POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Polangui, Albay

MODULE 8:
NEO
BEHAVIORISM:
TOLMAN & BANDURA
I. LEARNING OUTCOMES

After this module, the students must have:

1. Explain Tolman’s purposive behaviorism.

2. Explain Bandura’s social learning theory.
3. Give specific applications of each theory in teaching.

II. CONTENT DISCUSSION OR ABSTRACTION

A. INTRODUCTION:

With new researches, explanations provided by the basic principles of behaviorism appeared not to
satisfy all learning scenarios. New theories came into view which maintained some of the behaviorist’
concepts but excluded others, and added new ideas which later came to be associated with the cognitive
views of learning. The neo-behaviorists, then, were a transitional group, bridging the gap between
behaviorism and cognitive theories of learning.

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Polangui, Albay

B. ABSTRACTION

Usually, people who worked on the maze activity which you just did would say they found the
second maze easier. This is because they saw that the two mazes were identical, except that the entrance
and exit points were reversed. Their experience in doing maze A helped them answer Maze B a lot easier.
These mental maps help them respond to other things or tasks later, especially if they see the similarity.
You may begin to respond with trial and error (behavioristic), but later on your response becomes more
internally driven (cognitive perspective). This is what neobehaviorism is about. It has aspects of behaviorism
but it also reaches out to the cognitive perspective.
There are two theories reflecting neobehaviorism that stands. Edward Tolman’s Purposive
Behaviorism and Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. Both theories are influenced by behaviorism
(which is focused on external elements in learning), but their principles seem to also be reflective of the
cognitive perspective (focused on more internal elements).

TOLMAN’S PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM

Purposive behaviorism has also been referred to as Sign Learning Theory and is often seen as the
link between behaviorism and cognitive theory. Tolman’s theory was founded on two psychological views:
those of the Gestalt psychologists and those of John Watson, the behaviorist. Tolman believed that learning
is a cognitive process. Learning involves forming beliefs and obtaining knowledge about the environment
and then revealing that knowledge through purposeful and goal-directed behavior. Tolman stated in his sign
theory that an organism learns by pursuing signs to a goal, i.e., learning is acquired through meaningful
behavior. He stressed the organized aspect of learning: “The stimuli which are allowed in are not connected
by just simple, one-to-one switches to the outgoing responses. Rather the, incoming impulses are usually
worked over and elaborated in the central control room into a tentative cognitive-like map of the
environment. And it is this tentative map, indicating routes and paths and environmental relationships, which
finally determine what responses, if any, the animal will finally make.”
Tolman‘s form of behaviorism stressed the relationships between stimuli rather than stimulus-
response. Tolman said that a new stimulus (the sign) becomes associated with already meaningful stimulus
(the significate) through a series of pairings; there is no need for reinforcement in order to establish learning.
In your maze activity, the new stimulus or "sign" (maze B) became associated with already meaningful
stimuli, the significate (maze A). So you may have connected the two stimuli, maze A and maze B; and used
your knowledge and experience in maze A to learn to respond to maze B.

TOLMAN’S KEY CONCEPTS

Learning is always purposive and goal-directed. Tolman asserted that learning is always purposive
and goal-directed. He held the notion that an organism acted or responded for some adaptive purpose. He
believed individuals do more than merely respond to stimuli; they act on beliefs, attitudes, changing
conditions, and they strive toward goals. Tolman saw behavior as holistic, purposive and cognitive.

