Question

- Describe the major principles in classical and operant conditioning. What are the similarities and differences between the two?

- Describe the three systems of memory and explain how they are connected to the notion of learning.

- Explain three of the five theories of forgetting. Which of these three theories do you find the most compelling? Why?

- Explain the connection between “thinking” and language. 5. Describe Noam Chomsky’s theory of language acquisition. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Answer 1

• classical conditioning-

behaviorist hold the view that the learning is a behavior which takes place when the organism forms an internal connection between 2 observable and measurable events. thisis the stimulus-response connection. it is an associative learning studied by ivan pavlov. he noticed that a dog secretes saliva after seeing empty plate in whch the food is served. to further study this effect he conducted an experiment in which he presented the conditioned stimulus bell before unconditioned stimulus food and bserved the coditioned response of salivation to bell even in the absence of food.

• operant conditioning-

bf skinner modified pavlovs classical conditioning. he talked about responses named as operants by him. it is a response or a group of responses that act upon the environment each time in the same way. operants are those responses which are emitted or elicited spontaneously without any immediately identifiable stimuli. in this the unconditional stimulus does not occur unless the animal first makes a specific response that the experimenter defines. it is called instrumental conditioning as the organisms behavior is instrumental in making unconditioned stimulus to occur. in this the unconditioned stimulus is called reinforcer when it becomes effective in increasing the probability of repeating the response again and again. operants are the responses or behaviors that are voluntarily emitted by learner to operant on the environment. since, these are voluntary emitted responses and are under the control of the learner. the result is that the learner is motivated to emit a response to achieve a goal. being motivated, learner makes exploratory behavior. he makes response that becomes an instrument to achieve the goal. this operates an environment as it is rewarding for organism. therefore, probability of occuring such operant behavior again and again increases and thus, the behavior is finally learned and becomes learned response.

2.memory-

memory is a process of receiving information from senses, organises and alters it as it stores it away and then retrieves it from storage. it has 3 systems -

• encoding- it is the first step. it stands to get sensory information into a form that brain can use, process called encoding. it is a set of mental operations that people perform on sensory information to convert that information into a form that is usable in brains storage system.
• storage- the next step is encoding. it involves holding on to the information for some period of time. this will actually be of different lengths depending on the storage of memory being used.
• retrieval and decoding- it involves getting the nformation out of the storage. through this processthe stored information is brought to surface and is recovered from the storage. it further involves recognising in a manner such that it is needed by us and can be understood.

the process of memory is associated by learning as it also involves acquiring knowledge and retrieving it while presenting the response again after some time.

3. theories of forgetting-

forgetting refers to the inability of retrieving the information fromthe storage as and when required.

• ebbinghaus forgetting curve theory- hermann ebbinghaus studied forgetting as he did not want any verbal associations to help him remember things. he made a list of nonsense syllables and memorised it then after some time he tried to retrieve it. he made a graph of the result. the graph showed that forgetting happens quickly within the first 4 hours after the learning and then goes off gradually. meaningful material is forgotten slower than nonsense material.
• memory trace decay theory- a memory trace is some physical change in the brain which occurs during the formation of the memory. if these traces are not used they might decay. forgetting in sensory and short term memory is expained by this. unattended information in the sensory memory or contionusly rehearsed in the short term memory fades away.
• interference theory- it explains forgetting in long term memory. information may not always be accessible while retrieving as it is interfered with other information. there are 2 types of interferenc

a. proactive interference- it is the tendency for the older material to interfere with the retrieval of the recent material.

b. retroactive inetrference- this is when the newer material interferes with the retrieval of the older material.

i think that memory trace decay theory is the most convincing as i have experienced it. while preparing for exams when continous revisions are done the syllabus is intact in mind but after its use and no more revisions we tend to forget that topic .

4. it was earlier accepted that language shapes and influences the thoughts of a person. this hypothesis assumed that the thought processes or concepts within a culture are determined by words the people use there. thi i known as linguistic relativity hypothesis which means thoughts are controlled by language. this turned out to be a myth than a reality. the findings by rosch-heider developed the idea of cognitive universalism which means concepts are universal and effect language and its development. psychologists cannot deny the fact that language can influence cognition, problem solving, memory etc. hence it can be said that language and thinking are interelated