Transcript Mainstream Behaviorism/Neobehaviorism Edward Chance Tolman (b. 1886) • 1915: Ph.D. from Harvard (some contact w/ Koffka in Germany) • 1918: UC-Berkeley • 1950’s – refused to.

Mainstream
Behaviorism/Neobehaviorism
Edward Chance Tolman (b. 1886)
• 1915: Ph.D. from
Harvard (some contact
w/ Koffka in Germany)
• 1918: UC-Berkeley
• 1950’s – refused to sign
loyalty oaths
(McCarthyism)
Purposive Behaviorism
• Opposed to Watson’s
mechanism
• Believed that behavior
is related to goals
• Organism behaves as if
it has a purpose
• Motivation produces a
behavior and the goal
that concludes the
behavioral episode
Learning
• Learning did not take place through associations
• What is learned is:
– meaning of the cue or stimulus
– expectancies
– where things are in the environment
• Learning builds up expectancies
• Learning can happen in the absence of reward
Learning Experiments
• 1928: w/ Tinklepaugh
– Memory span of
monkeys
– Monkeys didn't learn an
S-R response; they
learned to "expect"
something
• 1930:
Tolman/Macfarlane
• Rats learning something
cognitive……..
Tolman’s Contributions
• S – intervening variable – R learning
• Said that motivational concepts of drive and
incentive are important
• Introduced mentalistic concepts into
behaviorism
• Work on cognitive maps, but was criticized
because did not explain specifically how this
happens
Clark L. Hull (b. 1884)
• 1918: Ph.D. Wisconsin
• 1929: Yale
• Early research on
aptitude testing and
hypnosis
• 1935: Wrote review of
a book by Thorndike
1943: Principles of Behavior
• Committed to instrumental learning and effects of
reinforcement
• 1st quantitative theory of learning – thought learning
could be explained through equations
• Noted influence of drive and incentive
• Strength of the S-R connection (habit strength)
• Habit strength + drive = potential
Drive Reduction
• Drive is based on animal's need-state: hunger,
thirst, sexual arousal, etc.
• Drive activates behavior
• Reinforcement occurs whenever drive is
reduced
• Reduction in need serves as reinforcement and
produces reinforcement of the response that
leads to it
The Hypothetico-Deductive System
for Research
• Begin with a behavioral principle deduced
from postulates
• Formulate precise hypotheses
• Test the hypotheses – assess success or failure
• Revision of postulates
• Said a theory must be quantitative and have
well-defined concepts
Hypnosis Research
• 1933 “Hypnosis and
Suggestibility”
• Hypnosis is hypersuggestibility differing
quantitatively, not
qualitatively, from the
normal state
Hull Becomes King of Psychology
• 1950's: 50% of all papers published in JEP
cited Hull
• Why?
• Paradigm Shift (Kuhn)
• It was the "right kind" of theory – explicit and
testable, could provide predictions
Impact of Hull
• Concepts of drive
reduction and habit
strength
• Explicit hypothesistesting system
• Hull said that the brain
functioned like a
machine and that
learning principles
apply to rat, man, and
machine
Burrhus Frederic Skinner's
(b. 1904) Radical Behaviorism
• From Susquehanna, PA
• Hamilton College (NY)
• Skinner Clip
• 1931: Ph.D. Harvard
• Skinner’s Dissertation:
Should only talk about
S-R reflex
• Avoid physiological
explanations
• No mentalism
• Eventually called
radical behaviorism
Operant Behavior
• Emphasis on the
consequences correlated
with a response
• Didn’t care about neurons,
connections, motivations
• Control the reinforcers and
you control behavior
• Behavior brought control of
an external stimulus
• The Skinner Box
1938: The Behavior of Organisms
• Described operant behavior; shaping
1939: Project Pigeon
1945: The Baby Box
Social Engineering
• 1948: Walden Two
• 1971: Beyond Freedom
& Dignity
The Twin Oaks Community
• Founded 1967
• Behaviorist principles
quickly abandoned
• Is now an egalitarian,
cooperative ecocommunity
Ayn Rand’s Criticism of Skinner
• "Boris Karloff's embodiment of Frankenstein's
monster: a corpse patched with nuts, bolts,
screws from the junkyard of philosophy,
Darwinism, positivism, linguistic analysis,
with some nails by Hume, threads by Russell
and glue by the New York Post."
1957: The Good, Bad and Ugly for
Skinner
• Schedules of
Reinforcement
• Verbal Behavior
• Noam Chomsky –
“Syntactic Structures”
Applications of Skinner by 1960
• Clinical Psychology:
systematic
desensitization; token
economy
• Education reinforcement
techniques effective
with children
• Child Care and
Parenting
Overall Impact of Skinner
• His behaviorism
dominated Psychology
for many years
• The power of
reinforcers
• Perspectives on
punishment
• Practical applications