Watson (1878-1958)
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up and
I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select-- doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."(Watson, 1930)

We are born as “blank slates” (tabula rasa)
All we have at birth is the capacity to learn
All behaviour is learned from the environment
Focus of the approach: observable behaviour

Stimulus :
Any change in the environment that an organism registers.
Response :
Any behaviour that the organism emits as a consequence of a stimulus.
Reflex:
A consistent connection between a stimulus and a response.

This famous experiment made the concept of the conditioned reflex widespread. Pavlov examined the rate of salivation among dogs when presented with food. He noticed the dogs would salivate upon seeing their food, so he began ringing a bell every time the food was presented to the dogs.
Over time, the dogs began to associate the ringing of the bell with food and would salivate upon hearing the bell, demonstrating that reflexes can be learned.
Pavlov’s Dog

Dog hears the lab technician
That’s a reflex
What’s going on?

How does it work?
Before conditioning
During conditioning
Pairing
After conditioning
Bell: Neutral stimulus (NS)
Food: unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Salivation: unconditioned Response (UCR)
Bell: Neutral stimulus (NS)
Food: unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Salivation: unconditioned Response (UCR)
Bell: Conditioned stimulus (CS)
Salivation: Conditioned response (CR)

A child is afraid of spiders. One day he is in a lift and notices a spider. Now he is afraid of lifts.
Neutral stimulus (NS)?
Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)?
Unconditioned response (UCR)?
Conditioned stimulus (CS)?
Conditioned response(CR)?

The Little Albert experiment is like the human equivalent of Pavlov’s dogs. Probably one of the most unethical psychological studies of all time, this experiment conducted in 1920 by John B. Watson and his partner Rosalie Rayner at Johns
Hopkins University conditioned a nine-month-old boy to develop irrational fears. Watson began by placing a white rat in front of the infant, who showed no fear at first.
He then produced a loud sound by striking a steel bar with a hammer every time little Albert touched the rat. After a while, the boy began to cry and exhibit signs of fear every time the rat appeared in the room.
Watson also created similar conditioned reflexes with other common animals and objects until
Albert feared them all, proving that classical conditioning works on humans.
Little Albert

Ratatouille is hungry and perform various exploratory behaviours
I’ll do that again
By chance he presses the lever
A pellet of food appears!

Reinforcement :
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated
Positive reinforcement :
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences that are pleasant when they happen i.e. food for
Ratatouille
Negative reinforcement :
Anything which has the effect of increasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences that are pleasant when they stop
Punishment :
Anything which has the effect of decreasing the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated by using consequences that are unpleasant when happen

• When and how often we reinforce a behaviour can have a significant impact on the strength and rate of the response.
2 types of schedules
• Continuous reinforcement : the desired behaviour is reinforced every single time it occurs.
• Partial reinforcement : the response is reinforced only part of the time.

1.
Fixed ratio schedules : the response is reinforced only after a specified number of responses.
2.
Variable-ratio schedules occur when a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses.
3.
Fixed-interval schedules the first response is rewarded only after a specified amount of time has elapsed
4.
Variable-interval schedules occur when a response is rewarded after an unpredictable amount of time has passed.

imitation

1. Attention to the role model
2. Retention of the observed behaviour
3. Reproduction of the target behaviour
4. Motivation to imitate the observed behaviour

Vicarious reinforcements
What???
Observe behaviour being reinforced in other people

The Bobo Doll Experiment
During the 1960s, much debate arose about how genetics, environmental factors, or social learning shaped children’s development. Albert Bandura conducted the
Bobo Doll Experiment in 1961 to prove that human behavior stemmed from social imitation rather than inherited genetic factors. He set up three groups: one was exposed to adults showing aggressive behavior towards a Bobo doll, another was exposed to a passive adult playing with the
Bobo doll, and the third formed a control group. The results showed that children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to exhibit aggressive behavior towards the doll themselves, while the other groups showed little imitative aggressive behavior.

• Does this account for the way you learn?
• Does this explain gender development?
• Can this be applied to everyday life? i.e. Some of your behaviour and your teacher’s behaviour?
• Tomorrow bring to class in writing one way you have learned by; Classical Conditioning,
Operant Conditioning, imitation, Vicarious
Reinforcement.