Approaches: Behaviourism CC/OC
Key Contributes
Ivan Pavlov
John. B Watson
B.F Skinner
Edward Thorndike
Classical Conditioning
Forming an association between two stimuli resulting in a learned response.
Ivan Pavlov ‘Pavlov Dogs’ 1902
Unconditioned Stimulus (Food) > Unconditioned Response (Salivate)
In Pavlov’s experiment his chosen neutral stimulus was bells.
Introducing the bell every time food was shown, after many repeats of this behaviour,
Pavlov introduced the bell to the dog without the unconditioned stimulus (food), which the dog salivated.
Showing the dog learnt through association that salivation was triggered by the sound of the bell and a new behaviour has been created.
John. B Watson ‘Little Albert’
Neutral Stimulus: The white rat
Unconditioned Stimulus: The loud noise
Unconditioned Response: Fear
Conditioned Stimulus: The white rat
Conditioned Response: Fear
Watson tested an 8 month old infant to see if the infant could develop a fear of white rats.
When introduced a loud, frightening noise to the infant for multiply times, by the third the infant was petrified by the noise.
In the next stage Watson introduced the infant to white rats, cotton wool, monkeys and rabbits which showed no fear.
When the infant played with the white rat but when the infant reached for the rat the loud noise was played every time.
Resulted in the infant being terrified and distressed whenever he was exposed to the white rat, even when he heard no loud noise Watson concluded the child had been conditioned to feel an emotional response (fear) to a neutral stimulus.
Operant Conditioning
Three consequences of behaviour
Positive reinforcement – Rewarded by a behaviour eg praise
Negative reinforcement – Avoiding a negative punishment eg detention
Punishment – Unpleasant consequence eg being shouted at eg decreases bad behaviour
B.F Skinner ‘Skinner’s Rats’ 1953
A hungry rat was placed in a cage, every time he active the lever a food pellet fell in the food dispenser (positive reinforcement). The rat the quickly understood to go straight to the lever after a few times in the box.
Suggesting the positive reinforcement increased the likely hood of the positive behaviour.
Edward Thorndike’s ‘Thorndike's Puzzle-Box Studies’ 1898
placing hungry cats inside puzzle boxes and observing their actions eg escaping/ rewards
The cats experimented in different ways to escape the puzzle box by pulling the lever and reach the fish.
When repeated each time the cat escaped quicker each time, by learning that pulling the lever the consequences ended in food and adopted this behaviour.