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Polangui, Albay

Cognitive Maps in Rats. In his most famous experiment, one group of rats was placed at random
starting locations in a maze but the food was always in the same location. Another group of rats had the
food placed in different locations which always required exactly the same pattern of turns from their starting
location. The group that had the food in the same location performed much better than the other group,
supposedly demonstrating that they had learned the location rather than a specific sequence of turns. This
is tendency to “learn location” signified that rats somehow formed cognitive maps that help them perform
well on the maze. He also found out that organisms will select the shortest or easiest path to achieve a goal.
Applied in human learning, since a student passes by the same route going to school every day, he
acquires a cognitive map of the location of his school. So when transportation re-routing is done, he can still
figure out what turns to make to get to the shortest or easiest way.
Latent Learning. Latent learning is a jJ0f 1earnjflai at remains or stays with the individual until
needed. It is learning that is not outwardly manifested at once. According to Tolman it can exist even without
reinforcement. He demonstrated this in his rat experiments wherein apparently “learned the maze” by
forming cognitive maps of the maze but manifested this knowledge of the maze only when they needed to.
Applied in human learning, a two-year old always sees her dad operate the TV remote control and
observes how the TV. is turned on or how channel is changed, and volume adjusted. After sometime, the
parents are surprised that on the first time that their daughter holds the remote Control, she already knows
which buttons to press for what function. Through latent learning, the child knew the skills beforehand, even
though she has never done them before.
The Concept of Intervening Variable. Intervening variables are variables that are not readily seen
but serve as determinants of behavior, Tolman believed that learning is influenced by expectations,
perceptions, representations, needs and other internal or environmental variables. Example, in his
experiments with rats he found out that hunger was an intervening variable.
Reinforcement Not Essential For Learning. Tolman concluded that reinforcement is not essential
for learning, although it provides incentive For performance. In his studies, ‘he observed that a rat was able
to acquire knowledge of the way through a maze, i.e., develop a cognitive map, even in the absence of
reinforcement.

BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Social learning theory focuses on the learning occurs within a social context. It considers that
people learn from one another, including such concepts as observable learning, imitation and modeling. The
ten-year old boy Sergio Pelico did watch Saddam’s execution on TV and then must have imitated it.
Among others, Albert Bandura is considered the leading proponent of this theory.

General Principles of Social Learning Theory

1. People can learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcomes of those behaviors.
2. Learning can occur without a change in behavior. Behaviorists say learning has to be represented by a
permanent change in behavior, in contrast in social learning theorists say that because people can
learn through observation alone, their learning may not necessarily be shown in their performance.
Learning may or may not result in a behavior change.
3. Cognition plays a role in learning. Over the last 30 years, social learning theory has become
increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning. Awareness and expectations of future
reinforcements or punishments can have a major effect on the behaviors that people exhibit.

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4. Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviorist learning theories
and cognitive learning theories.

How the Environment Reinforces and Punishes Modeling

People are often reinforced for modeling the behavior of others. Bandura suggested that the
environment also reinforces modeling. This is in several possible ways:

1. The observer is reinforced by the model. For example a student who changes dress to fit in with a
certain group of students has a strong likelihood of being accepted and thus reinforced by that group.
2. The observer is reinforced by a third person. The observer might be modeling the actions of someone
eIse, for example, an outstanding class leader or student. The teacher notices this and compliments
and praises the observer for modeling such behavior thus reinforcing that behavior.
3. The Imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences. Many behaviors that we learn from
others produce satisfying or reinforcing results. For example, a student in my multimedia class could
observe how the extra work a classmate does is fun. This student in turn would do the same extra work
and also experience enjoyment.
4. Consequences of the model’s behavior affects the observer’s behavior vicariously. This is known as
vicarious reinforcement. This is where the model is reinforced for a response and then the observer
shows an increase in that the same response. Bandura illustrated this by having students watch a film
of a model hitting an inflated clown doll. One group of children saw the model being praised for such
action. Without being reinforced, the group of children began also to hit the doll.

Contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and punishment

1. Contemporary theory proposes that both reinforcement and punishment, have indirect effects on
learning. They are not the sole or main cause.
2. Reinforcement and punishment influence the extent to which an individual exhibits a behavior that has
been learned.
3. The expectation of reinforcement influences cognitive processes that promote learning. Therefore,
attention pays a critical role in learning, and attention is influenced by the expectation of reinforcement.
An example would be, when the teacher tells a group of students that what they will study next is not on
the test. Students will not pay attention because they do not expect to ‘know the information for a test.

Cognitive factors in social learning

Social learning theory has cognitive factors as well as behaviorist factors (actually operant factors).

1. Learning without performance: Bandura makes a distinction between learning through observation
and the actual imitation of what has been learned. This is similar to Tolman’s latent learning.
2. Cognitive processing during learning: Social learning theorists contend that attention is a critical
factor in learning.

