DARAGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

LESSON 7

BEHAVIORIST PERSPECTIVE

Prof. Abelardo B. Medes

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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

OBJECTIVES

1. Explain the basic principles of behaviorism

2. Make a simple plan applying the primary laws of
learning
3. Determine how to use rewards in the learning process
more effectively
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

PRIMING ACTIVITY

1. Think of a teacher that is unforgettable to you in

elementary or high school.
2. What do you remember about this teacher when you
see or encounter at present? What are these things?
3. What kind of rewards and punishments did she/he
apply in your class? For what student behaviors were
the rewards and punishments?
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PRIMING ACTIVITY

SHARING OF EXPERIENCES ABOUT THE UNFORGETTABLE TEACHER

1. What makes this teacher unforgettable for you?

2. Why is this teacher unforgettable for you?
3. Were the rewards and punishments effective? Please elaborate.
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BEHAVIORISM
• Ivan Pavlov
• Edward L. Thorndike
• John Watson
• Burrhus Frederick Skinner
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IVAN PAVLOV

▪ A Russian psychologist who is well known for his work in

classical conditioning or stimulus substitution.
▪ Pavlov most renowned experiment involved meat, dog and bell
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PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT ON CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

▪ Stage 1. Before conditioning
Bell (neutral stimulus) – no response from the dog
▪ Stage 2. During conditioning
Bell (neutral stimulus paired with meat
(unconditional stimulus) – salivation (unconditioned response)
▪ Stage 3. After conditioning
Bell (conditioned stimulus)- salivation (conditioned
stimulus)
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PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT ON CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Findings:
▪ Stimulus Generalization. Once the dog has learned to salivate at the sound of
the bell, it will salivate at other similar sounds.
▪ Extinction. If you stop pairing at the bell with the food, salivation will
eventually cease in response to the bell.
▪ Spontaneous Recovery. Extinguished responses can be “recovered” after an
elapsed time but will soon extinguish again if the dog is not presented with
food.
▪ Discrimination. The dog could learn to discriminate between similar bells
(stimuli) and discern which bell would result in the presentation of food and
which would not.
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PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT ON CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

Findings:

▪ Higher-Order- Conditioning. Once the dog has been conditioned to associate

the bell with food, another unconditioned stimulus, such as light may be
flashed at the same time the bell is rung. Eventually, the dog will salivate at
the flash of the light without the sound of the bell.
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EDWARD L. THORNDIKE
▪ Edward Thorndike’s Connectionism Theory gave us the original S-R
framework of behavioral psychology.
▪ Thorndike explained that learning is the result of associations forming
between stimuli (S) and responses (R).
▪ Thorndike’s theory on connectionism, states that learning has taken place
when a strong connection or bond between stimulus and response formed.
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EDWARD L. THORNDIKE

Thorndike’s 3 primary laws:

▪ Law of Effect. States that connection between a stimulus and a response is

strengthened when the consequence is positive (reward) and the connection
between the stimulus and the response is weakened when the consequence is
negative. But Thorndike later revise the “law” when he found out that
negative rewards (punishment do not necessarily weaken bonds.
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EDWARD L. THORNDIKE

Thorndike’s 3 primary laws:

▪ Law of Exercise. Tells that the more an S-R (stimulus-response) bond is

practiced the stronger it will become. (Practice makes perfect). However,
Thorndike revised the law when he found out that practice without feedback
does not necessarily enhance performance.
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EDWARD L. THORNDIKE

Thorndike’s 3 primary laws:

▪ Law of Readiness. States that the more readiness the learner has to respond
to the stimulus, the stronger will be the bond between them. When a person
is ready to respond to a stimulus and is not made to respond, it becomes
annoying to the person. For example, if the teacher says, “Okay, you will now
watch the movie (stimulus) you’ve been waiting for.” And suddenly the power
goes off. The students will feel frustrated because they were ready to respond
to the stimulus but were prevented from doing so.
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EDWARD L. THORNDIKE

Principles derived from Thorndike’s Connectionism:

