Learning
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Pavlovs Dogs Get Conditioned
Pavlov’s Theory of Classical Conditioning Explained! This video is a great explainer for class when discussing Pavlov’s theory of classical conditioning. Below is a video that provides an explanation with re-enactment of Ivan Pavlov’s discoveries
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Classical Conditioning on a College Roommate
This clip shows a college student conditioning his roommate to flinch at the sound of the phrase “that was easy.” Every time he presses a button that emits the phrase, he shoots his roommate with an airsoft gun. Eventually, his roommate flinches just at the sound of the words that was easy. This video has inspired many similar experiments that…
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Pavlovs Fish
The video clip shows the results of studies on conditioning of fish. The investigator is shown collaborating with commercial fisheries to train wild sea bass to return in response to a tone in order to receive food. Investigators discuss challenges of the research. What types of applications might conditioning have in business settings?
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How Your Horse Learns: Why it Goes Bad Before it Gets Good Again
This video presents a horse-trainer explaining how to work with horses while keeping their past negative experiences and different temperaments in mind. The trainer demonstrates how to attract the horse’s attention and interpret their head and body posture. How might having more than one horse in the same corral affect training?
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Extinction Burst
This video presents an individual experiencing “extinction burst.” The subject repeatedly pushes a button to close elevator doors, knocks on a locked door, pushes the button on a drink machine, clicks the receiver button on a public telephone, and pushes the button on a copy machine – all without success. Each of the examples shown in this clip shows extinction…
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Habituation of a Startle Response
This short clip shows habituation of a rat’s innate startle reflex to a loud noise. The rat shows a decrease in the magnitude of the response as a function of repeated exposure to the noise. Audio is included, but an X is presented during presentations of the noise. How do we know the rat is habituated to the noise? What…
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Dishabituation of a Rats Startle Response
Here we see a rat that has undergone habituation to a loud noise (indicated by a yellow X). After two trials, a different loud noise is presented (a door slamming, indicated by a red circle). The habituated response briefly returns upon presentation of the original loud noise. Would the dishabituation occur if the extraneous stimulus was visual rather than auditory?
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Spontaneous Recovery
In this video, a habituated rat shows little response to two trials of a loud noise. After three days back in its home cage, the loud noise is presented again, and the startle reflex returns. The rat quickly habituates once again. What is spontaneous recovery? How might it be useful in a classroom setting?
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John Watson Little Albert
Psychologist John Watson theorized that we are entirely a product of nurture, rather than nature, that we are shaped solely by our environment. His most famous and infamous experiment involved teaching the infant Little Albert to be afraid of rats. What does the phrase tabula rasa mean, and how is it relevant to the Little Albert experiment? What is behaviorism?
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Operant Conditioning
This clip opens by showing a pigeon in a study using food as a reinforcement for pecking behavior. B.F. Skinner discusses schedules of reinforcement and how learning research can be applied to understand human behavior. Skinner challenges the validity of human free will. How is the process of learning, as understood by Skinner, inconsistent with the idea of free will?…
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Skinner Box
A mouse is shown in the experimental apparatus pressing a bar in order to turn on a light. When the light turns on, the mouse receives a food pellet as a reinforcement. What schedule of reinforcement is being used? If you could design an experiment using this apparatus, what would you want to test?
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Thorndike Puzzle Box
This clip shows a recreation of Thorndike’s research on learning by using cats in puzzle boxes. When cats are put in the box initially they exhibit trial-and-error learning. Thorndike’s law of effect, the assertion that behavior changes because of its consequences, is summarized. According to Thorndike, how should the presence of food affect the cats’ behavior in the future?
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A Pigeon Solves the Classic Box-and-Banana Problem
The “box and banana” problem is a classic example of a task that requires an animal to use their cognitive abilities to solve a problem and obtain a reward. In this task, a pigeon (or other animal) is presented with a box that contains a banana (or other desired item) that is out of reach. The pigeon must figure out…
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Psychology Project: Punishment vs. Reinforcement
The video begins with a banana putting away a shirt and then receiving coins as a reinforcement. In the next scene, the banana does not put away the t-shirt and is thrown as a punishment. The banana is shown receiving other reinforcements and punishments. Which is more effective in modifying a behavior — reinforcements or punishments?
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Learned Helplessness
The video starts with a faculty member teaching a psychology class and having students participate in a class activity on anagrams. Results of the activity demonstrate learned helplessness for students who received the impossible anagrams. Students and faculty member apply the concept of learned helplessness to social relationships. How does learned helplessness relate to victimization?
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Banduras Social Cognitive Theory
Bandura introduces key concepts of social-cognitive theory, such as the triadic theory, fortuity, modeling and observational learning, efficacy, moral disengagement. He describes the application of social-cognitive theory to dealing with anxiety, improving human performance, and changing behaviors. Bandura reviews early research on modeling aggression and discusses ways that social-cognitive theory can be used for human good. Who are influential models…
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Bandura BoBo Doll
This film begins with a slide describing the design of Bandura’s classic study on modeling aggression using the Bobo doll. The video shows a recreation of each of the conditions in which Bobo is physically attacked and the reinforcement and punishment endings. S lides describe the collection of the dependent measures in Bandura’s study and the findings. How would changing…
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Children See, Children Do
This “Children See, Children Do” public service announcement (commercial) shows young children following adults and directly imitating their behaviors. Situations include talking on cell phones, smoking, demonstrating road rage, yelling, verbal abusing a baby, and physically abusing a woman. The final scene shows a child imitating helping behaviors. In addition to parental models, who else might serve as a model…
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I Learned It By Watching You Anti-Drug PSA
In this classic public service announcement from the 1980s, a father confronts his son about a box of drugs in the closet. The son breaks down and tells him, You, alright! I learned it by watching you! This commercial draws a direct line between parent and child drug abuse. Assuming that this is true, can modeling account for this? Might…
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How Do We Decide
In this interview from The Early Show, Jonah Lehrer discusses his book How We Decide. He discusses the relationship between decision-making and delayed-gratification, as well as decision-making through fear. Do you think its possible to teach yourself to be calm under pressure?
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Pickle Phobic Girl
This video clip from the Maury Povich show presents a woman who has an intense fear of pickles. Her phobia is discussed, and then they confront her with pickles in the studio. What type of early experiences with an object or substance would lead to someone developing a phobia?
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Does Aversive Conditioning Work?
This video summarizes three years of working in Whistler investigating the utility of aversive conditioning and conditioned taste aversion to reduce the need for lethal bear management. The idea is that if they can condition the bears to be more afraid of humans, they will wander into dangerous areas less frequently, and thus limit the need to put them down.…
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