BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE

Observing the Outer Person

The neuroscience & psychodynamic perspective look inside to determine the causes of a persons behavior, the
behavioral perspective grew out of a rejection of the inner workings of the mind.

Suggested that the field should focus on observable behavior that can be measured objectively.

John B. Watson

The first major American Psychologist to advocate a behavioral approach.

Watsons philosophy: Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring
them up in and Ill 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 ,1924)

- His view suggests that one could gain a complete understanding of behavior by studying and modifying the
environment in which a person operates.

This perspective was championed was B.F. Skinner.

what are you thinking when you see the smiling bee anywhere?

what do you imagine when you here the bell of man riding a bicycle with pails in front of his bike?

what does it imply when you see red cartolinas cut into shapes of heart and cupid?

Those are examples of classical conditioning.

It is one of the types of a number of different types of learning.

a relatively permanent change in behavior that is brought about by experience.

Common notions about learning

1. Knowledge had to be pounded into your head through constant repetition;
2. It was better to correct mistakes than to reward progress.

Teachers believed that learning is a matter of acquiring behavioral responses, and that these responses had to
be forced on you by external environment.

LEARNING THEORIES

Thorndikes Theory

E.L. Thorndike believed that humans are descendants of lower animals and therefore learn the same way as
cats and rats. In 1890, he undertook some of the first laboratory studies ever performed on animal behavior,
even though his main interest was human learning.
His early work involved putting cats inside a puzzle box.
 THE EXPERIMENT:

If the cat could figure out how to unlatch the door to the box, it will escape and be given food as a reward.

> At first, the cat typically showed a great deal of what Thorndike called random behavior.

Scratched and licked itself. It mewed and cried. Paced in the

box, or bit at the bars and tried to squeeze between them.

> Eventually, the cat would accidentally press a pedal that was connected to the door. The door would fly open, and
the animal would rush out and be fed.

> In various trials that followed, the cat spent more and
more time near the pedal and got out of the box sooner and sooner.
> Eventually, the cat learnt what is required. The moment it was
placed in the box, it would press the pedal, escape, and claim its reward.

THORNDIKES LAWS OF LEARNING

The result of his puzzle-box experiment led

Thorndike to formulate the basic laws of learning:

1. The Law of Exercise. The stimulus-response (S-R) connections made are strengthened by repetition (practice makes
perfect).

2. The Law of Effect. Holds that rewarding a behavior increases the probability that the behavior will be repeated,
while punishing a behavior decreases the probability that the behavior will be repeated.

3. The Law of Readiness. Learning is dependent upon the learners readiness to act which facilitates the strengthening
of the bond between stimulus and response.

I. Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936), in the process of studying the secretion of the stomach acids & salivation in dogs in
response to the ingestion of varying amounts & kinds of food, accidentally discovered classical conditioning.

He observed a curious phenomenon:

Sometimes stomach secretions and salivation would begin in the dogs even when they had not yet eaten any
food.

The mere sight of the experimenter who regularly brought the food, or even the sound of the experimenters
footsteps was enough to produce salivation in the dogs.

He saw that the dogs were responding not only on the basis of biological need (hunger), but also as a result of
learning---which came to be called classical conditioning.
 Classical conditioning of Pavlov by his dog, (he he)

Pavlovs experiment

Neutral stimulus before conditioning, does not naturally bring about the response of interest

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) brings about a particular response without having been learned

Unconditioned response (UCR) response that is natural and needs no training

Conditioned Stimulus (CS) neutral stimulus that has been paired with an unconditioned stimulus bring about a
response formerly caused only by the unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned Response (CS) after conditioning, a response that follows a previously neutral stimulus

With the result, we can now define Classical Conditioning. It is a type of learning in which neutral stimulus
comes to bring about a response after it is paired with a stimulus that naturally brings about a response.

Applying Conditioning Principles to Human Behavior

- emotional responses are particularly likely to be learned through classical conditioning process.
 Infants tend to be afraid of the pediatricians clinic because they have associated it with injection (pain)

You may have a particular fondness of a certain smell of a particular perfume or cologne because of a thought
of your loved one.

Questions: identify the classical conditioning

- Making a sign of the cross.

- Presence of police car.

- Saying tabitabi po whenever you come to a different place

- Allowing your parents to leave you when you were a toddler because whenever they come back they have
donuts, chocolates, or any pasalubong.

- Performing better in class when you were in Kindergarten because whenever you came home with a star you
were given a reward.

What tend to happen to things previously learned?

Extinction a basic phenomenon of learning that occurs when previously learned response decreases in
frequency and eventually disappears.

Spontaneous recovery the reemergence of an extinguished conditioned response after a period of rest and
with no further conditioning.

Stimulus generalization tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to but different from a conditioned
stimulus; the more similar the two stimuli are, the more likely generalization is to occur (ex.: the case of little
Albert)

Stimulus discrimination the ability to differentiate between stimuli.

