Learning
Lecture 6: Motivation
Reading: Weiten CH 10
Immediate Sources of Motivation:
What drives the tasks we attempt on a day to day basis? (IMMEDIATE)
SO: what elicits behaviour?
Automatic behaviour = reflexes and instincts
Learnt behaviour = classical conditioning ( conditioned stimuli) & instrumental learning ( discriminative stimuli)
Stimulus Control - Habit Learning
Motivation =
Why individuals initiate choose or persist in specific actions in specific circumstance
Motivation is transient / temporary fluctuation of state ( learning is enduring ) and it is energizing
Motivation vs Learning:
Car analogy - motivation translates learning into action
4 Theories on Motivation:
Instinct Theory
How does instinct motivate behavior? Stickleback EG
- Biological state ( breeding season) - Sign stimuli ( red belly of other males) Action specific energy
Results in fixed action pattern
In humans:
- Freud believed humans had a strong instinct and this drove all behaviour. - Darwin believed there was continuity. Animals had the most instinct and humans the least.
James believed humans were highly instinctive but the instincts were influenced by learning and experience.
Studying human instincts:
Biological basis
Cross species similarity
Cross cultural similarity?
Separated identical twin studies
Developmental studies
Non verbal communication / “instinctive behaviors”:
Study by Eibl and side viewing camera.
eyebrow raising flirting / coy
Study conducted in a blind child showed that they had the same expressions and therefore it is thought that these expressions are instinctive.
Mate Selection - slide
Challenges with this theory:
Circularity does not explain the WHY is only descriptive way of talking about the behavior.
Proliferation
Behavioural Flexibility children have an instinct to play but the TYPE of learning depends on which culture they are in.
Drive
Reading: Weiten CH 10
Immediate Sources of Motivation:
What drives the tasks we attempt on a day to day basis? (IMMEDIATE)
SO: what elicits behaviour?
Automatic behaviour = reflexes and instincts
Learnt behaviour = classical conditioning ( conditioned stimuli) & instrumental learning ( discriminative stimuli)
Stimulus Control - Habit Learning
Motivation =
Why individuals initiate choose or persist in specific actions in specific circumstance
Motivation is transient / temporary fluctuation of state ( learning is enduring ) and it is energizing
Motivation vs Learning:
Car analogy - motivation translates learning into action
4 Theories on Motivation:
Instinct Theory
How does instinct motivate behavior? Stickleback EG
- Biological state ( breeding season) - Sign stimuli ( red belly of other males) Action specific energy
Results in fixed action pattern
In humans:
- Freud believed humans had a strong instinct and this drove all behaviour. - Darwin believed there was continuity. Animals had the most instinct and humans the least.
James believed humans were highly instinctive but the instincts were influenced by learning and experience.
Studying human instincts:
Biological basis
Cross species similarity
Cross cultural similarity?
Separated identical twin studies
Developmental studies
Non verbal communication / “instinctive behaviors”:
Study by Eibl and side viewing camera.
eyebrow raising flirting / coy
Study conducted in a blind child showed that they had the same expressions and therefore it is thought that these expressions are instinctive.
Mate Selection - slide
Challenges with this theory:
Circularity does not explain the WHY is only descriptive way of talking about the behavior.
Proliferation
Behavioural Flexibility children have an instinct to play but the TYPE of learning depends on which culture they are in.
Drive