Monday, May 23, 2011

One - Animal Behaviorism

When talking about behavior and controlling it there has to be two kinds of variables: independent and dependent. The depended variable is something that is consistant like kind of animal and the independent variable is the kind of stimulus. The kind of relationship between these two factors is a cause and effect relationship. B.F. Skinner used classical conditioning to control the response of dogs when they heard a bell to salivate in response to the presentation of food. After enough repeated trials, the dogs salivated by hearing the bell alone without the food being present.

This video shows Skinners ideals and is actually really funny because I work at Hooter's and I'd do anything for a 50 dollar tip as well.

1 comment:

  1. You said that the dependent variable is something that is constant. I think you are a little confused (or maybe I am!). The dependent variable varies according to how the independent variable affects it. The book has a great sentence for remembering this: “changes in the dependent variable are dependent upon changes in the independent variable.” Another thing to add here would be that the dependent variable is something that is measured while the independent variable is what is being manipulated in the experiment.

    Hopefully I helped clear things up!

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