behaviour ism lecture notes

8/6/2019 Behaviour Ism Lecture Notes

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Behaviourism

Classicalconditioning

Pavlov



Dogs

SalivaFood + bell = saliva

Bell = saliva



Food (Unconditioned

stimulus – UCS)Produces saliva

(Unconditioned

response –UCR)

Bell (Conditioned

stimulus) willeventually produce

saliva (Conditioned

Response – CR)



Classrooms should

be attractiveLearning should be

fun

Difficult topics

should be presented

in easy steps

Maths (cs) + nasty

teacher (UCS) = fear response (UCR)



Maths (CS) = fear

response (CR)

Teachers who make

their students laugh,

teach 3 things:

1. To laugh2. The topic

3. To like all things

connected with thelearning situation



Famous case

John B. Watson

(1878-1958)

Little Albert – 11

months old

Taught to befrightened of furry

objects



Loud noise (UCS) +

fluffy rabbit (CS) =Fear (UCR)

Fluffy rabbit (CS) =

Fear (CR)

Generalised to other fluffy things (e.g.

Santa’s beard)

Remove classical

conditioning by:



1. Emotional

flooding2. Counter-

conditioning

3. Systematic

Desensitisation

Can be used to rid

children of exam

fear

Edwin R Guthrie



3 methods for breaking bad

habits:

1. Threshold

2. Fatigue

3. Incompatiblestimuli

Thorndike (1874 – 1949)



Connectionism



Cat in a puzzle box

Behaviour is learnt

by stamping in

The last action to

produce a reward islearnt.

Law of effect

Stamping out



Action that leads toan undesirable

response is not

repeated.

Punishment doesn’twork:

1. It teaches the

child to be cleverer next time and not

to get caught



2. It creates anger

3. Destroysrelationships

between teacher

and pupil

B F Skinner

Skinner box



Primary reinforcers

– Drink, Food, Sex

Secondary

reinforcers –

Money, Prestige,

Success

Positive

reinforcement(praise, merit mark)



Stimulus – response

– Reinforcer (reward)

Negative

reinforcement

Stimulus – response

– reinforcer (being

let off anundesirable

commitment)



Punishment

Stimulus – incorrect

response – punished

Reinforcementschedules



Teachers shouldstart by giving

reinforcement each

time work is



satisfactory

(Continuousreinforcement), but

then should adopt a

variable or random

schedule of

reinforcement. Thiscould be either ratio

(after so many

correct pieces of work) or interval

(after a certain



period of time the

first correct piece of work is reinforced).

Measuring

effectiveness of

schedules of reinforcement

• Rate of learning• Response rate

•

Extinction rate



Parents randomlyreinforce.

Random

reinforcement has a

slow extinction

rate.Continuous

reinforcement has a

fast extinction rate(think faulty

vending machine).



Shaping behaviour

Giving a reward

for part of the

behaviour.

Then child has todo more each time

in order to get a

reward (e.g.training your dog).



Generalisation –

applying responseto similar situation

Discrimination –

only responding to

particular stimuli

Behaviour

modification refersto shaping bad



behaviour into

good

Social learning

theory (Bandura

1969 – bobo)

Observational

learning – learning

through imitation – Modelling



Reinforcement –

intrinsic reward – satisfaction

Extrinsic – social

approval

Model

Britney Spears –

virginityBeckham – good

father



Symbolic models• Oral

•

Writteninstructions

• Pictures

• Cartoon or filmcharacters

• Religious

figures

• Heroes in

books etc



Exemplary models

Successful people

Types of

reinforcement

• Direct

reinforcement – praise



• Consequences

of behaviour

• Vicarious

reinforcement – watching others

getting rewarded

or punished.

Effects of

imitation



Inhibitory –

disinhibitoryeffect starting or

stopping a

behaviour

because of what

has happened toothers.

(Vicarious

reinforcement).



Eliciting effect –

starting to copy amodel directly

Facilitation effect

– model jumping

off diving boardallows the

observer to feel

that they may beable to do the

same.



Evaluation of operant

conditioning

• Built upon

laboratory

experiments withanimals

• Mechanistic

view of humanity

– robotic slaves

to the



consequences of

their environment• Tangible and

observablerewards not

always necessary

for learning totake place

• Learning

theory does nottake into account

hidden,



unobservable

cognitive andemotional factors

•

But sometimesit is not possible

to ask people

directly andobserving

behaviour then

becomes a morereliable measure



of learnt

behaviour • Aversive

methods

(punishment) not

always effective

as it tells a childwhat he should

not do, not what

he should do.



Applications of

behaviourism

• Stickers, stars,

merit points• Detention,

standing outside

the head’s office,suspension and

exclusion,

reprimands,

unpleasant

activities,



withdrawal of

benefits, corporal punishment (now

against the law in

the UK).

• Analysing

disruptive behaviour

o Antecedents

o Behaviour

o Consequences



• E.g. child is

ignored, startsdisruptive

behaviour, and isrewarded by

attention from class

and teacher. Childneeds to be

rewarded for on-

task behaviour by being given

attention



• Shaping involves

praising a child for displaying a

component of therequired behaviour

(e.g. sitting at desk

for a short while),then demanding

behaviour that is

closer to thedesired outcome

before giving



praise (e.g. sitting

longer at the desk,working for a short

while, working

longer)

• Whole class

teaching does notsuit slow or fast

learners, just the

average pacedlearners. Better to

have teaching



machines.

Machines deal withthe basics and

allow the teacher to

have the time to

give meaningful

exchanges.Student works at

own pace.

• Teachers must beconsistent. Moody

teachers can cause



students to be

sullen and passivein lessons,

frightened to

contribute in case

they get into

trouble. Haney,Banks and

Zimbardo (1973)

report mock guardsusing arbitrary

control on the



mock prisoners

(e.g. punishing a prisoner for

smiling at a joke

and later punishing

a prisoner for not

smiling at a joke).• Observational

learning requires

attention to be paidto the model

(teacher) and for



the student to use

mental rehearsal inorder to remember

the complex

actions. This is

followed by

performance and practice.

Evaluation



• Analysis of a

child’s behaviour takes time and

involves carefulobservation and

record keeping.

• Teacher cannotgive constant

reinforcement;

there are too manyother students.



• Initially teaching

machines werecrude and

cumbersome, butnow programmes

can be run on

personalcomputers.

• Teachers do not

have control over the most powerful

reinforcers that



affect student

behaviour.E.g. peer

acceptance and

praise, parental

approval, etc.

•Teachers do not

reward specific

responses, or do

not set about bringing such

responses.



Teachers do not

wait for a responseto reinforce, as in

the Skinner box.

• Palardy 1991,

behaviour

modificationtechniques ignore

the causes of

behaviour.• Once extrinsic

rewards stop the



• Negative

reinforcementrequires there to be

a disliked activityin place in order

for the child to be

excused from it.The disliked

activity might have

negative effectsupon the child, just



the interests of the

child: it is anunequal

relationship

between teacher

and pupil; this

contrasts with theHumanist

approach.

Task

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