Question 1Pick a Side Behaviorist of CognitivistPrior to engagi.docx

Question 1
Pick a Side: Behaviorist of Cognitivist
Prior to engaging in this discussion, be sure to review Chapters
3 and 4 from your text and any relevant Instructor Guidance.
This guidance can be very helpful as it may include strategies
that support your preferred learning.
For this discussion, please choose one of the two options:
behaviorism or cognitivism. Taking on the role of either a
behaviorist or a cognitivist, you will demonstrate your
understanding of your chosen psychological view by explaining
why your theory and its history are important for others to
understand and apply.
Based on your own experiences, the resources listed above, and
the scholarly article from the Ashford University Library you
locate, analyze how learning and theory apply in real-life
situations by listing the pros and cons of each.
Provide evidence for your stance from your resources.
Please describe two real-life scenarios you have experienced
and explain how you applied these psychological principles to
the personal, social, or educational issues you mention. Please
do not share anything that you would be uncomfortable
discussing in a public forum.
Based on the camp you chose, continue to answer the following:
Additional behaviorist questions to consider:
Do you agree with the behaviorist view that learning can be
described simply in terms of stimulus-response relationships?
Do you agree with the behaviorist view that learning only
occurs if there is an outward manifestation? Why, or why not?
What are the potential advantages of defining learning as a
change in behavior when considering your own career (or future
career) and/or in your relationships?
Additional cognitivist questions to consider:
Do you agree with the cognitivist view that thinking is not a

behavior but actually creates important implications affecting
behavior
Why do cognitivists disagree with the behaviorist view that
learning only occurs if there is an outward manifestation? What
are the implications to the behavior(s) it identifies?
Cognitivism suggests that what we know to be true affects our
behaviors and how we learn, What implications might this have
in your own career (or future career) and/or in your
relationships?
Example answer:
This week I will be taking the role of a behaviorist.
Behaviorism focuses on overt or visible behavior meaning being
able to witness a behavior being played out. Behaviorist John B.
Watson believed that “rather than studying subjective feelings
such as hunger, we should study visible behavior such as
eating” (Lieberman, 2012, pg. 21). Behaviorists also argued that
instead of speculating about what a person might be thinking, it
would work best to present rewards, for example, then observe
the effects it produces. It does not take into account thoughts or
feelings the way that Cognitivism does, behaviorism focuses on
outward manifestation instead.
A pro of behaviorism is that it can be observed therefore
making it easy to measure with the naked eye. We are able to
dissect if a difference exists from when the subject began to
where they find themselves now. Another pro is that it is easy to
implement and examine. It does not go into major depths of
their thinking process or how their brain systems functions
when responding to stimuli the way cognitivism does.
A con is that people can change their behaviors unexpectedly.
They could make it seem like they have changed their behavior
but in reality may only be doing so in order to receive the
reward at the end, and may not be logically understanding why
they should do the things they are doing. A second con is that it
doesn’t require a lot of thinking in order to achieve wanted
results. Once the subject notices the pattern form after several
trials they will just repeat the same steps, like a routine.

A personal experience for me was when I was little and would
misbehave or do something I knew I wasn’t supposed to, my
mom would just open her eyes really wide and give me “the
look”, and I knew what it meant. For me, getting “the look” was
worse than getting scolded in front of other people, the way
many parents do in attempt to “discipline” their kids. It took
little to no effort for me to quickly grasp and associate that look
with the desired behavior. I classify this as operant
conditioning, which is one of the two types of conditioning in
behaviorism; I classify it as OC because I have learned how to
act differently based on the natural consequences of my
previous actions.
Another experience is in first grade when the teacher wanted the
class to be ready for the next lesson, she would wait for the
class to be quiet and we all folded our hands in front of us. She
would reward those who got ready first and had the cleanest
area around them with two pieces of candy. This I classify as
classical conditioning because she used positive reinforcement
to get the desired behavior out of her students.
Yes, I agree with the behaviorists view that learning can be
described simply in terms of stimulus-response because I have
witnessed how someone’s behavior causes consequences
whether positive or negative. Not every stimulus-response
scenario occurs in a lab. These scenarios are presented to us on
a daily basis and we don’t even realize it.
I also agree with the behaviorist view that learning only occurs
if there is an outward manifestation because otherwise how can
we prove that learning has taken place? If you are teaching a
group of kids how to read, in order to verify that they have
learned, you need to hear them read. You cannot imagine that
they are silently reading to themselves.
The potential advantages of defining learning as a change in
behavior when considering my own career (or future career)
and/or in my relationships is that it will help guide me when it
comes to what works and what doesn’t. I will be able to deter
from making jokes my husband doesn’t like and will upset him,

