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Compare behaviourist and cognitive explanations of learning, using evidence and
examples from both fields.
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In order to compare behaviourist and cognitive explanations of learning it seems crucial that
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both should be described first and a little history given. This essay will focus initially on how
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both schools of thought came about and how both have developed over the years before
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moving on to compare and contrast the two explanations of learning.
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Behaviourism developed at the beginning of the 20th century whereas cognition came later
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between the 1950’s and 1970’s. Behaviourism developed because psychologists were
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frustrated with the state of psychology at the time. They felt particularly constricted by the
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continuous use of the introspective method, which in their view did not allow them the
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freedom to adopt objective and effective research. They wanted psychology to become a
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respected true science and developed the idea that only observable behaviour should be
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measured rather than the mental workings behind them (Hayes, 1978). Psychologists such as
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Pavlov and Skinner have played a major part in the development of behaviourism. The
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research and findings of both of these psychologists will be discussed later in the essay.
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Just as behaviourists had felt constricted by the position of psychology during the early 20th
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century so too did psychologists during the 1960’s feel unhappy with the narrow viewpoint of
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the behaviourists. Psychologists began to think that it was impossible to explain human
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behaviour based purely on observable events. They believed it was vital to include the human
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mind to be able to understand how humans perceived the world around them (Rathus, 2001).
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This desire to studying the mind brought about the ‘cognitive revolution’ in the 1960’s when
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scientists in other fields began investigating mental processes (Hunt, 2001).
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A black box model can be used to illustrate the key difference between behavioural and
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cognitive psychology. The black box is viewed as the human being or the mind, which
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receives inputs (stimuli) and emits outputs (responses). Behaviourists believe that the black
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box cannot be opened and should be ignored, and that objectively observing the inputs and
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outputs outside of the box is far more important. Cognitive psychology, on the other hand, is
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concerned with both looking inside the black box as and observing the inputs and outputs.
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In 1927 Pavlov discovered that reflexes could be learned or conditioned. In his famous study
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of classical conditioning using, he found that dog would salviate at unexpected times even
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before food had been placed in their mouth. A dog presented with food (unconditioned
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stimuli- US) will per reflex start to salivate (Unconditioned Response -UR). However, he
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showed that when pairing the food (unconditioned stimulus) with a neutral stimulus such as a
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bell (US), the bell would eventually become a Conditioned Stimuli (CS) which on its own
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cause salivation (Conditioned Response, CR).
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Classical conditioning has become a universally accepted theory of learning but behaviourist
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and cognitive psychologists would explain this concept in different ways. Cognitive
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psychologists would suggest that classical conditioning is a simple method of learning
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relationships that link events. They say that organisms interpret all the data then process it in
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order to make predictions and decisions. Therefore, the dog heard the bell and mentally
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connected it with the arrival of the food. In essence the bell provided information to the dog
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about what was going to happen next. Behaviourists would argue that the dog did not ‘know’
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that the food was on its way. The dog only salivated because the bell had been paired with the
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food – because it the bell and the food were contiguous. The view that all living beings learn
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to associate stimuli because they are contiguous is a key behaviourist explanation of learning.
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However, research by Garcia and Koelling (1966) on taste aversion challenges this
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behaviourist view. Garcia et al conditioned two groups of rats with three stimuli – sweetened
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water, a light and a clicker. One group was then presented with an unconditioned stimulus of
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nausea caused by poison or radiation while the other group was presented with an
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unconditioned stimulus of an electric shock. Following this conditioning, the rats that had
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been nauseated showed aversion to the sweetened water but showed no aversion to the light
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or the clicker. The other group of rats who had been shocked showed an aversion to the light
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and the clicker but not to the sweetened water (Rosenzweig, Breedlove & Leiman, 2002).
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Although both groups of rats had been exposed to all three stimuli and each one could have
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been thought of as the cause of the painful shock or the nausea, the rats associated the pain or
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the nausea with the most appropriate source. This finding shows some kind of logical thought
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process behind the aversion – not simply a behaviour following a stimulus. The rats paired the
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nausea or the pain with the most obvious cause not just because it was contiguous.
