Behaviorism explained with examples for B.Ed M.Ed & PhD

Behaviourism
Presentation prepared for students of ADE
By: Zulfiqar Behan

Behaviorism
it emerged in the late nineteenth century as a reaction
to depth psychology and other traditional forms of
psychology,
(or behaviourism) is a systematic approach to
understanding the behavior of humans and other
animals. It assumes that all behaviors are
either reflexes produced by a response to certain
stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that
individual's history, including especially reinforcement
and punishment, together with the individual's current
motivational state and controlling stimuli. Although
behaviorists generally accept the important role of
inheritance in determining behavior, they focus
primarily on environmental factors.

Behaviourism
 All things should be looked at from the
perspective of behaviour.
 Behaviourism argues that there is no mind,
no thoughts, no feelings, and the only
important thing to consider is behaviour.

Behaviourists
 Ivan Pavlov
 Edward Thorndike
 John B. Watson
 B.F. Skinner

 Ivan Pavlov
 Edward Thorndike
 John B. Watson
 B.F. Skinner
Behaviourists (before Dr. Phil)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov





Born Sept 14, 1849
Died Feb 27, 1936
born in Ryazan, Russia
physiologist,
psychologist, and
physician
awarded the Nobel
Prize in Physiology or
Medicine in 1904 for
research on the
digestive system

Edward Lee Thorndike






Born August 31, 1874
Died August 9, 1949
Born in Williamsburg,
Massachusetts
Studied animal behaviour
and the learning process
led to the theory of
connectionism
Laying the foundation for
modern educational
psychology.

Cats in Puzzle Boxes
 Thorndike looked at how cats learned to
escape from puzzle boxes
 The puzzle box experiments were
motivated by Thorndike's dislike for
statements that animals made use of
extraordinary faculties such as insight in
their problem solving.

 Thorndike's instruments in answering this
question were learning curves revealed by
plotting the time it took for an animal to
escape the box each time it was in the box
 if the animals were showing insight, then their
time to escape would suddenly drop to a
negligible period, which would also be shown
in the learning curve as an abrupt drop;
 while animals using a more ordinary method
of trial and error would show gradual curves.

His finding was that cats consistently
showed gradual learning.

So it was trial-and-error
These led Thorndike to formulate
first his Principles of Learning and
then his Theory of Learning that
became the foundation of modern
educational psychology.

Principles of Learning
 Thorndike specified three conditions that
maximizes learning:


 The Law of Effect states that the likely
recurrence of a response is generally governed
by its consequence or effect generally in the form
of reward or punishment.
The Law of Recency states that the most recent
response is likely to govern the recurrence.
The Law of Exercise stated that stimulus-
response associations are strengthened through
repetition.

Law of Effect
 "Of several responses made to the same
situation, those which are accompanied
or closely followed by satisfaction to the
animal will, other things being equal, be
more firmly connected with the situation,
so that, when it recurs, they will be
more likely to recur; those which are
accompanied or closely followed by
discomfort to the animal will, other
things being equal, have their connections
with that situation weakened, so that,

Theory of Learning
 Thorndike created 13 basic rules
 I want us to pause after each one and check
if you think this is a universal principle.
 Also see if there is some technology or
teaching approach you can imagine that
might help support this rule

Theory of Learning
1. The most basic form of learning is trial and
error learning.

Theory of Learning
2. Learning is incremental not insightful.

Theory of Learning
3. Learning is not mediated by ideas.

Theory of Learning
4. All mammals learn in the same manner.

Theory of Learning
5. Law of Readiness: Interference with goal
directed behaviour causes frustration and
causing someone to do something they
do not want to do is also frustrating.


 a. When someone is ready to perform some act, to do
so is satisfying.
b.When someone is ready to perform some act, not to
do so is annoying.
c.When someone is not ready to perform some act
and is forced to do so, it is annoying.

