Behaviorism

Behaviorism Mary, Francisco, Judy

Some Basics About Behaviorism media type="custom" key="23970514"
 * 1) Study of learning is a science. Focuses on the observable/measurable. Environmental stimulus and response from the organism fits this model.
 * 2) Besides specific instincts, organisms are not born to behavior in any particular way. It is “learned.”
 * 3) Environment plays a huge role in learning.
 * 4) The same principles of learning apply to different behaviors and different species, and so the learning of animals can be generalized to humans. Lots of experiments are done with animals.
 * 5) Stimulus > Response: reinforcement of positive consequence of a stimulus leads to learning/habit, a recurrence of the response, and the converse is true, also. Negative consequences of a stimulus leads to elimination of the response/behavior. (Positive Reinforcement/ Positive Punishment)

According to a Behaviorist: Knowledge is:
 * Defined as an observable behavioral change.
 * The response that comes from the subject’s association with an environmental stimulus
 * Behaviorists are not concerned with internal processes such as thinking or feeling. The mind is obscure, a black box we cannot really know or understand.

We learn:
 * By Conditioning, Classical vs. Operant
 * media type="custom" key="23978622"
 * successive approximations - [|__Cricket learns to fetch a slipper__]
 * Shaping through foreward & backward chaining - [|__Example of Backward Chaining__]
 * through trial and error and this results in habits of behavior
 * as the result of our experiences/environment that are often beyond our control.

Where does learning happen when it happens?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Anywhere you happen to be when you experience the consequences of an action and adapt your behavior as a result.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How do you know if it has happened - how do you measure and assess it?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Learning is documented by observable behavior change, so it has happened when the observer sees a behavior change ( or a goal-oriented behavior repeated).
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Behavior is learned but not necessarily felt or understood.
 * ====In shaping or chaining, the target behavior is reached and observed.====

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">How is the theory of Behaviorism relevant to teaching with technology?
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">There are certain behaviors associated with using technology that help us to use it effectively. For example, scanning pages for useful content as opposed to reading everything you see. This behavior can be attributed to our exposure to the internet and other forms of media that constantly bombard us with information. Trying to take in all of that information leads to the unfavorable result of wasted time enduring content that is not relevant to us, so we learn to avoid that practice.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">When we are using technology to teach, we want our medium to be supportive of this content-sifting behavior. To that end, we should create/use tools such as websites or PowerPoint presentations that are easily comprehensible. The design should not be so busy or vague that the users will have great difficulty locating the content that is relevant to them.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Another habit conditioned by experience in using technology is our tendency to frequently save documents. Many of us have experienced the very negative outcome of losing all of our work after some type of program crash or power outage. To avoid this, we will constantly save our documents, and find ourselves rewarded the next time we open them by the sight of our hard work’s continued existence. This habit is so deeply ingrained in me that as I type this into a Google Document I continue to every so often scroll through the File menu looking for the “Save” option, forgetting that the document saves itself in the Google Drive. Even though I know of the autosave, I experience an uneasy, insecure feeling from not having pressed “Save” myself.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">The way that you teach technology can have important bearing on how your students see it. If your teaching sends the message that the technology is enormously complicated and you do not help the students along, the students may equate the technology with feelings of intimidation or distress. If you are not using the technology in a dynamic way, students may associate the technology with boredom. This is similar to how some animals will react negatively to a certain sound or action that they have connected with a traumatizing experience.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**Game Theory is rooted in The Teaching Machine:** Since according to behaviorists, <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #23262a; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">rewarded responses tend to be reinforced and punished responses eliminated, the theory is very relevant today, particularly as it applies to game theory in education. This is what Video Games are all about, as well as all online communication for that matter. Leveling up on XP points, completing a quest, earning badges and awards are the positive consequences that reinforce the behavior and desire to play more. Because failing is fleeting and impermanent, taking risks is ultimately rewarded and learning through trial and error ends in success. This is powerful in its ability to empower the player and instill the belief he/she will win; just a matter of time and trial. If this can be harnessed for education, motivation to learn and master would drive students to excel. Shaping and chaining, in essence,is scaffolded learning, and games are all leveling up, based on my limited experience in World of Warcraft. B.F. Skinner was ahead of his time in his conception of the **[|Teaching Machine.]**

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #ff0000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">People Associated with Behaviorism: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">SkinnerBoxing <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">By Bruce Bower for ScienceNews Vol. 129 n6 p92-94, February 8, 1986. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Key Points: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Skinner__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Environment is the most important factor in shaping human behavior, not individual decision-making. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Natural selection assigns adaptive traits. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Behavior is reinforced or not <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Cultural practices will have an influence on human behavior. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Language reinforced cultural reinforcement <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Behavior is not always reinforced for adaptation- consuming unhealthy foods like sweets is a result of over conditioning in many cultures. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Behavior, good or bad, is the result of conditioning by the greater culture. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Skinner stressed work in the laboratory over "real life" analysis. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">People's inner behavioral life results from acquiring verbal skills. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Deduction, induction, and other problem-solving techniques are acquired as a result of conditioning. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sensations, memories, and dreams are part of behavior not mysterious inner life mental operations. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">He does not really acknowledge innate behavior but believes it comes from somewhere after reinforcement.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; vertical-align: baseline;">__Skinner's Opponents__ <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A person's ability to weigh choices has an important impact on behavior. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Sensory satisfaction may be more important that adaptation for survival. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Reinforcement in the laboratory does not always work; real world observations should be considered. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Language is too complex to arise from conditioning. It is a human need to communicate and articulate. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Complex problem solving techniques such as long-range planning can't result from conditioning. Skinner should factor in the concept of motivation. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Skinner only deals with similarities; he doesn't acknowledge the wide disparity found in nature.
 * [[image:ivanpavlov.jpg caption="Ivan Pavlov, credited with theory of conditioned reflex or conditioning the he formulated based on his experiments with dogs salivating to a conditioned stimulus" link="@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_Pavlov#Legacy"]] || [[image:edward-thorndike1-300x189-215x189.jpg width="231" height="275" caption="Edward Thorndike noted for his puzzle box experiments with cats and the law of effect, both of which Skinner will later embrace" link="@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Thorndike#Connectionism"]] || [[image:watson.gif caption="John B. Watson, behaviorist noted for his "Little Albert" experiment and for his success using behaviorist theory in advertising" link="@http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Watson#Behaviorism"]] ||