Discrimination Learning Theory
Biography
Kenneth Spence was the best-known of Clark Hull's students. He was born in Chicago and earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from McGill University. He earned his Ph.D. from Yale in 1933, and later worked at University of Virginia, then University of Iowa from 1938 to 1964. He then worked at the University of Texas until his death in 1967.
Theory
A number of contributions to the psychological literature are attributed to Spence.
1. Incentive motivation and its mathematical formulation- Hull's theory was a habit theory of behavior. Spence departed from Hull because he attributed improvement in performance to motivational factors rather than habit factors.
2. Logic and scientific methodology in psychology - Spence identified four different kinds of theories in psychology. These were "animalistic conceptions", the belief that soul, libido, vital energy, or other vague "forces" within the organism guided behavior; "neurophysiological theories" such as Pavlov and Kohler; "Response-inferred theoretical constructs" such as put forth by Gestaltists such as Kurt Lewin; and "intervening variable" theories of Hull and Tolman.
3. Distinctions between SS (Sign-significate) and SR (Stimulus Response) learning- SS is more gestalt, emphasizing the perceptual nature of learning, while SR postulates associative connections between stimuli and responses and is thus more along the lines of behaviorist theories.
4. Experimentation in discrimination learning- Spence observed that reinforcement combined with frustration or inhibitors facilitated finding a correct stimulus among a cluster which included incorrect ones. This was a "carrot and stick" model.
5. Absolute stimulus theory and transposition - Transpositional phenomena referred to the tendency of an organism to select between two NEW stimuli based on learning from a previous relationship of stimulus and response.
6. Importance of secondary reinforcement- a neutral stimulus that becomes coupled with a primary stimulus takes on reinforcing capacity itself
7. Extinction of behavior in classical learning.
Learning Theory Bibliography
Sahakian, W.S. (1976)
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