This document provides an overview of behaviorism and key behaviorist theorists including Ivan Pavlov, E.L. Thorndike, and B.F. Skinner. It discusses classical and operant conditioning, defining behaviorism as the study of observable behavior and excluding internal mental states. Classical conditioning involves associating a neutral stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus to elicit a response, while operant conditioning examines how behavior is influenced by consequences like reinforcement and punishment. The document also outlines strategies from applied behavior analysis for increasing desirable behaviors and decreasing undesirable behaviors in educational settings.

1. Master TEFL & ICT
Educational Psychology
Dr. Abdallah GHAICHA
Dr Youssef TAMER
Prepared by: AmalBAKKALI
Mohamed AKHARRAZ
Mohamed AKKLOUCH
December 28TH, 2012

2. OUTLINE
DEFINITION
THE ORIGIN OF BEHAVIORISM
LEADERS OF BEHAVIORISM

3. DEFINITION
Behaviorism is: “A school of
psychology that confines itself to
the study of observable and
quantifiable aspects of behavior
and excludes subjective
phenomena, such as emotions or
motives.”

4. The Origins of Behaviorism
Behaviorism traces its roots to the
early part of the 20th century, a time
when many psychologists and
researchers like Ivan Pavlov and John
B. Watson began to develop a
framework which emphasized
observable processes (enviromental
stimuli and behavioral responses).

5. LEADERS of BEHAVIORISM
IVAN PAVLOV
E. L. Thorndike
Burrhus Frederic "B. F." Skinner

6. IVAN PAVLOV

7. Born Sept 14, 1849
Died Feb 27, 1936
born in Ryazan, Russia
physiologist, psychologist, and
physician
awarded the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1904 for
research on the digestive system

8. E.L. Thorndike
1874 - 1949

9. E.L. Thorndike
First scientific theory of learning- Theory of
Connectionism
Comprehensive analogy of human learning- Three
volume work, Educational Psychology ( 1913a,
1913b, 1914 )
Initial work with animal learning in laboratory
setting- cat in box experiment”

10. He placed a cat in the puzzle box, which was encourage to
escape to reach a scrap of fish placed outside. Thorndike
would put a cat into the box and time how long it took to
escape. The cats experimented with different ways to escape
the puzzle box and reach the fish.
Eventually they would stumble upon the lever which opened
the cage. When it had escaped it was put in again, and once
more the time it took to escape was noted. In successive
trials the cats would learn that pressing the lever would have
favorable consequences and they would adopt this behavior,
becoming increasingly quick at pressing the lever (see Fig 1).
Edward Thorndike put forward a “Law of effect” which
stated that any behavior that is followed by pleasant
consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior
followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be
stopped.

11. What happened ?
Schunk (2000)

12. The Cat Learned !!!
Behavior Change = Learning

13. Thorndike’s Theory of Connectionism
Law of Effect
If Situation + Response is followed by a positive
consequence then the connection between the
Situation + Response is strengthened.
If Situation + Response is followed by a negative
consequence then the connection between the
Situation + Response is weakened.

14. The Cat Learned !!!
Behavior Change = Learning

15. Thorndike’s Theory of Connectionism
Law of Effect
If Situation + Response is followed by a positive
consequence then the connection between the
Situation + Response is strengthened.
If Situation + Response is followed by a negative
consequence then the connection between the
Situation + Response is weakened.

16. Burrhus Frederic "B. F." Skinner

17. Born March 20, 1904
Died August 18, 1990
Born in Susquehanna, Pennsylvania
An American psychologist, behaviorist, author,
inventor, and social philosopher

18. what is learning
Once you have learned how to drive a car, you
don’t have to learn all over again. Thus, learning
can be defined as a relatively permanent influence
on behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills that
comes about through experience. Not everything
we know is learned. We inherit some capacities—
they are inborn, or innate, not learned.

19. For example, we don’t have to be taught to swallow, to
flinch at loud noises, or to blink when an object
comes too close to our eyes.
The scope of learning is broad (Domjan, 2010; Klein,
2009). It involves academic behaviors and
nonacademic behaviors. It occurs in schools and
everywhere else that children experience their world.

