The behaviorist perspective focuses on observable and measurable behavior that is learned through conditioning and reinforcement. There are three major theories within behaviorism: classical conditioning proposed by Pavlov which involves associating an unconditioned stimulus with a conditioned stimulus to elicit a response; Thorndike's law of effect and connectionism which hold that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences will be strengthened; and Skinner's operant conditioning where behaviors are reinforced or punished to increase or decrease the likelihood of reoccurrence. Behaviorism aims to explain learning and behavior scientifically through stimuli, responses, and reinforcement schedules without reference to internal mental states.

1. Behaviorist
Perspective

2.  The theory of behaviorism focuses
on the study of observable and
measurable behavior .
 It emphasizes that the behavior is
mostly learned through
conditioning and reinforcement.

3. BEHAVIORISM
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
PAVLOV &
WATSON
CONNECTIONISM
THORNDIKE
OPERANT
CONDITIONING
SKINNER

4. CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Pavlov (1902) started from the idea
that there are some things that a
dog does not need to learn. For
example, dogs don’t learn to
salivate whenever they see food.
This reflex is ‘hard wired’ into the
dog. In behaviorist terms, it is an
unconditioned response (i.e. a
stimulus-response connection that
required no learning).

6. PAVLOV’S findings:
• Stimulus Generation. Once the dog has
learned to salivate at the sound of the bell, it
will salivate at other similar sound.
• Extinction. If you stop pairing the bell with
food, salivation will eventually cease in
response to the bell.
• Spontaneous Recovery. Extinguished
response can be recovered after an elapsed
time, but will soon extinguish again if the dog
is not presented the food.

7. • Discrimination. The dog can learn to discriminate
between familiar bells and discern which bell would
result in the presentation of food and which would
not.
• Higher Order Conditioning. Once the dog has been
conditioned to associate the bell with food, another
unconditioned stimulus, such as a light may be
flashed at the same time that the bell is rung.
Eventually the dog will salivate at the flash of the light
without the sound of the bell.

8. Pavlov's concept of Classical Conditioning was
utilized by John Watson to describe how
humans learn and how behavior can be
influenced by controlling the stimulus in the
environment. His famous experiment with
"Little Abert" (YouTube) was a demonstration
of how human behavior can be conditioned.
Watson viewed all behavior as learned, and
urged parents to teach "correct" behavior to
their children. Scheduled feeding and the
avoidance of bad habits (incorrect behavior)
were some issues addressed in the pamphlets
produced to help parents raise their children.
In 1920 he left John Hopkins and entered the
advertising industry. By 1924, he was vice
president at J. Walter Thompson, one of the
largest ad agencies in the United States.
Watson is recognized today as the "Father of
Behaviorism".

9. CONNECTIONISM
THEORY
Learning is the result of associations
forming between stimuli and responses.
Such associations or "habits" become
strengthened or weakened by the nature
and frequency of the S-R pairings. The
paradigm for S-R theory was trial and
error learning in which certain responses
come to dominate others due to rewards.
The hallmark of connectionism (like all
behavioral theory) was that learning
could be adequately explained without
referring to any unobservable internal
states.

10. LAW OF
EFFECT
LAW OF
EXCERCISE
LAW OF
READINESS
States that the connection between S-R is
strengthened when the consequence is positive and
when the consequence is negative it weakens
States that the more an S-R
bond is practiced the stronger
it will become.
States that the more readiness the
learner has to respond to a stimulus ,
the stronger the bond between them

11. Learning requires both
practice and rewards (Law
of effect/exercise
A series of S-R
connections can be
chained together if they
belong to the same action
sequence. ( Law of
readiness)
Transfer of learning occur
because of previously
encountered situations.
Intelligenceis a function
of the number of
connection learned.
PRINCIPLES DERIVED
FROM THORNDIKES
CONNECTIONISM

12. OPERANT
CONDITIONINGSkinner added his perspective on learning by
introducing his concept of Operant
Conditioning, with emphasis on the power of
reinforcement in learning. He continued to
focus on observable behavior and scientific
study of how humans learn behavior.
supported the premise that all behavior is
learned and that behavior is goal directed.
That goal is basically to seek pleasure and to
avoid pain. In other words, a particular
behavior increases when the result is
pleasurable; and the behavior will tend to
decrease when the result is painful or
unpleasant. A pleasant outcome refers to a
reinforcement, and a unpleasant outcome
refers to a punishment.

14. • Positive reinforcement: Strengthen response by
providing desirable rewards
Ex: Token economy
• Negative reinforcement: Strengthen response by
removing aversive stimuli
Ex: STUDENTS -early dismissal for good behavior
• Punishment: Use aversive stimulus following
response to decrease likelihood of behavior in the
future
Ex: student coming late will not be allowed to
join a group work.
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

15. • Extinction or Non reinforcement: responses that
are not reinforced are not likely repeated.
Ex: ignoring student’s misbehavior may
extinguish that behavior.

17. Shaping Behaviors
BF Skinner used both positive and negative reinforcements (he was not
really into punishments) to change the behavior of both pigeons and
rats. Now when Skinner tried to create a behavior in an animal it did
not happen at one time. He did it is small successive steps that he
called shaping. For example, let’s say you want to teach your dog to go
fetch your slippers from the closet and you wanted to use positive
reinforcement to do so. You would first give your dog a treat when he
goes to your closet (that may take a couple of days). Then you would
reinforce him again when he picks up your slippers. Then you give him
a treat once again when he brings them to your feet. The idea is that
reinforcing all of these small actions is more effective than doing the
whole process at once; thus you are shaping the dogs behavior. Each
successive action is called shaping the dog’s behavior, but linking each
action to each other, in a particular order is called
Chaining.

18.  Schedule of reinforcement
Reinforcement can occur after every response, a
situation called continuous reinforcement. It can also
occur only after some responses, intermittent
reinforcement. A response learned under the latter
conditions is more resistant to extinction, a
phenomenon called the partial reinforcement effect.

19. • fixed-ratio schedule: reinforcement after a set
number of responses
• variable-ratio schedule: reinforcement after a
variable number of responses
• fixed-interval schedule: reinforcement after the
same (fixed) interval of time has elapsed
• variable-interval schedule: reinforcement after a
variable interval of time has elapsed

20. By way of example, consider the implications of reinforcement
theory as applied to the development of programmed
instruction (Markle, 1969; Skinner, 1968)
 Practice should take the form of question (stimulus) - answer (response)
frames which expose the student to the subject in gradual steps
 Require that the learner make a response for every frame and receive
immediate feedback
 Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so the response is always
correct and hence a positive reinforcement
 Ensure that good performance in the lesson is paired with secondary
reinforcers such as verbal praise, prizes and good grades.

21. Principles
 Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur;
intermittent reinforcement is particularly effective
 Information should be presented in small amounts so that
responses can be reinforced ("shaping")
 Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli
("stimulus generalization") producing secondary
conditioning

22. Strengths:
1. It can be used to formulate behavioral contracts in the school as
well as at home.
2. It is helpful in bringing about behavior modification (desired
outcome) with the help of reinforcement, punishment and
extinction.
3. Cueing responses to behavior allows the learner to react in a
predictable way under certain conditions.
4. Success of outcomes is easily measurable.
5. Guarantees specific learning.
6. Ease of application.

23. Weaknesses:
1. Some critics say that it is an extrapolation of animal
behavior to humans.
2. Behaviorism fails to explain the development of
human languages.
3. Effect of environment in shaping the behavior of a
human, is not taken into account by the behaviorists.