Transcript The Psychology of Learning and Behavior

The Psychology of
Learning and Behavior
Chapter 1
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
1
Learning
• Process- change that occurs as a result
of an organisms experience.
– Acquisition – phase of acquiring a new
skill.
• Product- long-term changes in an
individual’s behavior that result from a
learning experience.
– Performance- stable behavioral patterns or
“steady-state” behavioral occur following a
period of acquisition.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
2
Scientific Approach to the Study of
Behavior
• What is science?
Methods and procedures used to
investigate a phenomenon – “Scientific
Method”
Search for general principals or laws
with wide applicability.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
3
Scientific Laws
• force=mass x acceleration
• d=16t2
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
4
Laws of Behavior
?????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
????????????????????????????????
???????????????????????????????
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
5
Science of Behavior
• Learning - acquisition, maintenance,
and change of an organism’s behavior
as a result of lifetime events.
• Control- humans are concerned with
regulating the behavior of others.
• Behavior Theory- all behavior is due to
complex interactions between genetic
influence and environmental
experience. Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
6
Experimental Analysis of Behavior
• A natural science approach to
understanding behavior regulation
(determinism)
• Controlling and changing the factors
affecting the behavior of organisms.
• Specifying the basic processes and
principles the regulate behavior.
• Experiments to test these notions.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
7
Behavioral Analysis
• General Scientific Approach
– Assumptions about how to study behavior
– Techniques to carry out the analysis
– A systematic body of knowledge
– Practical implications for society and
culture
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
8
Behavior Analysis
• A comprehensive approach to study of
the behavior of organisms
– Discovery of laws and principals that
govern behavior.
– Extension of these principals across
species (generality).
– Development of an applied technology.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
9
Applied Behavioral Analysis
• Use of behavioral principals to solve
practical problems.
– Too many glasses
– Use of seats belts
– Speeding
– Stopping at red lights
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
10
Evolution of Conditioning
• Natural selection favored individuals
whose behavior could be conditioned.
• Capacity for conditioning is inherited.
• Response selection by consequences.
• Operant behavior naturally varies in
form and frequency
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
11
Culture and Behavior Analysis
• Contemporary behavior analysis
behavior of individuals to
– ideals and values of society
– regulation of human conduct
– individual behavior is acquired, maintained,
and changed through interactions with
others
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
12
Fundamental Processes of Learning
• Classical Conditioning
– Reflexes, elicited behavior, environmental
events acquire control of behavior
• Operant Conditioning
– More complex behaviors, emitted, modified
by consequences
• Social Learning
– Learning from observations
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
13
Historical Background
• Nativist (nature) vs Empericist (nuture)
– Are a person’s characteristics mostly
inborn or learned?
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
14
Historical Background
• Plato – (427-347)
– Plato was chiefly interested in
moral philosophy and
despised natural philosophy
(that is, science) as an inferior
and unworthy sort of
knowledge.
– Believed we are born with
complete knowledge within
our soul.
– Learning – a process of inner
reflection to discover the
knowledge within us.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
15
History
• Aristole – (384-322)
– Knowledge acquired
through experience.
• Four Laws of Association
–
–
–
–
Law of similarity
Law of Contrast
Law of Contiguity
Law of Frequency
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
16
History
• Descartes- (1596-1650)
– Mind body dualism
– Reflexes and behavior
controlled by the mind.
• Dualistic notion of human
behavior suggested at least
some components of
behavior could be
scientifically investigated.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
17
British Empiricists
•
Almost all knowledge is a
function of experience
– John Locke (1632-1704)
tabula rasa
– John Locke was an Oxford
scholar, medical
researcher and physician,
political operative, and
economist, as well as
being one of the great
philosophers of the late
seventeenth and early
eighteenth century. His
monumental Essay
Concerning Human
Understanding aims to
determine the limits of
human understanding.
• In regard to natural
substances we can
know only the
appearances and not
the underlying realities
which produce those
appearances.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
18
Structuralism
• Structure of mind can be assessed by
identification of basic elements through
logical reasoning and subjective
examination of our own experiences.
– Introspection- describe conscious
thoughts, emotions, sensory experiences
– Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
19
Functionalism
• William James –
(1842-1910)
• Psychology study of
adaptive processes
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
20
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• American psychologist B. F.Skinner
became famous for his pioneering
research on learning and behavior.
