History of Psychology
Chapter 9
Behaviorism: Antecedent Influences
The Influence of Animal Psychology
on Behaviorism

A. Background

1. product of evolutionary theory

2. Influenced later behaviorism

3. influence of Romanes and Morgan
The Influence of Animal Psychology
on Behaviorism

B. A note on Jacques Loeb (1859-1924)


1. significant step toward objectivity in
animal psychology

2. tropism as basis for theory of animal
behavior: consciousness not necessary

Tropism: an involuntary forced movement
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

B. A note on Jacques Loeb (1859-1924)

3. Argued that animal consciousness was
revealed by associative memory

Associative memory: the animals had learned to
react to certain stimuli in a desirable way.


e.g.,Name and food
4. taught Watson at Chicago
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

rat maze
C. Rats, ants, and the animal
mind

1. Robert Yerkes
 His research strengthened
comparative psychology

2. Willard Small
 introduced the rat maze
(a standard method for the
study of learning)
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

C. Rats, ants, and the animal mind


3. Watson


a. 1903 dissertation: “Animal Education: The
Psychical Development of the White Rat"
b. 1907: discussed conscious experience of
sensation in rats
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

C. Rats, ants, and the animal mind

4. Turner


1906 paper on ant behavior
5. Washburn: The Animal Mind (1908)

a. The first comparative psychology textbook
in the US
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

C. Rats, ants, and the animal mind

6. 1906: Pavlov introduced his work on
animal psychology to U.S.

7. 1909: only 9 animal psychologists
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

C. Rats, ants, and the animal mind

8. Animal psychology: not practical, no
funding, and no employment

9. 1911: Journal of Animal Behavior (later the
Journal of Comparative Psychology)
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

D. Clever Hans, the clever
horse


Clever Hans
1. Wilhelm von Osten

a. goal: prove humans and
animals have similar mental
processes

b. animals simply lack
education
The Influence of Animal
Psychology on Behaviorism

D. Clever Hans, the clever horse



2. government investigation headed by Stumpf
3. Stumpf’s student: Pfungst
 a. experimental approach
 b. discovered Hans’s partial reinforcement
schedule
4. demonstrated value of experimental approach to
animal behavior
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

A. Thorndike’s life
 1. read James’s Principles,
later studied with James

2. planned research with
children but prohibited

Edward Lee
Thorndike

3. inspired by Morgan,
used chicks
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

4. 1898: Ph.D. from Columbia with Cattell
 a. used cats and dogs

b. "Animal Intelligence: An
Experimental Study of the Associative
Processes in Animals." (first
dissertation to use animal subjects)
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

5. research with other species (fish, cats,
and monkeys); uninterested in animal
research

6. research at Columbia for 50 years
 a. joined faculty in 1899
 b. problems in human learning
 c. foci: educational psychology and
mental testing
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

7. 1910, Founded the Journal of Educational
Psychology

8. 1912, APA president

9. Very productive. 507 items in his
bibliography
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

B. Connectionism



1. Thorndike’s approach to learning;
learning as connections between stimuli
and responses
2. direct application of philosophical
associationism

Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

B. Connectionism

3. Influenced by Romanes and Morgan:
mentalistic concepts

4. did not think high levels of consciousness
or intelligence on animals as Romanes did
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

B. Connectionism

5. after Thorndike
 a. decreasing the importance of consciousness
in animal psychology
 b. increasing use of experimental method to
study behavior

6. mechanism: behavior must be reduced to
study S-R elements
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

C. The puzzle box

1. quantitative measures of
learning (e.g., # of errors)

Cat
Food

2. trial and error learning
(Thorndike called it "trial
and accidental success"
learning)
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

D. Laws of learning

1. law of effect


2. law of exercise or law of use and disuse


Act that produce satisfaction in a given situation become
associated with that situation; when the situation recurs, the
act is likely to recur
The more an act or response is used in a given situation, the
more strongly the act become associated with that situation
3. Thorndike’s research: reward more effective than
mere repetition
Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)

E. Comment
 1. beginning the learning theory

2. The objective spirit influenced
behaviorism
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

Ivan Pavlov
A. Pavlov’s life
 1. Born in Russia

2. intended to study for
the priesthood

3. read about Darwin,
chose animal physiology
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

4. total dedication to research

5. 1890: professor of pharmacology at St.
Petersburg, Russia


6. allowed women and Jewish students to
work in his laboratory


7. 1904 Nobel Prize for work on digestion
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

B. Conditioned reflexes

1. Three research areas
 a. function of the nerves of the heart

b. primary on digestion


c. conditioned reflexes
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

2. Psychic reflexes



a. Zeitgeist: focus on mentalistic
experiences of laboratory animals
b. interpreting the animals’ mental
events in subjective and human terms
c.later, Pavlov proposed objectivism
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

B. Conditioned Reflexes

3. innate/unconditioned
reflex and conditional reflex
Food (UC)---- Salivation (UR)
Ring (CS) ---- Salivation (CS)
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

4. reinforcement necessary for learning

5. Later, extended to extinction,
spontaneous recovery, generalization,
discrimination, higher-order conditioning


6. most extensive research program since
Wundt’s
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

C. Comment on Pavlov



1. He demonstrated that higher mental
processes in animals could be described in
physiological terms without consciousness
2. His conditioning methods  broad
practical application
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

C. Comment on Pavlov

3. continued the tradition of mechanism.
All animals (include human being) were
complicated machines

4. provided psychology with a basic
element of behavior
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

C. Comment on Pavlov

5. behavior could be reduced to elements
and studied in experimental laboratory


6. agreed with James that psychology still
not a science
 a. excluded psychology from his work
 b. much later self-identified as an
experimental psychologist
The Influence of Functional
Psychology on Behaviorism

Functional Psychology

1. more objective than previous schools

2. U.S. favored the idea of objective psychology

3. Defined psychology as the science of behavior

4. Called for focus on behavior instead of
consciousness