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The difference between behaviourism and cognitive schools of thought can also be shown in
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operant conditioning. Skinner provides the well-known example of operant conditioning. He
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set up an animal cage where a rat was placed inside and deprived of food until eventually it
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learned by accident that pressing a lever released a food pellet into the cage. The food was
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termed a positive reinforcer and encouraged the rat to press the lever again. If pressing the
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lever had led to something bad such as a shock the rat would avoid pressing it again because
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the effect would have been negative hence the term negative reinforcer.
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Behaviourists would view operant conditioning as a simple form of learning whereby
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behaviour can be controlled by the positive or negative effect it has. Although the terms
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reward and punishment are often used synonymously with the terms negative and positive
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reinforcers Skinner disliked the idea of these terms because he believed that they (reward and
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punishment) suggested trying to look inside the black box of an organism which is strictly
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against the behaviourist viewpoint. Cognitive psychologists would say that a human forms an
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idea or belief about things that are wrong or right through experience and conscious decisions
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to repeat or not to repeat a certain type of behaviour depending on what type of effect it had
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last time. Cognitivists would argue that behaviour is learned by knowledge of what is
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appropriate and is not as suggested by behaviourists simply a learned automatic response.
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During the time when behaviourism was the key concept in psychology Tolman was
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conducting experiments showing how complex cognitive processes were taking place even in
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the minds of rats. His study involving rats looking for food in a maze made him conclude that
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the animals were developing a set of spatial relationships – cognitive ‘maps’ rather than just
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learning a chain of responses (Hock, 2002). Tolman believed that far more could be
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understood about the nature of learning through examining internal mental process as well as
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the observable stimuli and responses.
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Classical and operant conditioning are considered to be relatively basic explanations of
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learning. Much of conditioning’s attraction is that it meets the behaviourist viewpoint in that
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it can be measured and explained objectively using in most cases laboratory conditions.
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However, many psychologists find that conditioning is far too mechanical and lacks quality
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when trying to explain all learning processes (Hayes, 1978). Cognitive psychology is guided
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by developments in a number of different fields from Psycholinguistics to Anthropology.
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Behaviourism has contributed a great deal to psychology especially to the study of learning,
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for example Skinner developed an educational method called programmed learning in which
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difficult tasks are broken down into simple steps, each of which is reinforced. Yet it could be
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said that behaviourism neglected to research things that involved complex thought processes
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such as language acquisition and problem solving (Hayes, 1978). Cognitive psychologists
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have contributed such concepts as mental structures and templates. Cognitive Psychologists
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such as Asch have played a huge part in our understanding of the human mind with concepts
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such as schemas upon which now rests the foundations of cognitive psychology.
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In conclusion, both behaviourist and cognitive schools of thought have played a major part in
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our understanding of how organisms learn. However, both have their limitations.
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Behaviourism, through concentrating solely on observable behaviour, lost much of its
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relevance to human problems and is sometimes condemned for its triviality. Cognitive
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psychology has been criticised for neglecting the role of emotions in human learning and
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behaviour but at least cognitive psychology recognises the need to look inside the black box
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in order to be able to understand how organisms function and learn.
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Reference List.
Anderson, J. R (2000) Learning and Memory – An Intergrated Approach.
New York, USA: John Wiley & Sons
Baddeley, A (1997) Human Memory – Theory and Practice.
Sussex: Psychology Press
Hayes, J. R (1978) Cognitive Psychology – Thinking and Creating.
Illinois, USA: The Dorsey Press
Hock, R. (2002) Forty Studies that Changed Psychology.
New Jersey, USA: Prentice Hall
Hunt, M. (1994) The story of psychology.
New York: Anchor Books.
Rathus, S (2001) Essentials of Psychology
Orlando, USA: Harcourt College Publishers.
Rosenzweig, M. Breedlove, M. & Leiman, A (2002) Biological Psychology
Sunderland, USA: Sinauer Associates