Theory of Learning
6. Law of Exercise: We learn by doing. We
forget by not doing, although to a small extent
only.

 a. Connections between a stimulus and a response
are strengthened as they are used. (law of use)
b. Connections between a stimulus and a response
are weakened as they are not used. (law of disuse)

Theory of Learning
7. Law of Effect: If the response in a
connection is followed by a satisfying state of
affairs, the strength of the connection is
considerably increased whereas if followed
by an annoying state of affairs, then the
strength of the connection is marginally
decreased.

Theory of Learning
8. Multiple Responses: A learner would keep
trying multiple responses to solve a
problem before it is actually solved.

Theory of Learning
• 9. Set or Attitude: What the learner already
possesses, like prior learning experiences, present
state of the learner, etc., while it begins learning a
new task.

Theory of Learning
10. Prepotency of Elements: Different
responses to the same environment would be
evoked by different perceptions of the
environment which act as the stimulus to the
responses. Different perceptions would be
subject to the prepotency of different
elements for different perceivers.

Theory of Learning
11. Response from analogy: New problems
are solved by using solution techniques
employed to solve analogous problems.

Theory of Learning
• 12. Associative Shifting: Let stimulus S be
paired with response R. Now, if stimulus Q is
presented simultaneously with stimulus S
repeatedly, then stimulus Q is likely to get paired
with response R.

Theory of Learning
13. Belongingness: If there is a natural
relationship between the need state of an
organism and the effect caused by a
response, learning is more effective than if
the relationship is unnatural.

John Broadus Watson






Born Jan 9, 1878
Died Sept 25, 1958
Born in Greenville,
South Carolina
American psychologist
established the
psychological school of
behaviourism
“Little Albert”
experiment

The Behaviorist Manifesto
 In 1913, Watson published the article
"Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It" —
sometimes called "The Behaviorist
Manifesto". In this article, Watson outlined
the major features of his new philosophy of
psychology, called "behaviorism".

The Behaviorist Manifesto
• The first paragraph of the article concisely described
Watson's behaviorist position:
• “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,
nor is the scientific value of its
• data dependent upon the readiness with which they
lend themselves to interpretation in terms of
consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get
a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no
dividing line between man and brute. The behavior



"Little Albert" experiment
 Occurred in 1920
 One of the most
controversial
experiments in the
history of psychology
 It was an experiment
showing empirical
evidence of classical
conditioning in humans Rosalie Rayner
Albert B.
John B. Watson

 Watson and Rayner selected
an infant named Albert, at
approximately 9 months of age,
he was tested and was judged
to show no fear when
successively observing a
number of live animals (e.g., a
rat, a rabbit, a dog, and a
monkey), and various
inanimate objects (e.g., cotton,
human masks, a burning
newspaper).

 He was, however, judged to show fear
whenever a long steel bar was unexpectedly
struck with a claw hammer just behind his
back.

• Two months after testing Albert's apparently
unconditioned reactions to various stimuli, Watson and
Rayner attempted to condition him to fear a white rat.
This was done by presenting a white rat to Albert,
followed by a loud clanging sound (of the hammer and
steel bar) whenever Albert touched the animal. After
seven pairings of the rat and noise (in two sessions, one
week apart), Albert reacted with crying and avoidance
when the rat was presented without the loud noise.


However
 Ben Harris in
“Whatever Happened
to Little Albert?” 1979
says that “critical
reading of Watson and
Rayner's (1920) report
reveals little evidence
that Albert developed a
rat phobia”

Little Albert Video
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVt0k9IPQ-A

Burrhus Frederic Skinner





Born March 20, 1904
Died August 18, 1990
Born in Susquehanna,
Pennsylvania
American
psychologist, author,
inventor, advocate for
social reform and
poet.
Innovated his own
philosophy of science
called Radical
Behaviorism

Radical Behaviorism
 Skinner views (Radical behaviourism)
differed from other behaviourists
(Methodological behaviourism) in that he felt
that thoughts and feelings could be taken into
account when considering that psychology
of the individual

Radical Behaviorism
 Radical behaviourism seeks to understand
behaviour as a function of environmental
histories of reinforcing consequences.
 Reinforcement processes were emphasized
by Skinner, and were seen as primary in
the shaping of behaviour.
 A common misconception is that negative
reinforcement is some form of punishment.

