Module 1

Session Overview

  • Covered three major behavioral learning theories and their applications
    • Classical Conditioning (Pavlov & Watson)
    • Little Albert study
    • Therapeutic uses (systematic desensitization, aversion therapy)
    • Operant Conditioning (Thorndike & Skinner)
    • Classroom / behavior‐management strategies
    • Token economy systems
    • Observational Learning (Bandura)
    • Bobo-doll study
  • Evaluated strengths & limitations of behaviorist approaches

What Is Learning?

  • Relatively permanent change in behaviour, capability, or attitude acquired through experience
    • Excludes temporary mood/illness effects and changes caused by brain damage or malnutrition
  • Closely linked with the Behaviourist school (focus on observable acts)
  • Simple definition: “The process of changing behavior as a result of experience.”

Behaviourism – Basic Principles

  • Studies only observable, quantifiable behaviours → amenable to scientific testing
  • Internal events (thoughts, feelings) considered irrelevant for explanation
  • Humans viewed as complex animals; animal data generalise to people

Classical Conditioning

Discovery & Definition

  • Discovered by Ivan Pavlov during digestion research on dogs
  • Learning through association: A neutral stimulus becomes able to elicit a response after pairing with a stimulus that naturally evokes it

Key Elements

  • Reflex: involuntary response (e.g., eye blink)
  • Neutral Stimulus (NS): elicits no relevant response before learning
  • Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): naturally triggers response without learning
  • Unconditioned Response (UCR): unlearned, automatic reaction to UCS
  • Conditioned Stimulus (CS): former NS that now elicits response after pairing
  • Conditioned Response (CR): learned reaction to CS (same form as UCR but triggered by different stimulus)

Pavlov’s Dog Example

  • Before: Meat (UCS) → Salivation (UCR); Bell (NS) → No response
  • During: Bell + Meat pairings
  • After: Bell (now CS) → Salivation (CR)
  • \text{UR = CR (salivation), US = meat, CS = bell}

Processes After Acquisition

  • Extinction: CR weakens when CS appears without UCS repeatedly
  • Spontaneous Recovery: extinguished CR re-emerges (weaker) after rest
  • Generalization: stimuli similar to CS elicit CR (dog salivates to buzzer)
  • Discrimination: organism learns to respond only to specific CS (growling vs. wagging dog)
  • Higher-Order Conditioning: new NS becomes CS by pairing with existing CS (coffee-shop example; squeaky cabinet ➜ can-opener ➜ food)

Watson & Rayner’s Little Albert (Learning to Fear)

  • 11-month-old showed no innate fear of white rat
  • Conditioning procedure: Rat (NS) + loud noise (UCS) → fear (UCR)
  • After pairings: Rat became CS → fear (CR)
  • Generalized fear to other furry objects (rabbit, Santa mask)
    • Demonstrated conditioned emotional response & generalization

Everyday Applications

  • Advertising: pair product with positive emotions, celebrities, storytelling, repeated logos/slogans; Nike associates swoosh with “Just Do It” motivation
  • Brand rituals: e.g., morning coffee
  • Aversion Therapy: pair unwanted behaviour with unpleasant stimulus (nausea drug, shock, aversive images) to curb addictions / self-harm
  • Learned Helplessness (Seligman): repeated unavoidable aversive events produce passive resignation; dogs failed to escape shock even when possible; parallels to depression & academic failure

Operant Conditioning

Foundations

  • Edward Thorndike’s Law of Effect: behaviours followed by satisfying consequences are more likely to recur; behaviours with unpleasant consequences are less likely
  • B.F. Skinner extended work → focused on consequences as determinants of voluntary behaviour; used “operant chambers” (Skinner boxes) with levers/keys, food dispensers, recording devices