21. For the behaviorist, behavior is everything that we do,
both verbal and nonverbal, that can be directly seen
or heard: a child creating a poster, a teacher
explaining something to a child, one student picking
on another student, and so on.

22. Mental processes are defined by psychologists as the
thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us
experiences but that cannot be observed by others.
Although we cannot directly see thoughts, feelings,
and motives, they are no less real. Mental processes
include children thinking about ways to create the
best poster, a teacher feeling good about children’s
efforts, and children’s inner motivation to control
their behavior.

24. As is shown in the experiment in the picture above,
Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus (bell) just before
an unconditioned stimulus (food). The neutral
stimulus became a conditioned stimulus by being
paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
Subsequently, the conditioned stimulus (bell) by itself
was able to elicit the dog’s salivation.

25. behavioral approach to learning (classical and
operant conditions)
The behavioral approach emphasizes the importance of
children making connections between experiences
and behavior. It includes two views:
classical conditioning
and
operant conditioning.

27. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an
organism learns to connect, or associate, stimuli so
that a neutral stimulus (such as the sight of a person)
becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus (such
as food) and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar
response. Classical conditioning was the brainchild of
Ivan Pavlov (1927).

28. In classical conditioning, there are two types of stimuli
and two types of responses:
unconditioned stimulus (UCS),
unconditioned response (UCR)
conditioned stimulus (CS)
conditioned response (CR).
(click here to see the figure above)

29. Classical conditioning can be involved in both positive
and negative experiences of children in the classroom.
Among the things in the child’s schooling that
produce pleasure because they have become
classically conditioned are a favorite song and feelings
that the classroom is a safe and fun place to be. For
example, a song could be neutral for the child until he
joins in with other classmates to sing it with
accompanying positive feelings.

30. Other examples:
exam anxiety
criticism fear
Some children’s health problems also might involve
classical conditioning (Chance, 2009). Certain
physical complaints—asthma, headaches, and high
blood pressure—might be partly due to classical
conditioning. So, often, teacher’s heavy criticism, are
conditioned stimuli for physiological responses like
headaches, muscle tension, or stress.

31. Generalization, Discrimination, and
Extinction
In studying a dog’s responses to various stimuli, Pavlov
rang a bell before giving meat powder to the dog. By
being paired with the UCS (meat), the bell became a
CS and elicited the dog’s salivation. After a time,
Pavlov found that the dog also responded to other
sounds, such as a whistle. The more bell-like the
noise, the stronger was the dog’s response.

32. A student is criticized for poor performance on a
biology test. When the student begins to prepare for a
chemistry test, she also becomes very nervous
because these two subjects are closely related in the
sciences. This is generalization.

33. Discrimination in classical conditioning occurs when
the organism responds to certain stimuli but not
others. To produce discrimination, Pavlov gave food
to the dog only after ringing the bell, not after any
other sounds. Subsequently, the dog responded only
to the bell. In the case of the student taking tests in
different classes, he/she doesn’t become nearly as
nervous about taking an English test or a history test
because they are very different subject areas.

34. Extinction in classical conditioning involves the
weakening of the conditioned response (CR) in the
absence of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In one
session, Pavlov rang the bell repeatedly but did not
give the dog any food. Eventually the dog stopped
salivating at the sound of the bell. Similarly, if a
student who gets nervous while taking tests begins to
do much better on tests, his anxiety will fade.

36. Reinforcement and Punishment
A reinforcement (reward)is a consequence that
increases the probability that a behavior will occur. In
contrast, punishment is a consequence that
decreases the probability a behavior will occur.

37. For example, you might tell one of your students,
“Congratulations. I’m really proud of the story that you
wrote.”
If the student works harder and writes an even better
story the next time, your positive comments are said
to reinforce, or reward, the student’s writing behavior.
If you frown at a student for talking in class and the
student’s talking decreases, your frown is said to
punish the student’s talking.

