Week 1-2
1. Leave a 30-word micro session summary.
Classical and Operant conditioning are the two leading behaviorist theories describing how individuals learn. Watson and Skinner described two different prominent theories of learning, based upon reward/conditioned systems.
2. What is 'learning' from the behaviorist perspective?
Learning is defined as a set of concrete actions that will be observed after a stimulus is presented. Learning can occur in under almost any circumstance and the process occurs by stimulus, action, reward and/or punishment. Each person is always learning as this circumstance is always occurring whether in a traditional classroom or in daily life or in a social setting or in a novel situation.
3. What are the big things that you learned about behaviorism?
I actually enjoyed this first week as a psychology major it was more of a review however it was nice to also apply this to human learning instead of only animals. Although I was a bit bummed that we did not talk about Thorndike and trail and error learning, it was still a fun week!
4. Do you think behaviorism demonstrates your own beliefs in how human learning occurs well? If so/not, why?
I believe that behaviorism demonstrates my own beliefs in learning quite well, as humans behavior can be shaped very much like an other animals behavior. I also think that learning is shown through demonstratable actions, not just inner thinking, and that reward is one of the strongest motivators for any individual (a big example of this is with random reinforcement schedules such as gambling, the behavior is very difficult to break).
5. Do you have any questions or concerns about course learning?
Not so far, so far so good! Although I did miss the chance to learn about Thorndike as well who brought everyone such great things as the Thorndike puzzle box, using cats!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fanm--WyQJo
6. Week 1-2 Activity Completion Check
Modules
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Topics & Activity
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Check ✓ if Completed
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Week 1
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Week 1-1
*Due by July 17 at 10:59 am
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1) Blabber introduction
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X
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2) Week1-1 Discussion Forum: one initial response & two peer feedback replies
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X
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3) Initial Blog Activity Survey
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X
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4) Personal Blog Creation & Week 1-1 Reflection
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X
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Week 1-2
*Due by July 17 at 10:59 am
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1) Week1-2 Reading Quiz
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X
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2) Week 1-2 Discussion Forum: One initial response & two peer feedback replies
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X
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3) Week 1-2 Personal Blog Reflection
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X
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Thank you for your helpful feedback, Erin! Primarily I included Thorndike's theory and experiments in the course reading materials but ended up taking it away because I decided to reduce the amount of the reading as this course has so many topics to discuss such as how to apply the behaviorist approach for classroom teaching/classroom management practices other than the theory itself. However, I agree with you that knowing Thorndyke and his work are so important to learn behaviorism. I hope you can share your knowledge in psychology in discussion forums with other students when you see some 'holes' like this and that can contribute to your peers' better understanding of a theory!
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