for example, and therefore be able to avoid a negative
experience.
Reference:
Lieberman, D. A. (2012).
Psychology of Learning
San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education.
Question 2:
Prior to engaging in this discussion, please read “
The Development of Memory Efficiency and Value-Directed
Remembering Across the Life Span
” article, watch the
Memory processes
,
Storage and Recall
and
Three Kinds of Memory
videos, and review any relevant instructor guidance. This
guidance can be very helpful as it may include strategies that
support your preferred learning.
For this discussion, first describe how memory development and
learning affect each other by defining the types of memories
listed below in your own words (the use of quotations is
inappropriate) and citing personal examples of each.
Episodic Memories
Semantic Memories
Procedural Memories
Next, apply basic research methods in psychology to your initial
statements on these issues by researching at least one peer-
reviewed article per memory type (three articles total) in the
Ashford University Library to supplement your definition of
each. (For assistance in finding peer-reviewed articles in the
Ashford University Library please view this
tutorial
.)

After completing your research, critically analyze and discuss,
in depth, how each of your real-life examples represents each
type of memory.
Lastly, evaluate and comment on how episodic memories,
semantic memories, and procedural memories each potentially
affect how a person learns.
Example answer:
I see memory as being the vault in a bank; it holds all the
information (money) needed to take part in everyday life.
People generally don’t stop and think how important memory is
in order to accomplish day to day activities. It’s like a vault that
holds all lived experiences that get stored and can then be
retrieved or recalled at a later point, or when needed. There are
three types of memory which are as follows: Episodic,
Semantic, and Procedural.
I describe
episodic
memory to be just like it sounds: episodes. Like episodes of
your life which include autobiographical events such as
birthdays, holidays, as well as any personal experiences. I
remember getting my first puppy, my siblings and I were in the
pool and my mom had told us our dad had a surprise for us, but
we didn’t know what it was. When she saw him pull up to the
driveway she told us he had arrived and we all jumped out of
the pool soaking wet, and made our way to the front of the
house and there he was standing with a big cardboard box and
we saw the puppy.
Semantic
memory sounds almost like “cement”, to me at at least. Like
cement, which is strong and long-lasting, semantic memory is
part of long-term memory. It holds common things like how to
pronounce your name, how to count to ten, names of countries,
and names of colors and shapes. Semantic memory harbors facts
that aren’t acquired from personal experiences. An example of

this the fact that I know Peru’s capital is Lima, and that
Washington is a state while Washington D.C. is the U.S. capital.
Procedural
memory, like procedure, helps in remembering how to do
things and how perform certain procedures. Such include
procedures followed when a surgeon is in the middle of
performing a surgery, or the basics like walking, going up the
stairs, bike riding, etc. Examples of procedural memory include
my knowledge on how to ride a bike or how to play the flute.
Episodic memory, as previously stated, is like autobiographical
episodes of one’s life.
Memory of a typical individual declines with age, and episodic
memory, which retains contextual information about personally
experienced events in one’s life seems especially vulnerable to
aging
(Mohanty, Naveh-Benjamin, & Ratnwshwar, 2016. Pp. 25). For
people with Alzheimer’s for example, episodic memory is one
of the first things they cannot recall. They forget details from
their life, like if their mental cassette has started to reset, and
little by little these details escape their mind.
In contrast,
patients with Alzheimer's disease typically display impairments
in episodic memory, but with semantic deficits of a much lesser
magnitude (Irish, Addis, Hodges, Piguet, 2012. Pp. 2178).
While in episodic memory personal events are forgotten first,
with semantic memory basic facts such as colors and shapes are
not forgotten as easily.
Last, there is procedural memory which is retained longer by
individuals with
Alzheimer's
disease, suggesting that structuring of activities based on well
learned habits may preserve function (Bonder, Zadorny, Martin,
1998. Pp.88). This demonstrates that procedural memory which
includes something as getting dressed is retained longer in some
individuals.
Reference:

Staveley-Taylor, H. (Director). (1996).
Memory processes
[Video file]. In The study of memory. Retrieved from the Films
On Demand database.
Storage and recall
On Demand database.
Three kinds of memory
On Demand database.
Mohanty, P., Naveh-Benjamin, M., Ratneshwar, S., Psychology
and Aging, Vol 31(1), Feb, 2016 pp. 25-36. Publisher: American
Psychological Association; [Journal Article], Database:
PsycARTICLES
Irish,M., Addis, D.R., Hodges, J.R., Piguet, O., Neurological
Disorders and Brain Damage (2012, March 11). Publisher:
United Kingdom : Oxford University Press; [Journal Article],
Database: PSYCINFO
Bonder, B., Zadorzny, C., Martin, R., Dressing in Alzheimer’s
disease: Executive function and procedural memory, Vol
19(2), 1998 pp.88-92. Publisher: Haworth Press; [Journal
Article], Database: PsycINFO

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