38. To reinforce behavior means to strengthen the
behavior (Domjan, 2010). Two forms of
reinforcement are positive reinforcement and
negative reinforcement. In positive
reinforcement, the frequency of a response
increases because it is followed by a rewarding
stimulus, as in the example in which the
teacher’s positive comments increased the
student’s writing behavior. Similarly,
complimenting parents on being at a parent-
teacher conference might encourage them to
come back again.

39. Conversely, in negative reinforcement, the frequency
of a response increases because it is followed by the
removal of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus. For
example, a father nags at his son to do his homework.
He keeps nagging. Finally, the son gets tired of
hearing the nagging and does his homework. The
son’s response (doing his homework) removed the
unpleasant stimulus (nagging).

42. The processes of generalization, discrimination and
extinction also are important dimensions of operant
conditioning (Chance, 2009).

43. SOME BASIC DIFFERENCES
Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning
First described by Ivan Pavlov, a First described by B. F. Skinner, an
Russian physiologist American psychologist
Involves placing a neutral signal Involves applying reinforcement or
before a reflex punishment after a behavior
Focuses on involuntary, automatic Focuses on strengthening or
behaviors weakening voluntary behaviors

44. Activity

45. Applied Behavior Analysis in Education
 What is applied behavior analysis?
 Increasing Desirable Behaviors.
 Decreasing Desirable Behaviors.
 Evaluating Operant Conditioning and Applied Behavior Analysis.

46. What is Applied Behavior Analysis?
• Applied behavior analysis involves applying the the
operant conditioning to change human behavior.
When it comes to education, two uses of applied
behavior analysis are essential:
• increasing desirable behaviors
• decreasing undesirable behviors.

47. • A – Increasing desirable behavior.
• There are six operant conditioning strategies that
can be exploited to increase a child’s desirable
behaviors:
• 1- choose effective reinforcers.
• 2-make reinforcers contingent and timely.
• 3- select the best schedule of reinforcement.
• 4-consider contracting.
• 5- use negative reinforcement negatively.
• 6- use prompts and shaping.

48. 1- choose effective reinforcers.
Not all reinforcers are the same for every child.
Teachers should individualize the use of particular reinforcers.
Teachers should know more about the child’s past life
( reinforcement history).
Teachers might ask the child about what they like best.
To avoid boredom, teachers should consider novel reinforcers.
Natural reinforecers ( praise and priviledges) are generally
recommened over material rewards ( candy, money …etc)

49. 2-Make reinforcers contingent and timely.
For a reinforcer to be effective, the teacher must give it
only after the child performs a particular behaviour. For
example, teachers may use « if …then » statement.
Reinforcers are more effective when they are given in a
timely way, as soon as possible the child performs the
target behaviour.
( if the teacher gives the reinforcer before the child
performs the behavior, she/he might have trouble
making the contingency connection)

50. 3- select the best schedule of reinforcement.
There are four main schedules of reinforcements:
a - On a fixed-ratio schedule:
A behaviour is reinforced after a set number of
answers/responses. ( e.g.after every three answers)
b – On a variable-ratio schedule:
A behavior is reinforced after an average number of
times, but on an unpredictable basis. ( e.g. After
every fifth response, then it might be after fouth, third
…etc)
Interval schedules are determined by the
amount of time elapsed since the last behavior
was reinforced.

51. c- On a fixed-interval schedule:
After a fixed amount of time the first appropriate
response is reinforced. ( e.g. two minutes after the
child comes up with a right answer)
d- variable-interval schedule:
A response is reinforced after a variable amount of
time elapsed. ( e.g. after four minutes, then after six
minutes, two minutes …etc)
NB. By and large, the use of these schedule
reinforcements is so beneficial to students in that it
produces greater persistence and greater resistence
to extinction than continous reinforcement does.

52. consider contracting.
In contracting, reinforcement contingencies are put in
writing. If problems arise, the teacher can refer the
children to the contract they agreed to. Classroom
contracts have «if …then » statement.
use negative reinforcement effectively.
In negative reinforcement, the frequency of the response
increases because the response removes an avertive
( unpleasant) stimulus. (e.g. a teacher who says « James,
you have to stay in your seat and finish writing your story
before you join the other students in making a poster » is
using NR. The condition of being left in his seat while the
others are doing (sth) enjoyable will be removed if James
finishes the story he should have completed earlier.)

