Behavioral Views of Learning Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov) 1903 Law of Effect (Thorndike) 1905 Environmentalism (Watson) 1913 (1920) Operant Conditioning (Skinner) 1936 Observational Learning (Bandura) 1963

What is behaviorism all about? Behavioral psychology is the study of external behavior Behavior is objective and observable, whereas what goes on in one’s mind can never really be known or measured (the mind is a “black box”) Behavior is the response of an organism to stimuli

Classical Conditioning Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Prior to Conditioning

During Conditioning After Conditioning

Basic Concepts Unconditioned Conditioned US = Unconditioned Stimulus: the US reliably produces the UR UR = Unconditioned response: usually based in physiology such as salivation, sweating, blinking, or other reflexive responses; Conditioned CS = Conditioned Stimulus: a CS is a neutral stimulus prior to conditioning but produces CR after conditioning CR = Conditioned Response: same type of response as UR but occurs in response to CS

The Law of Effect Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

Thorndike (1905) - (Cats ) Trial and Error: (Cat has to escape to get food) Successive Trials Resulted in Faster Responses

John B. Watson 1878-1958 1913: Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it. « The Behaviorist Manifesto » Experimented with Little Albert using a white rabbit and loud noise.

John B. Watson 1878-1958 Watson changed the focus of psychology from introspection, to environmentalism. The principles of learning would account for the largest share of behavioral development and are exercised almost exclusively through environmental learning opportunities provided for children. (reflected in cultural diversity & learning studies)

“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…” -Watson 1924

Operant Conditioning Skinner Boxes (1904-1990)

Operant Conditioning: Reinforcement vs. Punishment A reinforcer is any stimulus that increases the frequency of the target behavior A “punishment” is any stimulus that decreases the frequency of the target behavior

OPERANT CONDITIONING TECHNIQUES POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT = increasing a behavior by administering a reward NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT = increasing a behavior by removing an aversive stimulus when a behavior occurs PUNISHMENT = decreasing a behavior by administering an aversive stimulus following a behavior OR by removing a positive stimulus EXTINCTION = decreasing a behavior by not rewarding it

Put simply Behavior Increases Behavior Decreases Positive Reinforcement Presence of Pleasant Stimulus Behavior Increases Negative Reinforcement Absence of Unpleasant Stimulus Presence of Unpleasant Stimulus Behavior Decreases Punishment

Reinforcement: Two Types

Punishment: Two Types

LIMITED EFFECTS OF PUNISHMENT Punishment does not teach appropriate behaviors Must be delivered immediately & consistently May result in negative side effects Undesirable behaviors may be learned through modeling (aggression) May create negative emotions (anxiety & fear)

Operant Conditioning: Continuous v. Partial Reinforcement Behavior is most quickly established by Continuous Reinforcement Continuous Reinforcement most vulnerable to Extinction Partial Reinforcement is most resistant to Extinction

Immediacy of consequences Obvious connection between behavior and consequence Delayed consequences whether positive (reward) or negative (punishment) have less or no effect at all: Importance of immediate feedback in the classroom.

Operant Conditioning: Shaping An operant conditioning procedure in which reinforcers guide behavior toward closer and closer approximations of the target behavior. Reinforce students for what they are currently able to perform / do.

Shaping New Behaviors Shaping is a process of reinforcing a series of responses that increasingly resemble the desired final behavior, When a desired behavior occurs rarely or not at all, we use shaping, First reinforce any response that in some way resembles the desired behavior, then one that is closer etc. Think of animal training or the hyper kid who can’t sit in his chair in class – do things in small steps

Chaining and reverse chaining Chaining: breaking down a task into smaller steps/Feedback and rewards Paragraph writing: Topic sentence, 1 argument for, 1 argument against, conclusion. Blank filling, from easier to more challenging gaps. Reverse chaining: The final subskills of a complex task are learned before the first subskill.

Extinction, generalization, discrimination Extinction: This term refers to disappearance of a link between the conditioned stimulus and the conditioned response.  Ex. Watson’s experiment with Albert: The child’s response gradually extinguishes, or fades until it has disappeared entirely when experimenter stopped associating the loud sound with the appearance of the white rabbit. In a sense the child’s initial learning is “unlearned”.

Generalization: When Pavlov studied conditioning in dogs, he noticed that the original conditioned stimulus (tone) was not the only neutral stimulus that elicited the conditioned response; a bell, steps, etc. elicited the conditioned response, too. Psychologists call this process generalization, or the tendency for similar stimuli to elicit a conditioned response.

stimulus generalization When Omar’s mother told him the iron was hot and he shouldn’t touch it, he also learned to stay away from the stove, oven, and hot water in the bathtub. What is Omar’s learning process called? extinction operant conditioning stimulus generalization stimulus discrimination

Discrimination occurs when the individual learns to distinguish or respond differently to one stimulus than to another.

Strengths and drawbacks of behavioral views of learning in terms of implementation and consequences on human beings.

Behaviorists do not consider as important the following: Behaviorists focus on establishing environments that maximize learning as measured via stimulus/response mechanisms Behaviorists do not consider as important the following: Affective Domain Processing Skills Mental Knowledge Structures Expert vs. Novice Solving

Ppt. compiled by R. Kerkech, based on www. wou Ppt. compiled by R. Kerkech, based on www.wou.edu/~girodm/611/behaviorism www.webster.edu/~woolflm/personalityskinner www.math.wvu.edu/.../BehavioristTheoryPresentation...‎ www1.assumption.edu/users/emhowe/.../behavior prezi.com/0qq9xb2iqwj7/behaviorism/‎ (Khan academy)