Radical Behaviorism



Positive reinforcement is the strengthening of
behaviour by the application of some event (e.g.,
praise after some behaviour is performed),
Negative reinforcement is the strengthening of
behaviour by the removal or avoidance of some
aversive event (e.g., opening and raising an
umbrella over your head on a rainy day is reinforced
by the cessation of rain falling on you).
Both types of reinforcement strengthen behaviour,
or increase the probability of a behaviour
reoccurring.

Radical Behaviorism
 Punishment and extinction have the effect of
weakening behaviour, or decreasing the
probability of a behaviour reoccurring, by the
application of an aversive event (punishment)
or the removal of a rewarding event
(extinction).

Inventor
Cumulative Recorder
Operant Conditioning
Chamber (“Skinner Box”)
Teaching Machine
Air Crib

Cumulative
Recorder


an instrument used to
automatically record
behaviour graphically
The needle would start at
the bottom of the page and
the drum would turn the roll
of paper horizontally. Each
response would result in the
marking needle moving
vertically along the paper
one tick.

Operant Conditioning Chamber
(“Skinner Box”)
 A box large enough to easily accommodate
the animal being used as a subject (including
lab rats, pigeons, and primates).
 It contains one or more levers which an
animal can press, one or more stimulus lights
and one or more places in which reinforcers
like food can be delivered.
 It is often sound-proof and light-proof to avoid
distracting stimuli.

(“Skinner Box”)
 In one of Skinner’s experiments a hungry rat
was introduced into the box. When the
lever was pressed by the rat a small pellet
of food was dropped onto a tray. The rat
soon learned that when he pressed the
lever he would receive some food. In this
experiment the lever pressing behaviour is
reinforced by food.

(“Skinner Box”)

(“Skinner Box”)
 If pressing the lever is reinforced (the rat gets
food) when a light is on but not when it is off,
responses (pressing the lever) continue to
be made in the light but seldom, if at all, in
the dark. The rat has formed discrimination
between light and dark. When one turns on
the light, a response occurs, but that is not a
Pavlovian conditioned reflex response.

(“Skinner Box”)
 In this experiment Skinner demonstrated the
ideas of "operant conditioning" and
"shaping behaviour." Unlike Pavlov's
"classical conditioning," where an existing
behaviour (salivating for food) is shaped by
associating it with a new stimulus (ringing
of a bell or a metronome), operant
conditioning is the rewarding of an act that
approaches a new desired behavior.

(“Skinner Box”)
 Skinner's operant chamber allowed him to
explore the rate of response as a dependent
variable, as well as develop his theory of
schedules of reinforcement. The first operant
chambers were attached to cumulative
records on drums producing characteristic
pauses, scallops, and other lines.

How pigeons get to
be superstitious

(“Skinner Box”)
 Skinner also used pigeons in his experiments

(“Skinner Box”)
 In one experiment he decided to drop food
into the box at completely random times,
independent of any behaviour on the part of
the pigeons.
 Amazingly the pigeons behaviour soon
started to display a consistent type of
behaviour. Each pigeon did different things.

(“Skinner Box”)
 One circled counter-clockwise, another spun
around in circles; seventy-five percent of
them exhibited some kind of odd behaviour.
 Skinner concluded that the pigeons had
incorrectly associated their behaviour at the
times of the food drops to the food appearing,
and had become 'superstitious'.

Teaching Machine



In 1954 B.F. Skinner embarked
upon a series of studies designed to
improve teaching methods for
spelling, math, and other school
subjects by using a mechanical
device that would surpass the usual
classroom experience.
He believed the classroom had
disadvantages because the rate of
learning for different students was
variable and reinforcement was also
delayed due to the lack of
individual attention.
Since personal tutors for every
student was usually unavailable,
Skinner developed a theory of
programmed learning that was to be
implemented by teaching
machines.

