Behaviorist Theory of MeaningBAHROZ HASHIM MAWLOOD

2017

What is Behaviorism? The theory that human and animal behavior can be explained

in terms of conditioning, without appeal to thoughts or feelings, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior patterns.

The behaviorist movement began in 1913 when John Watson wrote an article entitled 'Psychology as the behaviorist views it', which set out a number of assumptions regarding methodology and behavioral analysis:

All behavior is learnt from the environment: Psychology should be seen as a science: There is little difference between the learning that takes place in

humans and that in other animals: Behavior is the result of stimulus – response:

The History of Behaviorism Pavlov (1897) published the results of an experiment on conditioning after originally studying digestion in dogs.

Watson (1913) launched the behavioral school of psychology, publishing an article, Psychology as the behaviorist views it.

Thorndike (1905) formalized the Law of Effect.

Watson and Rayner (1920) conditioned an orphan called Albert B (aka Little Albert) to fear a white rat.

Skinner (1936) wrote The Behavior of Organisms and introduced the concepts of operant conditioning and shaping.

Pavlov presented food to dogs dogs’ mouths watered. Pavlov rang bell dogs’ mouths didn't not water. Pavlov presented food to dogs and rang bell dogs’ mouths

watered. Pavlov rang bell without food present dogs’ mouths watered.

Watson’s experiment on an infant.An infant was exposed for the first time, to a white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks (with and without hair), cotton, wool, burning newspapers, and other stimuli. Albert showed no fear of any of these items.

For the experiment, Albert was put on a mattress on a table in the middle of a room. A white laboratory rat was placed near Albert and he was allowed to play with it. At this point, Watson and Rayner made a loud sound behind Albert's back by striking a piece of steel bar with a hammer each time the baby touched the rat. Albert responded to the noise by crying and showing fear. After several such pairings of the two stimuli, Albert was presented with only the rat. Upon seeing the rat, Albert got very distressed, crying and crawling away..

In his positive reinforcement experiment Skinner would place the rats in a box with a lever attached to a feeding tube. Whenever a rat pressed the lever, food would be released. After the experience of multiple trials, the rats learned the association between the lever and food and began to spend more of their time in the box trying to get food than performing any other action.

Skinner also conducted an experiment that explained negative reinforcement. Skinner placed a rat in a chamber in the similar manner, but instead of keeping it hungry, he subjected the chamber to an unpleasant electric current. The rat having experienced the discomfort started to desperately move around the box and accidentally knocked the lever. Pressing of the lever immediately seized the flow of unpleasant current. After a few times, the rat had smartened enough to go directly to the lever in order to prevent itself from the discomfort.

The Behaviorist View on SemanticsWords function in the matter of calling out responses exactly as

did the objects for which the words serve as substitutes. The word occurs in the presence of a certain object, and the object evokes a particular response: a link is established between word and object. And in the absence of the object the word acts as a substitute stimulus.(Watson)

American psychologist B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) proposed

that the correct semantics for a natural language is behaviouristic: the meaning of an expression, as uttered on a particular occasion, is either

(1) the behavioral stimulus that produces the utterance, (2) the behavioral response that the utterance produces, or (3) a combination of both.

For instancethe meaning of fire! as uttered on a particular

occasion might include running or calling for help. But even on a single occasion it is possible that not everyone who hears fire! will respond by running or calling for help.

Suppose, for example, that the hearers of the utterance include a fireman, a pyromaniac, and a person who happens to know that the speaker is a pathological liar.

The behaviorist view states that the meaning of fire! for these people is different from the meaning of fire! for those who run or call for help.

 American linguist L. Bloomfield proposed that “the meaning of a linguistic form is the situation in which the speaker utters it and the response which it calls forth in the hearer”(1933:139). Bloomfield’s example of a speech –event is as

follows:“Jill is hungry. She sees an apple in a tree. She makes a

noise with her larynx, tongue, and lips. Jack vaults the fence, climbs the tree, takes the apple, brings it to Jill and places it in her hand. Jill eats the apple”.

Jill’s hunger could be described in terms of the contracting of her muscles and the secretion of fluids in her stomach. Her seeing the apple could be analyzed in terms of light waves reflected from the apple reaching her eyes.

For the meaning of the vast majority of words, however no such scientific analysis could be provided.

There could be another explanation for Jill’s utterance of I am hungry is that she should in fact be hungry and should see something edible, such as an apple, in the environment. If Jill’s utterance serves as a substitute stimulus to Jack causing him to go and get the apple, why did he not, after climbing the tree eat the apple himself?

Jack clearly accepts Jill’s utterance as a request that he should give the apple to her.

Suppose Jack’s reaction is to say :We’ve just had lunch or Are you sure you want the apple? You know they give you indigestion.

Do we now say that the situation giving to Jill’s utterance and Jack’s reaction should have been different?

Meaning is the situation in which the speaker utters it

and the response it calls forth in the hearer. The behavior of any organism can be described, according to the behaviorist in terms of the responses that the organism makes to stimuli presented by the environment.

s r s r The statement "I have a headache" is not a report

but is instead a piece of behavior. Feeling is antecedent to the act.

Bob is in pain must mean that Bob is 'pain-behaving'. we can give an account of the nature of all mental states and processes in terms of the physical behavior of human beings.

Weaknesses of behaviorism Armstrong states that “It is more natural to think of

someone's speech and action as the expression of his thought, not as identical with his thought.  We can not say 'he got a drink because he was thirsty." 

We think of thought as something distinct from the actions - it may lie behind the behavior and bring it about, but it is not to be identified with it.

Another weakness of this theory is its inadequacy to deal with more than a very small number of the utterances of everyday life.

Weaknesses of behaviorism We can convey the meaning of words like chair or

book by using them in a stimulus response scope by showing how they come to be associated with a class of things like their shape, color and weight but many words do not denote observable things and properties and this theory has nothing helpful to say.

Physical object or picture of some words have to be shown to be understood or learned for instance , i.e. a fox or his picture has to be shown anytime it is mentioned.

I do not always react the same way to RAIN anytime I hear it or see it.

References http://www.susanfleck.com/philosophy/440behavior_identity

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https://www.boundless.com/psychology/textbooks/boundless-psychology-textbook/learning-7/operant-conditioning-47/basic-principles-of-operant-conditioning-skinner-197-12732/

http://wenku.baidu.com/view/4986cf5cbe23482fb4da4c61 http://wenku.baidu.com/view/69f07d5bc850ad02de804167.

html http://www.simplypsychology.org/behaviorism.html