Core Concepts

  • Voluntary behaviour controlled by consequences
    • Reinforcement → increases behaviour frequency
    • Punishment → decreases behaviour
  • Reinforcers
    • Primary: innate biological value (food, water, pain relief)
    • Secondary: acquire value via learning (money, tokens, praise)
  • Four Contingencies (with typical shorthand)
    • Positive Reinforcement (PR): add pleasant stimulus to increase behaviour (joke → laughter → tell more jokes)
    • Negative Reinforcement (NR): remove unpleasant stimulus to increase behaviour (alarm stops when homework done)
    • Positive Punishment (PP): add unpleasant stimulus to decrease behaviour (extra homework after interrupting)
    • Negative Punishment (NP): remove pleasant stimulus to decrease behaviour (lose driving privileges for curfew)
  • Extinction in OC: behaviour declines when reinforcement stopped (rat stops pressing lever when no food)
  • Stimulus Control / Discrimination: behaviour occurs in presence of specific cues only (ask favour when roommate in good mood)
  • Generalization: transfer of learned behaviour to similar contexts (politeness generalized; or prejudice after single bad encounter)
  • Shaping: reinforce successive approximations toward desired behaviour (teaching table manners; training animals)

Practice Examples (answers in brackets)

  • Rubin’s joke → laughter (PR)
  • Janette loses car access (NP)
  • Loud alarm removed by doing homework (NR)
  • Extra spelling homework after interruption (PP)

Behaviour Modification & Applications

  • Parents/teachers: sticker charts, time-outs
  • Therapists: shaping job skills for adults with intellectual disability, self-care for mental illness
  • Token Economies: tokens exchanged for privileges; widely used in classrooms, psychiatric wards, workplaces
  • Workplace “gamification,” behaviour contracts, extinction of aggressive acts

Cognitive & Social Learning Approaches

Cognitive Insight

  • Some learning requires mental representations (e.g., driving) — emphasizes information processing beyond stimulus–response

Social / Observational Learning (Bandura)

  • People learn by observing, retaining, and reproducing others’ behaviours, especially when models are rewarded
  • Bobo-doll study: children imitated aggressive or gentle treatment of doll depending on adult model
  • Assumes active construction of knowledge; observers not passive
  • Example of media influence: Sopranos dismemberment episode inspired real-life crime (imitation of televised violence)

Key Processes (ARRM)

  1. Attention – notice model’s behaviour (children watch chef to cook dhal)
  2. Retention – store memory (notes ingredients, sequence)
  3. Motor Reproduction – physical ability & resources to perform (gather utensils, replicate techniques)
  4. Motivation – desire/expectancy of reward (enjoy meal, praise, pride)

Applications

  • Classroom modelling & peer tutoring
  • Health campaigns show negative consequences of risky acts
  • Workplace mentorship for skill acquisition

Strengths of Behaviourism

  • Generates clear, testable predictions → rigorous lab methods
  • Behaviour easily observed & measured → quantitative data
  • Wide practical utility: therapies (systematic desensitization), behaviour analysis, token economies, intensive interventions for autism, classroom management

Limitations of Behaviourism

  • Neglects mediational processes (thoughts, feelings, expectations)
  • Ignores biological influences (e.g., hormones, genetics)
  • Highly deterministic: portrays behaviour as fully environment-controlled, minimizing free will; ethical concerns for justice & rehab
  • Over‐reliance on lab experiments → low ecological validity
  • Reductionist: simplifies complex human actions to S–R links

Determinism Debate

  • Behaviourism’s claim that free will is illusion aids scientific control but implies individuals lack responsibility & capacity for change (implications for addiction treatment, criminal justice)

Recap & Integration

  • Three behavioural learning types interrelate:
    • Classical conditioning shapes involuntary emotional/physiological reactions.
    • Operant conditioning governs voluntary actions via consequences.
    • Observational learning allows acquisition without direct experience.
  • Understanding mechanisms enables targeted interventions (therapy, education, marketing).
  • Awareness of limits (cognition, biology, ethics) encourages balanced, integrative psychological models.