Behavioralism

1. Behavioralism Psychological perspective that emphasizing the role of learning and experience in determining behavior. A strict behavioralist believes that babies are tabula rasa and the study of psychology should focus purely on observable behaviors and not unobservable thoughts.

2. Learning 1)Behaviorists:relatively permanent change in behavior that results from experience 2) Cognitive:learning is made evident by behavioral change, but learning is defined as an internal and not directly observable process.

3. Associative learning – learning that certain events occur together • Classical conditioning – An INVOLUNTARY behavior is determined by what PRECEDES it • Operant conditioning – rewards and punishment; A VOLUNTARY behavior is determined by the anticipation of something that FOLLOWS it.

4. Which is which? 1. A child is attacked by a dog. The child now fears all dogs. 2. You do your homework every night to get good grades and avoid punishment. Classical – involuntary, stimulus precedes behavior Operant – voluntary, stimulus follows behavior

5. Ivan Pavlov’s Experiments • Pavlov paired a neutral stimulus (a bell) with a meat powder (which made the dog salivate). • Eventually, dog salivates to bell alone

6. Identifying Parts Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) Meat powder Unconditioned Response (UCR) Salivation Conditioned Stimulus (CS) Bell Conditioned Response (CR) Salivation * Hint: replace “conditioned” with “learned” to make it more intuitive.

7. Little Albert • John Watson – famous behavioralist • Little Albert – 11 month old orphan • Showed him a white rat. No fear. • Made a loud noise. Albert cried. • Showed him a white rat and made a loud noise. Albert cried. Repeated several times. • Eventually Albert cried at white rat alone.

8. Identify the parts • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) • Loud noise • Unconditioned Response (UCR) • Fear/crying • Conditioned Stimulus (CS) • White rat • Conditioned Response (CR) • Fear/crying

9. Definitions • Acquisition – initial learning of the stimulus-response relationship (learning that bell means meat powder) • Extinction – diminished response to the conditioned stimulus when it is no longer coupled with UCS. (stop giving meat powder with bell and dog will stop salivating to bell) • Spontaneous recovery – reappearance of an extinguished CR after a rest. • Generalization – the tendency to respond to any stimuli similar to the CS (Dog salivates to other noises) • Discrimination – the ability to distinguish between the CS and similar stimuli (Dog only salivates to specific tone)

10. Application to Little Albert • If Little Albert generalized, what would we expect to happen? • He might cry at the sight of similar objects (he did – rabbit, dog, sealskin coat, some rumors – Santa’s beard) • How could we teach Little Albert to discriminate? • Continually expose him to stimuli similar to the rat, but only make the loud noise when exposing him to the rat • How could Little Albert’s conditioning be extinguished? • Continually expose him to a white rat without making the loud noise (unfortunately, this was never done because Little Albert was adopted soon after the original experiments (he would be 83 now if he is still alive – probably scared of rats!) • If Little Albert is still alive, his fear of white rats is likely to have been extinguished (no loud noise when he sees a rat). However, occasionally, when he sees a rat, he may find that his heart races for a second or two. What is this called? • Spontaneous recovery

11. Higher-Order Conditioning • A previously neutral stimulus comes to serve as a CS after being paired repeatedly with a stimulus that has already become the CS • Ex: lightbellsalivate • TV showcar in drivewaysqueal of happiness

12. Flooding • Fear-evoking reduction technique in which the fear-evoking stimuli (CS) are presented continuously in the absence of harm so that fear responses (CR) are extinguished • Ex: Little Albert-presenting rat without the banging noise until the fear is no longer evoked • Can be unpleasant

13. Systematic Desensitization • Client is exposed gradually to fear-evoking stimuli under circumstances in which he or she is relaxed • Ex: when Little Albert is relaxed, show him pictures of rats before gradually bringing them over

14. Counterconditioning • A pleasant stimulus is paired repeatedly with a fear-evoking object, in this way counteracting the fear response • Ex: Joneses experiment with 2 year old Peter. • Placed rabbit in corner of room while Peter munched on cookies. Gradually, the animal was brought closer. Peter ate treats and touched the rabbit at the same time

