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Upon completion of this module, you should be able to:
Define what is behaviourism
Explain classical conditioning
Explain operant conditioning
Give everyday examples of classical conditioning in daily life
Identify the characteristics of Thorndikes theory of learning
Describe the principles of operant conditioning
Discuss the application of operant conditioning in teaching and learning
Rotating drum
Ivan Pavlov
1849-1936
Figure 2.1: Dog with tube inserted in its cheek. When the dog salivates, the saliva is collected in the
test tube and its quantity is recorded on the rotating drum
[source: Great Experiments in Psychology. p.5 by H.H. Garrett, 1951. New York: AppletonCentury-Crofts]
Salivation
Unconditioned Response (UR)
This action (food and bell ringing) was done at several meals. Every time the dog sees
the food, the dog also hears the bell. "Unconditioned" means unlearned, untaught,
pre-existing, already-present-before-we-got-there. "Conditioning" just means the
opposite. Pavlov was trying to associate, connect, bond or link something new with
the old relationship. He wanted this new thing (the bell) to elicit the same response.
Step 3: After Conditioning
This time Pavlov rang only the bell at mealtime, but he did not show any food. Guess
what the dog did. Right.
Bell
Conditioning Stimulus (CS)
Salivation
Conditioning Response (CR)
The bell elicited the same response as the sight of the food gets. Over repeated trials,
the dog has LEARNED to associate the bell with the food. The bell has the power to
produce the same response as the food. In other words, the dog has been conditioned
to salivate when hearing the bell.
Conclusion
This is the essence of Classical Conditioning. You start with two things that are
already connected with each other (food and salivation). Then you pair a third thing
(bell) with the conditioned stimulus (food) over several trials. Eventually, this third
thing may become so strongly associated, that it has acquired the power to produce
the old behaviour. The organism is conditioned to respond to the third thing or
stimulus.
Pavlov extended his experiment by using bells of different tones. Surprisingly, the
dog still salivated when it heard the different tones. The dog responded even though
the tones of the bells were different or nearly the same. In other words the dog is
capable of generalisation, and able to generalise across different tones. For example,
when driving and you hear the sound of a siren behind you and you immediately
move to the side to give way. You do not discriminate whether it is the sound of the
fire-truck, the ambulance or the police (which may be different) but you react in the
same way. In other words, you have generalised that any sound of the siren, you will
respond similarly.
Pavlov also found that when the tone of the bell that was closer to the sound of the
original bell, the dog salivated. When the tone of the bell was very different from the
sound of the original bell, the dog salivated less frequently. In other words the dog is
capable of discrimination, and able to differentiate among the different tones. The dog
is responds to one stimulus and not to another stimulus. However, when Pavlov
continued ringing the bell and after many trials it was not followed by food, the dog
gradually did not salivate. In other words, extinction took place and the dog did not
salivate after sometime when it realised that food was not forthcoming.
2.2 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN DAILY LIFE
The smell of fresh bread baking makes my mouth water. This is probably the
result of Classical conditioning. In the past the smell of the fresh bread
immediately preceded putting a piece in my mouth, which causes salivation.
Through the mechanism of Classical conditioning the smell itself comes to
elicit salivation.
After the bad car accident Jeffri had last year, he would cringe and break into a
sweat at the sound of squealing brakes. This is Classical conditioning. The
cringing, which is an unconditioned response to pain or fear, was produced by
the accident and its accompanying pain. That accident was probably preceded
by the sound of squealing brakes, which became a conditioned stimulus for the
conditioned response of cringing.
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ACTIVITY
Figure 2.2
Albert and the white
rat
He reached out and tried to touch the animal. Later, whenever Albert reached
out and tried to touch the rat, Watson took a hammer and struck a steel bar behind the
infant, making a loud noise. Obviously, Albert got a fright and jumped and fell
forward. Again, he tried to touch the rat and the bar was struck, making a loud noise.
Albert jumped violently and cried. A week later when Albert came into contact with
the rat he was more cautious and withdrew his hand. He had developed a strong fear
of the rat and began to cry. He tried to raise himself and crawled away rapidly. Albert
had LEARNED to fear the white rat because of its association with the loud noise.
