Early Theories About the Association of Ideas

Aristotle

• First Associationist
• Elementary theory of memory
• Contiguity
• Similarity
• Contrast

The "-isms"

• Nativism
• Innate ideas at birth
• Hedonism
• Mind operates lawfully
• British Empiricists (Empiricism)
• Tabula rasa

Associationism

• Sensations
• Memory
• Mental representations

Associationism

Complex ideas

Simple ideas

Simple sensations

Hierarchy

(figure 1)

Thomas Brown’s Secondary Principles

• Length of time
• Liveliness (vividness) of sensation
• Frequency of association
• Constitutional differences
• Emotional state
• Health
• Prior habits
• Freedom from strong associations with other sensations

Ebbinghaus’ Memory Experiments

• 1880s
• Nonsense syllables
• One subject
• Recite from memory
• Savings

Major Findings

• List length
• Effects of repetition
• Effects of time
• Forgetting curve
• Role of contiguity
• Backwards associations

(figure 2)

Ebbinghaus, Associationists, and Later Learning Theorists

• Thought processes and nature of human knowledge
• Empirical results

Physiological Facts and Theories Related to Associationism

Basic Characteristics of the Neuron

• A cell
• Communication, information

(figure 3)

Axon Potentials

(figure 4)

Action Potentials

• Electrical
• All or none
• Threshold

(figure 5)

Physiological Research on Associative Learning

Synapses

(figures 6-9)

Networks of Neurons

(figures 10-12)

Long-Term Potentiation

• Changes in existing synapses
• Release more neurotransmitter
• Increased sensitivity to neurotransmitter

Memory Storage

• Localized
• Diffuse

Physiological Research on "Simple Sensations"

• Nervous system
• Binary
• Retina
• Rods
• Cones

Physiological Research on "Complex Ideas"

• Visual cortex
• Complex images
• Hubel and Wiesel

Simple and Complex Retinal Shapes

(figures 13-14)

Theories

• Single neuron doctrine
• Combinatory levels
• Pattern of activity

A Brief History

Descartes (Cartesian Dualism)

• Involuntary (reflex) actions
• External stimuli
• Voluntary actions
• Mind

(figure2 15-16)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)

• Classical (Pavlovian) conditioning
• Physiologist
• Digestion
• Human/animal differences
• Conditioned reflexes

Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)

• Trial and error learning
• Systematic study of behaviour
• Chickens in mazes
• Cats in puzzle boxes

(figure 17)

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

• "The cat that is clawing all over the box in her impulsive struggle will probably claw the string or loop or button so as to open the door. And gradually all the other non-successful impulses will be stamped out and the particular impulse leading to the successful act will be stamped in by the resulting pleasure, until after many trials, the cat will, when put in the box, immediately claw the button or loop in a definite way."

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)

• "Hard-line" Behaviorism
• Only use observable events
• Introspection

(figure 18)

Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It

• "I feel that behaviourism is the only consistent logical functionalism. In it one avoids [the problem of mind-body dualism]. These time-honored relics of philosophical speculation need trouble the student of behavior as little as they trouble the student of physics. The consideration of the mind-body problem affects neither the type of problem selected nor the formulation of the solution of that problem. I can state my position here no better than by saying that I should like to bring my students up in ignorance of such hypotheses as one finds among other branches of science."

Burrhus Fredrick Skinner (1904-1990)

• Behaviour analysis
• Respondent and operant conditioning
• Environmental events and responses
• Rejected Watson’s extreme views
• Societal modification

(figure 19)