Class Buttons

Behaviorism As A Learning Theory

History

Like many ideas in the field of psychology, the philosophers can trace human behavior back to 'the beginning' - 400 BC, when Aristotle........

Associationists

Aristotle, in his essay "Memory" showed strong focus on association - a predecessor of behaviorism. He believed, the associations (for example, between a haystack and a cow) are made because the objects being associated are similar, or opposite, or near to each other. Many other philosophers followed his thoughts:

Pavlov

The behavioristic movement in psychology began to crystallize with the discovery of the Russian physiologist Ivan Petrovich Pavlov. In 1902, during his study of the salivary responses of dogs, he constructed a device that measured the amount of saliva secreted. Pavlov discovered that the dog's (the most famous dog in the world, but without a name) saliva began to flow before the food was actually presented - this is called a conditioned reflex and the stimulus, in this case, the food dish, is called a conditioned stimulus . The conditioned reflex is called the conditioned response today.

Watson

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958) wrote in his book Behavior (1948) "Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods."

Watson believed that learning was a process of conditioning reflexes (responses) through the substitution of one stimulus for another. His most famous experiment was Albert - a child who became afraid of all furry objects as a result of a conditioning.

Thorndike

Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) claimed that "A good simple definition or description of a man's mind is that it is his connection system, adapting the responses of thought, feeling, and action that he makes to the situation that he meets. (1943). " He formulated his "law of effect" which held that reward had a strong positive effect on human learning but that punishment had little or no effect in extinguishing learning. His other famous theory is the "law of exercise" which held that the more a stimulus-response connection was practiced, the stronger it would become; the less it was used, the weaker it would become.

Between Thorndike & Skinner

Before the emerging of the next behavioristic giant, let's take a look at a few contributors between the peak years of Thorndike and Skinner:

Skinner 

     Let not the strong   
       Be cozened   
       By Is and Isn't   
  Was and Wasn't.   
       Truth's to be sought in
  Does and Doesn't.   Skinner (1962)

Burrhus. F. Skinner (1904 - 1990) believed that the study of behavior must rest on what organisms do and do not do, and that is all one need pay attention to. He developed the concept of operant conditioning and concentrated on the observation and manipulation of behavior. In his 1954 article "The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching", he illustrated how human behavior can be shaped rapidly and without aversive threat though the use of positive reinforcement. In his 1971 book Beyond Freedom and Dignity , he argues that the concepts of "freedom" and "dignity" are no longer useful in modern society. Man is not truly free to choose, he says, because what a person will do in a given situation depends almost entirely on what has happened to him in the past. Skinner contends that we must learn to control behavior systematically to produce people who are good and right-minded. We should expand this controlling to all of life.

Main Ideas

The basic ideas of behaviorism are: human behavior is a product of the Stimulus-Response interaction and that behavior are modifiable. Study of animal is beneficial in that it help us understand/analyze human behavior.

Stimulus - Response

All complex forms of behavior, including reasoning, habit , and emotional reactions are composed of simple stimulus-response events which can be see and measured. We can trace a child's attitude back to a specific stimulus. Once we've identified a stimulus that produced certain response, we can predict the individual's behavior. Furthermore, if we can control the stimulus, we can control the individual's behavior.

There are two kinds of responses:

  1. elicited response: the response occur in the presence of a stimulus
  2. emitted response: the movement was emitted by the organism - not as a response to a stimulus. Skinner called this type of response "operant" indicating that the organism was taking the initiative and operating on its environment.

Conditioning

There are two forms of conditioning:
  1. Respondent (Classical ) Conditioning
  2. Operant (Instrumental) Conditioning

Behavior Modification

The following five steps can be used to implement a behavior change program:
  1. Set behavior goals
  2. Determine appropriate reinforcers
  3. Select procedures for changing behavior
  4. Implement procedures and record results
  5. Evaluate progress and revise as needed

Impact of Behaviorism on Instruction

As M. H. Dembo mentioned in Applying Educational Psychology in the Classroom, "All teachers have a belief or theory about learning that is the very fabric of their teaching strategy." Teachers who agreed with the following statements are supported by the behavioral psychologists: Teachers who accept the behavioral perspective assume that the behavior of the students is a response to their past and present environment and that all behavior is learned. As a result, any behavior can be analyzed in terms of its reinforcement history. Since learning is a form of behavior modification, the teacher's responsibility is to construct an environment in which the correct behavior of the student is reinforced.

The undesired behaviors of the student in the classroom can be modified using principles of the behavior modification. Dr. Dembo suggested the following procedures to control or eliminate undesired classroom behaviors:

  1. Strengthening of the desirable behavior that will compete with and eventually replace undesirable patterns of behavior.
  2. Weakening the undesired behavior by removing the reinforcing events that maintain the behavior.
  3. Using the technique of "satiation" which is a procedure that encourages a person to engage in a problem behavior over and over again until tired of it.
  4. Changing the stimulus condition that influences the behavior.
  5. Using punishment to weaken behavior.
One important application of the operant conditioning introduced in the instruction fields is Programmed Learning. In this technique subject matter is broken into small, understandable steps or "frames," each followed by a question which the student can almost always answer correctly. The object is to reinforce the learning process through an immediate response and the reward of getting it right.

The authors of the book The Learning Gap think that one of the reason that American school is failing is because we do not use "error" effectively. "American conceive errors as a possible precursor of ultimate failure. People should strive to avoid errors and to give only the correct response - a routine that fits our culture and has been strengthened by the writings of behavioral psychologist such as B. F. Skinner."

Impact of Behaviorism on Instructional Technology

Behavior principles have proven useful for managing both classroom behaviors and instruction delivery. Behaviorism has influenced the development and design of several technologies.