Teaching Machine
• The teaching machine is composed of mainly a program,
which is a system of combined teaching and test items
that carries the student gradually through the material to
be learned.
• The "machine" is composed by a fill-in-the-blank method
on either a workbook or in a computer. If the subject is
correct, he/she gets reinforcement and moves on to the
next question. If the answer is incorrect, the subject
studies the correct answer to increase the chance of
getting reinforced next time.



Teaching Machine
• The teaching machine is merely a device for
presenting the set of frames of which the
program is composed.
• However, it is not supplementary but all-
inclusive. The program will do all the teaching
through a response/reward mechanism.
• Skinner also noted that the learning process
should be divided into a large number of very
small steps and reinforcement must be
dependent upon the completion of each step.
• Skinner suggested that the machine itself
should not teach, but bring the student into
contact with the person who composed the





1. People have a fear of
failure.
3. The task is not broken down
into small enough steps.
5. There is a lack of directions.
7. There is also a lack of
clarity in the directions.
9. Positive reinforcement is
lacking.
1. Give the learner immediate
feedback.
3. Break down the task into
small steps.
5. Repeat the directions as
many times as possible.
7. Work from the most simple
to the most complex
tasks.
9. Give positive
reinforcement.
Skinner on Education
Skinner
says that
there
arefive main
obstacles
to
learning

1. People have a fear of failure. 1. Give the learner immediate
feedback.
3. The task is not broken down
into small enough steps.
3. Break down the task into
small steps.
5. There is a lack of directions. 5. Repeat the directions as
many times as possible.
7. There is also a lack of clarity
in the directions.
7. Work from the most simple to
the most complex tasks.
9. Positive reinforcement is
lacking. 9. Give positive reinforcement.
Skinner on Education

Air Crib


To help his wife cope with
the day-to-day tasks of
child rearing, Skinner
improved upon the
standard crib with the 'air-
crib' to meet this challenge.
An 'air-crib' (also known as
a 'baby tender' or
humorously as an 'heir
conditioner') is an easily
cleaned, temperature and
humidity-controlled box
Skinner designed to assist
in the raising of babies.

Did you know?


Opening Skinner's Box:
Great Psychological
Experiments of the
Twentieth Century by
Lauren Slater (2004)
In this book Slater reveals
that B.F. Skinner raised his
daughter Deborah in an
operant conditioning
chamber and subjected her
to psychological
experiments

Did you know?
 Opening Skinner's Box: Great Psychological
Experiments of the Twentieth Century by Lauren
Slater (2004)
 “. . . caged for two full years, placing within her
cramped square space bells and food trays and all
manners of mean punishments and bright rewards,
and he tracked her progress on a grid. And then,
when she was thirty-one and frankly psychotic,
she sued him for abuse in a genuine court of law,
lost the case, and shot herself in a bowling alley
in Billings, Montana. Boom-boom went the gun.”

Deborah Skinner is alive and
well, living in the UK. She was
understandably upset about
these stories (something
of an urban
legend) and wrote an
article in
The Guardian

The Guardian, Friday 12 March 2004
I was not a lab rat
By Deborah Skinner
Buzan

Skinner’s Critics
 We will look at a few of Skinner’s most
famous critics



Harry Harlow
Anthony Burgess
Noam Chomsky

Harry Harlow’s
Wire and
Terrycloth
mothers

Harry Harlow
•
•
•
•
Born October 31, 1905
Died December 6,
1981
Born in Fairfield,
Iowa
American psychologist
best known for his
maternal-separation and
social isolation
experiments on rhesus
monkeys, which
demonstrated the
importance of care- giving
and companionship in
social and cognitive
development.

• In a well-known series
of experiments
conducted between
1957 and 1963,
Harlow removed baby
rhesus monkeys from
their mothers, and
offered them a choice
between two surrogate
mothers, one made of
terrycloth, the other of
wire.

