Mindmap	Pavlov	Skinner	Definition	A little history	Implications for reinforcement theory	Key Features
			Pavlov's experiment
				Operant conditioning	Principles	Strengths of Behaviourism
PowerPoint
				Skinner	Summary	Against Behaviourism
			Classical conditioning

The learning theory dominant in the first half of the 20th Century was behaviourism. Throughout the 1950s and 60s behaviourism remained influential, although since that time new theories have begun to make substantial inroads in general acceptance. Behaviourism is an approach to psychology and learning that emphasizes observable measurable behaviour. The behaviourist theory of animal and human learning focuses only on objectively observable behaviours and discounts mental activities. Behaviour theorists define learning as a more or less permanent change in behaviour. In behaviourism, the learner is viewed as passively adapting to their environment. Two of the most famous experiments upon which proof of learning is based are the "Dog Salivation Experiment" by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and the " Skinner Box" experiment with pigeons by B.F. Skinner.

Behaviourism is derived from the belief that free will is an illusion. According to a pure behaviourist, human beings are shaped entirely by their external environment. Alter a person's environment, and you will alter his or her thoughts, feelings, and behaviour. Provide positive reinforcement whenever students perform a desired behaviour, and soon they will learn to perform the behaviour on their own.

The behaviourists tried to explain learning without referring to mental processes. The focus was on observable behaviour and how an organism adapts to the environment. The famous "Dog-Salivation-Experiment" by Ivan Petrovich Pavlov where he makes dogs salivate at the sound of a bell and later experiments by Burhus Frederic Skinner (Refere nce date; 25th of April 1998) with pigeons in the so called "Skinner Box" are very famous examples of behaviouristic learning experiments. Despite these very "low-level" learning experiments focusing largely on reflexes, the behaviouristic theories have been generalized to many higher level functions as well.

Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex responds to a stimulus. The most popular example is Pavlov's observation that dogs salivate when they eat or even see food. Essentially, animals and people are biologically "wired" so that a certain stimulus will produce a specific response.

The easiest place to start is with a little example. Consider a hungry dog who sees a bowl of food. Something like this might happen:

Food ---> Salivation

The dog is hungry, the dog sees the food, the dog salivates. This is a natural sequence of events, an unconscious, uncontrolled, and unlearned relationship. See the food, then salivate.

Now, because we are humans who have an insatiable curiosity, we experiment. When we present the food to the hungry dog (and before the dog salivates), we ring a bell. Thus,

· Bell

· with

· Food ---> Salivation

We repeat this action (food and bell given simultaneously) at several meals. Every time the dog sees the food, the dog also hears the bell. Ding-dong, Alpo.

Now, because we are humans who like to play tricks on our pets, we do another experiment. We ring the bell (Ding-dong), but we don't show any food. What does the dog do? Right,

Bell ---> Salivate

The bell elicits the same response the sight of the food gets. Over repeated trials, the dog has learned to associate the bell with the food and now the bell has the power to produce the same response as the food. (And, of course, after you've tricked your dog into drooling and acting even more stupidly than usual, you must give it a special treat.)

This is the essence of Classical Conditioning. It really is that simple. You start with two things that are already connected with each other (food and salivation). Then you add a third thing (bell) for several trials. Eventually, this third thing may become so strongly associated that it has the power to produce the old behaviour.

Now, where do we get the term, "Conditioning" from all this? Let me draw up the diagrams with the official terminology.

· Food ---------------------> Salivation

· Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response

"Unconditioned" simply means that the stimulus and the response are naturally connected. They just came that way, hard wired together like a horse and carriage and love and marriage as the song goes. "Unconditioned" means that this connection was already present before we got there and started messing around with the dog or the child or the spouse.

"Stimulus" simply means the thing that starts it while "response" means the thing that ends it. A stimulus elicits and a response is elicited.)

Another diagram,

· Conditioning Stimulus

· Bell

· with

· Food -----------------------> Salivation

· Unconditioned Stimulus------> Unconditioned Response

We already know that "Unconditioned" means unlearned, untaught, pre-existing, already-present-before-we-got-there. "Conditioning" just means the opposite. It means that we are trying to associate, connect, bond, link something new with the old relationship. And we want this new thing to elicit (rather than be elicited) so it will be a stimulus and not a response. Finally, after many trials we hope for,

· Bell ---------------------> Salivation

· Conditioned Stimulus ---> Conditioned Response

Let's review these concepts.

