Behaviorist Views of Learning

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Two types of conditioning in behavioral psychology

REOPANT DICONIOTNNIG

sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning.

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a technique frequently used in behavioral training in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a
naturally occurring stimulus.

KINSNER

He Developed Operant Conditioning (Instrumental Conditioning)

PUSINHENMTS

Consequence that follows a behavior resulting in you exhibiting the behavior less often in the
future.

Answers:

Two types of conditioning in behavioral psychology

CLASSICAL AND OPERANT

sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

a technique frequently used in behavioral training in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a
naturally occurring stimulus.

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

He Developed Operant Conditioning (Instrumental Conditioning)

SKINNER

Consequence that follows a behavior resulting in you exhibiting the behavior less often in the future.
PUNISHMENTS
What is Behaviorism?

■ An attempt to make psychology more scientific by studying only external behavior.

■ Behaviorists ignore what goes on inside our mind since it can’t be seen or measured.

■ According to Behaviorists, we are born as:

■ “blank slates” ; “vessels” ;“lumps of clay”

■ Believed the environment (extrinsic forces) is the only thing that matters

■ Learning = Behavior change due to experience

History of Behaviorism

■ Very popular in U.S. before Piaget and Vygotsky’s writings were translated and brought here.

■ Behaviorism via Thorndike beat out John Dewey’s theories to become the dominant theory in U.S.

History of Behaviorism: Thorndike

■ Theory begins in U.S. around 1910

with E. Thorndike.

■Experimented with cats and dogs in “puzzle boxes”

Found they learned through trial

and error, not by observation

History of Behaviorism: Watson

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own special world to bring them up in and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him to be any type of specialist I
might select – a doctor, a lawyer, artist…”

History of Behaviorism: Pavlov

Russian physiologist who developed the idea of classical conditioning

(1927) using dogs.

Explains learning of involuntary emotional &/or physiological responses

■ Happens when two stimuli are presented at the same time (contiguity)
■ Explains learning of involuntary emotional &/or physiological responses
■ Happens when two stimuli are presented at the same time (contiguity)

Examples of Classical Conditioning

■ Hearing a teacher, friend, boy/girlfriend say to you,
“We need to talk”

Classical Conditioning in the Classroom

■ Playing soothing music, dimming the lights to calm & relax students
■ Helping students associate school with good experiences

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

■ American psychologist, very influential from the 30’s – 60’s

■ Developed Operant Conditioning (Instrumental Conditioning)
■ Famous for the Skinner Box used with pigeons & rats; applied these findings to human learning
Operant Conditioning
■ Teachers can deliberately use operant conditioning with their students (training)

- How someone reacts to our behaviors determines whether or not we continue the behavior

- We must see the reinforcer as desirable for it to be reinforcing (same for punishment)

Consequences for Behaviors

■ Positive Reinforcement – You behave in a way that results in a reward – so you are more likely to
repeat that behavior

■ Negative Reinforcement – You behave in a way that results in the removal of something unpleasant –
so you are more likely to repeat that behavior (ex: doing a paper early)

■ Punishment – Consequence that follows a behavior resulting in you exhibiting the behavior less often
in the future.

Negative Reinforcement & Punishment

■ Negative reinforcement: Something unpleasant is removed & as a result you are more likely to do it
again.

Punishment: A consequence happens that you don’t like and you are less likely to do it again. The
punishment can add something or take something away

Contrasting Classical & Operant Conditioning

■ In Classic Conditioning the response is involuntary
■ In Operant Conditioning the response is voluntary

■ In Classical Conditioning two stimuli are paired (one that already elicits response, the other begins to
elicit same response)
■ In Operant Conditioning the stimulus comes after the response (student sits quietly – praise follows)

Motivation in Behaviorism

- We do things only for a reward or to avoid punishment.

Critiques of Behaviorism
■ What criticisms of behaviorism do you have so far?
External rewards may diminish intrinsic motivation

> In study with preschoolers, those who had previously been reinforced for certain drawing activities
were less likely to engage in drawing in a free-play situation than children who had not been reinforced.

The Cognitive Perspective: A Reaction to Behaviorism

Wolfgang Kohler

■ German Gestalt psychologist who showed that all learning can’t be explained by conditioning (1920’s).

- Worked with a chimp who connected two sticks to reach a banana - learned not through reinforced
trials, but as a flash of “insight”
–This insight became known as an “Aha! - experience

Kohler’s Chimp

More Critiques …
■ Behaviorism doesn’t account for anything that isn’t an observable behavior
■ There has to be more going on than what is observable

■ Behaviorism only accounts for learning through direct experience with the
environment (not observational learning)

Reference: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1IkD-
XczSW3iFcHjXL3sIs9syNGdkSgZykpiflgVDpDk/edit?usp=drivesdk