Behavioral Theories 1
Behavioral Theories 1
Behavioral Theories 1
What learning of theories have evolved? Initially, Pavlov was measuring the dog’s
salivation in order to study digestion.
The systematic study of learning is relatively new. Not
until the late nineteenth century was learning studied Pavlov’s Experiment
in a scientific manner. Using techniques borrowed
from the physical sciences, researchers began • Before conditioning, ringing the bell (neutral
conducting experiments to understand how; people stimulus) cause no response from the dog.
and animals learn. Two of the most important early Placing food (unconditioned stimulus) in front
researchers were Ivan Pavlov and Edward Thorndike. of the dog-initiated salivation (unconditioned
Among later researchers, B. F. Skinner was important response). During conditioning the ringing of the
for his studies of the relationship between behavior
bell (conditioned stimulus) alone produce
and consequences.
salivation (conditioned response).
What is Learning?
Unconditioned Stimulus
Learning is usually defined as a change in an
-A stimulus that naturally evokes a
individual caused by experience (Driscoll, 2000)
particular response.
Changes caused by development (such as
growing taller) are not instances of learning. Unconditioned Response
Neither are characteristics of individuals that are
present at birth (such as reflexes and responses to -A behavior that is prompted automatically
hunger or pain). However, humans do so much by a stimulus.
learning from the day of their birth (and some say Neutral Stimuli
earlier) that learning and development are
inseparably linked. -Stimuli that have no effect on a particular
response.
BEHAVIORIST PERSPECTIVE
Conditioned Stimulus
Behaviorism:
-A previously neutral stimulus that evokes a
Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, Skinner particular response after having been paired with
an uncondi- tioned stimulus.
• The theory of behaviorism focuses on the study
of observable and measurable behavior. It
emphasizes that behavior is mostly learned
Classical conditioning
through conditioning and reinforcement
(rewards and punishment). It does not give much -The process of repeatedly associating a
attention to the mind and the possibility of previously neutral stimulus with an
thought processes occurring in the mind. unconditioned stimulus in order to evoke a
conditioned response.
Ones the dog has learned to salivate at the sound Thorndike’s theory on connectionism, states that
of the bell, it will salivate at other similar sounds. learning has taken place when a strong connection or
bond between stimulus and response is formed. He
Extinction:
came up with three primary laws:
If you stop pairing the bell with the food,
LAW OF EFFECT
salivation will eventually cease in response to the bell.
LAW OF EXERCISE
Spontaneous Recovery:
LAW OF READINESS
Extinguished responses can be “recovered” after
an elapsed time, but will soon extinguish again if the dog • Law of Effect
is not presented with food.
The law of effect states that a connection between a stimulus
Discrimination: and response is strengthened when the consequence is positive
(reward) and the connection between the stimulus and the
The dog learns to discriminate between similar response is weakened when the consequence is negative.
bells (stimuli) the discern which bell would result in the Thorndike later on, revise this “law” when he found that
presentation of food and which would not. negative rewards (punishment) do not necessarily weaken
bonds, and that some seemingly pleasurable consequences do
Higher-Order Conditioning: not necessarily motivate performance.
Once the dog has been conditioned to associate • Law of Exercise
the bell with food, another unconditioned stimulus, such
as a light maybe flashed at the same time that the bell is This tells us that the more an S-R (stimulus-response)
rung. Eventually, the dog will salivate at the flash of the bond is practiced the stronger it will become. “Practice
light without the sound of the bell. 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.
• Law of readiness
This states that the more readiness the learner them when
EDWARD L. THORNDIKE a person is ready to respond to a stimulus and is not
made to respond, it becomes annoying to the person.
• CONNECTIONISM THEORY
Principles derived from thorndike’s connectionism:
• Edward Thorndike’s connectionism theory gave
1. Learning requires both practice and rewards
us the original S-R framework of behavioral
(laws of effects/exercise)
psychology more than a hundred years ago he
wrote a textbook entitled, Educational 2. A series of S-R connections can be chained
Psychology. He was the first one to use this together if they belong to the same action
term. sequence (law of readiness).
• He explained that learning is the result of 3. Transfer of learning occurs because of
associations forming between stimuli (S) and previously encountered situations.
responses (R).
4. Intelligence is a function of the number of
• The main principle of connectionism (like all connections learned.
behavioral theory) was that learning could be
adequately explained without considering my
unobservable internal states.
JOHN B. WATSON
BEHAVIORAL THEORIES OF LEARNING
• He was the first psychologist to work with Pavlov’s an individuals response to events (stimuli) that
ideas. He too was initially involved in animal studies, occur in the environment.
then later become involved in human behavior
research. Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner’s S-R
theory. A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the
• He considered that humans are born with a few
desired response. There is a positive reinforcer and a
reflexes and the emotional reaction of love and rage.
negative reinforcer.
All other behavior is learned through stimulus -
response associations through conditioning. • A positive reinforcer is any stimulus that is
Experiment on Albert given or added to increase the response.
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