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HS-11-EvolutionofBehaviorism1week10.pptxContemporary Issues: Historical Framework of Contemporary Psychology
Unit 11
The Evolution of Behaviorism
Behaviorism
based on the studies of Ivan Pavlov
subject’s response to stimuli
external environment
Patterns
how subject relates training and conditioning to rewards and punishment
John Watson: unconscious and mind should not be included in Psychology
Behaviorism Post-Watsonian
“Neobehaviorism” 1930s-1960s
Edward Tolman; Clark Hull; B.F. Skinner
behavior should be the focus of Psychology
accept theoretical speculation of the human mind
Evolutionary continuum
Learning/conditioning
Events in the 1920s leading to “neobehaviorism”
Watson’s continued propagandizing
Translation of Pavlov’s lectures into English
Logical positivism:
the logical analysis of scientific knowledge
Scientific language should never refer to anything unobservable
only statements verifiable through direct observation are meaningful
the verification principle
Link unobservable constructs w/ measurable events
Logical Positivism & Verification
Operationism Provided the link
the definition of a scientific idea relies upon the processes utilized to mandate it
each idea can be explained by a sole viewable and measurable action.
defined in terms of the specific methodological operations from which they are or measured
Operational definitions: e.g., hunger 24 hours without food
Enables replication
Converging operations
Increased confidence when the same outcomes result from multiple operational definitions of the same construct
Began in Europe (Berlin & Vienna) in 1920, moved to US in 1930
Edwin R. Guthrie (1886-1959): Contiguity, Contiguity, Contiguity
1912: PhD – Penn; University of Washington
One Trial Learning
Psychology of Learning (1935)
One-trial learning; Central role: contiguity
Movements: minute responses made by the muscles that get associated with impinging stimuli - learn responses.
Acts: conglomerate of a number of learnt movements - learnt behaviors, like learning to press keys on a keyboard.
Guthrie & Horton study (1946): 1 trial learning
Each cat learned own peculiar stereotypical escape movement
No reinforcement needed to learn
Reinforcement prevented unlearning.
All forgetting involves new learning (1 trial forgetting)
Break bad habits – ID stimuli and substitute new responses
Eval: Vague; minimal empirical support
Edward C. Tolman (1886-1959): “Purposive Behaviorism”
Organism Produce Behavior For Some Adaptive Purpose
Individuals act on beliefs, attitudes, changing conditions, and strive toward goals
behavior is not a response to a stimulus but is cognitive coping with a pattern of stimuli.
MIT: physics, math, chem (read W. James)
1915 PhD, Harvard (Yerkes); retroactive inhibition
Gestalt influence (Koffka & Lewin)
Northwestern (dismissed 2nd anti-war), then Berkeley
Learning Theory
Molar rather than molecular: Rejected simple S-R
Purposive: Behavior goal directed
Intervening Cognitive Variables
Tolman’s Latent Learning
Learning not seen in behavior at the time of learning; manifests later when a suitable motivation and circumstances appear
i.e., Sub always learning, food just shows learning
Tolman: Theorizing At The Molar Level
Place vs. Response learning
rats learn the place where they have been rewarded rather than the particular movements required to get there
Rat starts @ A; Food is @ B
Response learning: run down hall & turn right
Place learning: Food always found in the same place
Start @ C; if turn rt (S-R) will not get food
Cognitive Map
Cognitive Maps
Rats learn top maze (4 days)
Start @ A; food @ G
No errors possible
Then given bottom maze
Can’t do ‘normal’ route (it doesn’t exist)
Tend to select arms 5 or 6
i.e., Know the general direction of the goal
Cognitive maps in rats and men (1948)
“…humans have cognitive maps that not only situate them in space, but within a broader network of causal, social and emotional relationships. A narrow map can lead one to discount outsiders; a broader map to understanding and empathy.”
