P-+Behaviorism

(B.F. Skinner Foundation Web site) Originally introduced into American psychology by John B. Watson in 1913, behaviorism focused on the measurable actions rather than the thought process behind those actions. Watson argued that the study of complex mental states was difficult due to our inability to efficiently view mental processes. He suggested that a study of the behaviors is more preferable because it can be measured and observed objectively.
 * Theory of Behaviorism **

Following Watson was a series of researchers including most notably B.F. Skinner, whose extension of the theory would become known as radical behaviorism. Skinner emphasized the functional relationship between environmental stimulus and variables to that behavior it reinforces. Radical behaviorism is an experimental analysis of behavior, not a theory.

Skinner argued that by systematically observing and manipulating the environment around a learner one could observe the universal laws of learning. Skinner defined learning as the more or less permanent change in an organism over a period of time that is noticeable by external stimulus. Skinner focused completely on the quantifiable actions taken by an organism not the “thought process” that was behind those actions. Since, he argued, it was impossible to accurately measure what an organism thinks.

Key Features of Radical Behaviorism

 * Respondent Behavior: The involuntary reaction to a stimulus, a dog salivating at the smell of food.
 * Operant Behavior: Any action (behavior) performed by an organism
 * Primary Reinforcer: A reinforcement whose value is biological (food, sleep)
 * Conditional Reinforcer: A reinforcement whose value is associated with a primary reinforcer (money, snacks)
 * Training Techniques:
 * Shaping: In shaping the instructor reinforces the individual steps a student takes toward the successfully completion of the learning.
 * Chaining: In chaining the teacher is able to teach complex behaviors through the combination of pre-existing behaviors already known to the learner.
 * Discrimination Learning: In discrimination learning a behavior is set to occur in appropriate situations or stimulus, and to be punished in inappropriate ones.
 * Fading: The process of fading occurs when the “training wheels” are removed. Fading occurs when discriminative stimuli originally used to establish the behavior is slowly removed.
 * Reinforcements:
 * Positive Reinforcement: A satisfying stimulus which is granted upon a response in order to strengthen that response
 * Punishment: A dissatisfying stimulus which is placed upon a response in order to weaken the likelihood that that response will occur
 * Reinforcement Removal: The removal of a satisfying stimulus in order to weaken the likelihood that the response will occur
 * Negative Reinforcement: The removal of dissatisfying stimulus in order to strength a response
 * Reinforcement Schedules:
 * Fixed Ratio: Reinforcement occurs at set amounts of behavior responses
 * Fixed Interval: Reinforcement occurs at set times
 * Variable Ratio: Reinforcement occurs after a random number of behavior responses (usually between 5-7)
 * Variable Interval: Reinforcement occurs after a random but contained (randomly between 1 and 7 units of time; days, hours, weeks) amount of time

Theory Operation
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**Step 1: Set the learning objective (desired alteration of behavior)**
Skinner stated that organisms are constantly active, always emitting responses to environmental cues. The first step in applying radical behaviorism to a learning environment is the setting of learning objectives; also know as selecting the desired alteration or creating of a behavior. For example, teaching a child to tie their shoes could be seen as learning objective. Here the creation of a new behavior is being implemented.

**Step 2: Teaching New Behaviors**
There are several techniques that can increase the possibility of success when teaching a new behavior. These techniques can be used in combination with each other or as separate entities based on the environment of the education.


 * Shaping**: In shaping the instructor reinforces the individual steps a student takes toward the successfully completion of the learning. In our example: An instructor will begin by reinforcing the behavior of the student putting their shoes on, then reinforce the grasping of one shoe string per hand, then the looping and tying of the first knot, etc.


 * Chaining**: Chaining can be used after shaping, or used individually as a teaching technique. In chaining the teacher is able to teach complex behaviors through the combination of pre-existing behaviors already known to the learner. In our example this would be represented with the teacher showing how the tying of a shoe is actually made up of a series of simple knots used in combination to each other.


