CLARK LEONARDO HULL

1884-1952

HULL
BACKGROUND
Born

1884 in Akron NY Graduated U. of Michigan in 1913 Ph.D. U. of Wisconsin 1918 1929-1952 Professor of Psychology at Yale Died 1952
Developed

Hypothetico-Deductive

System

HULLS APPROACH TO THEORIZING

His

approach to theory construction has been called HYPOTHETICAL DEDUCTION (logical deductive). has a logical structure of postulates and theorems. general statements about behaviour that cannot be directly verified.

Theory

Postulates-are

HULLS APPROACH TO THEORIZING

From the postulates, theorems are generated. Theorems are deduced from the postulates. Theorems can be tested.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS (1943)

POSTULATE 1: Sensing the external environment and the stimulus trace.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 2: The interaction of sensory impulses.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 3: unlearned behaviour.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE

4: Contiguity and drive reduction as necessary conditions for learning.

HABIT STRENGTH
Refers

to the strength of the association between a stimulus and a response. the number of reinforced pairings between a stimulus and a response goes up, the habit strength of that association goes up.

As

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GAINS IN

HABIT STRENGTH AND SUCCESSIVE
REINFORCEMENTS

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE

5: Stimulus generalization.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 6: stimuli associated with drives.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 7: Reaction potential as a function of drive and habit strength.

REACTION POTENTIAL

Is a function of both HABIT STRENGTH and DRIVE. For a learned response to occur, HABIT STRENGTH has to be activated by DRIVE.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 8: Responding causes fatigue, which operates against the elicitation of a conditioned response.

REACTIVE INHIBITION
REMINISCENCE

EFFECT: the improvement of performance following the cessation of practice.

VERSUS DISTRIBUTED PRACTICE: when training trials are spaced far apart performance is superior compared to massed practice.

MASSED

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE

10: FACTORS TENDING TO INHIBIT A LEARNED RESPONSE CHANGE FROM MOMENT TO MOMENT.

OSCILLATION EFFECT
A

factor operating against the elicitation of a learned response, whose effect varies from moment to moment but always operates within a certain range of values. oscillation effect must be subtracted from the effective reaction potential which creates the MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL.

The

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 11: MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL MUST EXCEED A CERTAIN VALUE BEFORE A LEARNED RESPONSE CAN OCCUR.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 11: MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL MUST EXCEED A CERTAIN VALUE BEFORE A LEARNED RESPONSE CAN OCCUR.

This is called the REACTION THRESHOLD.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 12:THE PROBABILITY THAT A LEARNED RESPONSE WILL BE MADE IS A COMBINED FUNCTION OF THE MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL, THE OSCILLATION EFFECT, AND THE REACTION THRESHOLD.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE

13: THE GREATER THE VALUE OF THE MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL THE SHORTER THE LATENCY WILL BE THE LATENCY BETWEEN S AND R.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 14: THE VALUE OF THE MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL WILL DETERMINE RESISTANCE TO EXTINCTION.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 15: THE AMPLITUDE OF A CONDITIONED RESPONSE VARIES DIRECTLY WITH THE MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL.

MAJOR THEORETICAL CONCEPTS

POSTULATE 16: WHEN TWO OR MORE INCOMPATIBLE RESPONSES TEND TO BE ELICITED IN THE SAME SITUATION, THE ONE WITH THE GREATEST MOMENTARY EFFECTIVE REACTION POTENTIAL WILL OCCUR.

MAJOR DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HULLS 1943 AND 1952 THEORIES

INCENTIVE MOTIVATION (K): In 1943, Hull treated the magnitude of reinforcement as a learning variable. The greater the amount of drive reduction, the greater the increase in habit strength. However, experiments indicated that performance was dramatically altered as the size of reinforcement was varied after learning was complete.

HULL (1952)
STIMULUS-INTENSITY

DYNAMISM (V):

An

intervening variable that varies along with the intensity of the external stimulus (S). greater the intensity of a stimulus, the greater the probability that a learned response will be elicited.

The

CHANGE FROM DRIVE REDUCTION TO DRIVE STIMULUS REDUCTION

Hulls

original theory was a drive reduction theory but he modified this to a drive stimulus reduction. concluded that drive reduction was too far removed from the presentation of the reinforcer to explain how learning could take place.

He

Replaced

it with DRIVE STIMULI.

FRACTIONAL ANTEDATING GOAL RESPONSE

One of Hulls most important concepts. related to secondary reinforcement.

Maze learning example

FRACTIONAL ANTEDATING GOAL RESPONSE

It

is the conditioned response to stimuli, experienced prior to the ingestion of food. classical conditioning processes, stimuli prior to those occurring in the goal box to also become reinforcers, and then the stimuli before them, and so on.

via

HULLS FINAL SYSTEM SUMMARIZED

THERE

ARE THREE KINDS OF VARIABLES IN HULLS THEORY: independent variables, which are stimulus events systematically manipulated by the experimenter.

1.

HULLS FINAL SYSTEM SUMMARIZED

2.

Intervening variables, which are processes thought to be taking place within the organism but are not directly observable. Dependent variables, which are some aspect of behaviour that is measured by the experimenter in order to determine whether the independent variables had any effect.

3.

SUMMARY OF HULLS THEORY OF LEARNING AFTER 1952

EVALUATION OF HULLS THEORY

No theory has been more thoroughly scrutinized, attacked, and dissembled more than Hulls.

CONTRIBUTIONS

One strength was the possibility of falsifying its various propositions. He was willing to take risks in theory construction. The drive reduction hypothesis was the first attempt to break from the imprecise definitions of satisfiers/reinforcers that characterized both Thorndikes and Skinners theories. He was also the first to make precise predictions about joint effects of learning and drive on behaviour and about the effects of fatigue (reactive and conditioned inhibition).

CRITICISMS

Little value in predicting behaviour outside of the laboratory. Insisting that all concepts of interest be operationally defined. For making inconsistent predictions. Hull did not revise his theory enough in the face of problematic data and may have ignored many contradictory results.

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