1. Unconditioned Stimulus: a thing that can already elicit a response.

2. Unconditioned Response: a thing that is already elicited by a stimulus.

3. Unconditioned Relationship: an existing stimulus-response connection.

4. Conditioning Stimulus: a new stimulus we deliver the same time we give the old stimulus.

5. Conditioned Relationship: the new stimulus-response relationship we created by associating a new stimulus with an old response.

There are two key parts. First, we start with an existing relationship, Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response. Second, we pair a new thing (Conditioning Stimulus) with the existing relationship, until the new thing has the power to elicit the old response.

The example we used here is from the first studies on classical conditioning as described by Ivan Pavlov, the famous Russian physiologist. Pavlov discovered these important relationships around the turn of the century in his work with dogs. He created the first learning theory which precedes the learning theory most teachers know quite well, reinforcement theory.

The point is this: Classical conditioning says nothing about rewards and punishments which are key terms in reinforcement theory. Consider our basic example,

· Conditioning Stimulus

· BELL

· with

· Food ---------------------> Salivation

· Unconditioned Stimulus ---> Unconditioned Response

There is nothing in here about rewards or punishments, no terminology like that, not even an implication like that. Classical conditioning is built on creating relationships by association over trials. Some people confuse Classical Conditioning with Reinforcement Theory. To keep them separated just look for the presence of rewards and punishments.

Watson drew heavily on the work of Pavlov, whose investigation of the conditioned reflex had shown that you could condition dogs to salivate not just at the sight of food, but also at the sound of a bell that preceded food. Watson argued that such conditioning is the basis of human behaviour - if you stand up every time a lady enters the room, you're acting not out of 'politeness', but because behaviour is a chain of well-set reflexes. He claimed that recency and frequency were particularly important in determining what behaviour an individual 'emitted' next: if you usually get up when a lady enters the room, you're likely to get up when one enters now. 

This type of influence is extremely common. If you have pets and you feed them with canned food, what happens when you hit the can opener? Sure, the animals come running even if you are opening a can of green beans. They have associated the sound of the opener with their food.

And classical conditioning works with advertising. For example, many beer ads promeniently feature attractive young women wearing bikinis. The young women (Unconditioned Stimulus) naturally elicit a favourable, mildly aroused feeling (Unconditioned Response) in most men. The beer is simply associated with this effect. The same thing applies with the jingles and music that accompany many advertisements.

Perhaps the strongest application of classical conditioning involves emotion. Common experience and careful research both confirm that human emotion conditions very rapidly and easily. Particularly when the emotion is intensely felt or negative in direction, it will condition quickly.

Clearly, classical conditioning is a pervasive form of influence in our world. This is true because it is a natural feature of all humans and it is relatively simple and easy to accomplish.

Behavioural or operant conditioning occurs when a response to a stimulus is reinforced. Basically, operant conditioning is a simple feedback system: If a reward or reinforcement follows the response to a stimulus, then the response becomes more probable in the future. For example, leading behaviourist B.F. Skinner used reinforcement techniques to teach pigeons to dance and bowl a ball in a mini-alley.

"Operant conditioning" describes one type of associative learning in which there is a contingency between the response and the presentation of the reinforcer. This situation resembles most closely the classic experiments from Skinner, where he trained rats and pigeons to press a lever in order to obtain a food reward. In such experiments, the subject is able to generate certain motor-output, (the response R, e.g. running around, cleaning, resting, pressing the lever). The experimentor chooses a suited output (e.g. pressing the lever) to pair it with an unconditioned stimulus (US, e.g. a food reward). Often a discriminative stimulus (SD, e.g. a light) is present, when the R-US contingency is true. After a training period, the subject will show the conditioned response (CS, e.g. touching the trigger) even in absence of the US, if the R-US association has been memorized.

A Skinner box typically contains one or more levers which an animal can press, one or more stimulus lights and one or more places in which reinforcers like food can be delivered. The animal's presses on the levers can be detected and recorded and a contingency between these presses, the state of the stimulus lights and the delivery of reinforcement can be set up, all automatically. It is also possible to deliver other reinforcers such as water or to deliver punishers like electric shock through the floor of the chamber. Other types of response can be measured - nose-poking at a moving panel, or hopping on a treadle - both often used when testing birds rather than rats. And of course all kinds of discriminative stimuli may be used.

