BEHAVIORISM: PAVLOV, THORNDIKE, WATSON, SKINNER

The theory of behaviorism focuses on the study of observable and measurable

behavior. It emphasizes that behavior is mostly learned through conditioning and
reinforcement (rewards and punishment). It does not give much attention to the mind
and the possibility of thought processes occurring in the mind. Contributions in the
development of the behaviorist theory largely came from Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike and
Skinner.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, is well known for his work in classical
conditioning or stimulus substitution. Pavlov's most renowned experiment involved
meat, a dog and a bell. Initially, Pavlov was measuring the dog's salivation in order to
study digestion. This is when he stumbled upon classical conditioning.

Pavlov's Experiment. Before conditioning, ringing the bell (neutral stimulus)

caused no response from the dog. Placing food (unconditioned stimulus) in front of the
dog initiated salivation (unconditioned response). During conditioning, the bell was rung
a few seconds before the dog was presented with food. After conditioning, the ringing of
the bell (conditioned stimulus) alone produced salivation (conditioned response). This is
classical conditioning.
Pavlov also had the following 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 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.
Higher-Order Conditioning. Once the dog has been conditioned to associate
the bell with food, another unconditioned stimulus, such as a light may be flashed at the
same time that the bell is rung. Eventually, the dog will salivate at the flash of the light
without the sound of the bell.

CONNECTIONISM THEORY
Edward Thorndike's Connectionism theory gave us the original S-R framework of
behavioral psychology. More than a hundred years ago he wrote a text book entitled,
Educational Psychology. He was the first one to use this term. He explained that
learning is the result of associations forming between stimuli (S) and responses (R).
Such associations or habits" become strengthened or weakened by the nature and
frequency of the S-R pairings. The model for S-R theory was trial and error learning in
which certain responses came to be repeated more than others because of rewards.
The main principle of connectionism (like all behavioral theory) was that
learning could be adequately explained without considering any unobservable internal
states.
Thorndike's theory on connectionism, states that learning has taken place when.
a strong connection or bond between stimulus and response is formed. He came up with
three primary laws:
1. Law of Effect. The law of effect states that a connection between a stimulus
and 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. Thorndike later on, revised this "law" when he found that negative rewards
(punishment) do not necessarily weaken bonds, and that some seemingly pleasurable
consequences do not necessarily motivate performance.
2. Law of Exercise. This tells us that the more an S-R (stimulus response) bond is
practiced the stronger it will become. "Practice makes perfect" seem to be associated
with this. However, like the law of effect, the law of exercise also had to be revised
when Thorndike found that practice without feedback does not necessarily enhance
performance.
3. Law of Readiness. This 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 we 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. Likewise, if the person is not at all ready to respond to stimuli and is asked to
respond, that also becomes annoying. For instance, the teacher calls a student to stand
up and recite, and then the teacher asks the question and expects the student to
respond right away when he is still not ready. This will be annoying to the student. That
is why teachers should remember to say the question first, and wait for a few seconds
before calling on anyone to answer.

Principles Derived from Thorndike's Connectionism:

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

John B. Watson was the first American psychologist to work with Pavlov's
ideas. He too was initially involved in animal studies, then later 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 John Watson associations through
conditioning. He believed in the power 1878 1958 of conditioning so much that
he said that if he is given a dozen healthy infants he can make them into
anything you want them to be, basically through making stimulus-response
connections through conditioning.

Experiment on Albert. Watson applied classical conditioning in his

experiment concerning Albert, a young child and a white rat. In the beginning,
Albert was not afraid of the rat; but Watson made a sudden loud noise each time
Albert touched the rat. Because Albert 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. Now, he was also afraid of small animals.
Watson then extinguished" or made the child "unlearn fear by showing the rat
without the loud noise. Surely, Watson's research methods would be questioned
today nevertheless, his work did 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.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
Burrhus Frederick Skinner. Like Pavlov, Watson and Thorndike, Skinner
believed in the stimulus- response pattern of conditioned behavior. His theory
zeroed in only on changes in observable behavior, excluding any likelihood of any
processes taking place in the mind. Skinner's 1948 book, Walden Two, is about a
utopian society based on operant conditioning. He also wrote Science and Human
Behavior, (1953) in which he pointed out how the principles of operant
conditioning function in social institutions such as government, law, religion,
economics and education.

Skinner's work differs from that of the three behaviorists before him in
that he studied operant behavior (voluntary behaviors used in operating on the
environment). Thus, his theory came to be 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. A response produces
a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a math problem.
When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the
individual is conditioned to respond.

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. An 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 a
mother who promises a new cell phone for her son who gets good grades. Still,
other examples include verbal praises, star stamps and stickers.

 A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that results in the increased frequency of a

response when it is withdrawn or removed. A negative reinforcer is not a
punishment; in fact it is a reward. For instance, a teacher announces that a
student who gets an average 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 of reward for working hard and getting an
average grade of 1.5.

 A negative reinforcer is different from a punishment because punishment is a

consequence intended to result in reduced responses. An example would be a
student who always comes late isnot allowed to join a group work that has
already begun (punishment) and, therefore, loses pointsfor that activity. The
punishment was done to reduce the response of repeatedly coming to class late.

Skinner also looked into extinction or non-reinforcement: Responses that are not
reinforced are not likely to be repeated. For example, ignoring a student's misbehavior
may extinguish that behavior.

 Shaping of Behavior. An animal on a cage may take a very long time to figure out
that pressing a lever will produce food. To accomplish such behavior, successive
approximations of the behavior re rewarded until the animal learns the
association between the lever and the food reward. To begin shaping, the animal
 may be rewarded for simply turning in the direction of the lever, then for moving
toward the lever, for brushing against the lever, and finally for pressing the lever.
 Behavioral chaining comes about when a series of steps are needed to be
learned. The animal would master each step in sequence until the entire
sequence is learned. This can be applied to a child being taught to tie a shoelace.
The child can be given reinforcement (rewards) until the entire process of tying
the shoelace is learned.
 Reinforcement Schedules. Once the desired behavioral response is accomplished,
reinforcement does not have to be 100%; in fact, it can be maintained more
successfully through what Skinner referred to as partial reinforcement schedules.
Partial reinforcement schedules include interval schedules and ratio schedules.
 Fixed Interval Schedules. The target response is reinforced after a fixed amount
of time has passed since the last reinforcement. Example, the bird in a cage is
given food (reinforcer) every 110 minutes, regardless of how many times it
presses the bar.
 Variable Interval Schedules. This is similar to fixed interval schedules but the
amount of time that must pass between reinforcement varies. Example, the bird
may receive food (reinforcer) different intervals, not every ten minutes.
 Fixed Ratio Schedules. A fixed number of correct responses must occur before
reinforcement may recur. Example, the bird will be given food (reinforcer)
everytime it presses the bar 5 times.
 Variable Ratio Schedules. The number of correct repetitions of the correct
response for reinforcement varies. Example, the bird is given food (reinforcer)
after it presses the bar 3 times, then after 10 times, then after 4 times. So the
bird will not be able to predict how many times it needs to press the bar before it
gets food again.

Variable interval and especially, variable ratio schedules produce steadier and
more persistent rates of response because the learners cannot predict when the
reinforcement will come although they know that they will eventually succeed. An
example of this is why people continue to buy lotto tickets even when an almost
negligible percentage of people actually win. While it is true that very rarely there
is a big winner, but once in a while somebody hits the jackpot (reinforcement).
People cannot predict when the jackpot can be gotten (variable interval) so they
continue to buy tickets (repetition of response).

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.

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