Behavioral Theories 1

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BEHAVIORAL THEORIES OF LEARNING

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.

Pavlov also had the following findings;


1. Stimulus Generalization
IVAN PAVLOV
2. Extinction
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
(THEORY) 3. Spontaneous Recovery

• A Russian physiologist is a well-known for his 4. Discrimination


work in classical conditioning or stimulus 5. Higher-Order Conditioning
substitution. Pavlov’s most renowned
experiment involved meat, a dog and a bell. Stimulus Generalization:
BEHAVIORAL THEORIES OF LEARNING

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.

• Watson applied classical conditioning in his


• A negative reinforcer is any stimulus that
experiment concerning Albert, a young child and a results in the increased frequency of a response
white rat. In the beginning, Albert was not afraid of when it withrawn or removed.
the rat; but Watson made a sudden loud noise each
• A negative reinforcer is different from a
time Albert touched the rat. Because Albert was
frightened by the loud noise, he soon became
punishment because a punishment is a
conditioned to fear and avoid the rat. Later, the consequence intended to result in reduced
child’s response was generalized to other small responses.
animals. Now, he was also afraid of small animals.
• Skinner also looked into extinction or non-
Watson “extinguished” or made the child “unlearn”
fear by showing the rat without the loud noise. This reinforcement : responses that are not
may help us understand the fears, phobias and reinforced are not likely to be repeated. For
prejudices that people develop. example, ignoring a students misbehavior may
extinguish that behavior.
BURRHOS FREDERIC SKINNER
Shaping of behavior:
• OPERANT CONDITIONING (THEORY)
An animal on a cage may take a very long time to
• Like Pavlov, Watson and Thorndike, skinner figure out that pressing a lever will produce food. To
believed in the stimulus – response pattern of accomplish such behavior, successive approximations of the
conditioned behavior. His theory zeroed in only behavior a rewarded until the animal learns the association
between the lever and the food reward. To begin shaping, the
on changes in observable behavior, excluding
animal may be rewarded for simply turning in the direction of
any likelihood of any processes taking place in the lever, and finally for pressing the lever.
the mind. Skinner’s 1948 book, Walden two, is
about a utopian society based on operant Behavioral Chaining:
conditioning.
The animal would master each step in sequence until
• He also wrote, Science and Human Behavior, the entire sequence is learned. This can be applied to a child
(1953) in which he pointed out how the being taught to tie a shoelace. The child can be given
reinforcement (rewards) until the entire process of tying the
principles of operant conditioning function in
shoelace is learned.
social institutions such as government, law,
religion, economics and education. Reinforcement Schedules:
• Skinner’s work differs from that of the three Once the desired behavioral responses accomplished,
behaviorists before him in that he studied reinforcement does not have to be 100% in fact, it can be
operant behavior (voluntary behaviors used in maintained more successfully through what Skinner referred
operating on the environment). Thus, is theory to us particular reinforcement schedules.
came to be known as Operant Conditioning. • Fixed Interval Schedules:
• Operant conditioning is based upon the notion The target response is reinforced after a fixed amount of
that learning is a result of change in overt time has passed since the last reinforcement.
behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of
• Variable Interval Schedules:
BEHAVIORAL THEORIES OF LEARNING

This is similar to fixed interval schedules but the amount


of time that must pass between reinforcement varies.
• Fixed Ratio Schedules:
A fixed number of correct responses must occur before
reinforcement may recur.
• Variable Ratio Schedules:
The number of correct repetitions of the correct response
for reinforcement varies.

Implications 0f Operant Conditioning: These


implications are given for programmed instruction.
1. Practice should take the form of questions (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 phrase,
prizes and good grades.

Principle derived from Skinner’s operant


conditioning:
1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur;
intermittent reinforcement is particularly effective.

2. Information should be represented in small amounts


so that responses can be reinforced (“shaping”).

3. Reinforcements will generalized across similar


stimuli (“stimulus generalization”) producing
secondary conditioning.

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