Early Influences on Behaviorism Towards a Science of Behavior.

Early Influences on Behaviorism

Towards a Science of Behavior

The Early Years: Behavorism & Animal Psychology

• By the 1920’s psychologists had rejected; introspection as a scientific method, the existence of mental elements, and the need for psychology to be a pure science.

• Functionalism and applied psychology dominated American psychology

• In 1913 John B. Watson set out to deliberately challenge both structuralism and functionalism.

• Watson received his Ph.D. in 1903 from James Angell at the University of Chicago, also studied with John Dewey.

• “the the study of scientific psychology should concern itself only with behavioral acts that could be described objectively”

The Early Years: Behaviorism & Animal Psychology

• consciousness & mind could never be proved objectively, therefore studying consciousness has no value.

• rejected the study of all mentalistic concepts and terms like images, consciousness, and mind.

• Introspection is therefore useless for studying behavior.• These basic ideas were not necessarily new.• The times were also ripe for the development of a new

psychology that focused only on observable behavior.• The three major factors that contributed were the

philosophies of Mechanism & Positivism, Functional Psychology, and early Animal Psychology.

Animal Intelligence

• Physiologists had long found it of interest to compare similarities in body function between animals and human beings.

• Two early psychologists George John Romanes (1848-1894), and C. Loyd Morgan (1852-1936) studied animal minds, using observational techniques as opposed to experimental techniques.

• The first true investigator of animal intelligence using experimental techniques was Jacques Loeb (1859-1924).

• Loeb developed a theory of animal behavior based on trophism, or involuntary movement.

• Loeb believed animal reactions to stimulus were direct and automatic, thus behavioral response was said to be forced by the stimulus and did not require any consciousness explanation.

• Animal memory was said to develop through associationism (e.g. associative memory)

Titchener’s first doctoral student.

came to Cornell after being denied admission to Columbia Universities graduate program.

first woman to receive a doctorate in psychology and the second woman president of the American Psychological Association.

Washburn went on to a distinguished career at Vassar College where she became the second woman in any science ever elected to the National Academy of Sciences

Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939)

Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939)

• concerned with the inference of consciousness in animals.

• wrote the first important book on comparative psychology, Animal Mind, in 1908.

• She published hundreds of experiments on animals that included sensory discriminations, spatially determined reactions, and modification by experience.

• Washburn is considered by many scholars to be the first comparative psychologist

Robert Yerkes (1876-1956)

• the most prominent of the early comparative psychologists.

• eventually referred to as the “dean of comparative psychology”

• He published his first paper on the effects of light on freshwater crustacean in 1899

• The first journal of research with animals the Journal of Animal Behavior was not published until 1911.

• The problems of paying for, keeping, and maintaining animals was an important an issue in the 1900’s as it is today, and animal psychologists were often expendable because of the issue.


• attended Harvard University where he took his degree with Hugo Munsterburg in 1899.

• at Harvard as an instructor and assistant professor of comparative Psychology then moved to the University of Minnesota.

• Yerkes would go on to an eminent career in psychology, eventually becoming president of the American Psychological Association in 1916.

• During the WW1 Years Yerkes was extremely important in involving psychologists in the war effort.


• WW1 The Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits

• WW2 he also was the organizer of the emergency committee of psychologists

The Committee on the Psychological Examination of Recruits- May, 1917

The Emergency Committee, 1940

Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)

• Thorndike was one of the most important early theorists in animal learning, educational psychology, and behavioral psychology.

• Thorndike developed the “law of effect” in 1898, several years earlier than Ivan Pavlov proposed his law’s of reinforcement.

• Although the theories are almost identical the two individuals were not aware of each other for many years.


• Thorndike introduced to psychology at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, he attended Harvard university for his Master’s degree where he studied with and was influenced by William James.

• He left Harvard for Columbia University in 1898, where he completed his doctorate under James Cattell in 1899.

• one of the first psychologists to complete his education entirely in America.

• major contributions to psychology were in the area of educational psychology.


• two main foci in education were 1) the improvement of classroom instruction and 2) the measurement of the learner and the products of learning.

• wrote three books for his own use that became classics in educational psychology 1) Educational Psychology (1903), 2) The Theory of Mental and Social Measurement (1904), and a three volume Educational Psychology (1913).

• wrote Thorndike Arithmetic's and the Teachers Word Book (1921) which had an enormous influence in American psychology and education.

• founded the Journal of Educational Psychology in 1910.

The Law of Effect

• referred to his approach to learning as connectionism, hypothesized that an organism learned about connections between situations and types of responses.

• one of the first to hypothesize that “if all of these (responses & situational variables) could be analyzed” man could be told what would and would not satisfy him and annoy him in every conceivable situation.

• The law of effect refers to “stamping in or stamping out” a response tendency by attaching favorable or unfavorable consequences.

