MODULE 7:

Behaviorism:
Pavlov,
Thorndike,
Watson and
Skinner
PREPARED BY:
Reynald Cabaero
Abegail Bobier
 INTRODUCTI
ON behavior. It emphasizes
The theory of Behaviorism focuses on the study of
observable and measureable
that behavior is mostly learned through conditioning
and reinforcement (rewards and punishment). It does
not give much attention to the mind and possibility of
thought processes occurring in the mind.
Contributions in the development of the behaviorist
theory largely came from Pavlov, Watson, Thorndike
and Skinner.
BEHAVIORISM
Ivan Pavlov a Russian physiologist, is well
known for his work in classical conditioning for
stimulus substitution. Pavlov’s most renowned
experiment involved meat, a dog and a bell.
Initially, Pavlov was measuring dog’s salivation
in order to study digestion. This is when he
stumbled upon classical conditioning
 Stage 1 – Before
Conditioning
Bell No response
(neutral stimulus)
Stage 2 – During
Conditioning
Bell
(neutral stimulus)

Paired with

Salivation (unconditioned
Meat response
(unconditioned stimulus)
Stage 3 – After Conditioning

Bell Salivation
(conditioned stimulus) (conditioned response)
PAVLOV
EXPERI
MENT
Before conditioning, ringing the bell
(neutral stimulus) caused no response
from the dog. Placing food
(unconditioned stimulus) in front of
the dog initiated salivation
(unconditioned response). During
conditioning, the bell was rung a few
seconds before the dog was
presented with food. After
conditioning, the ringing of the bell
(conditioned stimulus) alone produced
salivation (conditioned response). This
is classical conditioning
 BEHAVIORIS
M

Classical Connectionis Operant

Conditioning m Conditioning
(Pavlov/Watson) (Thorndike) (Skinner)

Reinforcemen
Primary Laws t

Shaping
Law of
of
Effect
Behavior

Law of
Exercise

Law of
Readiness
 PAVLO
V
FINDIN
GS
STIMULUS GENERALIZATION
- Once a dog has learned to salivate at the sound of
the bell, it will salivates at other similar sounds.

EXTINCTION
- If you stop pairing the bell with the food, salivation
will eventually cease in response to the bell.

SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY
- Extinguished response can be “recovered” after an
elapsed time, but will soon extinguish again if the
dog is not presented with the food.
DISCRIMINATION
- The dog could learn to discriminate between
similar bells (stimuli) and discern which bell would
result in the presentation of food and which would
not.

HIGHER-ORDER CONDITIONING
- Once the dog has been conditioned to associate
the bell with food, another unconditioned stimulus,
such as a light may be flashed at the same time that
the bell is rung. Eventually, the dog will salivate at
the flash of the light without the sound of the bell.
 EDWARD L.
THORNDIKE
- His Connectionism theory gave us the original S-R
framework of behavioral psychology. More than a
hundred years ago he wrote a text book entitled,
Educational Psychology. He was the first one to
use his term.
- He explained that learning is the result of
associations forming between stimuli (S) and
responses (R).
- Such associations or “habits” become
strengthened or weakened by the nature and
frequency of the S-R pairings.
EDWARD L.
THORNDIKE
- The model for S-R theory was trial and error
learning in which certain responses came to be
repeated more than others because of rewards.
- The main principle of connectivism (like all
behavioral theory) was the learning could be
adequately explained without considering any
unobserved internal states.
- Thorndike’s theory on connectionism, states that
learning has taken place when a strong
connection or bond between stimulus and
response is formed.
THORNDI
KE’S
THREE
PRIMARY
LAWS
 LAW OF
EFFECT
- States that a connection between a stimulus and
response is strengthened when the consequence is
positive (reward) and the connection between the
stimulus and the response is weakened when the
consequence is negative. Thorndike later on revise
this law when he found out that negative rewards
(punishments) do not necessarily weaken bonds,
and that some seemingly pleasurable consequences
do not necessarily motivate performance.
 LAW OF
EXERCISE
- This tells us that the more an S-R bond is practiced
the stronger it will become. “Practice makes perfect”
seem to be associated with this. However, like the
law of effect, the law of exercise also had to be
revised when Thorndike found that practice without
feedback does not necessarily enhance
performance.
 LAW OF
READINESS
- States that the more readiness the learner has to
respond to the stimulus, the stronger will be the
bond between them. When a person is ready to
respond to a stimulus and is not made to respond, it
becomes annoying to the person. Likewise, if the
person is not at all ready to respond to a stimuli and
is asked to respond, that also become annoying.
 PRINCIPLES DERIVED FROM
THORNDIKE’S CONNECTIONISM:
1. Learning requires both practice and
rewards. (Law of Effect/Exercise)
2. A series of S-R connections can be chained
together if they belong to the same action
sequence (Law of readiness)
3. Transfer of learning occurs because of
previously encountered situations.
4. Intelligence is a function of the number of
connections learned
JOHN WATSON
- The first American psychologist to work with
Pavlov’s ideas. He too was initially involved in
animal studies, hen later become involved in
human behavior research.
- He considered that humans are born with a few
reflexes and the emotional reactions of love and
rage. All other behavior is learned through
stimulus-response associations through
conditioning. He believed in the power of
conditioning so much that he said that if he is
given a dozen healthy infants he can make them
into anything you want them to be, basically
through making stimulus-response connections
 EXPIREMENT ON ALBERT
Watson applied classical conditioning in his
experiment concerning Albert, a young child and a
white rat.

