Behaviorism
Summary: Behaviorism is a worldview that operates on a principle of “stimulus-response.”
All behavior caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning). All behavior can be explained
without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.
Originators and important contributors: John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, E. L.
Thorndike (connectionism), Bandura, Tolman (moving toward cognitivism)
Keywords: Classical conditioning (Pavlov), Operant conditioning (Skinner), Stimulus-
response (S-R)
Behaviorism
Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to
environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behavior is
shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement. Both positive
reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent
behavior will happen again. In contrast, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases
the likelihood that the antecedent behavior will happen again. Positive indicates the
application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the withholding of a stimulus. Learning is
therefore defined as a change in behavior in the learner. Lots of (early) behaviorist work was
done with animals (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs) and generalized to humans.
Behaviorism precedes the cognitivist worldview. It rejects structuralism and is an extension
of Logical Positivism.
Radical behaviorism
Developed by BF Skinner, Radical Behaviorism describes a particular school that emerged
during the reign of behaviorism. It is distinct from other schools of behaviorism, with major
differences in the acceptance of mediating structures, the role of emotions, etc.
Classical Conditioning (Pavlov)
Summary: Classical conditioning is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a
stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another
stimulus.
Originators and Key Contributors: First described by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), Russian
physiologist, in 1903, and studied in infants by John B. Watson (1878-1958).
Keywords: stimulus-response, psychic reflexes, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned
response, respondent conditioning
Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
Several types of learning exist. The most basic form is associative learning, i.e., making a
new association between events in the environment. There are two forms of associative
learning: classical conditioning (made famous by Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs) and
operant conditioning.
Pavlov’s Dogs
In the early twentieth century, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov did Nobel prize-winning
work on digestion. While studying the role of saliva in dogs’ digestive processes, he stumbled
upon a phenomenon he labeled “psychic reflexes.” While an accidental discovery, he had the
foresight to see the importance of it. Pavlov’s dogs, restrained in an experimental chamber,
were presented with meat powder and they had their saliva collected via a surgically
implanted tube in their saliva glands. Over time, he noticed that his dogs who begin salivation
before the meat powder was even presented, whether it was by the presence of the handler or
merely by a clicking noise produced by the device that distributed the meat powder.
Fascinated by this finding, Pavlov paired the meat powder with various stimuli such as the
ringing of a bell. After the meat powder and bell (auditory stimulus) were presented together
several times, the bell was used alone. Pavlov’s dogs, as predicted, responded by salivating to
the sound of the bell (without the food). The bell began as a neutral stimulus (i.e. the bell
itself did not produce the dogs’ salivation). However, by pairing the bell with the stimulus
that did produce the salivation response, the bell was able to acquire the ability to trigger the
salivation response. Pavlov therefore demonstrated how stimulus-response bonds (which
some consider as the basic building blocks of learning) are formed. He dedicated much of the
rest of his career further exploring this finding.
In technical terms, the meat powder is considered an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and the
dog’s salivation is the unconditioned response (UCR). The bell is a neutral stimulus until the
dog learns to associate the bell with food. Then the bell becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS)
which produces the conditioned response (CR) of salivation after repeated pairings between
the bell and food.
John B. Watson: Early Classical Conditioning with Humans
John B. Watson further extended Pavlov’s work and applied it to human beings. In 1921,
Watson studied Albert, an 11 month old infant child. The goal of the study was to condition
Albert to become afraid of a white rat by pairing the white rat with a very loud, jarring noise
(UCS). At first, Albert showed no sign of fear when he was presented with rats, but once the
rat was repeatedly paired with the loud noise (UCS), Albert developed a fear of rats. It could
be said that the loud noise (UCS) induced fear (UCR). The implications of Watson’s
experiment suggested that classical conditioning could cause some phobias in humans.
Social Learning Theory (Bandura)
Summary: Bandura’s Social Learning Theory posits that people learn from one another, via
observation, imitation, and modeling. The theory has often been called a bridge between
behaviorist and cognitive learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and
motivation.
Originator: Albert Bandura
Key Terms: Modeling, reciprocal determinism
People learn through observing others’ behavior, attitudes, and outcomes of those behaviors.
“Most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others,
one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded
information serves as a guide for action.” (Bandura). Social learning theory explains human
behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, and
environmental influences.
Necessary conditions for effective modeling:
1. Attention — various factors increase or decrease the amount of attention paid.
Includes distinctiveness, affective valence, prevalence, complexity, functional value.
One’s characteristics (e.g. sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past
reinforcement) affect attention.
2. Retention — remembering what you paid attention to. Includes symbolic coding,
mental images, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal
3. Reproduction — reproducing the image. Including physical capabilities, and self-
observation of reproduction.
4. Motivation — having a good reason to imitate. Includes motives such as past (i.e.
traditional behaviorism), promised (imagined incentives) and vicarious (seeing and
recalling the reinforced model)
Bandura believed in “reciprocal determinism”, that is, the world and a person’s behavior
cause each other, while behaviorism essentially states that one’s environment causes one’s
behavior, Bandura, who was studying adolescent aggression, found this too simplistic, and so
in addition he suggested that behavior causes environment as well. Later, Bandura soon
considered personality as an interaction between three components: the environment,
behavior, and one’s psychological processes (one’s ability to entertain images in minds and
language).
Social learning theory has sometimes been called a bridge between behaviorist and cognitive
learning theories because it encompasses attention, memory, and motivation. The theory is
related to Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory and Lave’s Situated Learning, which also
emphasize the importance of social learning.
