Behavioral Learning

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Comparative psychology is the study of the behavior of animals and how it compares to human behavior and encompasses topics such as (Shiraev, 2016) :

🦉 Learning

🦉Motivation

🦉Cognition

🦉Social Behavior

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🟦Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer - major influences on comparative psychology

🟦 Darwin argued that natural selection is the driving force of evolution and that this process has shaped the behavior of all living things, including humans (Shiraev, 2016).

🟦Spencer theorized parsimony which states that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one.

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Comparative psychologists used the principle of parsimony to guide their research. They believed that if they could find a simple explanation for a behavior in animals, it was likely that the same explanation would apply to humans.
Comparative psychologists studied animal behavior in a variety of ways, including observing animals in their natural habitats, conducting experiments in laboratories, and analyzing animal brains. They also compared the behavior of different species of animals to look for similarities and differences (Shiraev, 2016).
Comparative psychologists believe that studying animals can help us understand human behavior. They argued that many basic mechanisms of learning, such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning, are the same in animals and humans. They also believed that studying animal social behavior can help us understand human social behavior.

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Anthropomorphism

🦉Humans project their own thoughts and feelings onto animals

Early comparative psychologists were limited by the knowledge and technology of their time. They did not have the same tools and techniques that we have today to study animal behavior objectively. As a result, they were more likely to rely on their own personal observations and beliefs, which often led to anthropomorphism.
George Romanes published Animal Intelligence - He argued that sophisticated emotional dilemmas regulate animal behavior, and animals can display fortitude and patience (Shiraev, 2016).

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Supporters of anthropomorphism believe that instincts are a convenient concept to explain behavior and individual traits.
They argued that instincts are inherent patterns or complex behaviors that are not learned.
Humans belong to social groups in which they acquire social instincts as automatic responses.

For example, the French psychologist Gustave Le Bon believed that aggressiveness as an individual trait initially emerges in a large crowd.

He argued that a nonviolent person can act aggressively in a crowd because of the power of the crowd to arouse emotions and behaviors (Shiraev, 2016).

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Another French psychologist, Gabriel Tarde, focused on the mechanism of imitation. He argued that the entire learning process is imitation. We build our individual psychological qualities when we copy others. The English scholar William McDougall argued that human behavior could be traced to initial animal instincts. He identified 18 instincts, including parenting, self-display, and hoarding.

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Comparative psychologists studied how animals and humans learn.
They believed that all animals learn the same way, according to universal principles. They studied habit formation, which is how new behaviors become automatic. They thought that favorable conditions make a behavior more likely, and unfavorable conditions make it less likely. For example, a dog may learn to bark when its trainer says "Speak!" because it is rewarded with a treat. Similarly, a person may learn to be honest because honesty is a habit that is developed in situations where honesty is required.

🟦Edward Thorndike's puzzle box experiments (Shiraev, 2016) :

Thorndike introduced a new method for studying habit formation.
He placed animals in a puzzle box and observed their behavior.
He measured the number of trials and time it took the animals to escape.
He found that the animals learned to escape more quickly with each trial.

He called this the learning curve.

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🟦Thorndike's laws of learning:

Thorndike proposed several laws of learning (Shiraev, 2016) :

The law of exercise states that the more one repeats a movement, the better it is retained.
The law of effect states that of several responses made to the same situation, those accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction are likely to be learned.
Thorndike believed that the law of effect also explains how some people acquire harmful habits.

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