 Two groups of baby rhesus monkeys were
removed from their mothers. In the first group, a
terrycloth mother provided no food, while a wire
mother did, in the form of an attached baby bottle
containing milk.
 In the second group, a terrycloth mother provided
food; the wire mother did not.
 It was found that the young monkeys clung to the
terrycloth mother whether or not it provided them
with food, and that the young monkeys chose
the wire surrogate only when it provided food.

 Whenever a frightening stimulus was brought
into the cage, the monkeys ran to the cloth
mother for protection and comfort, no matter
which mother provided them with food. This
response decreased as the monkeys grew older.

 Harlow's interpretation of this behaviour, which is still
widely accepted, was that a lack of contact comfort
is psychologically stressful to the monkeys.
 The importance of these findings is that they contradicted
both the then common pedagogic advice of limiting or
avoiding bodily contact in an attempt to avoid spoiling
children and the insistence of the then dominant
Behaviourist School of Psychology that emotions were
negligible.



Feeding was thought to be the most important
factor in the formation of a mother-child bond.
Harlow concluded, however, that nursing
strengthened the mother-child bond because of
the intimate body contact that it provided.

Anthony Burgess






John Burgess Wilson
Born 25 February 1917
Died 22 November 1993 Born
in Manchester, England An
English author, poet,
playwright, composer, linguist,
translator and critic.
The dystopian satire “A
Clockwork Orange” is Burgess'
most famous novel, though he
dismissed it as one of his lesser
works.

Anthony Burgess
 In his novel, A
Clockwork Orange,
Anthony Burgess
criticizes Skinner's
theories as being
immoral, claiming that
moral choice is a
necessary part of one's
humanity.

Anthony Burgess
 The novel's protagonist,
Alex, believes he can be
released from prison
early by participating in
an Ivan Pavlov/B.F.
Skinner inspired
rehabilitation program
referred to as the
"Ludovico technique,"
which conditions
criminals to become
nauseous from the mere
thought of violence.

Anthony Burgess
 Before participating in the
program the prison
chaplain warns against it,
declaring that an action
is only good if derived
from good intentions.
Thus conditioning in any
form is criticized for
being dehumanizing and
oppressive.





Born December 7, 1928
Born in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
An American linguist,
philosopher, cognitive
scientist, and political
activist.
One of the fathers of
modern linguistics, and a
major figure of analytic
philosophy.
Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky


In 1959, Chomsky published a
widely influential review of Skinner's
book Verbal Behavior, Chomsky
broadly and aggressively challenged
the behaviourist approaches to
studies of behaviour dominant at the
time, and contributed to the
cognitive revolution in psychology.
In the review Chomsky emphasized
that the scientific application of
behavioural principles from animal
research is severely lacking in
explanatory adequacy and is
furthermore particularly superficial
as an account of human verbal
behaviour because a theory
restricting itself to external
conditions, to "what is learned",
cannot adequately account for
generative grammar.

Noam Chomsky


Chomsky raised the examples of
rapid language acquisition of
children, including their quickly
developing ability to form
grammatical sentences, and the
universally creative language use of
competent native speakers to
highlight the ways in which Skinner's
view exemplified under-
determination of theory by evidence.
He argued that to understand
human verbal behaviour such as the
creative aspects of language use
and language development, one
must first postulate a genetic
linguistic endowment. The
assumption that important aspects
of language are the product of
universal innate ability runs counter
to Skinner's radical behaviourism.

Noam Chomsky



Skinner, who rarely responded
directly to critics, never formally
replied to Chomsky's critique. A
student of Skinner, Kenneth
MacCorquodale, wrote a reply in
1970 that was endorsed by Skinner.
He claimed that Chomsky did not
possess an adequate understanding
of either behavioural psychology in
general, or the differences between
Skinner's behaviourism and other
varieties; consequently, it is argued
that he made several serious errors.
Chomsky has maintained that the
review was directed at the way
Skinner's variant of behavioral
psychology "was being used in
Quinean empiricism and
naturalization of philosophy"

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