 * Discrimination Learning**: In discrimination learning a behavior is set to occur in appropriate situations or stimulus, and to be punished in inappropriate ones. In this way, a behavior is placed appropriately within the context in which it should be used correctly. In our example one could argue that tying ones shoe is appropriate with tennis or dress shoes, but not appropriate with sandals whose laces do not need to untied when taking the shoe off.

= =
 * Fading**: The process of fading occurs when the “training wheels” are removed. Fading occurs when discriminative stimuli originally used to establish the behavior is slowly removed. In our example this can be seen as the teacher no longer guiding the fingers of the student or with the student no longer having to use the historical “rabbit around the tree in the whole” rhyme while they try and tie their shoe. This is generally the last part of the teaching.

Step 3: Determine the appropriate reinforcements
Responses to environmental stimulus can be reinforced to associate a specific stimulus with a specific operant response. Skinner argued, quite rationally, a behavior is more likely to occur if it has been rewarded, or reinforced. A behavior is less likely to occur if there is a negative consequence associated with it. Each the four types of reinforcements below are best used in specific situations and environments. Skinner would explain how our aversion to punishments reinforce behaviors of productivity, "Many things ill the world are called unpleasant or punishing. We avoid or escape from them if we can. It is part of our genetic endowment that we should do so because they are biologically harmful things and should have an important role in natural selection." (non-punitive society pg. 1). In our shoe-tying example it would be appropriate to use the Positive Reinforcement (verbally rewarding the child).

Example: Giving a child to a student for a job well done. (Response Strengthened) ||= **Punishment** Example: Grounding for not doing his homework.
 * =  ||= ==**Satisfying Stimulus** == ||= ==**Aversion Stimulus** == ||
 * < ==**Stimulus presented contingent upon the Response** == ||= **Positive Reinforcement**

Can lead to learned helplessness if overused. (Response Weakened) || Example: Child has to give up TV for not doing chores last week. (Response Weakened) ||= **Negative Reinforcement** Example: Child doesn’t have to do any chores because they helped was the car. (Response Strengthened) ||
 * < ==**Stimulus removed contingent upon the Response** == ||= **Reinforcement Removal**

Step 4: Decide on a reinforcement schedule
In most situations a single reinforcement is not enough to modify or create a new behavior. Instead, a reinforcement schedule is needed to strengthen the possibility that the behavior will be repeated. A reinforcement schedule can occur consistently (fixed ratios or intervals) or intermittently (variable ratios or intervals). Each one of these schedules best fits a specific situation as seen below in the examples. For our example the Fixed Ratio schedule will work the best since the process of learning to tie a shoe is rather difficult but once learned is something that won’t require any reinforcement, since the child will likely do it by reflex after it is learned. If our example had the child doing his or her homework or taking out the trash a different interval would be needed because laziness and a desire to watch television instead could possible interfere.


 * || == **Responses** == || == **Time** == ||
 * ==**Reinforcement occurs consistently** == ||= ====**Fixed Ratio**====

Example: Child is rewarded with ice cream for performing all his/her chores ||= ====**Fixed Interval**====

Example: Child gets a weekly allowance for doing all his/her homework ||
 * ==**Reinforcement occurs intermittently** == ||= ====**Variable Ratio**====

Example: Child gets the red gumball after putting in a random amount of quarters into the machine ||= ====**Variable Interval**==== Example: Child gets to go to Chucky Cheese every few weeks so long as he did his/her homework on the day the parents decide ||

Step 5: Record results, evaluate and revise as necessary
The key to behaviorism is finding the appropriate reinforcement to create, modify, or eliminate a behavior. This requires the recording of any and all observations of the actions taken by the subject. The evaluation of the learning strategies, reinforcements, and reinforcement schedules implemented. The revision of any or all of those techniques to maximize the possibility that a change will occur may be necessary. In many situations it will become evident whether a behavior has been learned or not, for example, if a child is able to tie their shoes or not. For more subtle behaviors, like attempting to decrease the amount of student disruptions, a chart or table is a useful tool for viewing the data and assisting in any alterations that need to be made.

