaurants- and I liked it! By pairing the foods together, it totally changed my mind on tomatoes. They definitely are still not my favorite, but I can definitely tolerate them a lot more now.

Punishment: Does it Really Work?

Learning and behavioral psychologists have constantly been debating whether punishment is effective in learning behavior. Reinforcement seems to work perfectly fine, but what about the incorporation of punishment? For instance, positive punishment (although never actually "positive" in any sense of the word) is the presentation of a stimulus following a response, which then leads to a decrease in the future strength of that response; it is usually unpleasant or adverse. If a child takes a cookie before dinner after being told "no," and a parent makes them do all of the dishes after dinner, this is an example of positive punishment. By adding the chore, the intended effect is that the child will not take a cookie anymore. But does this really work? What if the child doesn't mind doing the dishes, and will happily do them if that means that they can have a cookie? A negative punishment could be that the parents stop buying cookies, which completely removes the intended item for the child. There is no right or wrong way to punish/reinforce one's child, but clearly some methods may work better for all different types of children.

Mind Over Matter: Focusing on Classic Conditioning

Throughout psychology, there is much debate circling about how the brain works. Do we have complete control over our thoughts? Are there other influences that control us? Is it all about our subconscious? Multiple theorists have suggested all of these possibilities. Theorists have argued for decades (honestly, for probably over a century) about how we learn and obtain information, behaviors, etc. For instance, Ivan Pavlov's experiment with dogs and feeding with usage of metronomes demonstrates the theory of classic conditioning. There are many different aspects of classic conditioning, like acquisition, which is the process of developing and strengthening a conditioned response through repeated patterns of a NS with an UR. This process proceeds rapidly early on, and then gradually levels off. Overall, the theory of classic conditioning contains many aspects (as mentioned previously), but the root of it is with an unconditioned response with an unconditioned stimulus, and then a conditioned response to a conditioned stimulus. How much merit does this theory have? Just ask Pavlov's dogs.

Phobias, Phobias, Phobias

Fear is one of humanity's primal instinct. Whether it be a natural fear or a phobia, humans will always be afraid of something. However, it doesn't mean that it is incurable. A friend of mine, for example, was deathly afraid of snakes. Even a mere picture of snake would cause him to be extremely frightened and violent attempt to get as far away from it as possible; a classic case of a phobia.

Similar to the video as shown below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8Kh68LfJmE 

However, this was such an irrational fear. Sure there are some venomous snakes that can kill you, but the majority of snakes are fairly harmless and are actually beneficial to humans. So such a sight warranted questioning as to why even a simple picture invokes such fears. Of course, he could not give me a logical reason for the phobia. So I did some tests to see what about the snake was causing it. Hopefully, I could induce some systematic desensitization.

I tried running a simple string across his neck from time to time. It warranted some shivers of course, but nothing more than that so no luck there. Then I played some hissing sounds fairly frequently from my phone. This time, he would duck slightly as he questioned if there was a snake nearby. But as I continued to keep playing the noise, he became more and more desensitized to it. Now, I started to become more involved and take it another step higher. I went out and bought multiple toy snakes and proceeded to place it in locations where he would normally frequent like his couch, his book bag, etc. He would be disgusted at first, but as time went on he just began grabbing them and chucking them. As he got used to them, luckily we had stumbled upon a live snake one day! He jumped of course, but with his involvement of snakes for so long, he got kind of used to it. So while he wasn't running away, he just merely walked around it. So a kind of success I suppose.

Self-Control

Having someone help you control your problem is one thing, but having the inner strength to control a less than desirable behavior is another. Often times, it's the addiction that gets people. For example, drugs, smoking, drinking, and etc. These are rather strong addictions so some assistance may be required. That's why there are rehabilitation centers in place.

However, these rehabilitation centers alone can not fix the issue. That is why it is up to the victim to have the inner strength to continue on and ultimately fix themselves. Rehabilitation centers merely facilitate the solution by instilling set guides such as depriving the victim of the addiction over time and encouraging the victim to engage in other activities that help subdue the urge to satiate the addiction. The victim just has to have it in them to continue on those guides and build upon them. The temptation is strong, but self-control will allow you to better yourself.

