Theories of Learning

Introduction – Chapter 1August 24-26, 2005

Classes #2-3

Five Schools of Behaviorism Watson Hull Tolman Bandura Skinner

Watson’s Methodological Behaviorism

The study of observable behavior A natural science approach Law of Parsimony

A conditioned phobia…

Watson and Raynor (1920) Behavioral psychologists John Watson and grad

assistant Rosalie Raynor taught an 11-month old infant to become afraid of a gentle white laboratory rat At the beginning of the study, “Little Albert” was

unafraid of the white rat and played freely with the animal

While he was playing with the rat, the experimenters frightened the child by making a loud noise behind him

The baby was startled and began to cry They repeated this several times Thereafter, he avoided the rat and would cry

whenever it was brought close to him

“Little Albert” In Pavlovian terms, a bond had been

established between the sight of the rat (CS) and the arousal of Albert's autonomic nervous system (CR)

Once this S-R bond was fixed, fear could also be elicited by showing Albert any furry object… Little Albert became fearful of other

furry animals, Watson's hair, a sealskin coat, even a bearded Santa Claus mask

Little Albert experiments…

Hull’s Neobehaviorism Idea of

operationally defining internal variables

Challenged Watson’s beliefs

Agreed that there was a clear S R connection but did not feel that it must be just an observable connection

Tolman’s Cognitive Behaviorism S R “molar” theory Gestalt principles

Although Tolman emphasized the importance of innate appetites and aversions in behavior he was equally emphatic on the importance of learning, in which he stressed the role of cognitive variables

Cognitive Learning

Focus on the role of thinking processes in learning

Theory based on unseen internal factors rather than on external factors Skinner was very much against these theories

but lets look at one…latent learning…

Latent Learning

Tolman and Honzik (1930) Took three groups of rats and had them run a

maze Group 1

Reinforced every time they found their way out of the maze (food box) for ten days

Group 2 Never reinforced (no food at the end)

Group 3 Reinforced only after day 10 of the experiment (no

food for 10 days then food on day 11)

They formed a cognitive map… On day 12, they timed the three groups to

see which group would make it through the maze the quickest… Which group do you think was the

fastest?

Albert Bandura (1925-present)

Pioneering researcher in observational learning

Was born in the small town of Mundare in northern Alberta, Canada

He received his bachelors degree in Psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1949

He  went on to the University of Iowa, where he received his Ph.D. in 1952

In 1953, he started teaching at Stanford University and continues to work at Stanford to this day

Social Learning Theory

Also called observational learning, this is learning that occurs by observing and imitating others (the person being observed is referred to as the model) Major components involved in

observational learning Attention Retention Reproduction Motivation Self-efficacy

Major Components

Attention If you are going to learn anything, you have to be paying attention. 

Likewise, anything that puts a damper on attention is going to decrease learning If, for example, you are sleepy, groggy, drugged, sick, nervous, etc you will learn less. Likewise, if you are being distracted by competing stimuli

Retention  Second, you must be able to retain -- remember -- what you have paid

attention to Reproduction

You have to have the ability to reproduce the behavior in the first place. 

For example: Some people can watch Olympic ice skaters all day long, yet not be able to reproduce their jumps, because they can’t ice skate at all!  On the other hand, if they could skate, their performance would in fact improve if they watch skaters who are better than they are

Major Components

Motivation  Bandura feels that even with all this you’re still not going

to do anything unless you are motivated to imitate, i.e. until you have some reason for doing it

Bandura mentions a number of motives: Past reinforcement

Past rewards Promised reinforcements

Incentives that we can imagine Vicarious reinforcement

Seeing and recalling the model being reinforced

Self-Efficacy Having a sense that you can do it well

Reciprocal Determinism Reciprocal influence of environmental

events, observable behavior, and “person variables”

Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) The “Bobo" Doll Experiment

Note : Bandura did a large number of variations on the “Bobo doll” experiment…we’ll look at a few

Phase 1 Pre-schoolers were divided into two groups and put

into two separate rooms and allowed to play with "attractive" toys while “Bobo” an unattractive inflatable, adult-sized, egg-shaped balloon creature (the kind that bounces back after it's been knocked down) sat by itself at the far end of the rooms

Bandura, Ross, and Ross (1963) The “Bobo" Doll Experiment

Phase 2 Group 1: While playing with the attractive toys the

children witnessed adults enter the room and start beating the daylights out of the clown

Group2: While playing with the attractive toys the children witnessed adults enter the room and play nicely with Bobo

Phase 3 The attractive toys were taken away from each group

Results: What happened next?