Before Conditioning
White Rat
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
No Fear
Unconditioned Response (UR)
During Conditioning
White Rat
Unconditioned Stimulus (US)
Albert cries and avoids touching
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Loud Noise
Conditioning Stimulus (CS)
After Conditioning
White Rat
Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
Fear
Conditioned Response (CR)
It was also shown that Alberts fear generalised to a variety of other objects
such as a rabbit, fur coat, and even a Santa Claus mask. In other words, any object
that was furry brought fear to the infant. The experiment by Watson showed that our
emotional reactions can be rearranged through classical conditioning. Watson
demonstrated that an emotion such as fear could be transferred to an organism that
originally that not have such a fear. The finding is significant because it implies that if
fears are learned, it should be possible to unlearn or extinguish them. Unfortunately,
Watson and Rayner never removed Alberts fears because his mother removed him
from the hospital where the experiment was being conducted shortly after fear was
instilled.
SELF-CHECK
a) Explain how a behaviour can be conditioned
in
thing that was furry indicating that the child has generalised fear to stimuli that
is similar or related to the white rat.
Stimulus Discrimination When other teachers enter the class, Suzy does
not cry but when she encounters Ms. Lim she cries. Apparently, her classically
conditioned response seems to be limited to one stimulus; Ms. Lim. It appears
that Suzy is showing signs of stimulus discrimination.
Extinction Suzy has associated Ms. Lim with the yelling of Keep Quiet
which terrified her. However, if the stimulus (yelling Keep Quiet) is not
applied and the response has not generated over a period of time, then the
probability of conditioned behaviour (crying) may decay. If Suzy had not
heard Ms. Lim yell Keep Quiet for some time, it is possible that crying
whenever Ms. Lim appears would gradually become extinct.
Edward Thorndike (1874 1949), whose doctoral thesis entitled Animal Intelligence:
An Experimental Study of the Associative Process in Animals in 1898, formed the
basis for his learning theories. To Thorndike the most basic form of learning was
trial-and-error learning which was based on his experiments which involved putting
a hungry animal in a puzzle box (see
Figure 2.3). The animal (he used cats)
would attempt to escape to get at the food
outside the box. Pressing on the pedal
would enable the animal to escape.
Before escaping, the animal would have
to engage in a series of complex
responses. The animal would squeeze
through an opening and claw at anything
it reaches. The animal had to perform in a
Food
certain way before it was allowed to leave
Figure 2.3 Thorndikes puzzle box the box.
The animal claws all over the box
in an impulsive struggle to get out of the confinement. In the process presses the pedal
and the door opens. It gets out and eats the food. The same cat was put in the box
over and over again. Thorndike noted the time it took the animal to solve the problem
as a function of the number of trials or opportunities. The time it took to solve the
problem systematically decreased as the number of trials increased. In other words,
the more opportunities the animal had, the faster it solved the problem. The animal
has made a connection between the proper response and the food the cat received
(Stimulus-Response or S-R connection). Based on his experiments, Thorndike
concluded that learning is incremental. In other words, learning occurs in very small
systematic steps rather than in huge jumps.
Based on his experiments, Thorndike proposed the following theories of
learning:
Transfer of learning.
o The degree of transfer between initial and later learning depends on the
match between elements across the two events.
o Transfer depends on the presence of identical elements in the original
and new learning situations.
o Transfer is always specific and never general.
o Transfer from one school task to a highly similar task (near transfer),
and from school subject to non-school settings (far transfer), could be
facilitated by teaching knowledge and skills in school subjects that
have elements identical to activities encountered in the initial context.
SELF-CHECK
Pellet dispenser
Dispenser tube
Food cup
Electric
grid
To shock
generator
Next, Skinner connected back the pellet dispenser. Pressing the bar again provided the
rat with food pellets. The behaviour of bar-pushing popped right back. In fact, the
rat took a lesser time to press the bar compared to the first time it was put in the box.
So, the rat has learned that if it pressed the bar, food will be released.
Skinner varied the experiment by linking the release of food pellets with light. For
example, the food would only be presented when the bar is pressed while the light is
on but not when the light is off. Guess what happened! The rat only pressed the bar
when the light was on. The light has served as a discriminative stimulus that controls
response. The rat is able to discriminate between pressing the bar with the light and
pressing the bar without light (Huitt and Hummel, 1998).
Based on this experiment, Skinner introduced the word operant. It simply means
that the behaviour operates on the environment the rats pressing the bar produces
or gains access to the food pellets. In classical conditioning, the animal is passive; it
merely waits for stimuli. In operant conditioning, the animal is active; its own
behaviour brings on important consequences or results (Skinner, 1998). Thus, operant
conditioning increases the likelihood of a response by following its occurrence with
reinforcer.
PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
Thus, reinforcement can be defined as any event that increases the probability
of a response. Skinner distinguished between positive reinforcement and negative
reinforcement, as well as punishment.
Positive Reinforcement
REINFORCEMENT
Negative Reinforcement
PUNISHMENT
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The reinforcement theory was taken a step further by introducing variation in the
typical operant conditioning situation (Huitt and Hummel, 1998). What will happen
when the schedule of reinforcement is varied according to time or frequency? For
example, instead of rewarding a particular behaviour every time it occurs, the
behaviour is rewarded every 2 minutes; i.e. reinforcement is scheduled or
predetermined. Many different reinforcement schedules have been studied, but most
common are as follows:
VARIABLE RATIO (VR): This schedule is similar to the Fixed Ratio. The
difference is that the ratio is not fixed but variable. In other words, the ratio is
changed according to the responses. For example, you may start with
reinforcing every 3 times the response (behaviour) is exhibited; than every 5
times the response (behaviour) is exhibited and so on.
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organism is reinforced every time it makes a move in the desired direction until it has
learned the desired response, and then not reinforcing it again (Skinner, . By
reinforcing only successively closer approximations to the desired behaviour, it is
possible to train an organism to engage in behaviour so complex that would never
ordinarily appear in the organisms repertoire.
Shaping a Simple Behaviour:
A three year old child was afraid to go down a slide.
The father picked him up and put him at the end of the
slide and asked him if he was okay. He was asked to
jump and he did and was praised by the father. Next,
the father picked the child and put him a foot or so up
the slide and asked him if he was okay, and asked him
to slide down. He did. So far so good! The father did
this again and again, each time moving him a little up
the slide. Eventually, he put the child at the top of the
slide and he could slide all the way down and jump off.
A great deal of human behaviour is modified directionally in small steps by
reinforcement. It has often been observed, for example, that as previously reinforcing
activities become habitual and less rewarding, they tend to be modified. For example,
a motorcyclist derives some considerable reinforcement from the sensation of turning
a sharp corner at high speed but eventually the sensation diminishes and the
excitement becomes less. And perhaps, too, as the reinforcement begins to decrease,
his speed increases, imperceptibly but progressively. This is a clear illustration of
shaping effected through the outcomes of behaviour (Lefrancois, 1982). In the
classroom, peer approval or disapproval, sometimes communicated in a very subtle,
nonverbal way, can drastically alter a students behaviour. The classroom clown
would probably not continue to be a clown if no one paid any attention to her.
Indeed, he might never have been shaped into a clown had his audience not
reinforced him in the first place.
ACTIVITY
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When older students are dealing with complex and meaningful material,
DELAYED FEEDBACK may be more appropriate
o Hand back and discuss all exams even though they may have sat for
the exam two weeks ago.
o Give comments are papers written by students besides a grade or
marks.
o After having submitted an assignment you could ask your students the
following: If you realised after you completed your work that you had
made a mistake, make a note of it and mention how you would correct
it if you were to do the assignment over again now. Then we can see if
your evaluation agrees with mine.
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ACTIVITY
.
Skinner believed that operant conditioning can even be used to
teach thinking (by conditioning the student to develop
techniques of self-management for example; paying attention
and studying efficiently), to foster creativity (by including
greater amounts of behaviour and reinforcing what is original),
and to encourage perseverance (by systematically widening the
ratios of reinforcement).
Discuss.
ACTIVITY
Gi
1. In order to punish my cat for sleeping on the sofa, I paired the sound of a
clicker with getting squirted with water. Now the sound of the clicker
causes the animal to get off the sofa.
2. When my son has gone for a week without arguing with his sister, he
gets to choose which favorite activity he wants to engage in on Friday
night
3. In a weight management class, participants earn points for every healthy
meal they eat and every period of exercise they complete. Later these
points result in refunds of their class fees.
4. When I first start teaching about a concept, I'll praise any answer that is
close to the right answer.
5. Each morning when I switch on the radio, my dogs bark and I give them
dog a slice of bread each. After a while, every time I switch on the radio
in the morning, my dogs bark.
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REFERENCES
Skinner, B.F. (1954). The science of learning and the art of teaching. Harvard
Educational Review, 24(2), 86-97.
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