Behaviorism Corporate Lesson Plan
(Increasing the effectiveness of customer service e-mails)
 * Step 1: Identify of the behavior:** There are many ways in which customer service e-mails can be improved to maximize their effectiveness. Focus on one behavior at a time to make sure that it has been learned by the employee. For this lesson plan we will focus on the using of pre-written e-mail templates to quickly resolve common problems. The existence of these pre-written e-mails are known to the employees, but are not being used properly. In many cases the wrong template is being used for a situation. You are free to select another behavior and modify this lesson accordingly.


 * Step 2: Teaching/modifying/eliminating a behavior:** In this situation we will be modifying an existing behavior to increase the likelihood that it will be observable. The primary technique that will be implemented here is discriminating learning, however, shaping, chaining, and fading can all be used as well.

Send out a series of e-mails to the employees requesting that they use the appropriate template to answer them. Reward the employees who correctly respond to the e-mails with positive reinforcement by complimenting them (easy and appropriate for this situation). Be sure to explain to those who failed to respond correctly why they did so (shaping or chaining dependent upon the level of error). Continue this process intermittently until you feel confident in fading it out.


 * Step 3: Selecting reinforcement:** There will be two types of reinforcements used to reward those who are successful. Positive reinforcement given immediately after the e-mails have been assessed should be your first step. The second is negative reinforcement. As it becomes clear that the employee has learned behavior you can stop sending out these e-mail quizzes, which should make the employee very happy. For employees who struggle with learning the behavior they will be punished by a continuation of the behavior learning quizzes until they do.


 * Step 4: Deciding on a reinforcement schedule**: The best reinforcement schedule here the variable interval. You should randomly select a day every week or so to send out these e-mail quizzes. This way your employees will always be wondering when the next quiz will arrive.


 * Step 5: Record results, evaluate and revise as necessary**: The best way to evaluate the results about whether the behavior is being transferred to actual work is to perform spot checks (variable interval) on the actual e-mails sent out to costumers. While it may appear that employees are learning the behavior if they return the quizzes correctly, the behavior may not have been learned for the appropriate situation (discriminative learning) if the employees do not use it in there regular job. It is suggested that you set up a table with time on one axis and number of correctly sent e-mails on the other. Make changes to your quizzes constantly to properly reflect the scope of differentiation you might see in customer e-mails. Be sure to modify and revise according to the results you discover about individual employees, as the best stimulus for modifying a behavior can be different from employee to employee.

** Behaviorism’s importance to learning theory **
The application of behaviorism to both instruction and applied psychology can be seen in many forms. In addition, the basics of behaviorism, namely the stimulus-response-conditioned response formula, are easily visible in an even wider range of instruction theories.


 * Changing behavior thro ugh behavior modification**: Instructional difficulties such as inattentiveness, hyperactivity and temper tantrums are modified through the behavior modifications. Special education teachers as well every-day individuals can use the theories of behavior modification to alter behaviors from addictions to social problems and many other operant behaviors.


 * Management:** Behaviorism can modify the behaviors not only on an individual person-to-person basis, but can affect entire groups of individuals such as classes and offices. Through finding the appropriate reinforcement such as the promise of candy or bonuses it becomes possible to create, modify or eliminate behaviors on a wide scale.


 * Learning objectives:** There are two major benefits to learning objectives that comes from behaviorism. The first benefit is the identifying of learning objectives through the use of active, measurable behaviors. Since behaviorism does not concern itself with the mental processes behind an action, all learning objectives written by a behaviorist focus on physical actions. This concept of active learning objectives has been adopted by other learning theories. The second benefit comes from Mager in 1962. He devised a way of writing learning objectives that followed the format as follows: If the student is given X, that student should be able to solve Y. In this format the connection to the environmental stimulus and the response becomes evidently clear.


 * Contingent contracts:** In a contingent contract two individuals negotiate on the specifics of the environmental stimulus (example: doing homework) and the reinforcement (example: get to go to Disneyland). These contingent contracts can be seen in classroom, offices, and between families and friends.