In principle, and sometimes in practice, it is possible for a rat to learn to press a bar in a Skinner-box by trial and error. If the box is programmed so that a single lever-press causes a pellet to be dispensed, followed by a period for the rat to eat the pellet when the discriminative-stimulus light is out and the lever inoperative, then the rat may learn to press the lever if left to his own devices for long enough. This can, however, often take a very long time. The methods used in practice illustrate how much the rat has to learn to tackle this simple instrumental learning situation. The first step is to expose the rat to the food pellets he will later be rewarded with in the Skinner box in his home cage when he is hungry. He has to learn that these pellets are food and hence are reinforcing when he is hungry. Now he can be introduced to the Skinner-box.

Initially there may be a few pellets in the hopper where reinforcers are delivered, plus a few scattered nearby, to allow the rat to discover that the hopper is a likely source of food. Once the rat is happy eating from the hopper he can be left in Skinner box and the pellet dispenser operated every now and then so the rat becomes accustomed to eating a pellet from the hopper each time the dispenser operates (the rat is probably learning to associate the sound of the dispenser operating with food - a piece of classical conditioning which is really incidental to the instrumental learning task at hand). Once the animal has learned the food pellets are reinforcing and where they are to be found, it would, however, still probably take some time for the rat to learn that bar-pressing when the SD light was on produced food. The problem is that the rat is extremely unlikely to press the lever often by chance. In order to learn an operant contingency by trial and error the operant must be some behaviour which the animal performs often anyway. Instead of allowing the rat to learn by trial and error one can use a 'shaping' or 'successive-approximations' procedure. Initially, instead of rewarding the rat for producing the exact behaviour we require - lever pressing - he is rewarded whenever he performs a behaviour which approximates to lever pressing. The closeness of the approximation to the desired behaviour required in order for the rat to get a pellet is gradually increased so that eventually he is only reinforced for pressing the lever. Starting by reinforcing the animal whenever he is in the front half of the Skinner-box, he is later only reinforced if he is also on the side of the box where the lever is. After this the reinforcement occurs if his head is pointing towards the lever and then later only when he approaches the lever, when he touches the lever with the front half of his body, when he puts touches the lever with his paw and so on until the rat is pressing the lever in order to obtain the reinforcer. The rat may still not have completely learned the operant contingency - specifically he may not yet have learned that the contingency between the operant response and reinforcement is signalled by the SD light. If we now leave him to work in the Skinner-box on his own he will soon learn this and will only press the lever when the SD light is on.

For our purpose the important aspect of behaviouristic theories is that the learner is viewed as adapting to the environment and learning is seen largely as a passive process in that there is no explicit treatment of interest in mental processes. The learner merely responds to the "demands" of the environment. Knowledge is viewed as given and absolute (objective knowledge).

Behaviourism became one of the dominant areas of research into learning throughout the twentieth century. It is particularly associated with Watson and Skinner..

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born March 20, 1904.

He got his masters in psychology in 1930 and his doctorate in 1931, and stayed at Harvad to do research until 1936.

In 1945, he became the chairman of the psychology department at Indiana University.  In 1948, he was invited to come to Harvard, where he remained for the rest of his life.  He was a very active man, doing research and guiding hundreds of doctoral candidates as well as writing many books.  While not successful as a writer of fiction and poetry, he became one of our best psychology writers, including the book Walden II, which is a fictional account of a community run by his behaviorist principles.

August 18, 1990, B. F. Skinner died of leukemia after becoming perhaps the most celebrated psychologist since Sigmund Freud.

Skinner was not satisfied that all behaviour was based on reflexes. He argued that we behave the way we do because of the consequences generated by our past behaviour. If, every time a man takes his wife out to dinner, she is very loving, then he learns to take her out to dinner if he wants her to be very loving. For Skinner, it is the history of reinforcements that determines behaviour. We learn to choose or avoid behaviours based on their consequences.

The behaviourists' basic mechanism of learning is 

stimulus => response => reinforcement

Skinner particularly insisted on the importance of reinforcement (shifting the emphasis from reflexes) in the learning process, learning being operationally defined as changes in the frequency of a particular response. Skinner developed Pavlovian classical conditioning, where an old response (salivation) is evoked by a new stimulus (bell), to focus more closely on operant conditioning, where a new response (turning the tap anti-clockwise) is developed as a result of satisfying a need (thirst).

Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner's S-R theory. A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response. It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased accomplishment or satisfaction. The theory also covers negative reinforcers -- any stimulus that results in the increased frequency of a response when it is withdrawn (different from adversive stimuli -- punishment -- which result in reduced responses).