- in the beginning, Albert was not afraid of the rat;

but Watson made a sudden loud noise each time
Albert touched the rat.
- because Albert was frightened by the loud noise,
he soon became conditioned to fear and avoid the
rat.
- Later, the child’s response was generalized to other
small animals.
- Now, he was also afraid of small animals. Watson
then “extinguished” or made the child “unlearn”
BURRHUS FREDERICK SKINNER
- Like Pavlov, Watson and Thorndike, Skinner
believed in the stimulus-response pattern of
conditioned behavior.
- His theory zeroed in only on changes in
observable behavior, excluding any likelihood of
any processes taking place in the mind.
- Skinner’s 1948 book, Walden Two, is about a
utopian society based on operant conditioning.
- He also wrote, Science and Human Behavior,
(1953) in which he pointed out how the principles
of operant conditioning function in social
institutions such as government, law, religion,
economics and education.
• Skinner’s work differs from that
of the three behaviorists before
him in that he studied operant
behavior (voluntary behaviors
used in operating on the
environment). Thus, his theory
came to be known as OPERANT
CONDITIONING.
 OPERANTT
CONDITIONING
- Based upon the notion that learning is a result
of change in over behavior. Changes on
behavior are the result of an individual’s
response to events (stimuli) that occur in the
environment.
- A response produces a consequences such as
defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a
math problem.
- When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R)
pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual
conditioned to respond.
 REINFORCEMENT
- The key element in Skinner’s S-R theory. A
reinforcement is anything that strengthens the
desired response. There is a positive reinforce
and a negative reinforce.
 POSITIVE REINFORCER
- Any stimulus that is given or added to increase
the response.

EXAMPLE OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

- when a teacher promises extra time in the play
area to children who behave well during lesson.
Another is a mother promises a new cellphone for
her son who gets good grades. Still, other
examples include verbal praises, star stamps and
stickers.
 NEGATIVE REINFORCER
- Any stimulus that results the increased
frequency of a response when it is withdrawn or
removed.
- not a punishment in fact it is a reward.

PUNISHMENT
- Consequence intended to result in reduced
responses.

Example:
A student who always come late is not allowed to
join a group work that has already began
(punishment) and, therefore, loses points for
 Skinner also looked
into extinction or non
reinforcement:
Responses that are
not reinforced are
not likely to be
repeated.
SHAPING OF BEHAVIOR
- To accomplish such Behavior, successive
approximations of the behavior are rewarded
until the animal learns the association
between the lever and the food reward.

BEHAVIORAL CHAINING
- Comes about when a series of steps are
needed to be learned.
REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE
- once the desired behavioral response is accomplished,
reinforcement does not have to be 100%; in fact it can be
maintained more successful through what Skinner referred
to as partial reinforcement schedules. It includes interval
schedule and ration schedule.

FIXED RATIO SCHEDULES

- The target response is reinforced after a fix amount of
time has passed since the last reinforcement.
VARIABLE INTERVAL
SCHEDULE
- the target response is reinforced after a fix
amount of time has passed since the last
reinforcement.

VARIABLE INTERVAL
SCHEDULE
- this is similar to fixed interval schedules
but the amount of time that must pass
FIXED RATIO SCHEDULES
- a fixed number of correct responses must
occur before reinforcement may occur.

VARIABLE RATIO SCHEDULES

- the number of correct repetitions of the correct
response for reinforcement varies.
Variable interval and variable
ratio schedules produce
steadier and more persistent
rates of response because the
learners cannot predict when
the reinforcement will come
although they know that they
will eventually succeed.
 IMPLICATIONS OF OPERANT
- CONDITIONING
These implications are given for programmed
instruction.
1. Practiced should take the form of questions (stimulus)
– answer (response) frames which expose the student
to the subject in gradual steps.
2. Require that the learner makes a response for every
frame and receives 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 rein forcers such as verbal praise,
prizes and good grades.
 PRINCIPLES DERIVED FOM
SKINNER’S OPERANT
CONDITIONING:
1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will
reoccur; intermittent reinforcement in
particularly effective.
2. Information should be presented in small
amounts so that responses can be reinforced
(“shaping”).
3. Reinforcements will generalize across simile
stimuli (“stimulus generalization”) producing
secondary conditioning.
THANK
S!