The Use of Punishment

Punishment can be viewed as either positive reinforcement or horrible cruelty depending on what side you are looking from and how it is being utilized. The utilization of punishment in one's life can be traced back all the way to parenthood. Parents often utilize punishment in order to get rid of a bad habit that their child may have developed or is developing. This can either be in the form of a "time out" or a "response cost." A time out, as many people have come to know, is taking the said child, in this example, and placing them in an isolated environment for a set time. A response cost is a punishment that reduces bad behavior. So for example, taking away desert or perhaps spanking.

Many "soft" parents see corporal punishments as cruel and could never imagine laying their hand on their child, so they resort to the time out method. However, this, of course, has many flaws. These parents often do not know how much time to allocate so they end up making the time outs too short or too long which carries the opposite intended effect. Instead of remedying the problem, the punishment enforces it as the child will either have not reflected enough or become spiteful.

The same can be said about using corporal punishments. The immediate pain will cause the children to immediately stop their negative behavior. This can be a very enticing method to parents as they will desire to utilize it more. However, this can lead to very abusive behaviors from the parents themselves which will cause the child to then fear the parents as a whole and may possibly harbor more negative than good.

This is where I would like to bring in how the military conducts its punishment. They use a combination of both the time out and the response cut method which is coined as "corrective training." You see, when civilians join the military for the first time, they go through a program that goes by either basic training or boot camp depending on what branch of service you join. There, they run through what is essentially a crash course of the military and go through the process of transforming from a civilian to a soldier in a set time. It is important to note that the transformation from a civilian to a soldier is essential. So, drill sergeants or drill instructors are set in place to subdue the "civilian" behaviors of a person and enforce "soldier behaviors".

Whenever someone carries out behavior that is deemed undesirable, the drill sergeants or drill instructors will not only carry out corporal punishments in the form of push-ups, but they will single out the individual from everyone else which can be seen as another form of time outs. It's an incredibly effective method as it almost immediately corrects the behavior due to the fear and pain that it inflicts. This instills in the individual that what they did was wrong and will never do it again.

With that being said, however, the method is not perfect either. The drill sergeants or drill instructors can be easily influenced by the power they have over the trainees and may become abusive with it. That is why drill sergeants and drill instructors go through an intensive academy to not only help thwart it but ensure that the trainees receive the best training possible. But nevertheless, it is a unique approach to the whole system of punishment.

Self Awareness

The ability to see oneself as separate from others is known as self awareness. The mark and mirror task was created to determine which animals also have self awareness, just as humans do. This task consists of marking the test subject, who is unaware, on the face with either paint or makeup. Then the test subject is given access to a mirror, next the test subjects reaction is monitored. If the test subject touches the mark that was made on their face or shows other uses for the mirror, the test subject is most likely known to have self awareness. However, if the test subject reacts to the presence of the mirror as a separate individual, they most likely do not have self awareness. An example of this in babies is when they look at a mirror and say "baby!", this shows that the child does not understand that it is in fact themselves that they see and not a different baby.

Activity Anorexia

Activity Anorexia is known as an abnormally high level of activity accompanied by a low level of food intake that is generated by an exposure to a time restricted schedule of feeding. In order to create the conditions to produce activity anorexia in rats you must follow a very detailed and specific set of rules. Test subjects (rats) are exposed to food once a day for an hour and a half, during the other hours of the day the rat will have access to a running wheel. If done properly, the test subjects will then start to spend more and more amounts of time running during the time period where they do not have access to food. It is also found with activity anorexia in rats that the more they run on their wheel, the less food they will eat. If given about a week, the test subjects will be running very long distances, close to about 20,000 revolutions of the running wheel daily, which equates to about twelve miles a day, along with eating next to nothing. If the process is continued on, the text subjects will become emaciated and die. Typically, most experiments are ended prior to any test subjects death.


https://www.jove.com/video/52927/using-activity-based-anorexia-rodent-model-to-study-neurobiological

This link can provide greater insight into the usage and benefits of activity anorexia. 