Implications of reinforcement theory

1. Practice should take the form of question (stimulus) - answer (response) frames which expose the student to the subject in gradual steps

2. Require that the learner make a response for every frame and receive immediate feedback

3. Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so the response is always correct and hence a positive reinforcement

4. Ensure that good performance in the lesson is paired with secondary reinforcers such as verbal praise, prizes and good grades.

Principles:

1. Behaviour that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent reinforcement is particularly effective

2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced ("shaping")

3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli ("stimulus generalization") producing secondary conditioning

Skinner developed the idea of shaping. If you control the rewards and punishments which the environment gives in response to behaviours, then you can shape behaviour (commonly known as behaviour modification). The four major teaching/learning strategies suggested by behaviourism are:

 

Shaping	The intended target behaviour needs to be as specific as possible. If people don't know what you want them to achieve, they can't know whether they're getting closer to achieving it or not.
Chaining	complex behaviours are broken down into simpler ones, each of which is a modular component of the next more complex stage. The learner is rewarded for acquiring a skill, after which the reward is withdrawn until the next, more complex, composite skill is acquired. It's important, that reinforcement should be immediate. Caution should be exercised that the rewards do not become too regular and frequent, otherwise, according to Skinner, they lose much of their effect.
Discrimination learning	the learner comes to discriminate between settings in which a particular behaviour will be reinforced.
Fading	ultimately, the discriminatory stimuli may be withdrawn, a habit is acquired and practised as the effort required is reduced

Behaviouristic view of language acquisition simply claims that language development is the result of a set of habits. This view has normally been influenced by the general theory of learning described by the psychologist John B. Watson in 1923, and termed behaviourism. Behaviourism denies nativist accounts of innate knowledge as they are viewed as inherently irrational and thus unscientific. Knowledge is the product of interaction with the environment through stimulus-response conditioning.

Broadly speaking, stimulus (ST) – response (RE) learning works as follows. An event in the environment (the unconditioned stimulus, or UST) brings out an unconditioned response (URE) from an organism capable of learning. That response is then followed by another event appealing to the organism. That is, the organism’s response is positively reinforced (PRE). If the sequence UST --> URE --> PRE recurs a sufficient number of times, the organism will learn how to associate its response to the stimulus with the reinforcement (CST). This will consequently cause the organism to give the same response when it confronts with the same stimulus. In this way, the response becomes a conditioned response (CRE).

The most risky part of the behaviouristic view is perhaps the idea that all leaning, whether verbal (language) or non-verbal (general learning) takes place by means of the same underlying process, that is via forming habits. In 1957, the psychologist B.F. Skinner produced a behaviourist account of language acquisition in which linguistic utterances served as CST and CRE.

When language acquisition is taken into consideration, the theory claims that both L1 and L2 acquirers receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment, and positive reinforcement for their correct repetitions and imitations. As mentioned above, when language learners’ responses are reinforced positively, they acquire the language relatively easily.

These claims are strictly criticized in Chomsky’s "A Review of B.F. Skinner’s Verbal Behaviour". Chomsky (1959) asserts that there is "neither empirical evidence nor any known argument to support any specific claim about the relative importance of feedback from the environment". Therefore, it would be unwise to claim that the sequence UST --> URE --> PRE and imitation can account for the process of language acquisition. What is more, the theory overlooks the speaker (internal) factors in this process.


In brief, Skinner’s view of language acquisition is a popular example of the nurturist ideas. Behaviourism, as known by most of us, was passively accepted by the influential Bloomfieldian structuralist school of linguistics and produced some well-know applications in the field of foreign/second language teaching – for instance, the Audiolingual Method or the Army Method. The theory sees the language learner as a tabula rasa with no built-in knowledge. The theory and the resulting teaching methods failed due to the fact that imitation and simple S-R connections only cannot explain acquisition and provide a sound basis for language teaching methodology.

SUMMARY

Behaviouristic view of language acquisition simply claims that language development is the result of a set of habits. This view has normally been influenced by the general theory of learning described by the psychologist John B. Watson in 1923, and termed behaviourism. Behaviourism denies nativist accounts of innate knowledge as they are viewed as inherently irrational and thus unscientific. Knowledge is the product of interaction with the environment through stimulus-response conditioning.

Broadly speaking, stimulus (ST) – response (RE) learning works as follows. An event in the environment (the unconditioned stimulus, or UST) brings out an unconditioned response (URE) from an organism capable of learning. That response is then followed by another event appealing to the organism. That is, the organism’s response is positively reinforced (PRE). If the sequence UST --> URE --> PRE recurs a sufficient number of times, the organism will learn how to associate its response to the stimulus with the reinforcement (CST). This will consequently cause the organism to give the same response when it confronts with the same stimulus. In this way, the response becomes a conditioned response (CRE).

