BEHAVIOURAL THEORIES

PAVLOV, WATSON &

THORNDIKE

IVAN PAVLOV
Born: September 26, 1849
Ryazan, Russia
Died: February 27, 1936
Leningrad (now St.
Petersburg), Russia
physiologist, psychologist,
and physician
awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in
1904 for research on the
digestive system
(ww.notablebiographies.com)

Pavlovs Experiment
1. The simulation of Pavlovs experiment (video)
Downloaded from www.youtube.com

2. Some terms introduced in Pavlovs

experiment:
US/ UCS (unconditioned Stimulus)?
UR/ UCR (Unconditioned Reflex)?
CS (Conditioned Stimulus)?
CR (Conditioned Reflex)?

Before
conditioning,
there is no
correlation
between the
bell and food.
Pictures are from
www.edpsycinteractive.org

During the conditioning, bell is related to food

After conditioning, the bell becomes the

CS

US, UR, CS and CR

Pavlovs Theories of Behaviour

1. REINFORCEMENT
The repeated following of the conditioned
stimulus by the unconditioned stimulus
and response at appropriate time interval.
(Bower &Hilgard, 1981: 50)

(cont..)

2. EXTINCTION

The process when the CR gradually

reduces and dissapears because the
reinforcement is discontinued and CS is
presented alone without US.
(Bower &Hilgard, 1981: 50)
Extinction is not the same as
foregetting!!

CS
(-)

NO
CR

cont...

3. SPONTANEOUS
RECOVERY

The process when the CR apears again

after some ellapsed time because the CS is
followed by US.
(Bower &Hilgard, 1981: 50)

Cont...

4. GENERALIZATION/
IRRADIATION

The process when CR appears because of

the neighboring stimulusstimulus
generalization: generalize CS- and CS+

5. DIFFERENTIATION/
CONCENTRATION
Contrasting two stimuli.
Discriminate between CS- and CS+

Favourable Time Between CS

and US
1. US + CS (backward pairing)= No conditioning
2.

CS + US (with interval) = Delayed Conditioning which results in poorer learning

3. CS + US (appropriate time) = Conditioning that will result in success learning

6. INHIBITION
Refers to almost any decrement or loss
in a conditioned reflex

a.External inhibition:
A temporary loss of a CR due to an
extraneous distracting stimulus.
e.g: a loud sound distracts the dog and
reduces the salivation to a light CS.
b. Internal inhibition:
The loss because the stimulus paired with
nonreinforcement when US is otherwise
expected. (the presentation of too much

John Broadus
Watson
Born Jan 9, 1878
Died Sept 25, 1958
Born in Greenville,
South Carolina
American psychologist
established the
psychological school of
behaviourism
Little Albert
experiment

"Little Albert" experiment

Occurred in 1920
One of the most
controversial
experiments in the
history of psychology
It was an experiment
showing empirical
evidence of classical
conditioning in humans
Rosalie Rayner
Albert B.
John B. Watson

"Little Albert" experiment

Watson and Rayner selected
an infant named Albert, at
approximately 9 months of
age, he was tested and was
judged to show no fear when
successively
observing
a
number of live animals (e.g.,
a rat, a rabbit, a dog, and a
monkey),
and
various
inanimate
objects
(e.g.,
cotton, human masks, a
burning newspaper).

"Little Albert" experiment

He was, however, judged to show fear whenever a
long steel bar was unexpectedly struck with a claw
hammer just behind his back.

"Little Albert" experiment

Two months after testing Albert's apparently
unconditioned reactions to various stimuli,
Watson and Rayner attempted to condition him to
fear a white rat. This was done by presenting a
white rat to Albert, followed by a loud clanging
sound (of the hammer and steel bar) whenever
Albert touched the animal. After seven pairings of
the rat and noise (in two sessions, one week
apart), Albert reacted with crying and avoidance
when the rat was presented without the loud
noise.

However,
Ben Harris in
Whatever
Happened to Little
Albert? 1979 says
that critical reading
of Watson and
Rayner's (1920)
report reveals little
evidence that Albert
developed a rat
phobia

Little Albert Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVt0k9IPQ-A

Edward Lee Thorndike

Born August 31, 1874
Died August 9, 1949
Born in Williamsburg,
Massachusetts
Studied animal behaviour and
the learning process
led to the theory of
connectionism
Laying the foundation for
modern educational
psychology.

