In 1920, an experiment that would not be able to be taken out today was by John Watson and Rosalie Rayner who worked with an 11month old boy called ‘Little Albert’. They initially tested his response to white fluffy objects which were a white rat, white rabbit and white cotton wool, after this first test the small boy showed no fear. These objects were therefore neutral to the boy, what they now wanted to do was create a conditioned response to the objects, they did this by lets Little Albert touch each of the objects but hit a steel bar with a hammer every time he did so, so he became scared. They repeated this 3 times, and then did the same a week later. After that whenever he came in contact with these objects he would cry, therefore Watson ad Rayner had created a conditioned response.
The in-dependant variable in the experiment is the white fluffy things used, for example, White rat. The dependant variable is the fear response to the white fluffy things. An extraneous variable the experiment being in a lab, although what Watson and Rayne did was then perform the experiment in in different locations including alberts home and the same results were found. The experiment showed that little albert seemed to generalise his response to fluffy objecs as when he was shown a non-white rabbit, santa clause mask, seal skinned coat etc, he showed similar reactions although before he did not fear anything with fur. The loud noise was an unconditioned stimulus to Albert which he showed an unconditioned fear response before the conditioning started.
- Interpret/explain practice: This component involves educators sharing and interpreting of quantitative and qualitative analysis which involves me talking and analysing my descriptions of my practice with other teachers. - Theorise practice: This component generates explanations for practical teaching and learning experiences, this might involve me developing a theory of teaching which has been around for a period of time. - Change practice: This component involves trailing and changing a few things on the original practice, which might involve me understanding the way I teach and having my own theory on learning based on my students. ! !
The most famous example of this is thanks to Ivan Pavlov. Ivan figured out that thanks to classical conditioning a dog would begin to salivate when it was presented with food as a stimuli. He termed what he had discovered as conditional reflex. After time he found that the dog would begin to salivate in the presence of other stimulus as well. This was due to reflexes that originate from the cerebral cortex of the brain.
“Outline and Evaluate the Learning Theory of Attachment” Learning Theory argues that attachment is learned rather than innate. There are three main types of attachment behaviours in Learning Theory, which are Classic Conditioning, Operant Conditioning, and Learning by Observation and Imitation (Social Learning Theory). Classical Conditioning was first notice by Pavlov, a Russian psychologist, when investigating the digestive system of dogs. He noticed they would salivate when their bowl came into the room, so introduced a stimulant, a bell, to indicate they would be getting their food. Soon the dogs began to associate the bell with their food, so would salivate when they heard the bell.
The mere presence of the person who supplied the food or the footsteps of that person would stimulate the dogs and more stomach acid would be produced (Feldman, 2010). This increased stomach acid and salivation led Pavlov to the discovery of classical conditioning. Classical conditioning is defined as a type of learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response after being paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about that response (Olson & Hergenhahn, 2009). In layman terms this means that classical conditioning is associated learning or learning through experience. Pavlov’s work with dogs continued as he learned more about classical conditioning.
He tried presenting a number of different objects in front of the dog and eventually discovered that it would salivate when every object was presented and named this response as a conditional reflex. Pavlov also discovered that these types of reflexes would originate from the cerebral cortex of the brain. (This is shown in the image to the right) * Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner): This is another behaviourist theory which was introduced by Burrhus.F. Skinner in 1930. His experiment was called “Skinners Box” Skinners focus was based on reinforcement and this can be a positive outcome or it is a behaviour to avoid any negative consequences.
In the experiment Watson took a nine month old boy, named Albert, and exposed him to a white rat. At first Albert wasn’t afraid of the rat, but after a while every time Albert would touch the rat Watson would make a loud noise behind his back. Albert cried as he heard the noise, this happened several times. The next day when Watson placed the white rat in front of Albert, he cried and crawled away. Albert had associated the white rat
Test-taking, career-oriented, learning behavior, decision-making, and critical thinking are all areas in which I have strengths. I was able to apply this to my theory through the way in which class is conducted, and the students are assessed. DI and inclusion push for children to embrace their learning behavior and styles while helping them develop deeper thinking processes. Creating success and higher levels of thinking allow children to become goal orientated which will help them when it is time to choose career paths of their own. In my theory, an effective teacher must also be willing to change and adapt lesson plans based on the needs of the students.
Design This experiment was designed around a little boy named Albert B, but is however known popularly today as Little Albert. When Albert was around nine months, Watson and Rayner exposed this child to certain objects known as neutral stimuli. These include a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers. When albert’s reactions were initially observed, he showed didn’t show any fear to the objects that were shown and playfully reacted to some. When Albert was exposed to the rat a second time, Watson associated a large bang with a hammer (which scared kids).