II. Operant Conditioning

involves attaching a new response to

already present stimulus inputs.

Technique: whenever you wish to change an organisms behavior, always begin with defining precisely what it
is that you want to accomplish.

SKINNER S EXPERIMENT

Rat in a Skinners box

The idea is teach a hungry rat to press a lever that is in the box. At first, the rat will wander around the box,
exploring the environment in a relatively random fashion. At some point, it will probably press the lever by chance,
and when it does, it will receive a food pellet.

The first time it happens, the rat will not learn the connection between pressing a lever & getting a food & will
continue to explore the box.
Sooner or later the rat will press the lever again and get a pellet, and in time the frequency of the frequency of the
pressing response will increase. Eventually, the rat will press the lever continually until it satisfies its hunger. This is the
demonstration that it has learned that the receiving of food is related to pressing the lever.

Skinner called the process that leads the rat to continue pressing the key reinforcement.

Reinforcement: the process by which a stimulus increases the probability that a preceding behavior will be
repeated.

That is, pressing the lever is more likely to occur again because of the stimulus of food.

The food becomes the reinforcer.

- any stimulus that increases the probability that a preceding behavior will occur again.

Reinforcers:

1. Positive reinforcer: A stimulus added to the environment that brings about an increase in a preceding
response.
Example: paycheck for a work done will ensure that
the workers will return the next day.

2. Negative reinforcer: An unpleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in the probability that a
preceding response will occur again in the future.
Example: If you have cold symptoms that are relieved when you take medicine, you are more likely to
take medicine when you experienced such symptoms again.

> Negative reinforcerment teaches the individual that taking an action removes a negative condition
that exists in the environment.
Punishment: A stimulus that decreases the probability that a previous behavior will occur again.

4. Cognitive-Social Approach: focuses on the unseen mental processes that occur during learning. This point
of view claims that people and even animals develop an expectation that they will receive a reinforcer after
making a response.
 4.1 Latent learning a new behavior is learned but not demonstrated until some incentive is provided for displaying
it. (Tolman & Honzik, 1930)
4.2 Observational Learning learning through observing the behavior of another person called model. (Bandura, 1977)

Four Steps:
1. Paying attention and perceiving the most critical features of another persons behavior.
2. remembering the behavior
3. reproducing the action
4. being motivated to learn and carry out the behavior in the future.

III. Observational Learning is particularly important in acquiring skill where operant conditioning is inappropriate
(example: flying a plane, brain surgery).

Albert Banduras Model of Observational Learning

o Observational learning is also called imitation or modelling. It is a learning that occurs when a person observes
and imitates behaviour.
o The capacity to learn by observation eliminates trial-and error learning.
o It often takes less time than operant conditioning.

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

MOTOR
ATTENTION RETENTION REINFORCEMENT
REPRODUCTION

1. The first process is ATTENTION. In order to reproduce a models action, you must attend to what the model is
saying or doing.
o Attention to the model is influenced by various characteristics. Example: warm, powerful, cold, weak,
people

2. RETENTION is the second process. To reproduce the models action, you must code the information and keep it
in memory so that you can retrieve it.

o A simple verbal description, or a vivid image of what the model did , assists retention.
3. MOTOR REPRODUCTION is the process of imitating the models actions.

o People might pay attention to a model and code in memory what they have seen, but limitations in
motor development might make it difficult for them to reproduce the models action.

4. REINFORCEMENT, or incentive conditions, is the final component of observational learning.

o We might attend to what a model says or does, retain the information in memory, and posses the
motor capabilities to perform the action, but we might fail to repeat the behaviour because of
inadequate reinforcement.

ASSIGNMENT : IGNORING THE THEORY OF BANDURA, WHO HAVE BEEN THE MOST IMPORTANT MODELS IN YOUR
LIFE? WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM THEM?
IV. Cognitive Factors in Learning

1. Purposive Learning
o EC Tolman (1932) emphasized the purposiveness of behaviour the idea that much of behaviour is
goal-directed. He believed that it is necessary to study entire behavioural sequences in order to
understand why people engage in particular actions.
a. expectancy learning and information
o cognitive maps an organisms mental representation of the structure of physical space. Cognitive
maps are used to find the goal.
b. latent learning, or implicit learning- unreinforced learning that is not immediately reflected in behaviour.

2. Insight learning a form of problem solving in which the organism develops a sudden insight into or
understanding of the problems solution.

V. Biological, Cultural, and Psychological Factors

a. Biological constraints limits of learning due to biological limitations

o Instinctive drift the tendency of animals to revert to instinctive behaviour that interferes with
learning.
o Preparedness the species-specific biological predisposition to learn in certain ways but not others.

b. Cultural constraints culture can influence the degree to which these learning processes are used;
culture can also determine the content of learning (we cannot learn something we do not experience).

c. Psychological constraints
o Mindset describe the way our beliefs about ability dictate what goal we set for ourselves, what
we think we can learn, and ultimately what we do learn.