Meet John Garcia. Look at his picture. What do you think his profession is? Obviously something psychology related, maybe, since this is a blog about psychology? I'm partial to think that he looks my old pediatrician. His resume includes the following: farmer, artist (cartoonist, in fact), Air Corps Cadet, high school teacher, college professor, ship builder, beginner boxer and the most impressive, researcher at Harvard Medical School and the Brain Research Institute at UCLA. (Along with being a ship builder, he helped build submarines for the US Navy). Wow, so yeah. He was a busy guy. As interesting as this guy is, we'll be focusing on one particular facet of his life. Taste aversion.
Let me start with a little history on where highly intelligent Dr. John Garcia got his beginning.
He was born in 1917 to Spanish immigrants in Santa Rosa, California. He started his long list of jobs as just a lowly farm worker. From there, he did all of his other jobs. Like I said, he is mainly known for his work on taste aversion. Honestly, it's common sense what he discovered, but someone had to discover it. Garcia and Robert Koelling were experimenting with radiation in rats when they came across what they called "the rats intolerance of radiation water." Ok maybe those are my words, not theirs. Basically, that's what it was. The rats started to refuse to drink water from the plastic bottles in the radiation chambers. The rats were associating the sickness they received from the radiation with the plastic water bottles that they were offered. This learned response is what became known as taste aversion. If you remember from an earlier blog, I mentioned these bacon-wrapped mini hot dogs that made me sick a few Christmases ago. Whenever I smell that sickly sweet smell, it brings back the nauseated sensation that I experienced.
Makes sense, right? Pretty much, that's it for taste aversion. Like I said, this is simple stuff. Garcia was just the first to put a name to something that is easier to understand now.
The other half of this blog is the part that I didn't tell you about. Bobo dolls!
Makes sense, right? Pretty much, that's it for taste aversion. Like I said, this is simple stuff. Garcia was just the first to put a name to something that is easier to understand now.
The other half of this blog is the part that I didn't tell you about. Bobo dolls!
ok so it isn't just about Bobo dolls. It's also about this guy...
No, this isn't the guy who created Bobo dolls. This....is Albert Bandura, creator of the Social Learning Theory.
This too is pretty simple to understand. When kids watch adults act a certain way in a certain situation, they are bound to do the same thing. Albert Bandura wanted to test this with Bobo dolls. So if you don't know what Bobo dolls are, they are an inflatable clown with a weighted bottom so when they are pushed or hit, they tip over and pop back up. Bandura placed an adult in a room with a Bobo dolls. Surprisingly, the adult started to hit and punch the Bobo doll. When it was time for the child to put in the room with the Bobo doll, he/she performed almost the exact same violent actions as the adult.
However, Bandura thought ahead and had another group of adults and children set up in a separate room. These adults were told to be non-violent. After watching the adults, the children again performed almost the same (non-violent, this time) actions.
This strengthened Bandura's Social Learning Theory in which he states that children learn by observable behavior.
An example of this today would be when a child hears a parent cuss, they repeat the word. So definitely be careful what you say around young children! They are sponges and will pick up on every word and action that you say and do.
That concludes today's blog. Hope you enjoyed it! Next time, we'll be talking about....hmm I can't remember....
OH, that's right! MEMORY!
References
McKay, A. (n.d.). Taste Aversion. Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://study.com/academy/lesson/taste-aversion-definition-conditioning-learning.html
JOHN GARCIA's Obituary on Skagit Valley Herald Publishing Company. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/skagitvalleyherald/obituary.aspx?pid=163496008
Albert Bandura Biographical Sketch. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://stanford.edu/dept/psychology/bandura/bandura-bio-pajares/Albert _Bandura _Biographical_Sketch.html
5. The Bobo Doll Experiment. (n.d.). Retrieved April 20, 2015, from http://pals-bandura-iadt.wikispaces.com/5. The Bobo Doll Experiment
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