Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.1 The Psychology of Learning and Behavior Chapter 1.

Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D. 1

The Psychology of Learning and Behavior

Chapter 1


Learning

• Process- change that occurs as a result of an organisms experience.– Acquisition – phase of acquiring a new skill.

• Product- long-term changes in an individual’s behavior that result from a learning experience.– Performance- stable behavioral patterns or

“steady-state” behavioral occur following a period of acquisition.


Scientific Approach to the Study of Behavior

• What is science?

Methods and procedures used to investigate a phenomenon – “Scientific Method”

Search for general principals or laws with wide applicability.


Scientific Laws

• force=mass x acceleration

• d=16t2


Laws of Behavior

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Science of Behavior

• Learning - acquisition, maintenance, and change of an organism’s behavior as a result of lifetime events.

• Control- humans are concerned with regulating the behavior of others.

• Behavior Theory- all behavior is due to complex interactions between genetic influence and environmental experience.


Experimental Analysis of Behavior

• A natural science approach to understanding behavior regulation (determinism)

• Controlling and changing the factors affecting the behavior of organisms.

• Specifying the basic processes and principles the regulate behavior.

• Experiments to test these notions.


Behavioral Analysis

• General Scientific Approach– Assumptions about how to study behavior– Techniques to carry out the analysis– A systematic body of knowledge– Practical implications for society and

culture


Behavior Analysis

• A comprehensive approach to study of the behavior of organisms– Discovery of laws and principals that

govern behavior.– Extension of these principals across

species (generality).– Development of an applied technology.


Applied Behavioral Analysis

• Use of behavioral principals to solve practical problems.– Too many glasses– Use of seats belts– Speeding– Stopping at red lights


Evolution of Conditioning

• Natural selection favored individuals whose behavior could be conditioned.

• Capacity for conditioning is inherited.

• Response selection by consequences.

• Operant behavior naturally varies in form and frequency


Culture and Behavior Analysis

• Contemporary behavior analysis behavior of individuals to – ideals and values of society– regulation of human conduct– individual behavior is acquired, maintained,

and changed through interactions with others


Fundamental Processes of Learning

• Classical Conditioning– Reflexes, elicited behavior, environmental

events acquire control of behavior

• Operant Conditioning– More complex behaviors, emitted, modified

by consequences

• Social Learning– Learning from observations


Historical Background

• Nativist (nature) vs Empericist (nuture)– Are a person’s characteristics mostly

inborn or learned?


Historical Background

• Plato – (427-347)– Plato was chiefly interested in

moral philosophy and despised natural philosophy (that is, science) as an inferior and unworthy sort of knowledge.

– Believed we are born with complete knowledge within our soul.

– Learning – a process of inner reflection to discover the knowledge within us.


History

• Aristole – (384-322)– Knowledge acquired

through experience.• Four Laws of Association

– Law of similarity

– Law of Contrast

– Law of Contiguity

– Law of Frequency


History

• Descartes- (1596-1650)– Mind body dualism– Reflexes and behavior

controlled by the mind.• Dualistic notion of human

behavior suggested at least some components of behavior could be scientifically investigated.


British Empiricists

• Almost all knowledge is a function of experience– John Locke (1632-1704)

tabula rasa– John Locke was an Oxford

scholar, medical researcher and physician, political operative, and economist, as well as being one of the great philosophers of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. His monumental Essay Concerning Human Understanding aims to determine the limits of human understanding.

• In regard to natural substances we can know only the appearances and not the underlying realities which produce those appearances.


Structuralism

• Structure of mind can be assessed by identification of basic elements through logical reasoning and subjective examination of our own experiences.– Introspection- describe conscious

thoughts, emotions, sensory experiences– Edward Titchener (1867-1927)


Functionalism

• William James – (1842-1910)

• Psychology study of adaptive processes


B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

• American psychologist B. F.Skinner became famous for his pioneering research on learning and behavior. During his 60-year career, Skinner discovered important principles of operant conditioning, a type of learning that involves reinforcement and punishment. A strict behaviorist, Skinner believed that operant conditioning could explain even the most complex of human behaviors.


Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

• Russian physiologist and Nobel laureate, best known for his studies of reflex behavior. He was born in Ryazan', and educated at the University of Saint Petersburg and at the Military Medical Academy, St. Petersburg; from 1884 to 1886 he studied in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) and Leipzig, Germany. Before the Russian Revolution he served as director of the department of physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine (part of the present Academy of Medical Sciences), St. Petersburg, and professor of medicine at the Military Medical Academy. In spite of his opposition to Communism, Pavlov was allowed to continue his research in a laboratory built by the Soviet Government in 1935. Pavlov is noted for his pioneer work in the physiology of the heart, nervous system, and digestive system. His most famous experiments, begun in 1889, demonstrated the conditioned and unconditioned reflexes in dogs, and they had an influence on the development of


Pavlov

• Making Her Salivate for You


John Watson (1878-1958) American psychologist, born in Greenville,

South Carolina, and educated at Furman University and the University of Chicago. From 1908 to 1920 he was professor of psychology and director of the psychological laboratory at Johns Hopkins University. Watson is noted as the founder and leading exponent of the school of psychology known as behaviorism, which restricts psychology to the study of objectively observable behavior and explains behavior in terms of stimulus and response. His writings include Animal Education (1903), Behavior (1914), Behaviorism (1925; revised ed., 1930), and Psychological Care of Infant and Child (1928).


Watson


Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

• American psychologist and educator, born in Williamsburg, Massachusetts, and educated at Wesleyan, Harvard, and Columbia universities. Thorndike joined the psychology faculty at Teachers College of Columbia University in 1899, where he served as adjunct professor of educational psychology from 1901 to 1904 and as professor of psychology from 1904 until his retirement in 1940. From 1922 to 1940 he also was director of the psychology division of the Institute of Educational Research at Teachers College.

• By using trial-and-error experiments with animals, Thorndike formulated his so-called law of effect—the more satisfying the result of a particular action, the better that action is learned—and applied it to the development of special teaching techniques for use in the classroom. He is particularly known for his construction of various intelligence and aptitude tests and for his repudiation of the belief that such primarily intellectual subjects as languages and mathematics discipline the mind.


Thorndike

• Thorndike's learning theory can be summarized as follows: – The law of effect - responses followed by a

reward will strengthen the response – The law of readiness - chaining a discrete

responses to achieve a goal – The law of exercise - associations are

strengthened with practice, weakened without it, and can be diminished with failure or punishment.


Assumptions of a Science of Behavior

• Determinism

• Behavior is lawful


Scientific Theories

• Causality- relationship between cause and effect

• Independent variable- cause

• Dependent variable- effect

• Intervening variable- theoretical concepts

• Syntax- rules for measurement and relationship


Judging Scientific Theories

• Testability (falsifiability)

• Simplicity

• Generality

• Fruitfulness

• Agreement with the data


Review of Research Methods

• Anecdotes or Case Histories– Biased sample

• Observational Techniques

• Experimental Techniques


Behaviorism versus Cognitive

• Heavy reliance on non-human subjects

• Emphasis on external events

• Reluctance to speculate about processes inside the organism


Use of Animal Subjects

• Subject expectancy reduced

• Control of immediate and past history

• Convenience


Criticisms and Concerns

• Language and other skills

• Generality

• Ethics


External Events• Radical Behaviorism/Contemporary behavior

analysis– The private world- thinking and feeling are activities of the

organism they are behaviors not the cause of behavior.– thinking - low probability of action, weak control of

behavior by a stimulus.– covert behavior increases the effectiveness of practical

action– private behavior regulated by specific features of the

environment.– Self-reports of feelings and other covert behavior such as

intentions are unreliable.


Determinism

• Determinism- philosophical position all events of the world result from physical causes that can be discovered.

• Free Will- nonphysical entity can direct human behavior.

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Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.1 The Psychology of Learning and Behavior Chapter 1.

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