53.  Use prompts and shaping.
prompts: is an added stimulus or cue that is given just
before a response that increases the likelihood that the
response will occur.
shaping: when teachers use prompts and fail to get the
desired response performed, shaping is required. It means
that teaching new behaviors by reinforcing successive
approximations to a specified target behavior.

54. • B- Decreasing undesirable behaviors.
• When teachers want to decrease children’s
undesirable behaviors (such as teasing, hogging a
class discussion, or smarting off to the teacher …
etc), they are recommended to use the following
steps in order:
• 1 – use differential reinforcement.
• 2 – terminate reinforcement ( extinction)
• 3 – remove desirable stimuli.
• 4 – present aversive stimuli ( punishment)

55. use differential reinforcement.
The teacher reinforces behavior that is more desired and
different than what the child is doing. ( e.g. the teacher
might reinforce a child for doing learning activities rather
tan playing computer games).
terminate reinforcement ( extinction)
Simply means withdrawing positive reinforcement from a
child’s inappropriate behavior. (e.g. attention to the
inappropriate behavior by yelling, criticising, threatening
…etc)
remove desirable stimuli. The third option, if the two
previous options haven’t worked, is to remove desirable
stiluli from the student: to do this, there are two
strategies:

56. Time-out: take students away from positive
reinforcement.
Response cost: take a positive reinforcer away from a
student, as when the student loses certain privileges. ( e.g.
teachers may take away 10 minutes of recess time or the
privilege of being a class monitor.)

57. Present aversive stimuli ( punishment)
 Most people associate the presentation of aversive stimuli with
punishment ( teacher’s yelling at a student or when a parent spanks a
child)
 An aversive stimuli is punishment only if it decreases the undesirable
behavior.
 Reprimands are more effective when they given immediately after
unwanted behavior and when they are short and to the point.
 It is highly recommended to take the student aside and reprimand him in
private.
NB. Numerous problems are associated with using aversive
stimuli: it instills fear, rage, avoidance + students might be
out of control + anxiety…etc.

58. Evaluating Operant Conditioning and
Applied Behavior Analysis.
Used effectively, behavioral techniques can help you
manage your classroom.
Critics of operant conditioning and applied behavior
analysis argue that the whole approach stresses external
control of students’ behaviors + Instead, it should help
students learn to control their own behaviors and become
internally motivated + it is not the reward or punishment
that changes behavior, but, rather, the belief that certain
actions will be rewarded or punished + ethical problems
might emerge if operant conditioning is used
inappropriately + while applying behavior analysis,
teachers might focus too much on student conduct and
not enough on academic learning.

59. BEHAVIORISM VS MENTALISM
 Behaviourism claims that environment is responsible for learning.
 the Behaviorist theory works according to the Habit Formation
process.
 the learner is presented with stimuli on which he makes a specific
response to each, and every time the learner is presented with this
stimulus he responds with the same response until it becomes a habit.
 The Mentalist theory came as a reaction to the Behaviourist theory.
It opposed the claim that the environment is responsible for learning
by proving that the mind is responsible for it. Chomsky said that the
human being is endowed since birth with a biological device called
the Language Acquisition Devise and it develops like any organ.
 When applied to teaching , Mentalism means that the learner should
use his cognitive abilities in order to learn. This enhances critical
thinking and goes hand in hand with the Constructivist theory
proving that the learner builds knowledge through time relying on his
cognitive strategies.
 nowadays both theories ( mentalist and constructivist) are widely
used

60. Activity
I need two volunteers to wait
outside the class for a while,
please ….

61. Volunteer 1:
Please, use positive reinforcement
(applause) in order to get them to
perform a chosen task. What do you
suggest him/her to do?

62. Volunteer 2:
use negative reinforcement
(booing) in order to get them to
perform the chosen task. What
do you suggest him/her to do?

63. Discussion:
1. Which form of reinforcement was the most effective?
2. What were some of the reactions the volunteers had?
3. For the volunteers: how did this activity make you
feel?

65. Thank You