Chapter 7: Behavioural Views of Learning

• Learning occurs when experience causes a change in a person’s knowledge or behaviour.

• Does not include maturation or temporary conditions like hunger or illness.
• Behaviour theorists emphasize the role of environmental stimuli and focus on
observable responses (behaviours).
• Behavioural learning processes
• Contiguity learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Observational learning

Early Explanation of Learning

Contiguity
• Whenever two or more sensations occur together often enough, they will become
associated.
• Later, when one sensation occurs, the other will be remembered as well and is related to
classical conditioning.

Classical Conditioning
• Focuses on the learning of involuntary emotional or physiological responses such as fear,
increased muscle tension, salivation, or sweating
• Neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that evokes an emotional or physiological
response.
• Eventually, neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus leading to a conditioned
response.
Components
• Neutral stimulus (N S) is a stimulus that does not elicit a particular response
– i.e. metronome
• An unconditioned stimulus (U C S) is a stimulus which elicits an unconditioned response
(U C R)
– Meat powder (U C S) and salivation (U C R)
• In classical conditioning, we are pairing the N S with the U C S
– e.g. metronome with meat powder
• Eventually, the N S becomes a conditioned stimulus (C S), eliciting a conditioned
response (U R)
– After training, the metronome elicits salivation
• In this situation, the organism reacts the same way to the C S (formerly N S) as it did to
the U C S
Skinner Box (BF Skinner)
• more effectively record operant behavior unsupervised
• A rat is inside a box with food and water dispensers on the outside attached to a red and
green lights. A wire leads from the top of the box to an electronic recording device that
graphs the rat’s behavior.
Operant Conditioning
• Operant behaviour can be altered (learned) by
changes in the antecedents, consequences, or both.
• Types of consequences:
o Reinforcement: Any consequence that
strengthens the behaviour it follows.
 Positive Reinforcement: Increases a
behaviour by adding a desired
consequence
 Presenting a stimulus
 Giving a gold star on
homework, resulting in a
student studying more
 Negative Reinforcement: Increases a
behaviour by removing an undesired
consequence
 Removing a stimulus
 Static on phone subsides when you stand in a specific spot in your
room, causing you to stand there more often
o Punishment: Decreasing or suppressing behaviour
 Positive Punishment: Suppresses a behaviour by adding an undesired
consequence
 Presenting a stimulus
 Scolding by a pet owner, reducing a dog’s habit of chewing on
shoes
 Negative Punishment: Suppresses a behaviour by removing a desired
consequence
 Removing a stimulus
 Confiscating a favourite toy, stopping a child from throwing future
tantrums
• Punishment does not work as well as reinforcement
Punishment disadvantages
• Tells a person what not to do, but doesn’t inform what they should do
• Creates anxiety
• Encourages subversive behaviour
• May provide model for aggressive behaviour
Reinforcement Schedules

Antecedents + Behaviour Change

• Cue: An antecedent stimulus just before a particular behaviour occurs
• Prompt
– An additional cue following the first one
– Must occur immediately
– Fade use of prompt quickly, so students don’t become dependent on it instead of
the cue.
Connection between Operant Conditioning + Teaching
• Premack Principle: High-frequency behaviour (a preferred activity) can be an effective
reinforcer for a low-frequency behaviour (a less-preferred activity.
• Shaping: reinforcing progress instead of waiting for perfection
– Useful for building complex skills, working toward difficult goals, and increasing
persistence, endurance, accuracy, or speed
• Contingency contract: A contract between the teacher and a student specifying what the
student must do to earn a particular reward or privilege.
– Token reinforcement: A system in which tokens earned for academic work and
positive classroom behaviour can be exchanged for some desired reward.
– Group Consequences: are rewards or punishments given to a class as a whole for
adhering or violating rules of conduct.
Handling Undesirable Behaviour
• Negative reinforcement: Allow students to “escape” from mildly unpleasant situations
• Reprimands: Soft, calm, and private reprimands most effective
• Social Isolation (Time out): Remove highly disruptive student for short period of time
How to carry out an effective punishment
• First, carry out the punishment and suppress the undesirable behaviour.
• Second, make clear what the student should be doing instead and provide
reinforcement for those desirable actions.
Similarities + Differences b/t classical and operant conditioning
Operant
Blank Classical Conditioning
Conditioning
Target behaviour is ... Elicited automatically Emitted voluntarily

Behaviour is a function Stimuli that precede the Consequences that follow the
of ... behaviour behaviour

Behaviour depends
Autonomic nervous system Skeletal muscles
primarily on ...

Contemporary Applications
Functional Behaviour Assessments
• A teacher studies the antecedents and consequences of problem behaviours to
determine the reason or function of the behaviour.
• Problem behaviours fall into four categories:
– need for attention
– escape from unpleasant situation
– gain item or activity
– meet sensory needs
Positive Behaviour Supports
• The actual interventions designed to replace problem behaviours with new actions that
serve the same purpose for the student
Self-Management
• Students can apply behaviour analysis on their own to manage their own behaviour.
• Teachers can encourage self-management by including students in:
– Goal setting
– Keeping track of progress
– Evaluating accomplishments
– Giving their own reinforcers

Bandura Bobo Doll: Children watched a video of other children beating up a doll and then given
the same doll to see the outcome
• Emphasis on learning through observation of others
• Bandura distinguished between:
• Enactive learning: learn by doing and experiencing the consequences of own
actions
• Observational learning: vicarious learning through observation and imitation
• Incentive affect performance: You can learn something, but not perform it until the
situation is right.