During his 60-year career, Skinner
discovered important principles of
operant conditioning, a type of
learning that involves
reinforcement and punishment. A
strict behaviorist, Skinner believed
that operant conditioning could
explain even the most complex of
human behaviors.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
21
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
•
Russian physiologist and Nobel laureate, best
known for his studies of reflex behavior. He was
born in Ryazan', and educated at the University of
Saint Petersburg and at the Military Medical
Academy, St. Petersburg; from 1884 to 1886 he
studied in Breslau (now Wroclaw, Poland) and
Leipzig, Germany. Before the Russian Revolution
he served as director of the department of
physiology at the Institute of Experimental
Medicine (part of the present Academy of Medical
Sciences), St. Petersburg, and professor of
medicine at the Military Medical Academy. In
spite of his opposition to Communism, Pavlov
was allowed to continue his research in a
laboratory built by the Soviet Government in
1935. Pavlov is noted for his pioneer work in the
physiology of the heart, nervous system, and
digestive system. His most famous experiments,
begun in 1889, demonstrated the conditioned and
unconditioned reflexes in dogs, and they had an
influence on the development of
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
22
Pavlov
• Making Her Salivate
for You
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
23
John Watson (1878-1958)
American psychologist, born in
Greenville, South Carolina, and
educated at Furman University and
the University of Chicago. From 1908
to 1920 he was professor of
psychology and director of the
psychological laboratory at Johns
Hopkins University. Watson is noted
as the founder and leading exponent
of the school of psychology known as
behaviorism, which restricts
psychology to the study of objectively
observable behavior and explains
behavior in terms of stimulus and
response. His writings include Animal
Education (1903), Behavior (1914),
Behaviorism (1925; revised ed.,
1930), and Psychological Care of
Infant and Child (1928).
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
24
Watson
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
25
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)
•
•
American psychologist and educator, born in
Williamsburg, Massachusetts, and educated at
Wesleyan, Harvard, and Columbia universities.
Thorndike joined the psychology faculty at Teachers
College of Columbia University in 1899, where he
served as adjunct professor of educational psychology
from 1901 to 1904 and as professor of psychology
from 1904 until his retirement in 1940. From 1922 to
1940 he also was director of the psychology division of
the Institute of Educational Research at Teachers
College.
By using trial-and-error experiments with animals,
Thorndike formulated his so-called law of effect—the
more satisfying the result of a particular action, the
better that action is learned—and applied it to the
development of special teaching techniques for use in
the classroom. He is particularly known for his
construction of various intelligence and aptitude tests
and for his repudiation of the belief that such primarily
intellectual subjects as languages and mathematics
discipline the mind.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
26
Thorndike
• Thorndike's learning theory can be
summarized as follows:
– The law of effect - responses followed by a
reward will strengthen the response
– The law of readiness - chaining a discrete
responses to achieve a goal
– The law of exercise - associations are
strengthened with practice, weakened
without it, and can be diminished with
failure or punishment.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
27
Assumptions of a Science of
Behavior
• Determinism
• Behavior is lawful
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
28
Scientific Theories
• Causality- relationship between cause
and effect
• Independent variable- cause
• Dependent variable- effect
• Intervening variable- theoretical
concepts
• Syntax- rules for measurement and
relationship
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
29
Judging Scientific Theories
•
•
•
•
•
Testability (falsifiability)
Simplicity
Generality
Fruitfulness
Agreement with the data
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
30
Review of Research Methods
• Anecdotes or Case Histories
– Biased sample
• Observational Techniques
• Experimental Techniques
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
31
Behaviorism versus Cognitive
• Heavy reliance on non-human subjects
• Emphasis on external events
• Reluctance to speculate about
processes inside the organism
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
32
Use of Animal Subjects
• Subject expectancy reduced
• Control of immediate and past history
• Convenience
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
33
Criticisms and Concerns
• Language and other skills
• Generality
• Ethics
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
34
External Events
• Radical Behaviorism/Contemporary
behavior analysis
– The private world- thinking and feeling are
activities of the organism they are behaviors
not the cause of behavior.
– thinking - low probability of action, weak
control of behavior by a stimulus.
– covert behavior increases the effectiveness
of practical action
– private behavior regulated by specific
features of the environment.
– Self-reports of feelings and other covert
behavior such as intentions are unreliable.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
35
Determinism
• Determinism- philosophical position all
events of the world result from physical
causes that can be discovered.
• Free Will- nonphysical entity can direct
human behavior.
Steven I. Dworkin, Ph.D.
36