Poor Bobo…

Bandura (1965) The “Bobo" Doll Experiment

In the 1965, version kids watched films of adults beating on Bobo – but each had different endings…

Film 1: Adult praised and rewarded with candy and soda by another

adult who was heard saying, “You’re a strong champion” Film 2:

Adult is scolded by another adult, “You’re very bad” or “Hey there, you big bully, you quit picking on that clown”

Who cares about what a kid does to a "Bobo" doll?

Well, that’s what the critics said…”those things are made to punched aren’t they?” Responding to criticism that Bobo dolls were

supposed to be hit, Bandura did a film of a young woman beating up a live clown

When the children went into the other room, what should they find there but -- the live clown! 

They proceeded to punch him, kick him, hit him with little hammers, and so on…

Don’t let your husband watch those violent movies…

Loye, Gorney, & Steele (1977) Participants:

183 married males; 20-70 years old Procedures:

Watch one of five TV “diets” for 20 hours over a one week period

Unknown to participants, their wives were secretly observing and recording their behavior

“Helpful” vs. “hurtful” behaviors when not viewing TV Results:

Viewers of violent programming increased in aggressive mood and “hurtful behavior”

Viewers of prosocial programs decreased in aggressive mood and demonstrated an increased “emotional arousal” from the TV viewing

Limitations

There is one clear limitation to this study…

Is Television To Blame?

Hundreds of studies say yes! Why? Social Learning Theory says:

People become immune to the horrors of violence They gradually come to accept violence as a way to solve problems They imitate the violence they observe on television They identify with certain characters

Space BlasterSpace Blaster

Doomsday Version 2.5

Social Learning Theory of Aggression

Theory that aggressive behavior is learned through: Direct Reward

(example: father buys son an ice cream after he wins a fight)

Observing Others Being Rewarded for Aggressiveness (example: a television character wins the girl of his dreams as a result of killing several people)

Glamorizing ViolencePlagens, et al. (1991)

Typical American child sees 200,000 acts of violence on TV by age 18

Children who watch a lot of violent TV are more violent towards peers

Experimental studies, in which violence is controlled, also find effects of watching violence

Other studies have found… By the end of elementary school, a typical

American child will have seen: 8,000 murders More than 100,000 other acts of violence.

2003 study found 534 separate episodes of prime-time violence during a 2 week period.

The most violent TV shows are targeted to children (e.g., cartoons).

Violent Video Games Several studies have shown significant results

indicating that playing violent video games is associated with a history of property destruction and hitting other students… Anderson & Dill (2000)

College students randomly assigned to play a violent video game (Wulfenstein) later had more aggressive thoughts and feelings than those who played a nonviolent game (Tetrix)

Dilemma for parents about letting children watch television and play video games parents find video a good babysitter parents believe video can sometimes be

educational tool Experts suggest parents turn off the TV

to avoid exposing children to video violence

Videos

Most “good guys” are male white heroes Women/females portrayed as victims or

adoring friends—not as leaders Content of video games even worse than

than that of television more violent, sexist, racist

Videos

Videos

Content of video games crucial reason behind great concern of developmental researchers- research shows that violent TV and video

games push children to be more violent than they normally would be

computer games probably worse, as children are doing the virtual killing

Can have positive effect…

Friedrich and Stein (1972): The Mister Rogers Study:

Showed a preschool group Mister Rogers every weekday for four weeks

During the viewing period, children from less educated homes became more cooperative, helpful, and more likely to state their feelings

 Other studies: Children, especially males, who watched educational

television became teens who earned higher grades, read more

Conclusion:

Application of Bandura’s Theory Prosocial behavior

Bandura feels it can be used to promote prosocial behavior – helping behavior

Violence in schools Bandura feels his theory applies to today’s violent times

as well

Skinner’s Radical Behaviorism

The organism learns a response by operating on the environment…

Operant Conditioning A type of learning in which voluntary

(controllable and non-reflexive) behavior is strengthened if it is reinforced and weakened if it is punished (or not reinforced)

Operant Conditioning

Response comes first and is voluntary unlike classical where stimulus comes first and response is involuntary Classical: S R Operant: S R S

that becomes

R S

The Skinner Box

Soundproof chamber with a bar or key that could be manipulated to release a food or water reward

Specifically, the conditioning chamber was a stable plexi-glass box with a response lever, reinforcement delivery tube, and various means for stimulus presentation

In Skinner's early experiments, a rat was placed in the conditioning chamber and when it pressed the response lever, it received a pellet of food

Shaping:Reinforcing successive approximations

Responses that come successively closer to the desired response were reinforced… Skinner referred to this as his “Behavioral

Technology” Taught pigeons “unpigeon-like” behaviors Walking in Figure 8, playing ping-pong, and

keeping a “guided missile” on course by pecking at a moving target displayed on a screen…but most proud of getting them to hoist an American flag and then to salute it

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

In the Lab…