15. On your own • With your partner, practice with the terms by completing the worksheet.

16. A friend has learned to associate the sound of a dentist’s drill to a fearful reaction because of a painful experience she had getting a root canal. In this example, what is the: • UCS? Pain from the drill • UCR? Fear • CS? Sound of the drill • CR? Fear

17. Using the example in question 4, give an example of how each of the following may occur: • Extinction: if the pain does not result when the drill is used, the CS (fear) will diminish. • Spontaneous recovery: the child returns for a visit the next day and the sound of the drill elicits fear again. • Generalization: the child becomes fearful of the sound of any motor • Discrimination: the child learns that only the high pitched dentist drill is associated with pain and not a low pitch hum of the vacuum cleaner.

18. A BMW commercial has lots of pretty people in it. People who watch the commercial find the people pleasing to look at. With repeated viewing, they begin to associate the car with the pleasant feeling. • UCS? Pretty people • UCR? Feeling good • CS? Sight of BMW • CR? Feeling good

19. You get in a car accident and find you are afraid to get in a car. • UCS? Pain of the accident • UCR? Fear • CS? Presence of car • CR? Fear

20. You go to a fancy restaurant and decide to try an appetizer you’ve never tried before – escargot. After dinner, you go to a concert and get violently ill (from a stomach virus that’s been going around). From then on, you can’t even look at snails without feeling sick. • UCS? Stomach virus • UCR? Feeling sick • CS? Sight of snails • CR? Feeling sick

21. You are cruising on 440 at 75 mph when you see flashing police lights behind you. You pull over and the policeman gives you a ticket. You get in insane amounts of trouble from your parents. The next time you see flashing police lights, your heart rate speeds up. • UCS? Getting in trouble from parents • UCR? Increased heart rate • CS? Flashing lights • CR? Increased heart rate

22. Name one practical application of classical conditioning. • Stop drug or alcohol addiction by pairing a nausea-producing drug with the drug of addiction. • Extinguish a drug addiction by administering a drug that blocks the pleasant feeling normally elicited by the drug. • If a child is afraid of rabbits because one bit him when he was young, you can expose the child to rabbits in safe environments repeatedly until the behavior is extinguished

23. Cancer patients and chemotherapy. • Cancer patients tend to associate the nausea produced by chemotherapy with the hospital setting. • UCS – chemotherapy • UCR – nausea • CS – hospital • CR – nausea

24. Cognitive Processes • It was once thought that cognitive processes weren’t involved in classical conditioning. Now we know better. For example, therapists give alcoholics drink containing a nausea-producing drug to condition them to avoid alcohol. Because clients KNOW that the drug is what is actually causing the nausea, it doesn’t work so well.

25. Biological Predispositions It was once believed that conditioning occurred the same in all animals (and therefore you could study human behavior by studying any animal) and that you could associate any neutral stimulus with a response. Not so. Animals have biological predispositions to associating certain stimuli over others • Example – You eat a novel food and later get sick. You will be conditioned to associate the taste of the FOOD with getting sick (and thus avoid that food in the future), but NOT the music playing in the restaurant, the plate it was served on, or the perfume your neighbor was wearing. • It is much easier to condition someone to have a fear of snake than of flowers. • Birds hunt by sight and will more quickly become conditioned to the SIGHT of tainted food

26. Operant Conditioning Rewards and punishment

27. Classical vs. Operant Conditioning

28. Operant Conditioning A simple form of learning in which an organism learns to engage in behavior because it is reinforced.

29. Classical or Operant? When a mother strokes her infant’s skin, the stroking creates pleasure responses in the baby. After this goes on for many days, the baby begins to show pleasure responses simply at the sight of her mother (even before being touched).

30. Classical or Operant? A patient in a mental hospital is very disruptive at mealtimes. She grabs food from the plates of those sitting near her and tries to cram the food in her mouth. Because this behavior of stealing food is very undesirable, a plan is developed whereby every time the patient steals food from other plates, she is immediately taken to a room without food.