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3. Expectations: As a result of being reinforced, people form expectations about the consequences
that future behaviors are likely to bring. They expect certain behaviors to bring reinforcements and
others to bring punishment. The learner needs to be aware, however, of the response.
Reinforcements and response punishment. Reinforcement increases a response only when the
learner is aware of that connection.
4. Reciprocal causation: Bandura proposed that behavior can influence both the environment and the
person. In fact each of these three variables, the person, the behavior, and the environment can
have an influence on each other.
5. Modeling: There are different’ types of models. There is the live model, an actual person
demonstrating the behavior. There can also be a symbolic model, which can be a person or action
portrayed in some other medium, such as television, videotape, compute programs.

Behaviors that can be learned through modeling

Many behaviors can be learned, at least partly, through modeling. Examples that can be cited are,
students can watch parents read, students can watch the demonstrations of mathematics problems, or
see someone act bravely in a fearful situation. Aggression can be learned through models. Research
indicates that children become more aggressive when they observed aggressive or violent models.
Moral thinking and moral behavior are influenced by observation and modeling. This includes moral
judgments regarding right and wrong which can, in part, develop through modeling.

Conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur

Bandura mentions four conditions that are necessary before an individual can successfully model
the behavior of someone else:

1. Attention The person must first pay attention to the model.

2. Retention - The observer must be able to remember the behavior that has been observed. One
way of increasing this is using the technique of rehearsal.
3. Motor reproduction - The third condition is the ability replicate the behavior that the model has just
demonstrated. This means that the observer has to be able to replicate the action, which could be
a problem with a learner who is not ready developmentally to replicate the action. For example,
little children have difficulty doing complex physical motion.
4. Motivation - The final necessary ingredient for modeling to occur is motivation. Learners must want
to demonstrate what they have learned. Remember that, since these four conditions vary among
individuals, different people will reproduce the same behavior differently.

Effects of modeling on behavior:

1. Modeling teaches new behaviors. b

2. Modeling influences the frequency of previously learned behaviors „
3. Modeling may encourage Previously forbidden behaviors.

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4. Modeling increases the frequency of similar behaviors. For example a student might see a friend
excel in basketball and he tries to excel in football because he is not tall enough for basketball.

Educational implications of social learning theory

Social learning theory has numerous implications for classroom use.

1. Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other, people.

2. Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively increase the appropriate behaviors and
decrease inappropriate ones. This can involve discussing with learners about the rewards and
consequence of various behaviors.
3. Modeling provides an alternative to shaping behaviors. Instead of using shaping, which is operant
conditioning; modeling can provide a faster, more efficient means for teaching new behavior. To
promote effective modeling, a teacher must make sure that the four essential conditions exist;
attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation.
4. Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors and take care that they do not model
inappropriate behaviors.
5. Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models. This technique is especially
important to break down traditional stereotype.

III. LEARNER’S EXPERIENCES OR ACTIVITIES/EXERCISES

A. TOLMAN’S PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM

State a personal message derived from the key concepts of Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism.
Use the table provided below:

Key Concept of Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism Personal Message

1. Learning is always purposive and goal-directed. 1.1 To make my students do what I require them to do,
I should state the goal clearly and specifically.
1.2
1.3
2. Cognitive maps help students perform well. 2.1
Organisms select the shortest or easiest path to
achieve goal.
2.2
3. Latent learning stays with he individual until needed. 3.1
3.2
4. Learning is influenced by expectations, perceptions, 4.1
representations, needs, and other internal variables
like hunger.
4.2
4.3

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 POLANGUI COMMUNITY COLLEGE
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B. BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Choose 3 key concepts of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory then state how you apply the concept
as you teach. Use the Table provided for this purpose.

3 Key Concepts of Albert Bandura How I apply it in my teaching

1. 1.1
1.2
2. 2.1
2.2.
3. 3.1
3.2

C. 1. In your own words and in not more thafl 5 sentenCes each, explain:
a.) Tolman’s purposive behaviorism
b.) Bandura’s social learning theory
2. Give at least one teaching application of each theory.

IV. ASSESSMENT/REFLECTION TOOLS

1. Essay
2. Reflection
3. Rubrics

V. MATERIALS/REFERENCE LINKS

a. Book:
Facilitating Learning: A Metacognitive Process
- Maria Rita D. Lucas, Ph.D.
- Brenda B. Corpuz, Ph.D.
b. Internet

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