Tolman’s Purposive Behaviourism

Usually people who worked on the maze activity which you just did would say they
found the second maze easier. This is because they saw that the two mazes where identical,
except that the entrance and exit points were reversed. Their experience in doing the maze A
helped them answer maze B a lot easier. People create mental maps of things they perceived.
These mental maps help them respond to other things are task later, especially if they see the
similarity. You may begin to respond with trial and error (behaviouristic), but later on your
response becomes more internally driven (Cognitive Perspective). This is what Neo
behaviourism is about. It has aspects of behaviourism that it also reaches out to the cognitive
perspective.

There are two theories reflecting neo behaviourism that’s stands out. Edward Tolman’s
Purposive Behaviourism and Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory. Both theories are
influence by behaviourism which is focused on external elements in learning, but their principles
seems to also be reflective of the cognitive perspective (Focus on more internal elements).

Tolman’s Purposive Behaviourism

Purposive Behaviourism has also been referred to as Sign Learning theory and is often
seen as the link between behaviourism and cognitive theory. Tolaman’s theory was founded on
two psychological views: those of the Gestalt psychologist and those of John Watson, the
behaviourist.
Tolman believed that learning is a cognitive process. Learning involves forming beliefs
and obtaining knowledge about the environment and then revealing that knowledge through
purposeful and goal-directed behaviour.
Tolman stated in his sign theory that an organism learns by pursuing sign to a goal, i.e.,
learning is acquired through meaningful behaviour. He stressed the organize aspect of learning:
“The stimuli which are allowed by in are not connected by just simple one-to-one switches to the
outgoing responses. Rather than the incoming impulses are usually worked over and elaborated
in the central control room into a tentative cognitive-like map of the environment. And it is this
tentative map, indicating routes and paths and environmental relationships, which finally
determine what responses, if any, the animal will finally make.”
Tolman’s form of behaviourism stressed the relationships between stimuli rather than
stimulus-response. Tolman said that a new stimulus (the sign) becomes associated with already
meaningful stimulus (the significate) through a series of paintings; there is no used for
reinforcement in order to establish learning. In your maze activity, the new stimulus or “sign”
(maze B) became associated with already meaningful stimuli, the significate (maze A). So you
may have connected the two stimuli, maze A and maze B, and used your knowledge and
experience in maze A to learn to response to maze B.
Tolman’s Key Concepts
Learning is always purposive and goal-directed. Tolman asserted that learning is
always purposive and goal-directed. He held the notion that an organism acted or responded for
some adaptive purpose. He believed individuals do more than merely respond to stimuli; they act
on beliefs, attitudes, changing conditions, and they strive toward goals. Tolman saw behaviour as
holistic, purposive and cognitive.
 Cognitive maps in rats. In his most famous experiment, one group of rats placed at
random starting locations in maze but the foods was always on the same location. Another group
of rats had food placed in different locations which always required exactly the same pattern of
turns from their starting location. The group that had the food in the same location performed
much better than the other group, supposedly demonstrating that they had learned the location
rather than a specific sequence of turns. This is tendency to “learn location” signified that rats
somehow formed cognitive maps that help them perform well in the maze. He also found out
that organism will select the shortest or easier path to achieve a goal.

Applied in human learning, since a student passes by the same route going to school
every day, he requires a cognitive map of the location of his school. So when transformation re-
routing is done, he can still figure out what turns to make to get to school the shortest or easier
way.

Latent Learning. Latent learning is a kind of learning that remains or stay with individual until
needed. It is learning that in not outwardly manifested at once. According to Tolman it can exist
even without reinforcement. He demonstrated this in his rat experiments wherein rats apparently
“learned the maze: by forming cognitive maps of the maze, but manifested this knowledge of the
maze only when they needed to.

Applied human-learning, a two-year old always sees her dad operate the t.v. remote
control and observes how the t.v. is turned on or how channel changed, and volume adjusted.
After sometimes, the parents are surprised that on the first time that their daughter holds the
remote control, she already knows which buttons to press for what function. Through latent
learning, the child knew the skills beforehand, even though she has never done them before.

The concept of intervening variable. Intervening variables are variables that are not readily
seen but serve as determinants of behaviour. Tolman believed that learning is mediated of is
influenced by expectations, perceptions, representations, needs and other internal or
environmental variables. Example, in his experiments with rats he founfd out that hunger was an
intervening variable.