Thorndikes Experiment
The simulation of the experiment done by
Thorndike in lab (video) downloaded from
www.youtube.com

Thorndikes Theories
1. Trial and Error

Learners are faced to a problem situation

in which they have to reach a goal by
trying to select a response from a number
of possible responses, perform the respond
and receive some concequences.

S- R

2. LAW of EFFECT

when a connection between a stimulus and

response is positively rewarded it will be
strengthened and when it is negatively
rewarded it will be weakened
Thorndike later revised this "law" when he found
that negative reward (punishment) did not
necessarily weaken bonds, and that some
seemingly pleasurable consequences do not
necessarily motivate performance.

=REINFORCEME
NT

3. LAW of EXERCISE
Two forms:
a.The use of a connection increases its strength.
b.The disuse of a connection (not practicing it) leads to its weakening/
forgetting
PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

The updated Law:

Thorndike found that practice without
feedback does not necessarily enhance
performance

4. LAW of READINESS

a. A strong desire for an action sequence is

arroused, then the smooth carrying out of
that sequence is SATISFYING
b. That action sequence is prevented or
blocked from completion, then such
blocking is ANNOYING
Forcing a further repetition when the
learners are tired is annoying

4. Response Variation
Learners have variety of responses to a certain stimulus.
: A learner would keep trying multiple responses to
solve a problem before it is actually solved.
The fixed response will result in reward.

Learning is possible when the

appropriate behaviour exists.

5. Differenet Salience of
Stimulus Response
Learners can react selectively to salient/ important
elements in the problem or stimulus situation.
They can pick out the essential item from a complex
pattern and based their response upon it.

6. Associative Shifting

: Let stimulus S be paired with response R.

Now, if stimulus Q is presented
simultaneously with stimulus S repeatedly,
then stimulus Q is likely to get paired with
response R.

Q
S

7. Response by Analogy

New problems are solved by using solution

techniques employed to solve analogous
problems.
8. Belongingness

If there is a natural relationship between the

need state of an organism and the effect
caused by a response, learning is more
effective than if the relationship is unnatural.

Implication of Behaviourism
Theory in Language Learning
1. Reinforcement and Trial and Error

Learning is an habit formation

Repetition is the mother of learning
e.g Drilling in teaching a certain grammar
Drilling in Pronunciation (Repeat after me..)

Woolfolk & Nicolich (1984:169)

2. Associate positive, pleasant events with learning
e.g: Use group competition (games) in speaking
class than the individual competition
Giving comments/ feedback to Ss performance
3. Encourage Ss to participate in feared situation if
T certainly sure there is no negative results.
e.g: Class performance/ presentation without
pressure
Involving shy Ss in group work
.

Woolfolk & Nicolich (contd..)

4. If a students fears are too strong, devise small
steps toward the goal.
e.g: Oral presentation beginning with group work.
Daily, then weekly, then major tests (e.g
vocabulary mastery)
5. Help Ss discriminate which conditions that make
. appropriate behaviour and which ones arent.
e.g: Talking without raising hand in group work is
acceptable, but not in class discussions.

Continued...
6. The existence of REWARD
Giving reward to students who answer the
questions correct/ almost correct.
e.g: Giving stars/ smile card (children)
Praising students by saying Good or
Great/
excellent and the thumb up.

Continued...
7. The law of Exercises
Practice makes Perfect
It is in line with the Principles of Communicative LT
(Johnson&Morrow (1981))

To learn something (speaking/

conversation), students must do/
practice it.
Later, it is reviced Meaningful Practice makes
Perfect- the practice should be contextual and
it provides feedback.

Continued...
8. The Law of Readiness
to make the learning is satisfying, the ss must be
ready before starting the class.
e.g: In opening the class, T gives background
knowledge of the field (BKOF) to direct
students attention to the lesson
In Reading and Listening, there is a phase
called Pre-reading and Pre-Listening, etc

Continued...
9. Response by Analogy (Gredler, 1986: 35)
L pronounces certain unfamiliar English word from
another similar word.
e.g: but, bus

share, shore
cry, try
monkey, donkey
know, knee
etc

Continued...
10. Belongingness
Provide the example of text with a context
belongs to the students.
e.g: Reading decriptive of actress/
footballers who are ss idols.

Providing authentic materials to teach students

the language.
e.g: Make use of food wrap (instant noodle)
to teach procedure text.
Those authentic materials can reinforce the
students to the direct relation between the
classroom and the outside real world and it also
offers a valuable source of language input
(Gebhard, 2000:100-102).

Thank You