Psychology : $b A study of mental lifeWoodworth, Robert Sessions
Science
Psychology : $b A study of mental life
Woodworth, Robert Sessions
Psychology
Quite possibly, the learning process by which the substitute stimulus
becomes attached to the salivary reaction is more complex in man's
case. He may _observe_ that the dinner bell means dinner, whereas the
dog, we suppose, does not definitely observe the connection of the
bell and the tasting substance. What the experiment shows is that a
substitute stimulus can become attached to a reaction under very
simple conditions.
A conditioned reflex experiment on a child deserves mention. A young
child, confronted with a rabbit, showed no fear, but on the contrary
reached out his hand to take the rabbit. At this instant a loud
rasping noise was produced just behind the child, who quickly withdrew
his hand with {304} signs of fear. After this had been repeated a few
times, the child shrank from the rabbit and was evidently afraid of
it. Probably it is in this way that many fears, likes and dislikes of
children originate.
The signal experiment.
Place a white rat before two little doors, both just alike except that
one has on it a yellow circle. The rat begins to explore. If he enters
the door with the yellow sign, he finds himself in a passage which
leads to a box of food; if he enters the other door he gets into a
blind alley, which he explores, and then, coming out, continues his
explorations till he reaches the food box and is rewarded. After this
first trial is thus completed, place him back at the starting point,
and he is very apt to go straight to the door that previously led to
the food, for he learns simple locations very quickly. But meanwhile
the experimenter may have shifted the yellow sign to the other door,
connected the passage behind the marked door with the food box, and
closed off the other passage; for the yellow disc in this experiment
always marks the way to the food, and the other door always leads to a
blind alley. The sign is shifted irregularly from one door to the
other. Whenever the rat finds himself in a blind alley, he comes out
and enters the other door, so finally getting his reward on every
trial. But for a long time he seems incapable of responding to the
yellow signal. However, the experimenter is patient; he gives the rat
twenty trials a day, keeping count of the number of correct responses,
and finds the number to increase little by little, till after some
thirty days every response is correct and unhesitating. The rat has
learned the trick.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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