Hans The Counting Horse

In the case of Hans, a German horse who was world famous for his "counting ability" it seemed very plausible that animals, just like humans could count. Just as this may have seemed the case, it is true that only humans can understand numerosity or the ability to understand the quantity of an item. Hans would be asked questions like "what is 3 plus 5?" and in response Hans would tap his hoof eight total times to answer the question. Upon seeing this many became amazed with the ability of Hans, however, some because skeptical as well. Upon further examination it was found that Hans the horse could not actually count, instead he was understand cues. Hans had learned that once asked a question to begin tapping his hoof. Hans would do this until the person who asked him the question physical features changed in response to Hans tapping his hoof the correct amount of times. As a result of continuously learning this, there were also limitations to when Hans would do this act. If Hans could not see the person asking the question or if the person who asked the question did not know the questions answer, Hans would be unable to "answer" this questions correctly or at all.

Laws of Association

Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, believed that ideas are made by connecting an event to a person, place or idea, in order to remember something. He also suggested that associating objects with people, or places will also help someone remember or learn about something. In order to prove his theory, he came up with four laws of association. These four laws of association consisted of The Law of Similarity, The Law of Contrast, The Law of Contiguity, and The Law of Frequency. The Law of Similarity is just grouping situations together based on how closely related they are. The Law of Contrast states that things that are polar opposite of one another, tend to be associated back to one idea. The Law of Contiguity states that events that are happening relatively close to one another (in time or in space) are also associated with one another. And the last law, The Law of Frequency means that the more an event occurs (at least two or more times), the more they will be associated with one another.

Reference:

Symbaluk, D. G., Honey, P. L., & Powell, R. A. (2017). Introduction to learning and behavior. Boston: Wadsworth.

Experimental Neurosis

Experimental Neurosis was tested by Pavlov and colleague, Shenger-Krestonvika. This experiment provided Pavlov with evidence that showed when animals are paired with an event that is not common to them, they might act in unpredictable and crazy ways. His experiment included a dog. When a circle was present, that circle meant that there was food. But when the ellipse was present, that meant that there was no food available. Throughout the duration of his experiment, the dog eventually learned the theory of when food was or was not present. Since the dog was now used to a circle for food, and an ellipse for no food, pavlov and his team began changing the picture of the ellipse to a more circular image, leaving the dog unsure of when food was present. Since this event was not common to the dog, the dog started to become neurotic and squealing and biting during the experiment.

Reference:

Symbaluk, D. G., Honey, P. L., & Powell, R. A. (2017). Introduction to learning and behavior. Boston: Wadsworth.

John Locke and Other Empiricists

John Locke was a British empiricist whose claim to fame was arguing how newborns develop over the years. He believes in the Latin phrase, “Tabula Rosa” which means “Blank Slate”. He thinks that children are born lacking knowledge that people know, and that over time they develop learning skills which allow them to function and make viable decisions. Just like every other Philosopher, Locke did not agree with most people. But on one occasion, he agreed with Descrates when he said senses could be detected, but we can not always trust the senses that are being provided. On the other hand, Berkeley was another one that bumped ideas with Locke. He questioned Locke’s sensory information, and wondered about perception, seeing if any of this was actually real and physically here.

Reference:

Symbaluk, D. G., Honey, P. L., & Powell, R. A. (2017). Introduction to learning and behavior. Boston: Wadsworth.

Types of Contingencies

In psychology of learning there are four types of contingencies. The four different types are positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. These contingencies are a part of operant conditioning that helps either reinforce and influence or punish and diminish a particular behavior. When discussing positive reinforcement, this is when there is a factor added into the situation to reinforce the behavior. Negative reinforcement is just the opposite; a factor is removed to help reinforce the behavior. In positive punishment, there is a factor being added to help decrease a particular behavior. Whereas negative punishment is removing a factor to help decrease behavior.