HOW BEHAVIOR IS AFFECTED BY LEARNING?

OBJECTIVES:

At the end of the discussions, the students will be able to:

•Explain the basic principles of behaviorism.

•Make a simple plan applying the primary laws of learning.

•Determine how to use rewards in the learning process more effectively.

the manner in which one behaves.

anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation.

the response of an individual, group, or species to its environment.

According to the behaviorists, learning can be defined as “the relatively permanent change in behavior brought about as a result of experience or practice.”

Behaviorists recognize that learning is an internal event. However, it is not recognized as learning until it is displayed by overt behavior.

“Learning is represented by a change in behavior”

BEHAVIORISM

Focuses on one particular view of learning:

a change in external behavior achieved through a large amount of repetition of desired actions, the reward of good habits and the discouragement of bad habits.

BEHAVIORISM

As we learn, we alter the way we perceive our environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and therefore the way we interact, or behave.

HOW BEHAVIORISTS VIEW THE FUNCTION OF THE BRAIN

The behavioral learning theory is represented by an S-R paradigm. The organism is treated as a “black box.” We only know what is going on inside the box by the organism’s response.

BEHAVIOURISTS

Ivan PavlovEdward Thorndike

John B. WatsonB.F. Skinner

BEHAVIOURISTS

Ivan Pavlov

Edward Thorndike

John B. Watson

B.F. Skinner

BEHAVIOURISTS

Ivan Pavlov

Edward Thorndike

John B. Watson

B.F. Skinner

BEHAVIOURISTS

Ivan Pavlov

Edward Thorndike

John B. Watson

B.F. Skinner

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

“LITTLE ALBERT“ EXPERIMENT

J. WATSON

The first to study how the process of learning affects our behavior, and he formed the school of thought known as BEHAVIORISM.

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.

E. THORNDIKE

Thorndike specified three conditions that maximize 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.

E. THORNDIKE

Thorndike specified three conditions that maximize learning:

The Law of Exercise stated that stimulus-response associations are strengthened through repetition.

E. THORNDIKE

Thorndike specified three conditions that maximize learning:

The Law of Readiness states that, the more readiness the learner has to respond to stimulus, the stronger will the bond between them.

2 MAJOR TYPES OF CONDITIONING

CLASSICALCONDITIONING

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

PAVLOV’S EXPERIMENT

Pavlov discovered classical conditioning almost by accident. Originally, he wanted to study the role of salivation in digestion. He measured how much saliva dogs produce when given meat. After a few days in the experiment, Pavlov noticed that the dogs in his laboratory started salivating when the lab attendant entered the room with the meat dish, before meat was placed in their mouth.

A STIMULUS is an observable environmental event that has a potential to exert control over a behavioral response.

A RESPONSE is an overt behavior by a learner.

Put it in a simpler way, a STIMULUS is anything that can directly influence behavior and the stimulus produces a RESPONSE.

TYPES OF STIMULUS AND RESPONSE

COMMON PHENOMENA IN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

1. Stimulus Generalization2. Extinction3. Spontaneous recovery4. Discrimination5. Higher order conditioning

OPERANTCONDITIONING

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

Operant or instrumental conditioning is a form of learning in which the consequences of behavior lead to changes in the probability that the behavior will occur.

REINFORCEMENT is a consequence that increases the probability that a behavior will occur.

PUNISHMENT is a consequence that decreases the probability a behavior will occur.

Put it another way, reinforcement will strengthen a behavior while punishment will weaken a behavior.

TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT AND PUNISHMENT

SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT

Reinforces are more effective when they are given as soon as possible after a student performs the target behavior. In continuous reinforcement like this, a student learns very rapidly but when the reinforcement stops, the behavior decreases rapidly too. Therefore, the schedule of reinforcement was developed. The schedule will determine when a behavior will be reinforced.

4 TYPES OF SCHEDULE OF REINFORCEMENT

Fixed-ratio schedule Variable-ratio schedule Fixed-interval schedule Variable-internal schedule

Schedule of reinforcement

Description Example

Fixed-ratio schedule

A behavior is reinforced after a set number of responses have occurred.

A student may be given a bar of Kit Kat chocolate for every ten mathematical problems solved.

Variable-ratio schedule

On a variable-ratio schedule, the number of responses needed to gain the reinforcement is not constant.

Rewards could be given after 3, 5, 9, and 15 mathematical problems solved.

Fixed-interval schedule

A behavior will be reinforced after a certain period of time. No matter how often it occurs, the behavior will not be reinforced until the time is up.

Students are given a quiz every Wednesday.

Variable-interval schedule

Also based on time passing but the time period keep changing.

Students are given pop quizzes.

DANGERS OF PUNISHMENT Punishment can be abusive.

For example, a teacher might become so aroused when he is punishing a student that he becomes abusive.

Punishment may create a new problem, that is aggression. Students commonly react to physical

punishment by learning to dislike the punisher and perhaps by reacting aggressively toward that person.

Thus, punishment does not convey any information about what an alternative and more appropriate behavior might be.

It may suppress one inappropriate behavior only to be replaced by another one. Punishment can turn out to be reinforcing.

A student might learn that misbehaving will get the teacher’s attention.