Animal Behavior behaviorists

who are the behaviorists?

• Ivan Pavlov

• John B. Watson

• Edward Thorndike

• B.F. Skinner

Ivan Pavlov

classical conditioning

classical conditioning

animal learns to associate stimulus that had no meaning with stimulus that has lots of meaning to elicit particular response

John B. Watson

• established psychological school of behaviorism

• emphasis on external behavior and reactions to situations

• little albert experiment- conditioned phobias into little child

the Kerplunk experiment

• conducted by John B watson

• objective: can you turn voluntary motor responses into a conditioned response

• conclusion: yes

Edward Thorndike

• behavior changes because of its consequences

• instrumental learning: animals learn through interaction with environment

B.F. Skinner

operant conditioning: use of reinforcement to strengthen behavior and punishment to weaken behavior

Niko Tinbergen

• in between behaviorist and ethologist

• won nobel peace prize along with Konrad Lorenz and Karl Von Frisch

Tinbergen’s Four Questions

1. what is the function of the behavior? (goal)

2. what is the mechanism of the behavior? (cause)

3. how does the behavior develop? (ontogeny)

4. how does the behavior evolve? (phylogeny)