1. Approaches to Learning
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2. The Behaviourist Approach
Sometimes known as the Transmission model
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3. Behaviourism Behaviourists are interested in studying behaviour
They are only interested in what can be observed
Behaviourists look for scientific, demonstrable explanations for simple behaviours
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4. Ivan Pavlov ( )
Pavlov was a Russian physiologist who was interested in the digestive system.
He carried out experiments on the gastric function of dogs where he collected and examined saliva.
During this experiment he noticed that the dogs salivated before the food reached their mouths; ‘psychic secretion’ he called it.
He then set out to see if he could pair the response with something else.
He began to ring a bell as he brought the dogs food until eventually the dogs associated the bell with food and the sound of the bell alone made them salivate.
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5. Behaviourist approach
Pavlov and his experiment on making dogs salivate to the sound of a bell introduced the idea of ‘classical conditioning’
This means that the pairing of the bell with the food conditioned the response to salivate
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6. Burrhus F.Skinner (1904 – 1990)
Skinner, an American psychologist, took Pavlov’s concept further with the experiments he did on rats
He placed the rats in a maze with a number of levers.
Some levers when pressed produced food, others a small electric shock.
With time and experience the rats returned to the levers with food and avoided the other levers.
Skinner called this shaping of behaviour ‘operant conditioning’
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7. Operant Conditioning
Positive Reinforcement – This is when you get something positive that encourages you to repeat the behaviour. E.g. the rats returned to the levers that produced food
Negative reinforcement – this is an action you do that helps you to avoid something. Because you avoid it, you have escaped the situation and so are more likely to repeat the same action again. E.g. the rats avoided the levers with shocks
Punishment – this is something that stops behaviour. E.g. the shock
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8. Behaviourist approach
Through his experiments Skinner found that he could reinforce the animals behaviour known as ‘operant conditioning’
‘Positive reinforcement’ ‘Negative reinforcement’ and ‘punishment’
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9. Behaviourist approach
This approach suggests that learning can occur in the same way:
What fears do you have?
How did you learn these?
What reinforces them?
Phobias can develop and be strengthened through negative reinforcement. E.g. by consistently avoiding your fear you reinforce that it is fearful and that your avoidance behaviour is a good escape from it.
Treatment for phobias is often to counter-condition, where they are systematically desensitized to the object of their fear
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10. Basic principles of Behaviourism
Repetition is important (e.g. Pavlov had to ring bell with food more than once to condition dogs response)
Small, concrete, progressively sequenced tasks
Positive and negative reinforcement
Consistency in the use of reinforcers during the teaching-learning process
Habits and other undesirable responses can be broken by removing the positive reinforcers connected with them.
Immediate, consistent, and positive reinforcement increases the speed of learning.
Once an item is learned, intermittent reinforcement will promote retention. (If Pavlov carried on ringing the bell without food, eventually the dogs would stop salivating)
How are these used in your setting?
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11. Watson & Rayner (1920) Fear and conditioning
In the 1920s, Watson and Rayner taught an infant to fear white rats.
11 month old Albert B. was not previously afraid of the laboratory's white rats
Watson & Rayner taught him to be terrified of white rats.
They used classical conditioning, pairing a neutral stimulus (the rat) with a negative effect. Whenever Albert reached for one of the rats, they created a terrifyingly loud noise right behind him.
Not only did Albert learn very quickly to fear the white rats, crying and moving away whenever he saw one, but he also started to cry in the presence of other furry animals and a Santa Claus mask with a white beard.
Like Little Albert's fear of white rats, a person's fear of dogs is most likely a conditioned response. Perhaps he was bitten by a dog when he was three years old. Twenty years later, the person's brain (the amygdala in particular) still associates the sight of a dog with the pain of a bite. (Green.C., 2008., Layton.J.2008)
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12. Activity
Examples of how the behaviourist approach has influenced learning or behaviour in schools.
Rewards and punishments
Small achievable targets that follow a sequence and rewards for children’s learning
Repetition of tasks
Use of praise for learning and behaviour
Ignoring unacceptable behaviour - by ignoring we remove the reward (i.e. attention) and so the behaviour will stop
Consistent approaches to dealing with behaviour to reinforce conditioned behaviour
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13. Operant conditioning Game
Work in pairs and put the following examples of operant conditioning under the right headings;
Positive reinforcement
Negative reinforcement
Punishment
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14. Shooting games where children get points for a kill
Completing coursework so tutor doesn’t nag
Arrested for stealing
Employee incentives/ bonuses
Not paying a bill and being cut off
Going to work so you don’t get sacked
Flight simulators in RAF; responding to red ‘danger’ light
Medals for athletics
EMA
Fire drills
Being grounded by your parents
Running away from a wasp
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15. Answers to game Positive Reinforcement
Some argue that shooting games condition children to shoot to kill. In games they get rewards or points
Employee incentives/bonuses
Medals for athletics
EMA
Negative reinforcement –
Completing coursework so tutor doesn’t nag
Flight simulators in RAF; responding to red ‘danger’ light
Fire drills
Going to work so you don’t get sacked
Running away from a wasp
Punishment
Not paying a bill and being cut off
Arrested for stealing
Being grounded by your parents
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16. Unit 7, Task 1
P1 Describe the ways in which children learn with reference to the major learning theories of learning
M1 with reference to the major theories of learning, explain how children learn
D1 evaluate the major theories of learning, using examples from work placement
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17. Reference list
Green.C. (date unknown) Classics in the history of psychology, available at: accessed 13/2/09
Layton.J., How Fear Works available at: accessed 13/2/09
LinguaLinks Library, (1998), Behaviourist theories of learning, SIL International available at: accessed 18/11/08
Miell,D., Pheonix,A., Thomas.K., (2002) Mapping Psychology 1, Milton Keynes: The Open University
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