Title: Behaviourism
1Behaviourism
2Behaviourism
- 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.
3Failure is no accident.
We teach people how to treat us.
Awareness without action is worthless.
The most you get is what you ask for.
4Failure is no accident.
Awareness without action is worthless.
We teach people how to treat us.
The most you get is what you ask for.
5Behaviourists (before Dr. Phil)
- Ivan Pavlov
- Edward Thorndike
- John B. Watson
- B.F. Skinner
6Behaviourists (before Dr. Phil)
Classic Conditioning (stimulus-response)
- Ivan Pavlov
- Edward Thorndike
- John B. Watson
- B.F. Skinner
7Behaviourists (before Dr. Phil)
Classic Conditioning (stimulus-response)
- Ivan Pavlov
- Edward Thorndike
- John B. Watson
- B.F. Skinner
Experimental approach only
8Behaviourists (before Dr. Phil)
Classic Conditioning (stimulus-response)
- Ivan Pavlov
- Edward Thorndike
- John B. Watson
- B.F. Skinner
Experimental approach only
Operand Conditioning
9Ivan 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
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15Edward 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.
16Cats in Puzzle Boxes
17Cats 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.
18Cats in Puzzle Boxes
- 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.
19Cats in Puzzle Boxes
- His finding was that cats consistently showed
gradual learning.
20Cats in Puzzle Boxes
- 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.
21Principles 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.
22Law 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, when it recurs, they will be less likely to
occur" - Thorndike, E. L. (1911). Animal intelligence
Experimental Studies. p. 244
23Theory 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
24Theory of Learning
- 1. The most basic form of learning is trial and
error learning.
25Theory of Learning
- 2. Learning is incremental not insightful.
26Theory of Learning
- 3. Learning is not mediated by ideas.
27Theory of Learning
- 4. All mammals learn in the same manner.
28Theory 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.
29Theory 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)
30Theory 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.
31Theory of Learning
- 8. Multiple Responses A learner would keep
trying multiple responses to solve a problem
before it is actually solved.
32Theory 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.
33Theory 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.
34Theory of Learning
- 11. Response from analogy New problems are
solved by using solution techniques employed to
solve analogous problems.
35Theory 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.
36Theory 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.
37John 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
38The 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".
39The 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 of man,
with all of its refinement and complexity, forms
only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of
investigation.
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41"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
42"Little Albert" experiment
- 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).
43"Little Albert" experiment
- He was, however, judged to show fear whenever a
long steel bar was unexpectedly struck with a
claw hammer just behind his back.
44"Little Albert" experiment
- 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.
45However
- 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
46Little Albert Video
- http//www.youtube.com/watch?vpVt0k9IPQ-A
47Burrhus 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
48Radical 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
49Radical 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.
50Radical 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.
51Radical 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).
52Inventor
- Cumulative Recorder
- Operant Conditioning Chamber (Skinner Box)
- Teaching Machine
- Air Crib
53Cumulative Recorder
54Cumulative 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.
55Operant Conditioning Chamber
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57Operant 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.
58Operant Conditioning Chamber (Skinner Box)
- In one of Skinners 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.
59Operant Conditioning Chamber (Skinner Box)
60Operant Conditioning Chamber (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.
61Operant Conditioning Chamber (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.
62Operant Conditioning Chamber (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.
63How pigeons get to be superstitious
64Operant Conditioning Chamber (Skinner Box)
- Skinner also used pigeons in his experiments
65Operant Conditioning Chamber (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.
66Operant Conditioning Chamber (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'.
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68Teaching Machine
69Teaching 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.
70Teaching 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.
71Teaching 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 material it
presented. He believed this was the best possible
arrangement for learning because it took into
account the rate of learning for each individual
student.
72Skinner on Education
Skinner says that there are five main obstacles
to learning
- Give the learner immediate feedback.
- Break down the task into small steps.
- Repeat the directions as many times as possible.
- Work from the most simple to the most complex
tasks. - Give positive reinforcement.
- People have a fear of failure.
- The task is not broken down into small enough
steps. - There is a lack of directions.
- There is also a lack of clarity in the
directions. - Positive reinforcement is lacking.
73Skinner on Education
- Give the learner immediate feedback.
- Break down the task into small steps.
- Repeat the directions as many times as possible.
- Work from the most simple to the most complex
tasks. - Give positive reinforcement.
- People have a fear of failure.
- The task is not broken down into small enough
steps. - There is a lack of directions.
- There is also a lack of clarity in the
directions. - Positive reinforcement is lacking.
74Air Crib
75Air 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.
76Did 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
77Did 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.
78 79 80 81- 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
82The Guardian, Friday 12 March 2004
- I was not a lab rat
- By Deborah Skinner Buzan
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84Skinners Critics
- We will look at a few of Skinners most famous
critics - Harry Harlow
- Anthony Burgess
- Noam Chomsky
85Harry HarlowsWire andTerryclothmothers
86Harry 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.
87- 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.
88- 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.
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90- 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.
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92- 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.
93- 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.
94Anthony 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.
95Anthony 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.
96Anthony 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.
97Anthony 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.
98Noam Chomsky
- 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.
99Noam 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.
100Noam 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.
101Noam 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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