 * Personalized System of Instruction (PSI):** Behaviorism argues that appropriate environmental stimulus can change from student to student, therefore requiring alteration and modification of the instruction. The following in emphasized in PSI:
 * Emphasis on individual study: The student is more responsible for completing their work
 * Self Pacing: The student works at his or her own pace
 * Unit master requirement: There are pre-determined levels of competency that must be achieved at designated points of the instruction
 * Use of proctors: The immediate need for feedback requires the presence of an instructor
 * Supplementary instructional techniques: Lecture, demonstrations, simulations and other modes of instruct should be used to supplement the use of self-study


 * Computer-based instruction:** Since measurable behaviors are the focus of behaviorism the theory lends itself well to the use of computer-based instruction. Computer-based instruction also works well with the theory of Personalized system of instruction, by allowing the student to work at his or her own pace and include constant and appropriate feedback.

Strengths for Instruction
Behaviorism is a truly powerful tool of instruction when attempting to create, modify, and eliminate behaviors on a near instinctual level. For example: most people do not want to have to think about how to tie their shoes or type the word “and” on a keyboard, they simply want to do it.

Many of the actions we perform everyday have been memorized. From stopping an annoying alarm clock, to operating a shower, to waiting for the appropriate amount of silence between pops to determine when microwave popcorn has been cooked properly (its two to three seconds by the way). None of these actions require critical thinking, and behaviorism is excellent for teaching techniques that do not require critical thinking.

In addition, it is excellent for modifying social behaviors such as acting out or inattentiveness. This is used successfully teachers, parents, peers, and complete strangers. Modification of social behaviors through the proper allocation of reinforcements, from a stern look to a time-out, is effective and easy to design. Many individuals modify the behaviors of others naturally, without the need for extensive instructional design.

Through the use of teaching machines (now called computers) behaviorism is very effective in allowing for self-teaching. According to B.F. Skinner "Self-instruction by machines has many special advantages apart from educational institutions. Home study is an obvious case. In industrial and military training it is often inconvenient to schedule students in groups, and individual instruction by machine should (is now) a feasible alternative." (Teaching Machines pg. 971)


 * When to use Behaviorism**
 * When you want to modify disruptive or anti-productive behaviors
 * Teach simple educational tasks that do not require critical thinking
 * As part of the process of creating a Personalized System of Instruction (PSI)
 * When trying to create non-critical thinking based computer instruction
 * When creating contingent contract
 * Writing active and assessable learning objectives

Weaknesses for Instruction
There are several proclaimed weaknesses of behaviorism. The first weakness is that it cannot account for the acquisition of language. Skinner argued that learning language is done like any other complex operant response. His theory came under criticism when dealing with sentences that make connections to internal mental processes. For example: How can one learn the proper use of the phrase, “I am feeling sad,” through only external environmental stimulus

The second criticism of behaviorism revolves around the question of why reinforcements function. Skinner argues that the proper reinforcement is needed to condition an organism to produce a pre-described behavior, but why do the reinforcement function in this way? A behaviorist would argue that the reinforcement is either a primary reinforcement in which case survival instinct is the primary factor, or it is a conditional reinforcement that at some point became a behavior for reinforcement at an earlier moment. This argument however is based on the mental processes of instinct, which cannot be measured according to skinner. Without a proper solution to the question of where these reinforcements gain their status as reinforcements the basis of behaviorism comes into question since it becomes reliant on unexplainable phenomenon.

The third major criticism of behaviorism is that it cannot explain intrinsic motivation. It cannot explain why a person chooses do things because they “feel like it.” From a behaviorist point of view the argument would be made that the desires or “feelings” of the individual are not the motivating factor of the behavior, but that there are hidden environmental stimulus that are not readily apparent at the time. However, this argument cannot be proven since those environmental stimuli cannot be measured.

When not to use Behaviorism

 * When you wish to teach critical thinking techniques that require extensive mental associations and thought
 * When you wish to perform a student led instructional program such one based on discovery or constructivism. However, there are steps within typical constructivist approaches that can benefit from behaviorism like setting active learning objectives
 * When teaching aspects of poetry or other forms of creative expression. Once again, there are parts of teaching creative expression that benefit from a behaviorist approach such as teaching brush techniques.

