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Explore behaviorism, cognitive, and socio-cultural perspectives on learning in educational psychology. Delve into definitions, theories, and notable figures.
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cep900 09.21.11 • Introducing Dr. Zach Mural, teaching assistant for CEP900 • Announcements • Assignments for next week • Behaviorism lecture & discussion • Being a public intellectual video
assignments Required readings • Miller, P. H. (1993). Information processing theory. As you read, try to appreciate the main strengths of this perspective. • Woolfolk, A. (2007). Cognitive views of learning RDP • meet w/ faculty, take notes • find articles only from high quality journals and handbooks in your area of interest
announcements • Annotations • Enable comments on websites
perspectives on learning Perspectives on learning provide a way to think about… • What is the nature of “knowing”? • What is the process of learning? • What motivates learning? • What is the role of the teacher and student?
perspectives on learning Three perspectives discussed in CEP900 • Behaviorism • Cognitive perspective • Situative & Socio-cultural perspective
learning Woolfolk’s definition: • Learning occurs when experience causes a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge What are the distinctive qualities of this definition? What are your thoughts about this definition?
learning • How is learning defined from the perspective of behaviorism? • How is motivation defined? • What is the process of learning? • What is the role of the teacher and student?
seeing from a behaviorist’s perspective “Elizabeth example”
a few well known behaviorists Thorndike Skinner Pavlov Watson
classical conditioning • Learning is developing new stimulus-response associations. • A pre-existing association between a stimulus (S1) and a response is modified so that the same response is associated with a new stimulus (S2). • S1 (food) ---> R (salivate) S1 (food) + S2 (bell) ---> R (salivate) S2 (bell) ---> R (salivate) • At first, food and salivation are associated. Now, the sound of the bell causes the dog to salivate (Pavlov) • Other examples: animal training, many of the things we like and dislike emerge from negative or positive associations
operant conditioning • A critically important development in behaviorism. Enabled the theory to explain for a much wider range of learning. Explain.
operant conditioning • Focused the connection between behavior and its the consequences, rather than between stimuli and reflexive behavior. • Introduces the idea of rewards and punishments • The individual is active in the environment causing things to happen. The environment responds in particular ways to particular actions. These are contingencies. • The environment shapes the behavior (and the behavior shapes the environment. Mutual determinism)
behaviorist learning theory Important terms (create examples that illustrates the meaning and importance of each term) • task analysis, shaping, successive approximations • reinforcement, positive, negative, punishment • antecedents, behaviors, consequences • reinforcement schedule, continuous, intermittent, fixed, variable
laws of learning E. L. Thorndike formulated “laws of learning” Law of Effect: The effect of a behavior makes a difference. The more a behavior is rewarded, the more likely it is to occur again. The less a behavior is rewarded, the less likely it is to occur again. Law of Exercise: The exercise of a behavior makes a difference. The more a behavior occurs, the more likely it occur again (habit, no reward necessary)
behavior-ism Behaviorism is not only a theory of learning. It is an “ism” What is an “ism” and how is behaviorism an example of one?
behaviorism & the science of learning What assertions does behaviorism make about the science of learning?
behaviorism & the science of learning “Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute.” (From “Psychology as the behaviorist views it.” John Watson, 1913).
behaviorism & the science of learning • What are the distinctive behaviorist ideas in this passage? • How might they be significant in the history of educational psychology?
behaviorism: historical context Darwin. Continuity between man and other animals. Important role of the environment The study of animal behavior, how new behaviors are acquired Rise of the sciences and industry: emphasis on prediction, control, and design A negative reaction to introspective, Freudian, and Gestalt psychology
being behaviorist Consider your RDP topic of interest How would a behaviorist researcher study it? What questions would they ask? What kinds of data would they be most interested in?
watson’s bold claim Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for many thousands of years. (Watson, 1930)
social learning theory • Highlighted the important phenomenon of learning from the experiences of others • Vicarious reinforcement. No action needed, no consequence necessary. "No-trial learning” • Researchers interested in the qualities of influential models
skinner’s critique of cognitivism • “Having moved the environment inside the head in the form of conscious experience and behavior in the form of intention, will, and choice, and having stored the effects of contingencies of reinforcement as knowledge and rules, cognitive psychologists put them all together to compose an internal simulacrum of the organism…a doppelganger…the homunculus.” (Skinner, WIANACP, p109)
skinner’s critique of cognitivism • “Behaviors change because contingencies change, not because a mental entity…develops.” (Skinner, p100, WIANACP) • Example? A child becomes more mature • How does a cognitivist define “mature”? Perhaps, “knows” right from wrong and understands responsibility. • How did this happen? An “internal” change? • Or a change in contingencies in the environment (different behaviors-consequence relations)? • Child – doesn’t clean room – no unpleasant consequence • Adult – doesn’t clean room – unpleasant consequence • What changed? Person or environment?
skinner’s critique of cognitivism • “I am equally concerned with practical consequences. The appeal to cognitive states and processes is a diversion which could well be responsible for much of our failure to solve our problems. We need to change our behavior and we can do so only by changing our physical and social environments. We choose the wrong path at the start when we suppose that our goal is to change the “minds and hearts of men and women” rather than the world in which they live.” (Skinner)
chomsky’s critique of skinner Chomsky’s famous critique and debate with Skinner • Noam Chomsky (linguist), asked how can we understand and create sentences that we’ve never encountered before? And, how can language develop so rapidly? • Chomsky concluded it can only be that we have an innate capacity to understand the deep structure, the grammar, of language. We are born with a “language acquisition device” (L.A.D.) • In other words, learning is not entirely constituted from experience – a central tenet of strict behaviorists.
multimedia resources on behaviorism B. F. Skinner • http://youtube.com/watch?v=mm5FGrQEyBY&mode=related&search=
multimedia resources on behaviorism Watson, Little Albert experiment • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4gmwQ0vw0A&feature=related Bobo doll (Bandura) • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHHdovKHDNU
multimedia resources on behaviorism NPR: NYC & Chicago give cash incentives to the poor • NPR: NYC gives cash incentives to the poor • http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14472737 Alex: A brilliant bird • http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/16/weekinreview/16john.html
being a public intellectual One of the responsibilities of people with PhD is to be public intellectuals. You do research on particular topics and, therefore, have a responsibility to share your informed opinion on it with the public through your writing and speaking. In CEP900, you will have a chance to develop your skills as a public intellectual. Be prepared to give a 30 second opinion on some of issues discussed today.