In 1950s Fired from Berkeley – Loyalty Oath
Rehired 2 years later
Eval: method of maze learning
no “Tolmanians”; Animal Cognition
Clark Hull (1884-1952) A Hypothetico-Deductive System
Polio @ 26; read W. James while recovering
had wanted to be an engineer
1918: PhD, Wisconsin (Jastrow, student of Hall)
Quantitative Aspects of the Evolution of Concepts (1920),
Dissertation on concept learning
Preview of learning model featuring gradual increase of habit strength
Wisconsin faculty (1918-1928)
Aptitude Testing (1928)
Hypnosis and Suggestibility: An Experimental Approach (1933)
Yale’s (1928-1952)
Interdisciplinary Institute of Human Relations
Pro-seminar on his work
Hypothetical-Deductive System
Currently in use
observation
systematic controlled observation
experimental testing of the hypothesis
H-D method:
Derive postulates
Deduce testable conclusions
Experimentally test
Postulate 4
Habit strength (SHR): S-R contiguity & reinforcement
Drive is a bio/tissue need
Stim – Drive
Reinforcement as drive reduction
Primary vs. secondary (learned) drives
i.e., Drive Reduction Theory
A Hypothetico-Deductive System (cont.)
S-R link = anything that might affect how an organism responds
learning, fatigue, disease, injury, motivation, etc.
Reaction potential (sEr) = D x sHr
Drive (D); e.g., hours without food
Habit Strength (sHr); Function of # of reinforced trials
EVAL: 1940-1950: leading exper. psych in U.S.
Important collaborator Kenneth Spence
Rapid decline after 1960
Percentage of articles in JEP citing Hull (or Spence)
1940 4%; 1950 39%; 1960 24%; 1970 4%
Low Generalizability
Limited practical applications
Elaborate theory based on overly simple research situations (e.g., “straight” mazes)
Many predictions not supported
B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) A Radical Behaviorism
failed writer; went to Harvard for Psych
Harvard - introspection; BFS was bored – bio/physio/etc
PhD Harvard (1931), Univ Fellow until 1936, then Minn.
The Behavior of Organisms (1938)
Type S conditioning Pavlovian
Two stimuli paired, producing same response
Type R conditioning operant
Behavior produces predictable consequences
Minnesota 9 years, then a few in Indiana
In Minn – pigeons roosted outside his window, they became his subjects
1948 returns to Harvard to stay
No Interest in Psyché – “Black Box” approach
Operant Conditioning
Operant conditioning
(Remember Thorndike’s Cats)
Controlled environment (operant chamber)
Rate of response as prime DV (cumulative recorder)
Experimental analysis of behavior
Effects of positive or negative consequences
Stimulus control
Schedules of reinforcement
A Radical Behaviorism (continued)
Opposed formal theory
Preferred an inductive strategy
Create theory from database
The problem of explanatory fictions
Must distinguish clearly between what is known and what is not known and to draw the boundaries accurately (they don’t)
invent fictional constructs that purport to explain behavioral phenomena but are really just new names for the phenomena
Dangers of labels becoming explanations
The technological ideal
Goal: not just predict & understand behavior, but to control it
Project Pigeon
WWII guided missile system using pigeons
Applications to child rearing and teaching
Walden Two (1948)
Utopian community built on operant principles
Became widely read in the 1960s
Skinner – Project Pigeon
Target shown on screen, pigeon pecks on target.
Pigeon wired to control so its pecking guides bomb to target
Evaluating Skinner
“Radical” behaviorism outside mainstream experimental psychology
Devoted group of followers though
Applied Behavioral Analysis (Behavior Management)
Animal training
Management
Education
As with Watson
Vigorous promoter to the general public
In contrast with Tolman and Hull
Featured applicability of conditioning to improve everyday life
Also in contrast with Tolman and Hull
The IQ Zoo
Started by the Brelands
early students of Skinner @ U Minnesota
Worked on Project Pigeon
Trained animals for TV ads, fairs, etc.
IQ Zoo
Instinctive drift: biological limits of conditioning (Breland and Breland (1961)
animals can be trained to do
human-like behaviors, using operant
conditioning techniques
over time, species-typical behaviors
intrude on the performance
Chicken tic-tack-toe in NYC Chinatown
