Transcript Piaget And Skinner - UHS-CD3

Behavioral Theorists:
Skinner and Watson
By: Francy Lopez & Alex
Sparacino
The Behavioral Learning Theory
• A theory that focuses on objectively
observable behaviors and discounts
any independent activities of the mind.
•Theorists define learning as nothing
more than acquiring new behavior
based on environmental factors.
John B. Watson
(1878-1958)








Was born in Greenvile, South Carolina
to Emma and Pickens Watson.
Graduated from Furman University in
1899.
Received his doctorate in 1903 from the
University of Chicago.
 Majored in psychology and minored
in philosophy and neurology.
Became an associate professor of
psychology at John Hopkins University.
Published the article, “Psychology as
the Behaviorists Views It” in 1914.
Became the President of the American
Psychological Association.
Published the “Little Albert experiment
in 1920.
Died in Connecticut in 1958.
Behaviorism

Watson proposed an idea of objective study of
behavior (behaviorism)




Saw psychology was the study of peoples actions and
the ability to predict and control the actions.
Behaviorism assumes that behavior is
observable and can be correlated with other
observable events.
The goal is to explain relationships between
conditions, behavior and consequences.
His view of behaviorism was considered radical.
“Little Albert”

Took a child named Albert from an orphanage.


Albert was placed in a blank room


Wanted to determine if a loud sound would cause a fear response
in Albert.
An experimenter stood behind him and made a loud noise by
striking a hammer on a steel bar.
First Trial:

Albert was startled and raised up his hands.

Second Trial:

Third Trial:


Albert began to tremble
Albert was crying and having a fit.

At 9 months old Albert was introduced to a white rat, rabbit,
dog, monkey, masks without hair, and more things.

At 11months he was represented with the white rat.


He showed no signs of fear when introduced to those things.
Each time he would reach out to touch something the bar would be
struck.


The first time he was shocked but the second time he started to
cry.
A week later he was shown the rat again.



Did not reach for it immediately.
Rat was placed closer; Albert reached for it but then snatched his
hand away.
Rat was presented again and Albert cried at the sight of the rat..

Watson did this experiment many more times with different
objects and animals.

Watson had accomplished conditioning a fear into Albert.

Each time Albert showed the same response to the objects/animals.
Burrhus Frederic Skinner- B. F. Skinner
(1904-1990)








Born on March 20, 1904 in
Susquehanna, Pennsylvania.
Received his BA in English from
Hamilton College in upstate New York.
Went back to school at Harvard when
he got his masters in psychology in
1930, and his doctorate in 1931.
 Stayed there to do research until
1936.
Taught at the University of Minnesota.
Became chairman of the psychology
department at Indian University in
1945.
Went back to Harvard in 1948 to teach
and stayed there for the rest of his life.
Wrote the book Walden II
Died on August 18, 1990 of leukemia.
Operant Conditioning



Operant conditioning is a process of behavior
modification in which a subject is encouraged to behave
in a desired manner through positive or negative
reinforcement, so that the subject comes to associate
the pleasure or displeasure of the reinforcement with the
behavior.
Skinners whole system was based on operant
conditioning.
Operant conditioning has four parts:



Positive Reinforcement- a behavior is strengthened by the
consequence of experiencing something positive.
Negative Reinforcement- a behavior is weakened by the
consequence of experiencing a negative condition.
Extinction- a behavior is weakened by the consequence of not
experiencing a positive or negative condition.
The “Skinner Box”
(Operant Conditioning Chamber)



Skinner was very interested in stimulusresponse reactions of humans to different
situations.
Invented the Skinner Box to test these
theories.
 Used pigeons and rats.
The Skinner Box:
 Contained one or more levers which
an animal can press
 Contained one or more stimulus lights.
 Contained one or more places in
which reinforces (food) can be
delivered.
 Can also deliver punishers like an
electric shock
 The box can measure the animals
presses on the levers
 Can also measure nose-poking and
hopping (used with birds).
A Skinner Box
“Skinner Box” Experiments


Skinner did many experiments with the Skinner Box.
Rats experiment:




The rat would be in the box and each time the rat pushed a lever, they
would be rewarded with a pellet of food.
If the rat took to long they would be shocked by an electric field at the
bottom of the box.
The rat learned that each time they pushed the lever they would be
rewarded for their action.
Pigeon experiment:





The pigeon was almost the same as the rats experiment but they had a few
different things.
The box had a food pellet delivery chute that dropped a pellet of food at
completely random times.
They pigeons began to do the behaviors that they were doing before the
food came down more often.
The next time, whatever action they were doing before the food came they
did more of.
They would be constantly checking the food chute.
The Skinner Box
Watson VS. Skinner

Similarities




Both were behavioral
theorists.
Believed that people were
born as blank slates.
Thought psychology should
be studied as though
people did not have a
mind.
Wanted scientists to focus
on the way people learned
connections between
stimuli and responses.

Differences




Watson was classical
conditioning while Skinner
was operant conditioning.
Watson used a human in
his experiments while
Skinner used animals.
Watson was the invented
behaviorism while Skinner
just followed in his
footsteps.
Watson had no
reinforcements while
Skinner did.
Bibliography
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycw
eb/history/watson.htm
 http://www.psychology.sbc.edu/Little%20Al
bert.htm
 http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/skinner.ht
ml
 http://www.juliantrubin.com/bigten/skinnerb
ox.html