**My personal understanding of the theory**
I see the study of behaviorism as more than just a theory of the psychology of learning or an instructional theory. I see behaviorism as an over-arching theory of all learning. Regardless of the specific technique being used, behaviorism, cognitivism, or constructivism, all organisms are more likely to repeat an action if it is reinforced. I see the basic theory behind behaviorism as simple yet correct.

If you encourage an organism to take a certain action with the appropriate encouragement that organism is more likely to perform that action again. Likewise, if you discourage an action, it is less likely to occur. This is an excellent basis by which all other theories of instruction should be built. B.F. Skinner would remark of the importance of traditional instructional practices, "Nor will it suffice to replace punitive methods by "enriching" our schools with real life or by turning textbooks into non-verbal audio-visual media. There is good reason to make what is to be learned as attractive as possible, but in doing so we often deprive the student of the chance to discover that something is interesting when looked into." (New Methods pg. 1)

Both cognitivism and constructivism rely on past knowledge to function. Either with associating and assimilating it within the computer mind, or using it to solve real world problems, the reliance of past knowledge is easy to view. Behaviorism functions without the need for past knowledge, but rather relies on the body’s natural instincts (example: the need for food and water) as its basis for operation.

**Why I chose to analyze it**
I choose to analyze behaviorism because in part it seemed that it was getting bad press. We currently exist in a time of constructivism, where discovery and self-motivation rule. Unfortunately, we all exist in a time where there are so many distractions (television, cell phones, video games, movies, clubs, sporting events) that can make the process of education a difficult to maintain the interest of the students. Because of all these distractions the allure of constructivism, which relies less on the more traditional and, in truth, less interesting practices because evident. However, without the basics taught through the use of more standard behaviorist approaches, memorization of time tables, learning the rules of proper grammar, or how to convert inches to centimeters, constructivism fails to be effective because their reliance on these traditional methods that are not being emphasized as thoroughly.

This is of course most evident in K-12 education, but it can be seen in the workplace as well. Many employers are seeking faster and more streamlined training programs so that the time lost in training is minimized. This results far too often in workers learning “on the job” instead of going through more traditional training programs which hammer on the fundamentals. In this way there are more and more unqualified workers performing activities they are not properly trained to handle. Without a proper training in these fundamentals employees become less able to deal with unexpected situations, and cannot always explain why they are doing something a certain way.

This reminds me of the origin of the magic phrase Hocus Pocus. Back in the late middle ages, the Catholic clergy were taught to memorize the bible in Latin, but were not taught to read Latin. This meant that if any of their memorization was flawed they could be speaking complete gibberish. Hocus Pocus was a phrase that came out of this gibberish the untrained clergy were speaking, and the lay folk used it as a way to mock the uneducated priests.

As our society becomes more and more advanced we become less and less aware of how machines actually function. Ask most people how a television, or phone, or computer works. Most people will have either wrong information or a very vague and superficial response, “It has something to do with the motherboard.” This is a natural consequence to our microchip revolution and should not be feared. However, if this trend grows into less technical fields, such as basic math, writing, science, and history, we run the risk of having a society who can operate in our world, but cannot answer how they do so.

I am not saying that this is all due to decreased interest in behaviorism and traditional teaching techniques. Rather, the decreased interest in teaching the basics is a symptom of a much larger problem that endangers our children, and our children’s children.

**What it means for my practice**
While I am a great proponent of behaviorism, most of my teaching programs are based on more constructivist approaches. This is due to my desire to compete with the distractions of our current world. However, I use the following behaviorist techniques when:


 * 1) I design my learning objectives I always think about what actions or behaviors I want my students to be able to perform, and I write my objectives using active verbs.
 * 2) I teach in classroom situations I use all of the behaviorist reinforcements and many of the reinforcement schedules to minimize classroom disruptions in order to help the student focus on learning.
 * 3) I am teaching a new type of activity that does not have any bearing on earlier learned activities. There are completely new actions that people sometimes have to learn, actions that cannot be easily associated with past experiences.
 * 4) I want my students to memorize the specific steps or information about a topic. Especially if those steps must be followed in the proper order, and when the steps or information is important or potentially dangerous.