Early Behaviorism
A non mentalistic view of
Psychology
The main founding
influences:
 Animal psychology's move from
mentalism (the Clever Hans phenomenon)
 Ivan Petrovitch Pavlov(1849-1936)
 Edward Lee Thorndike (1874-1949)
 John Broadus Watson (1878-1956)
Clever Hans
An intelligent horse?
• Clever Hans was a horse trained by
Wilhelm Von Osten, a retired mathematics
teacher
• It was established that there was no fraud
• A grad student, Oskar Pfungst,
demonstrated that the horse had been
unintentionally conditioned by its owner.
What did the horse learn?
• Clever Hans picked up
UNCONSCIOUS physical cues people
who knew the answer gave, cues to
start tapping his hoof, and cues to
stop.
• Still a pretty clever horse!
Is this how ESP works?
• Try this site: How does it work?
http://sprott.physics.wisc.edu/pickover/esp2.html#aleph1
• How does knowing this lead one to
behaviorism?
Who influenced Pavlov?
 The physiological work of William
Beaumont (1785-1853)
 An expanded concept of reflex to
explain higher functions of thinking,
willing, judging -pioneered by Sechenov
(1829-1905)
 The ideas of Descartes (1596-1650)
about reflexes
Pavlov’s work:
 Work on the digestive system. Nobel
price in 1904
 Notices “mental secretions” -anticipated
responses of the animals becoming
familiar to the setting.
 Studied these “mental secretions” -they
become what we know as “conditioned
reflex”.
Important concepts
Pavlov brought us
 The whole notion of conditioned reflex
 Concepts of generalization,
differentiation, excitation, inhibition,
higher level conditioning
 Concept of experimental neurosis
Conditioned reflex
• A neutral stimulus (ex: bell) is associated
with an stimulus (ex: food) that creates a
reflex response (ex: salivation)
• Eventually, the neutral stimulus becomes a
conditioned stimulus and triggers the
response.
• This is an EXCITATION type of
mechanism
Generalization
• The subject responds not only to the
original conditioned stimulus, but to
others that resemble it.
• This is an EXCITATION type of
mechanism
Differentiation
• Also called discrimination
• Inhibiting PART of the generalization
response so that the organism
salivates for example to tone 1, and
does not salivate to tone 2
Differentiation (2)
• The organism learns that food NEVER
follows tone 2, so it INHIBITS its
conditioned response to it.
• This is an INHIBITION mechanism
Experimental neurosis
• Start with a normal differentiation
between, for example two tones.
• Make the differentiation more and more
refined so that the difference between
tone1 and tone2 is smaller and smaller
• When the organism can no longer tell the
difference between tone1 and tone2,
experimental neurosis results (after a
time)
Why experimental
neurosis?
• Because of the conflict between the
EXCITATION process and the
INHIBITION process.
• (Similar conditions can be created
with other kinds of conflict: ex:
approach-avoidance)
Applications?
Pavlov today?
• Visit the Pavlov Institute of
Physiology in Russia
Edward Lee Thorndike
(1874-1949)
• Started in animal psychology,
studying puzzle boxes
• Then applied the principles to human
learning
Who influenced Thorndike?
• William James (read him, studied
under him, James even hosted his
chicks)
• McKeen Cattell drew him to Columbia
where he continued his research
• After graduation, applied his
research to educational psychology
Cats, chicks and
puzzleboxes
Puzzle boxes
• First random behaviors
• Certain connections get stamped in or
stamped out depending upon their
consequences
• The time required to solve the
problem decreases as trials progress.
Laws of learning
• Law of effect.
 An act with produces comfort is more
likely to recur when the situation recurs.
The opposite is true for an act that
produces discomfort
• Law of exercise
 The more often a response is used in a
situation, the stronger the connection
More about Thorndike
• A Thorndike site:
•
http://www.psy.pdx.edu/PsiCafe/KeyTheorists/Thorndike.htm
Thorndike's timeline
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1874 The birth of Edward Lee Thorndike
1897 Applied for graduate program at Columbia University
1898 Awarded his doctorate
1899 Instructor in Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia
1905 Formalized the Law of Effect
1911 Published "Animal Intelligence"
1912 Elected President of American Psychological Association
1917 One of the first psychologist admitted to the National Academy of
Sciences
1921 Ranked #1 as an American Men of Science.
1934 Elected President of the American Association for the
Advancement of Science
1939 Retired
1949 Thorndike died
John B. Watson (18781958)
Who influenced Watson?
 Reacts against Wundt and James -and their
followers such as John Dewey-- though he
studied at the U. of Chicago
 Infuenced by Loeb (tropisms) and Henry
Donaldson (white rat neurology) -studied the
myelinization of white rat nervous system &
consequent changes in the complexity of their
behavior.
 Pavlov
Watson's career
• Started at the U. of Chicago
• Then went to John Hopkins for the
next 12 years (1908-1920)
• Was fired because of an affair w/
Rosemarie Rayner (married her later)
• Went into advertising and did very
well there
Watson’s main contributions
 Official founder of behaviorism as an
independent and valid approach to psychology
 Is a radical behaviorist
 Introduces the notion of conditioned emotional
response (little Albert)
 Peter (Mary Cover Jones): precursor to
behavioral therapy
 Three emotions: fear, rage, love -all emotional
life built on those
 Applies this to advertising
The End