1. Learning requires both practice and rewards (laws of effect/exercise)

2. As series of S-R connections can be chained together if they belong to the
same action sequence (law of readiness).
3. Transfer of learning occurs because of previously encountered situations.
4. Intelligence is a function of the number of connections learned.
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JOHN WATSON
▪ First American psychologist to work with Pavlov’s ideas.
▪ He became involved in human behavior research.
▪ He considered that humans are born with a few reflexes and the emotional
reactions of love and rage. All other behavior is learned through stimulus-
response association through conditioning.
▪ Watson applied classical conditioning in an experiment with a young child
and a white rat. At the beginning, the child was not afraid of the rat; but
Watson made a loud noise each time the child touched the rat. But because
the child was frightened by the loud noise, he soon became conditioned to
fear and avoid the rat. Later, the child’s response was generalized to other
small animals. Watson then “extinguished” or made the child “unlearn” fear
by showing the rat without the loud noise.
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JOHN WATSON

▪ Watson’s work clearly show the role of conditioning in the development of

emotional responses to certain stimuli. This may help us understand the
fears, phobias and prejudices that people develop.
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BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER

▪ Also believed in the stimulus-response pattern of conditioned behavior.

▪ His theory zeroed in only on changes on observable behavior, excluding any
likelihood of any processes taking place in the mind.
▪ Skinner’s work differ from that of the 3 behaviorists.
▪ Skinner’s theory was known as Operant Conditioning.
▪ Operant Conditioning is based upon the notion that learning is a result of
change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual’s
response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment.
▪ When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded)
the individual is conditioned to respond.
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BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER

Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. A reinforcer is

anything that strengthens the desired response. There is a positive reinforcer
and a negative reinforcer.
▪ A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that is given or added to increase the
response. Example of positive reinforcement is when a teacher promises
extra time in the play area to children who behave well during the lesson.
Another is when a mother promises a new phone for her son who gets god
grades.
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BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER

▪ A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that results in the increased frequency
when it is withdrawn or removed. A negative reinforcement is not a
punishment, in fact it is a reward. For instance, a teacher announces that a
student who gets a grade of 1.5 for the two grading periods will no longer take
the final examination. The negative reinforcer is “ removing” the final exam,
which we realize is a form or reward.
▪ A negative reinforcer is different from punishment because a punishment is a
consequence intended to result in reduced responses. An example would be a
student who always comes late is not allowed to join a group work that has
already began (punishment) and, therefore, loses points for the activity. This
punishment was done to reduce the response of repeatedly coming to class late.
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BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER

▪ Implications of Operant Conditioning

1. Practice should take the form of question (stimulus)-answer (response) frames

which expose the student to the subject in gradual steps.
2. Require that the learner makes a response for every frame and receives
immediate feedback.
3. Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so the response is always correct
and hence, a positive reinforcement.
4. Ensure that good performance in the lesson is paired with secondary
reinforcers such as verbal praise, prizes and good grades.
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BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER

▪ Principles Derived from Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent reinforcement

is particularly effective.
2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be
reinforced (“shaping”).
3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli (“stimulus
generalization”) producing secondary conditioning.
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

ASSESSMENT TASK

1. Explain the basic principles of behaviorism.

2. Make a simple plan applying the principles of learning.
3. Explain how to use rewards in the learning process effectively.
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

ACTIVITY (INDIVIDUAL)
Observation
1. Choose a place where you can observe adult-child interactions- such as in a mall, in
church, at the playground, etc. Spend one hour observing such adult-child interactions.
Focus your attention on the stimulus-response-consequence patterns you observe.
2. Describe the consequences you observe. (It is better to write the details on the spot or as
soon as you finish your observation).
3. Answer these questions.
a. What kinds of stimuli for children’s and adult behavior did you observe?
b. What kinds of behaviors on the part of the children elicit reinforcement and
punishment consequences from the adult.
c. What kinds of behaviors of adults are reinforced or punished by the children?
d. What kinds of reinforcements and punishments seem to be the most successful?
e. Given this experience, what are your thoughts about operant conditioning? Do you
think children reinforce and punish adults as adults reinforce and punish them?
How might the two be interdependent?