1. Toward a Science of Behavior
Background
2nd decade of 20th century: disagreement within psychology
On value of introspection
On existence of mental elements
On the need to remain a pure (unapplied) science
Functionalism movement was evolutionary, not revolutionary

2. Attack of the Behaviorists
Protest against both structuralism and functionalism
Deliberately abrupt
Designed to shatter the two dominant schools

3. John B. Watson (1878-1958) Watsonian Behaviorism Ultra-Scientific
Dealt solely with observable behavioral acts
Objective descriptions of the data
Rejection of mentalistic concepts and terms
Consciousness comparable to soul, introspection irrelevant

4. John B. Watson ( )
Watson organized and promoted already existing ideas
Philosophical tradition of objectivism and mechanism
Animal psychology
Behaviorism was a Functional psychology

5. Behaviorism Basic ideas were not new, philosophically speaking
Descartes (mechanistic description of the body)
Comte (positivism; Emphasis on undebatable facts)
Positivism became part of the zeitgeist in science
Resulting science of behavior viewed human beings as machines

6. Animal Psychology Behaviorism’s Background
Watson: “Behaviorism is a direct outgrowth of studies in animal behavior....”
Animal psychology was a product of evolutionary theory
Science was willing to accept the mental life of nonhumans..

7. Plant Psychology …perhaps a little too willing. Alfred Binet (1889)
The Psychic Life of Micro-Organisms (1889)
Francis Darwin (1908)
Consciousness in plants

8. Jacques Loeb ( )
Significant step toward objectivity in animal psychology
Tropism or “involuntary forced movement” as basis for theory of animal behavior: consciousness not necessary
Did not totally reject consciousness for more evolved species
It’s all about reflexes - Consciousness revealed by associative memory which is just a very complex association
Taught Watson at Chicago

9. Tools of the Behaviorist’s Trade
Rats, Ants, and the Animal Mind
Robert Yerkes (Yale): Inspired by Pavlov and strengthened comparative psychology in the U.S.
The Dancing Mouse (1905)
Willard S. Small
1900: introduced the rat maze
Used mentalistic terms
Charles Henry Turner
A Preliminary Note on Ant Behavior (1906)
May have inspired Watson’s adoption of the term “Behaviorism”

10. The Death of Comparative Psychology
Lack of funding for comparative psychologists
Harvard president: “no future in Yerkes's...Comparative psychology”
His students took up applied jobs when none available in comparative
Margaret Floy Washburn publishes The Animal Mind (1908) which may have been the last book of the time to attribute mental states to animals

11. …and the resurrection You can study animals, but be objective.
1906: Pavlov lecture reprinted in Science
1909: description of Pavlov’s work published by Yerkes and Morgulis in Psychological Bulletin
1911: Journal of Animal Behavior (later Journal of Comparative Psychology) published
Objective psychology and Watson’s research supported by Pavlov’s work
Conscious experience disappearing from animal psychology

12. Hans (Again) 1904 Wilhelm von Osten: Animal intelligence
Oskar Pfungst (Stumpf’s student)

13. Hans (Again) Owned by Wilhelm von Osten
Osten’s goal: prove humans and animals have similar mental processes
Animals simply lack education
After exposure, von Osten accused Hans of deceit
Watson used this case to demonstrate the dangers of making assumptions about the conscious operations of the animal mind
Hans’ “intelligence” would have been understood immediately if it was explored according to Behaviorist models

14. American Connectionism
Edward Lee Thorndike ( )
Educated in the U.S.
Wanted to study child development at Harvard with James – settled for chicks
Finished Ph.D. with Cattell at Columbia
Animal Intelligence (1898): First psychology dissertation based on nonhumans
Eventually got back to humans and education

15. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)
Connectionism
The mind is a device that connects…situations, elements of situations, and compounds of situations with…responses, readiness to respond, facilitations, inhibitions, and directions of responses.
Learning is connecting!
A revised version of Locke’s Associationism

16. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)
Laboratory work and learning theory of connectionism were critical antecedents for behaviorism.
Thorndike's work with cats and puzzle boxes drove his formulation of the law of exercise and the law of effect.
He later published the truncated law of effect that cast doubt on the effectiveness of punishment.

17. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)
Cats and Puzzle Boxes
Trap a cat…random behavior will evolve in to a specific behavior aimed at generating results
Consequences led to the “stamping in” or “stamping out” of responses (Trial-and-Accidental-Success-Learning)

18. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)
Law of Effect: If a behavior generates a desired result, it will be reinforced and vise versa
Law of Exercise: Repetition will reinforce behavior ONLY of results are generated
Practice is not enough
Punishment may be ineffective!
(This doesn’t mean learning isn’t happening!)

19. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)
Moved from animals to education
His work supported the identical elements transfer theory over the doctrine of formal discipline.
DFD: “Latin will improve your ability to study all subjects.”
IETT: “Mental exercises are fine, but if you want to understand algebra, study math!”

20. Edward Lee Thorndike (1874–1949)
After Thorndike
Decreased role of consciousness
Increased focus on experimental method
Mechanism: behavior reduced to S-R elements

21. Talk is Cheap
“…I must acknowledge that the honor of having made the first steps along this path belongs to E.L. Thorndike. By two or three years his experiments preceded ours…”
Pavlov, 1928

22. Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov (1849-1936)
In general
His work helped shift of associationism from subjective ideas to objective physiological responses
Provided Watson with a new method

23. Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov (1849-1936)
Pavlov’s life
Intended to study for the priesthood
Read about Darwin, chose to study animal physiology
Member of Russian (and soviet) intelligentsia
Total dedication to research
1890: professor of pharmacology at St. Petersburg, Russia
1904 nobel prize for work on digestion

24. Russian Physiologists
Ivan Pavlov ( )
Shifted from physiology to psychology with research into psychical reflex (classical conditioning).
Variations of classical conditioning:
- US, UR, CS, CR
Evaluated the processes of extinction, spontaneous recovery, disinhibition, stimulus generalization, discrimination etc.

25. Experimental Control The tower of silence Painstaking research
Pavlov concerned about outside influences affecting his results
Controlled for such influences by designing special cubicles for dog and for experimenter
Dog could not see experimenter
Painstaking research
Standardized experimental conditions
Rigorous controls
Elimination of sources of error

26. Pavlov Later work focused on experimental neurosis.
Assaulted the nervous system of dogs and studied their responses.
Ultramaximal inhibition, a state of protective shock with three different aftereffects:
Equivalent phase – same saliva, regardless of stimulus
Paradoxical phase – less triggers more and vise versa
Ultraparadoxical phase – attracted to negative stimuli and repulsed by positive stimuli (human conversion experiences?).

27. Pavlov
Nobel prize in 1904
The conditioned response is the basic unit of Behaviorism
Work still stands due to meticulous experimental technique
Tower of Silence
Declared intellectual war on Köhler and Gestalt psychology

28. Where’s my Prize? E.B. Twitmyer U. Penn 1902: dissertation on reflexes
1904: presentation at APA
Topic: knee-jerk reflex
Findings: Conditioned Knee-Jerk reflex

29. Twitmyer’s Experiment

30. Animal Rights Reflexology, Behaviorism and Animals
SPCA: England 1824
ASPCA: U.S. 1866
Pavlov, Darwin, and James all advocated “humane” use of animals

31. Summary of Pavlov
Demonstrated study of higher mental processes in physiological terms
Broad practical applicability
Continued the tradition of mechanism and atomism
Provided psychology with a basic element of behavior
Behavior could be reduced to elements and studied in experimental laboratory