The most risky part of the behaviouristic view is perhaps the idea that all leaning, whether verbal (language) or non-verbal (general learning) takes place by means of the same underlying process, that is via forming habits. In 1957, the psychologist B.F. Skinner produced a behaviourist account of language acquisition in which linguistic utterances served as CST and CRE.

When language acquisition is taken into consideration, the theory claims that both L1 and L2 acquirers receive linguistic input from speakers in their environment, and positive reinforcement for their correct repetitions and imitations. As mentioned above, when language learners’ responses are reinforced positively, they acquire the language relatively easily.

How does learning occur?

Learning occurs when there is a measurable change in the frequency of observable performance. The learner adapts his behaviour to contingencies of events and objectives. Learning is a gradual strengthening of the learned relationship between cue and behaviour, driven by a pattern of consequences (reinforcement). This is called shaping. With enough practice, the link becomes so strong that the time between cue and behaviour gets very small.

 Which factors influence learning?

The most critical factor is the environmental condition, meaning the arrangement of stimuli and consequences within the environment. The instruction focuses on conditioning the learner's behaviour.

 What is the role of memory?

Although the role of memory is not specifically addressed, there is discussion on the acquisition of habits. Practicing habits maintains a learner's readiness to respond, disuse results in "forgetting" over time.

 How does transfer occur?

When experiences are generalized, similar situations involving recognizable features allow the learner to transfer and apply the learning experience to new situations.

 What types of learning are best explained by this theory?

Reinforcement by way of repetition, instructional cues, drill and practice processes strengthens the exhibition of desired behaviour. The learner focuses on a clear goal, his behaviour automatically respond to the cues of that goal. For learning that requires quick reaction with sure response, this type of instruction is quite appropriate.  

 What basic assumptions/principles of this theory are relevant to instructional design?

Educational software used in elementary schools, such as drill and practice routines and flash cards from the good old days are examples of behaviourist theory in practice. The use of objectives and goals when introducing material has behaviourist components, as does providing tangible rewards and immediate feedback.

 How should instruction be structured to facilitate learning?

First, a task analysis should be undertaken in order to determine the behavioural changes needed to accomplish the task. Then, the instructor should prescribe a sequence of learning events to which will enable the learner to reach the goal. When the goal or target is presented, then opportunities are made available to allow the learner to practice making the proper desired response. Instructional cues assist the learner in making the proper response, and reinforcement strengthens the correct response.

 How should learning be evaluated?

Evaluation should be based on a predetermined set of criteria. Every learner engaged in this learning exercise should be evaluated based upon the same set of criteria.

 Clearly stated objectives allow the learner to focus on one goal.

· Cueing responses to behaviour allows the learner to react in a predictable way under certain conditions. In a stressful situation like combat or flying a plane, cued responses can be a very valuable tool.

Behaviourist accounts have a certain intrinsic appeal because of their essential theoretical simplicity, and because of the success of numerous controlled learning experiments. But one wonders whether a conditioned response account can explain the acquisition of a large and complex system of knowledge like language given:

a. that language is acquired relatively rapidly

b. that very little actual language teaching/training actually goes on during the acquisition period

c. that children are relatively unresponsive to attempts at overt teaching, particularly through negative reinforcement.

Another point is illustrated by the following dialogue: A caregiver is attempting to correct a child's use of the prescriptively negatively-valued double negative construction, with frustrating results on both sides:

 

Child:	Nobody don't like me.
Mother:	No, say, "Nobody likes me."
Child:	Nobody don't like me.
Mother:	No, say, "Nobody likes me."
[6 further repetitions of this interaction]
Mother:	No, now listen carefully. Say, "Nobody likes me."
Child:	Nobody don't likes me

There have been many criticisms of behaviourism, including the following:

1. Behaviourism does not account for all kinds of learning, since it disregards the activities of the mind.

2. Behaviourism does not explain some learning--such as the recognition of new language patterns by young children--for which there is no reinforcement mechanism.

How Behaviourism Impacts Learning
This theory is relatively simple to understand because it relies only on observable behaviour and describes several universal laws of behaviour. Its positive and negative reinforcement techniques can be very effective--both in animals, and in treatments for human disorders such as autism and antisocial behaviour. Behaviourism often is used by teachers, who reward or punish student behaviours.

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