Early Behaviorism:Pavlov, Watson and Guthrie (Chapter 2)

Vengertsev Dmitry

Agenda Goals:

What classical conditioning is Emotions might be learned Similarities and differences among Pavlov, Watson and Guthrie

Early Psychophysics I. Pavlov: Classical conditioning and its phenomena J. Watson: Behaviorism, Emotional Learning E. Guthrie: One-shot learning theory

First Steps of Psychophysics W. James: Introspection is the self-observation and

reporting of conscious inner thoughts, desires and sensations.

Scientific approach: Psychophysics W. Wundt, G. Fechner tried to

find absolute threshold for

each sense – least amount

of stimulation required for

sensation M. Weber law: noticeable

difference are a constant proportion

of a stimulus

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov Profound influence on

development psychology

Classical conditioning

is a form of associative learning unconditioned stimulus (US)

+ unconditioned response (UR)

conditioned stimulus (CS)

+ conditioned response (CR)

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning Theory Two different explanation of Learning:

Contiguity – for behavior to change it’s sufficient that two events be paired

Reinforcement – an effect that leads to learning (such as satisfaction of hunger) (details in Chapter 3)

Phenomena in Classical Conditioning Learning curve

Extinction and Recovery conditioned associations are

remarkably durable spontaneous recovery (after

some period of time) Generalization

salvation at wide range of tones

John Broadus Watson

Profoundly influenced by Pavlov’s model of classical conditioning

Revolutionize American psychology

Behaviorism – observable aspects of behavior. It’s real goal is to provide the basis of control of human beings

Emotional Learning

Watson’s Environmentalism

Behaviorism Before Watson: Behaviorism is a study of the

phenomena of consciousness Watson: consciousness is an irrelevant

concept. Behaviorists tried to limit psychology to the study of actual, observable behavior

The main goals of behaviorism: to provide the basis for the prediction and control

of human beings to derive laws to explain the relationships existing

among stimuli, responses and consequential conditions (reward, punishment)

Emotional Learning Little Albert

11-month-old boy At the beginning showed no fear to great variety of

objects and people Everyday among other things he was given white rat

toy Touched white rat – loud sound. Albert didn’t cried, he

tried again and again – each time was loud sound A week later procedure was repeated. Rat and the

loud sound were combined for 5 more times Albert behavior change dramatically

Watson’s environmentalism

Are humans primarily product of genetic makeup or are they developed according environment?

He was convinced that there are no individual differences at birth, people is function of their experience

Very popular ides in the United States at that time

Watson’s behaviorism

Exaggerating role of learning in determining the behavior and underemphasizing the role of heredity

He was more of a spokesman for behaviorism than a researcher

He popularized notion of environmental experiences

Edwin R. Guthrie

Theory consisted of only a single law:

“When organism does something in one occasion, it will tend to do exactly the same thing if the occasion repeats itself”.

He claims that the full strength of the bond between stimulus and response is reached during the first pairing

Habits breaking Fatigue Technique

Threshold technique

Method of Incompatible Stimuli

Thank you!