Reinforcement not essential for learning. Tolman concluded that reinforcement is not essential
for learning, although it provides an incentive for performance. In his studies, he observed that a
rat as able to acquire knowledge of the way through a maze, i.e., to develop a cognitive maps
even in the absence of reinforcement.

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

Read the following news article

10-Year-Old Boy in Texas Hangs Himself
After Watching Saddam Execution
The Associated Press
HOUSTON Jan 4, 2007 (AP)

Police and family members said a 10-year-old boy who died

 By hanging himself from a bunk bed was apparently mimicking the
execution of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Sergio Pelico was found dead Sunday in his apartment bedroom
in the Houston-area city of Webster, said Webster police Lt. Tom
Claunch. Pelico’s mother told police he had previously watched a
news report on Saddam’s death.
“It appears to accidental,” Claunch said “Our gut
reactions that he was experimenting.”
An autopsy of the fifth-grader’s body was pending.
Julio Gustavo, Sergio’s uncle, said the boy was happy and
curious child.
He said Sergio had watched TV news with another uncle on
Saturday and asked the uncle about Saddam’s death
“His uncle told him it was because Saddam was real bad”
Gustavo said “He (Sergio) said, ‘OK,’ And that was i.”
Sergio and other children were underthe care of an uncle, Gustavo
said. One of the children found Sergio’s body in his bedroom.
Police said the boy had tied a slipknot around his neck while on
a bunk bed. Police investigators learned that Sergio had been upset
about not getting a Christmas gift from his father, but they don’t
believe the boy intentionally killed himself.
Clinical psychologist Edward Bischof of California said
Children of Sergio’s age mimic risky behaviours they see on TV such
As wrestling or extreme sports without realizing the dangers. He said
TV appeared to be the stimulant in Sergio’s case.
“I would think maybe this kid is trying something that he thinks
fun to act out without having the emotional and psychological
maturity to think the thing through before he acts on it,” Bischof
said.
Family members held a memorial for the boy Wednesday in the
apartment complex activity center. Gustavo said the family is trying
to put together enough money to send Sergio’s body to Guatemala for
burial.
“I don’t think he thought it was real,” Gustavo said of Saddam’s
hanging. “They showed them putting the noose around his neck and
everything. Why show that on TV?.”
(retrieved from www.abcnews.go.com)

Albert Bandura’s Social Learning Theory

Social learning theory focuses on the learning occurs within a social context. It
considered that people learn from one another, including such concepts as observational learning,
imitation and modelling. The tem-year-old-boy Sergio Pelico watched Saddam’s execution on
TV and then must have imitated it.
Among others, Albert Bandura’s is considered the leading proponent of this theory.

General principle of social learning theory

People can learn by observing the behaviour of others and the outcomes of those behaviours.
Learning can occur without a change in behaviour. Behaviourist says that learning has to be
represented by a permanent change in behaviour in contrast social learning theorist say that
because people can learn through observation alone, their learning may not necessarily be
shown in their performance. Learning may or not result in behaviour change.
Cognitive plays a role in learning. Over the last 30 years the social learning theory has become
increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning. Awareness and expectations of
future reinforcement or punishment can have a major effect on the behaviours that people
exhibit.
Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviourist
learning theories and cognitive learning theories.

How the environment reinforces and punishes modeling

People are often reinforced for modeling the behaviour of others. Bandura suggested that the
environment also reinforces modelling. This is in several possible ways:

The observer is reinforced by the model. For example a student who changes dress to fit in with
a certain group of students has a strong likelihood of being accepted and thus reinforced by that
group.
The observer is reinforced by a third person. The observer might be modelling the actions of
someone else, for example, an outstanding class leader or student. The teacher notices this and
compliments and praises the observer for modelling such behaviour thus reinforcing that
behaviour.
The imitated behaviour itself to reinforcing consequences. Many behaviour that we can learn
from others produce satisfying or reinforcing result. For example, a student in my multimedia
class could observe how the extra work a classmate does is fun. This student in turn would do the
same extra work and also experience enjoyment
Consequences of the model’s behaviour’s affect the observer’s behaviour vicariously. This is
known as vicarious reinforcement. This is where the model is reinforced for a response and then
the observer shows an increase in that same response. Bandura illustrated this by having
students watch a film of a model hitting an inflated clown doll. One group of children saw the
model being praised for such action. Without being reinforced, the group of children began to
also hit the doll.

Contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and punishment

Contemporary theory proposes that both reinforcement and punishment have indirect effects on
learning. They are not the sole or main cause.
Reinforcement and punishment influence the extent to which an individual exhibits a behaviour
that has been learned.
The expectation of the reinforcement influences cognitive processes that promote learning.
Therefore, attention pays a critical role in learning, and attention is influence by the expectation
of the reinforcement. An example would be, when the teacher tells a group of students that what
they will study next is not on the test. Student will not pay attention because they do not expect
to know the information for a test.

Cognitive factors in social learning

Social learning theory has cognitive factors as wll as behaviourist factors (actually operant
factors)

Learning without reinforcement: Bandura makes a distinction between learning through

observation and the actual imitation of what has been learned. This is similar to Tolman’s latent
learning.
Cognitive processing during learning: Social learning theorist contend that attention is a critical
factor in learning.
Expectation: As a result of being reinforced, people from expectations about the consequences
that future behaviours are likely to bring. They expect certain behaviours to .bring
reinforcements and others to bring punishment. The learner needs to be aware, however, to the
response reinforcements and response punishment. Reinforcement increases a response only
when the learner is aware of that connection.
Reciprocal causation: Bandura proposed that behaviour can influenced both the environment and
the person. In fact each of these three variables, the person, the behaviour, and the environment
can have an influenced on each other.
Modeling: There are different types of models. There is the live model, an actual person
demonstrating the behaviour. There can also be a symbolic model, which can be a person or
action portrayed insome others medium, such as television, videotape, computer programs.

Behaviours that can be learned through medeling

Many behaviour can be learned, at least partly, through modelling. Examples that can
be cited are, students can watch parents red, student can watch demonstrations of mathematics
problems, or see someone act bravely in a fearful situation. Aggression can be learned through
models. Research indicates that children become more aggressive when they observed aggressive
or violent models. Moral thinking and moral behaviour are influenced by observation and
modelling. This includes moral judgements regarding right and wrong which can, in part,
develop through modelling.

Conditions necessarily for effective modeling to occur

Bandura mentions four conditions that are necessary before an individual can
successfully model the behaviour of someone else:
Attention – The person must first pay attention to the model.
Retention – The observer must be able to remember the behaviour that has been observed. One
way of increasing this is using the technique of rehearsal.
Motor reproduction – The third condition is the ability to replicate the behaviour that the
model has just demonstrated. This means that the observer has to be able to replicate the action
which could be a problem with a learner who are not ready developmentally to replicate the
action. For example, little children have difficulty doing complex physical motion.
Motivation – The final necessary ingredient for modeling to occur is motivation. Learners must
want to demonstrate whish they have learned. Remember that since these four conditions vary
among individuals, different people will produce the same behaviour differently.
Effects of modeling on behaviour:
Modeling teaches new behaviour
Modeling influences the frequency of previous learned behaviour
Modeling may encourage previously forbidden behaviours
Modeling increases the frequency of similar behaviours. For example a student might see a
friend excel in basketball and he tries to excel in football because he is not tall enough for
basketball.

Educational Implication of social theory

Social learning theory has numerous implications for class room use people.

Student often learn a great deal simply by observing other people.

Describing the consequences of behaviour and decrease inappropriate ones. This can involve
discussing with learners about the rewards and consequence of various behaviours.
Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviours. Instead using
shaping, which is operant conditioning, modeling can provide a faster, more efficient means for
teaching new behaviour. To promote effective modeling, a teacher must make sure that the four
essential conditions exist; attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation.
Teacher and parents must model appropriate behaviour and take care htat hty do not model
inappropriate behaviours.
Teacher should expose student to a variety of other models. This technique is especially
important to break down traditional stereotypes.

Neo Behaviourism: Tolman and Bandura

In this Module, challenge yourself to attain the fallowing learning outcomes:

Explains Tolman’s purposive behaviourism.

Explain Bandura’s social learning theory.
Give specific applications of each theory in teaching

With new researches, explanations provided by the basic principles of behaviourism appeared
not to satisfy all learning scenarios. New theories came into view which maintained some of the
behaviourist concepts but excluded others, and added new ideas which later came to be
associated with the cognitive views of learning. The neo-behaviourist, then, where transitional
group, belonging the gap between behaviourism and cognitive theories of learning.