31. Classical or Operant? Imagine you have a friend who keeps the temperature in her home so high that each occasion on which you visit her you find yourself perspiring. The last time you visited her, you noticed that you began to perspire and became uncomfortable as soon as you saw her house (even before you got inside).

32. Classical or Operant? Fred leaves his clothes and toys all over his room. It seems that the only time he cleans up his room is when his mother yells at him. When she yells at him, Fred picks up his clothes and put away his toys.

33. Edward L. Thorndike • Cats in a box-trial and error • As trials were repeated, it would take less time for the cat to pull the string • Law of Effect: responses are “stamped in” by rewards (escaping from box and eating) and “stamped out” by punishments.

34. B.F. Skinner • Reinforce: to follow a response with a stimulus that increases the frequency of the response • Operant behavior: an organism learns to do something because of its effects or consequences

35. “Skinner Box” • Hungry rats in a cage • Sniffed around the cage and engaged in random behavior • Rat’s first pressing of lever is by accident-food pellet dropped in cage • Food pellet increased the probability that the rat would press lever again • Pellet serves as a reinforcement for the lever pressing

36. Reinforcement vs. Punishment Practice with partner.

37. Types of Reinforcers • Positive: a reinforcer that when presented increases the frequency of the operant (pellet, approval, praise) • Negative: a reinforcer that when removed increases the frequency of an operant (removal of fear and pain)

38. Types of Reinforcers • Primary-an unlearned reinforcer that are effective because of the biological makeup of the organism (food, water, warmth) • Secondary- a stimulus that gains reinforcement value through association with established reinforcers (money, attention, social approval)

39. Positive Reinforcer Behavior Consequence Change in Behavior Studying  Positive reinforcer   (Teacher approval) frequency of is presented behavior increases- when student ( student studies more) studies

40. Negative Reinforcer Behavior Consequence Change in Behavior Studying  Negative reinforcer   (Teacher disapproval) frequency of is removed behavior increases- when student ( student studies more) studies

41. Rewards and Punishments • Reward: a pleasant stimulus that increases the frequency of the behavior it follows

42. Rewards and Punishments • Punishments: an unpleasant stimulus that suppresses the behavior it follows -although it works it is usually undesirable -better to focus on rewarding behavior

43. Negative Reinforcer Behavior Consequence Change in Behavior Studying  Negative reinforcer   (Teacher disapproval) frequency of is removed behavior increases- when student ( student studies more) studies

44. Punishment Behavior Consequence Change in Behavior Talking in  Punishment   class (detention) frequency of is presented behavior decreases- when student ( student talks less in talks in class class)

45. Problems with Punishment • it models aggression as a way to solve problems • breeds anger in the recipient • doesn’t provide an alternative behavior. Therefore, the behavior only goes away when the punisher is around.

46. Reinforcement vs. Punishment(increase behavior) (decrease behavior) Action Consequence Behavior Positive :) + :)  Reinforcement Negative :) - :(  Reinforcement Positive Punishment :( + :(  Negative Punishment :( - :) 

47. Reinforcement Schedules • reinforcement schedules • continuous – rewarded every time • partial – not every time • “fixed” – set, constant • “variable” – unpredictable • “interval” – time • “ratio” – number, doing a behavor

48. Reinforcement Schedules • fixed ratio – set number/behavior (every three times you raise your hand I call on you) • variable ratio – unpredictable number of responses (slot machine) • fixed interval – set amount of time (pay you every hour) • variable interval – unpredictable amount of time (fishing)

49. Schedules of reinforcement-Draw 4 squares • Fixed Specific, Set • Ratio behavior • Variable Unpredictable • Interval time ***Highest response rate to lowest in order  • Fixed Ratio-food pellet for every 5 times of hitting desk • Variable Ratio-food pellet randomly (gambling) • Fixed Interval-every 2 mins you get food pellet • Variable Interval-randomly given food pellet for random time

50. Reinforcement Schedules • Summary • Ratio schedules cause a greater response rate • Variable schedules are more resistant to extinction • Continuous reinforcement causes the fastest learning. • Immediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed.