Introduction to the Behaviourist

theories of learning

Understanding Learning: MOD001256

Learning Objectives

By the end of the session, you will:

• Review some of the research of the behaviourist

learning theorists: Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson and
Skinner.

• Consider how behaviourist learning approaches are

used currently in a range of learning contexts and
settings.
Definition: Learning

“any more or less permanent change in

behaviour which is the result of experience”
(Borger & Seaborne, 1966, p16 cited in Jarvis, Holford & Griffin, 2003. p.25)
Influences in the late
19th/early 20th century

• Age of enlightenment - 18th Century

o Scientific approach to research- Positivism
• Psychology emerging a discipline (Freud)
• Darwin – Evolution
• Durkheim – Education to reinforce social solidarity
• Technology impacting on everyday life – modernity

Mood: The world is becoming increasingly explained and

understood. The introduction of new technology is encouraging
people to think of a future where the environment and life
experiences can be controlled.
 Behaviourist learning
theorists – timeline:

I. Pavlov (1849-1936) [active 1890’s – 1900’s]

E.L. Thorndike (1874-1949) [active 1900’s – 1930’s]

J. Watson (1878–1958) [active 1910’s – 1920]

B. F. Skinner (1904 –1990) [active 1930’s – 1960’s]

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
(1849-1936)

• Russian

• Nobel Prize winner 1904 in Physiology and

Medicine for research about digestion.

• Key concept is conditioned (conditional) reflex

• He was not specifically concerned with the

study of learning
Conditioned Reflex
(Classical Conditioning)

• An Unconditioned Stimulus - sight/taste of food - provokes

an Unconditioned Response – salivation

• A normally neutral stimulus – bell, buzzer, metronome is

associated with the food until it provokes the response –
salivation

• The sound becomes the Conditioned Stimulus and the

response becomes the Conditioned Response

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho
Classical Conditioning
An example from a learning environment

Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned response

Teacher instructs pupils to work quietly. Pupils work quietly on tasks.

Conditioned stimulus with additional Unconditioned response

stimulus.
Teacher instructs pupils to work quietly Pupils work quietly on tasks.
while putting her fingers on her lips.

Conditioned stimulus Conditioned response

Teacher puts her fingers on her lips. Pupils work quietly on tasks.

(From Bartlett and Burton, 2012, p.197)

John Broadus Watson
(1878–1958)
• American Psychologist

• Considered first person to use term ‘Behaviourism’

• Considered the mind as being irrelevant to learning

• Rejected determinism through instinct and heredity as the

major factor in learning – environment is the key

• Some interest in concept of thinking as ‘subvocal speech’

• Commented on child rearing

“Little Albert”

• “Little Albert” experiment: conditioned a young child to

associate fear with a furry object (rat, rabbit, fur hat, Santa
etc)

• “Little Albert” experiment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucxOrPQE&feature=related
Watson writes…..
“Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental
branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and
control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods,
nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with
which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness.
The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response,
recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man,
with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the
behaviorist's total scheme of investigation.”

(Watson, 1913)
Watson writes…..

“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world

to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train
him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his
ancestors………..”

(Watson, 1930. p.82)

Edward Lee Thorndike
(1874-1949)
• American Psychologist

• In series of experiments which required cats to escape from

‘puzzle boxes’ he rejected notion that the cats might be using
insight to open the box in favour of learning through conditioned
responses (Trial and Error):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6H7Ukp6To&NR=1

• Key idea is Law of Effect: responses that are closely followed

(‘recency’) by gaining a reward, become associated with the
situation and are more likely to be repeated. Negative
consequences can lead to weakened association.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
(1904 –1990)

• American Psychologist – originally an English graduate

• The founder of ‘Radical Behaviourism’: behaviour is learned

through reinforcement

• Key ideas: ‘Operant Conditioning’ and ‘Reinforcement’

• Invented the ‘Operant Conditioning Chamber’ (Skinner Box)

Operant Conditioning

• Living things are ‘operating’ on their environment

• If during this operation a reinforcing stimulus is

encountered, this increases the ‘operant’ i.e. the behaviour
immediately before the reinforcement. The reinforcing
stimulus increases the likelihood of the organism repeating
the behaviour.

• Typically this was tested in ‘Skinner boxes’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtDTdDr8vs&NR=1
Reinforcement

• Positive: Strengthening of behaviour by praise, rewarding

event

• Negative: Strengthening of behaviour by

removal/avoidance of event e.g. avoiding harm

• Punishment: Weakening of behaviour by aversive event

• Extinction: Weakening of behaviour by removal of

rewarding event

•In practice: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNW05PRpPUY

Key impacts on learning

• Trial and error learning: (Problem solving, Inquiry Based

Learning.) This can be open ended and student led or subject to
varying degrees of teacher intervention (to a desired outcome).

• Instrumental teaching: Learning outcomes are expressed in

behavioural terms. Learning is measurable and prescriptive.

• Programmed learning: Short tasks with frequent feedback

(reinforcement) and in small steps of increasing complexity.
Limitations & Criticisms

• Conformity: Outcomes often conformist. Authority imposes behavioural

goals that are reproduced reliably but predictably: What about free
thinkers, innovation and creativity? Who sets the goals?

• Indoctrination: May be seen as indoctrination when a teacher controls

outcomes and using reinforcement to ‘correct’ result.

• Neglects cognitive (thinking) processes: Potentially limiting learning

• Agency of learning is external: Learners are not encouraged to act

independently and to make their own choices during learning. The learning
and the environment is controlled by the teacher.
References:

Watson, John B., 1913. Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It. Psychological

Review. 20. Pp158-177 (Full text available at:
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Watson/views.htm)

Watson, John B., 1930. Behaviorism (revised edition). Chicago: University of

Chicago Press.

More from Skinner:

Reinforcement, superstition and free will:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhvaSEJtOV8

Teaching machines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXR9Ft8rzhk&feature=related
Further reading to support your
assignment

Chapter 3 Behaviourist Approaches to Learning in: Jarvis, P., Holford, J., Griffin, C., 2003. The
Theory and Practice of Learning. 2nd edn. London: Routledge (E-book)

Pages 242 – 253 of Woolfolk, A., Hughes, M. & Walkup, V., 2013. Psychology in Education. 2nd
Edn. Harlow: Pearson Education (E-book in the library).

Pages 197 – 199 of Bartlett, S. & Burton, D. 2012. Introduction to Educational Studies. London:
Sage Publications Limited.

Behaviourism - general:
http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-behavourist.htm
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/beh.html

Skinner: http://tip.psychology.org/skinner.html
Thorndike: http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html
Plus check the Weblinks area on the VLE for further on-line materials on behaviourism.
Further reading to support your
assignment

Behaviourism - general:
http://www.infed.org/biblio/learning-behavourist.htm
http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/beh.html

Skinner: http://tip.psychology.org/skinner.html

Thorndike: http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html

Plus check the Weblinks area on the VLE for further on-line materials on
behaviourism.