Learning: A Lesson on
Behaviorism
Psychology
Unit 2: Learning
Grade Level: 11th and 12th
Kyle Muntzinger
Objectives
• The main objective for this lesson is to
instruct the students about learning and
behaviorism, a psychology school of
thought.
• In this lesson the students will be taught
the terms and the perspectives that are
involved with Behaviorism and Learning.
Materials
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Computer
TV and VCR
Paper
Pencil
LCD projector
Screen
Bells and Straws
Student Activities
• Video: Discovering Psychology
– By Philip Zimbardo
• Watch Video #8
– Learning
Prominent researchers — Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson,
and Skinner — have greatly influenced today’s
thinking about how learning takes place. This
program examines the basic principles of classical and
operant conditioning elaborated by these renowned
figures.
Unit #2: Learning
• Learning:
– to gain knowledge or
understanding of or skill in
by study, instruction, or
experience
Conditioning
• Conditioning= Learning
– Stimulus: something that produces a
reaction
– Response: is the reaction to the
stimulus
• Edward Thorndike (1874-1949)
– Law of Effect:
• Responses to stimuli that produce a
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satisfying state in a particular situation are
more likely to occur again in the situation
Responses that produce a discomforting,
annoying or unpleasant effect in a situation
are less likely to occur again in the situation
Classical Conditioning
• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
– Russian psychologist
– Classical conditioning:
• When a neutral stimulus comes to elicit an unconditioned
response when that neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with
a stimulus that normally causes an unconditioned response
– What happens when you picture your favorite food?
Pavlov’s Dogs
• Experiment of
Classical Conditioning
– US, UR, CR, and CS
Classical Conditioning
• Neutral Stimulus: stimulus that
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invokes no response in context
(ex. Bell with no pairing)
Unconditioned Stimulus:
stimulus that causes an
automatic response (ex. Food)
Unconditioned Response: the
automatic response to stimulus
(ex. Salivation)
Conditioned Stimulus: learned
stimulus that invokes the
conditioned response (ex. Bell
paired with Food)
Conditioned Response: learned
response to a stimulus that was
previously neutral (ex. Salivation
to Bell)
Examples of Classical Conditioning
• Case Study
– Little Albert and John B. Watson
• 1920s psychologist
• Demonstration that emotional reaction such as fears can be
acquired through principles of classical conditioning
• What happen:
– Albert, 11 month old baby
– Trained to fear white fluffy objects by pairing loud harsh
noises (clanging of pots and pans to steel bars) with
objects like stuffed rabbits to white rats that original
invoked a pleasurable response
Student Activities
• Bell and Straw Conditioning
– Hands on experiment for the kids using the
involuntary reaction of blinking.
• Pairs of students will classically condition one
another by using the bells and straws.
– One student stands facing his/her partner.
– The student with the straw blows a puff of air into the
partners eye while simultaneously ringing the bell 5 times.
– After five times the student with the bell rings the bell with
no puff of air. The student should blink involuntarily and
the action should go extinct within a few minutes.
Operant Conditioning
• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
– American Psychologist
– Operant Conditioning:
Learning that is
strengthened when behavior
is followed by reinforcement
or consequence
– Reinforcement: Increase the
likelihood of the behavior
– Punishment: Decrease the
likelihood of the behavior
Reinforcement
Schedules of Reinforcement
• Continuous
– Reinforced every time the behavior occurs
• Partial
– Not reinforced every time
– Types
• Interval: a certain time elapses before the behavior can be
reinforced (Fixed or Variable)
• Ratio: a certain amount of times the behavior must be
performed before it is reinforced (Fixed or Variable)
Examples of Operant Conditioning
• + Reinforcement:
• Push the lever= Food
• - Reinforcement:
• Get too warm in the
sun= Move inside
• + Punishment:
• Giving chores if kids
misbehave
• - Punishment:
• Taking away recess
to unruly kids
Student Activities
• Sniffy the Virtual Rat
– Examples of Conditioning
• Schedules of reinforcement:
• Continuous
• Partial
– Interval
– Ratio
• Students will have hands on training in
conditioning Sniffy the Virtual Rat to better
understand different types of conditioning.
Observational Learning
• Albert Bandura (1925-…)
– Observational Learning:
People acquire knowledge
and skills by observing and
imitating others
Bandura’s Social Learning Theory
Student Activities
• Discussion
– Observational Learning and
Bandura
• Modeling and learning by imitation
• Question for class to debate:
– Split the class into two teams for
debate
• Does violence on television and
video games lead to violence in
teenagers?
Websites
• Thomson Wadsworth Publishing
– Sniffy the Virtual Rat
• Wikipedia
– Behaviorism
• Discovering Psychology
– Phil Zimbardo Videos
• Rockstar Games
– Grand Theft Auto pictures
• Merriam- Webster Online
References
– Definition to learning