EDUC105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Motivation, Applied Behavior Analysis, Reinforcement
1 Jun 2018
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Behaviourist Views of Learning
Key Features of Behaviourism Theory:
o Learning is viewed as a change in behaviour
o Behaviourism (actions that are observable and measurable/explanations of
learning concerned with the effect of external events on behaviour)
o External events such as instruction and experience cause this change in
behaviour and thus, learning occurs (through reward or punishment)
o Internal events such as ‘thinking’ and ‘beliefs’ cannot be SEEN and thus
should not be viewed as learning
o ‘Mentalisms’ CANNOT be studied rigorously
o The crux of these beliefs is in the importance of measuring and observing
learning – it is called ‘data based instruction’
o Cause and effect occurs because people associate or make a connection
between a certain event and the outcome they experience → stimulus
(something that affects the senses) and response (a reaction to the stimulus)
o Contiguity – the association of two events that are always closely paired, or
that repeatedly occur at about the same time (cause and effect mechanisms)
Fundamentals of Behaviourism:
1. Classical conditioning (association of an automatic response with new
stimulus)
• Pavlov and his dog experiment
▪ Contiguous pairing → dog learnt to salivate when hearing
the bell (cause and effect)
▪ A conditioned response is said to occur (the dog begins to
salivate) when we take the bowl of food away but the dog
continues to respond to the sound of the bell alone – this dog
has learnt to respond to the bell
▪ Classical conditioning has occurred (any automated response
in the body)
• Neutral stimulus can occur depending on the situation → an event
that has no effect on an organism (e.g. sound of a tuning fork is
stimulus that does not excite/provoke activity – the dog does not
respond/salivate)
• Unconditioned Response → an action triggered spontaneously by a
stimulus e.g. the food the dog eats is a natural, unlearnt stimulus that
elicits response of salivation from dog (conditioned eventually turns
into unconditioned when it is automatic)
• Conditioned stimulus → a previously neutral stimulus that elicits a
conditioned response after pairing with unconditioned stimulus e.g. the
sound of the tuning fork becomes a CS as the dog is used to hearing it
before food is given – the dog salivates and gives a conditioned
response to this sound
• Pavlov achieved stimulus discrimination – teaching the dog to
respond to one specific tone from tuning fork, while ignoring others
2. Operant conditioning (use of positive and negative consequences to
strengthen/weaken voluntary behaviour)
• Thorndike and his cat experiment (the effect of rewards on behaviour)
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