Download Early Behaviorism

Early Behaviorism:
Pavlov, Watson and Guthrie
(Chapter 2)
Vengertsev Dmitry
Agenda
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Goals:
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What classical conditioning is
Emotions might be learned
Similarities and differences among Pavlov, Watson and Guthrie
Early Psychophysics
I. Pavlov: Classical conditioning and its phenomena
J. Watson: Behaviorism, Emotional Learning
E. Guthrie: One-shot learning theory
First Steps of Psychophysics
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W. James: Introspection is the self-observation and
reporting of conscious inner thoughts, desires and
sensations.
Scientific approach: Psychophysics
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W. Wundt, G. Fechner tried to
find absolute threshold for
each sense – least amount
of stimulation required for
sensation
M. Weber law: noticeable
difference are a constant proportion
of a stimulus
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov
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Profound influence on
development psychology
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Classical conditioning
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is a form of associative learning
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unconditioned stimulus (US)
+
unconditioned response (UR)
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conditioned stimulus (CS)
+
conditioned response (CR)
Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning Theory
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Two different explanation of Learning:
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Contiguity – for behavior to change it’s sufficient that two events
be paired
Reinforcement – an effect that leads to learning (such as
satisfaction of hunger) (details in Chapter 3)
Phenomena in Classical Conditioning
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Learning curve
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Extinction and Recovery
conditioned associations are
remarkably durable
 spontaneous recovery (after
some period of time)
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Generalization
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salvation at wide range of tones
John Broadus Watson
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Profoundly influenced by Pavlov’s model
of classical conditioning
Revolutionize American psychology
Behaviorism – observable aspects of
behavior. It’s real goal is to provide the
basis of control of human beings
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Emotional Learning
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Watson’s Environmentalism
Behaviorism
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Before Watson: Behaviorism is a study of the
phenomena of consciousness
Watson: consciousness is an irrelevant
concept. Behaviorists tried to limit psychology
to the study of actual, observable behavior
The main goals of behaviorism:
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to provide the basis for the prediction and control
of human beings
to derive laws to explain the relationships existing
among stimuli, responses and consequential
conditions (reward, punishment)
Emotional Learning
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Little Albert
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11-month-old boy
At the beginning showed no fear to great variety of
objects and people
Everyday among other things he was given white rat
toy
Touched white rat – loud sound. Albert didn’t cried, he
tried again and again – each time was loud sound
A week later procedure was repeated. Rat and the
loud sound were combined for 5 more times
Albert behavior change dramatically
Watson’s environmentalism
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Are humans primarily product of genetic
makeup or are they developed according
environment?
He was convinced that there are no individual
differences at birth, people is function of their
experience
Very popular ides in the United States at that
time
Watson’s behaviorism
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Exaggerating role of learning in determining
the behavior and underemphasizing the role
of heredity
He was more of a spokesman for
behaviorism than a researcher
He popularized notion of environmental
experiences
Edwin R. Guthrie
Theory consisted of only a single law:
“When organism does something in one
occasion, it will tend to do exactly the same
thing if the occasion repeats itself”.
 He claims that the full strength of the bond
between stimulus and response is reached
during the first pairing
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Habits breaking
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Fatigue Technique
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Threshold technique
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Method of Incompatible Stimuli
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