• the law of effect states “any act which in a given situation produces satisfaction becomes associated with that situation, and when the situation reoccurs the act is more likely to reoccur than before”.

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

• Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov born 1849 in Central Russia.

• son of a village priest and eldest of 11 children.

• initially intended to enter a theological seminary but after reading about Darwinian evolution changed his mind and enrolled at the University of St. Petersburg to study animal physiology.

• He obtained his degree in 1875 and began to study medicine in the hopes of becoming a physiologist.

• In 1890 he received an appointment as professor of pharmacology at St. Petersburg Military Academy

Ivan Pavlov

An early picture of Pavlov, His Staff, and Research Apparatus

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

• worked in 3 major areas: 1) The function of nerves on the heart, 2) the function of the primary digestive glands, and 3) the conditioned reflex.

• Although it is the last area for which he is best remembered, his work on the digestive glands won him worldwide recognition and the 1904 Nobel prize for medicine.

• His work on the conditioned reflex represents an excellent example of how significant accidents often play a major role in the history of science.

Classical Conditioning 1

Will the dog learn to associatethe arrival of food with a neutral

stimulus (e.g., a bell)?

Classical Conditioning 2

TermsTermsUnconditioned ResponseUnconditioned StimulusConditioned ResponseConditioned Stimulus

UCRUCR - drool in response to food (not learned)UCSUCS - food (triggers drool reflex)CRCR - drool in response to sound of bell (learned)CSCS - sound of bell (triggers drool reflex)

UCRUCR - drool in response to food (not learned)UCSUCS - food (triggers drool reflex)CRCR - drool in response to sound of bell (learned)CSCS - sound of bell (triggers drool reflex)

Applications of Classical Conditioning

Is human behavior nothing morethan a bunch of conditioned

behaviors?

John Watson

Case of “Little Albert”

UCSUCSLoud Noise

CSCSWhite Rat

UCRUCRFear

CRCRFear

Rare Early Photos of John Watson & Rosalie Rayner Beginning Conditioning With Little Albert (1920).

John Watson (1878-1958)

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

B. F. Skinner(1904-1990)

Skinner’s Experiments

Favorite SubjectsFavorite Subjects Rats & Pidgeons

Favorite OperatusFavorite Operatus Skinner Box

Fave ProcedureFave Procedure Shaping

ShapingShapingGuiding current behavior

toward some desiredbehavior through

successive approximations

B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Skinner elaborated on Thorndike’sLaw of EffectLaw of Effect

““Rewarded behavior is likelyRewarded behavior is likelyto reoccurto reoccur””

E. L. Thorndike

External influences,not internal thoughts

& feelings, governbehavior.

External influences,not internal thoughts

& feelings, governbehavior.

B. F. Skinner(1904-1990)

Principles of Reinforcement

ReinforcerReinforcer - any event that increases the frequency of the preceding event

Positive ReinforcersPositive ReinforcersIntroduce (+) stimulus

(e.g., food)

Negative ReinforcersNegative ReinforcersRemove (-) stimulus(e.g., electric shock)

Reinforcers ALWAYS strengthen behavior!Reinforcers ALWAYS strengthen behavior!

More Reinforcement

Primary ReinforcersPrimary ReinforcersInnately satisfying,

Not learned(e.g., getting food)

Secondary ReinforcersSecondary ReinforcersAssociated with primary

reinforcers & learned(e.g., praise)


Still More Reinforcement

Immediate Immediate ReinforcemReinforcem

ententReinforce

immediately preceding

behavior (e.g., nicotine)

Delayed ReinforcementDelayed ReinforcementReinforcement at some point

after behavior occurs(e.g., paychecks)


Reinforcement Schedules

ContinuousContinuous - every time behavior occurs (rare)or

PartialPartial - not every time behavior occurs(learning is slower but more resistant to extinction)

Partial Reinforcement(a pidgeon will peck 150,000 times without reward)

Fixed Ratio - reinforce every n responsesVariable Ratio - reinforce after ?? responses

Behavior-Based ReinforcersBehavior-Based Reinforcers

Fixed Interval - reinforce after fixed timeVariable Interval - reinforce after ?? time

Time-Based ReinforcersTime-Based Reinforcers

Punishment

Opposite of Opposite of ReinforcementReinforcement

Attempts to decreasebehavior by introducing

an unpleasant punisherProblems With Punishment

• Behavior is not forgotten - merely suppressed

(may reappear in other situations)• P does not guide toward acceptable behavior

(doesn’t tell you what you should do)

Problems With Punishment• Behavior is not forgotten - merely suppressed

(may reappear in other situations)• P does not guide toward acceptable behavior

(doesn’t tell you what you should do)

Early Influences on Behaviorism Towards a Science of Behavior.

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