At the turn of the 20th century, a new approach of psychology came into being with an experiment conducted by a Russian physician named Ivan Pavlov. In his experiment, Pavlov was trying to study the digestive patterns of a dog. He observed that the dog would associate the sound of a bell with food, as there were bell sounds in the background before the food was given to the dog and then the dog would salivate on just hearing the sound of a bell. The unconditioned stimulus in this case is the food, which is paired with a neutral stimulus(bell) to produce an unconditioned response of salivation. After a certain number of pairings, the neutral stimulus becomes the conditioned stimulus, which evokes the same response of salivation, which is the conditioned response.
Pavlov's work was further researched and extended by other psychologists such as John Watson. He argued that all behaviour is influenced by prior experiences and can be controlled by unlearning and re-learning. This principle was further used in abnormal psychology theories to a large extent.
On the other hand, Edward.L.Thorndike experimented with cats to give out the law of effect which states that "Behaviour that leads to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated, and responses followed by negative consequences are less likely to be repeated."
Taking this phenomenon and law of effect, B.F.Skinner came up with an experiment that used a device called 'Skinner's box'. In this experiment, the box was host to a mouse that would receive food on pressing a lever in the box. After a few trial and errors, it was seen that the mouse would press the lever whenever it was hungry. In this case, the food acts as a positive reinforcer, which is any outcome that increases the probability of a desired behaviour, which is pressing of the lever in this case. Similarly, negative reinforcements are also applied to increase or decrease the probability of a desired behaviour, due to taking away or a lack of desired outcome.
Nishant Borooah - 1114106
S.Vishnhu Saaye - 1114174
V - CEP
Pavlov's work was further researched and extended by other psychologists such as John Watson. He argued that all behaviour is influenced by prior experiences and can be controlled by unlearning and re-learning. This principle was further used in abnormal psychology theories to a large extent.
On the other hand, Edward.L.Thorndike experimented with cats to give out the law of effect which states that "Behaviour that leads to satisfying consequences are more likely to be repeated, and responses followed by negative consequences are less likely to be repeated."
Taking this phenomenon and law of effect, B.F.Skinner came up with an experiment that used a device called 'Skinner's box'. In this experiment, the box was host to a mouse that would receive food on pressing a lever in the box. After a few trial and errors, it was seen that the mouse would press the lever whenever it was hungry. In this case, the food acts as a positive reinforcer, which is any outcome that increases the probability of a desired behaviour, which is pressing of the lever in this case. Similarly, negative reinforcements are also applied to increase or decrease the probability of a desired behaviour, due to taking away or a lack of desired outcome.
Nishant Borooah - 1114106
S.Vishnhu Saaye - 1114174
V - CEP
