Behavioral Psychology Overview

Behavioral Learning Theory

• Key figures include Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, and B.F. Skinner.
• Pavlov's Classical Conditioning (1897): Learning involves environmental interaction. A neutral stimulus is followed by a naturally occurring reflex, eventually creating a learned response.
• Pavlov's example: dogs associating a bell (neutral stimulus) with food (unconditioned stimulus), leading to salivation (unconditioned response) even in response to just the bell (conditioned response).
• Unconditioned stimulus: Naturally triggers a response (food).
• Unconditioned response: Natural automatic response (salivation).
• Conditioned stimulus: Previously neutral stimulus that, after association, now triggers a response (bell).
• Conditioned response: Learned response to a previously neutral stimulus (salivation).
• Key elements of Classical Conditioning: Acquisition, Extinction, and Generalization.

Acquisition

• Requires associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Repeated reinforcement strengthens the learned response.

Extinction

• Weakening or disappearance of a learned response.
• Requires the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (the reinforcer).

Generalization

• Learned response to stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.
• Example: Albert's fear generalized from white rats to other white objects.

John B. Watson

• Little Albert Experiment (1920): Demonstrated that emotional responses can be learned and unlearned).
• Emphasized objectivity, scientific methodology, and the primacy of learning and environmental influences in shaping behavior.
• Believed innate instincts could be modified by experience.

B.F. Skinner (Operant Conditioning, 1937)

• Operant conditioning emphasizes learning through consequences of behavior.
• Reinforcement (reward) increases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
• Punishment decreases the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
• Believed observable behavior, rather than internal mental events, was the focus of study.
• He found that schedules of reinforcement influence behavior differently.

Schedules of Reinforcement

• Continuous Reinforcement: Rapid learning but quick extinction if reinforcement stops.
• Fixed-Ratio: Specific number of responses leads to reinforcement; high response rate.
• Fixed-Interval: Reinforcement after a set amount of time; moderate response rate.
• Variable-Ratio: Reinforcement after a variable number of responses; very high response rate, high resistance to extinction.
• Variable-Interval: Reinforcement after a variable amount of time; moderate to high response levels.
• Skinner Box: Instrumental conditioning is demonstrated in experiments with rats or other animals.

Three Types of Responses

• Neutral operants do not effect the likelihood of a behavior being repeated.
• Reinforcers increase the probability that a behavior will be repeated.
• Punishers decrease the probability that a behavior will be repeated.

ABC Analysis of Behavior

• Antecedent (prior event), Behavior (action or reaction), Consequence.

ABA techniques

• Shaping, Chaining, and Prompting.

Shaping

• Gradual alteration of behavior through rewards for successive approximations of the desired behavior.

Chaining

• Breaking a task into smaller components, teaching each component, and then chaining them together.

Prompting

• Cue to trigger the desired response (verbal, visual).

Total Task Chaining

• Teaches all steps of a task in a single session.
• Aids mastery of entire sequence with reinforcement and guidance.
• Forward Chaining (teaching steps sequentially) and Backward Chaining (teaching steps in reverse order).

Examples of behaviors that can be shaped or chained

• Baking cookies.
• Washing hands.
• Riding a bicycle.
• Assembling a puzzle.
• Planting a seed.