Behaviorism

Who influenced Edward Thorndike?

• Supervised by William James at Harvard • Supervised by James Cattell at Columbia • Frank Angell

Who influenced B.F. Skinner?

• The swift departure of Watson from academic psychology in 1921 opened door for Skinner. • Skinner was a pragmatist like James, Dewey, and Pierce • Skinner was opposed to Titchener's structuralism. • Skinner formally added reinforcement to Thorndike's law of effect

Who or what did Edward Thorndike influence?

Thorndike's approach to animal learning was entirely behaviorist and as such was an inspiration to: • Watson, started behaviorism, but Thorndike was already thinking along these lines • Edward C. Tolman • Skinner, who connected reinforcement to Thorndike's law of effect • Even non-behaviorist of the mid-20st century • Sat on committee on the heritability of mental traits (along with Goddard and Yerkes) • Golden Age of Learning Theory; Field of animal/human learning became central to psychology thanks to Thorndike.

Who or what did John Watson influence?

• B.F. Skinner, who took radical behaviorism to a whole new level • The golden age of learning theory, as behaviorism was the dominant perspective in part thanks to Watson. • Edward C. Tolman. He adopted Behaviorist principles of objective measurement and animals adapting their behavior to pressures of environment. Deviated from behaviorist manifesto by arguing that animals learn, predict, plan, etc.

What were Edward C. Tolman's contributions?

• Devised experiments to show that not all learning involves strict stimulus response connection • Adopted Behavioristic principles of objective measurement and animals adapting their behavior to pressures of environment • He adopted Behaviorist principles of objective measurement and animals adapting their behavior to pressures of environment. Deviated from behaviorist manifesto by arguing that animals learn, predict, plan, etc. • Made the bridge between behaviorism and cognitive psychology and Gestalt notions of perception and cognition • Main enemy of the Watson and Skinnerian behaviorists. His cognitive approach upset behaviorists because they feared a return of structuralism, but he used objective methods to show cognitive processes at work.

Who or what did Edward C. Tolman influence?

• Hull was dismissive of Tolman's cognitive maps • Norman Meier, a student of Tolman's used an X maze to show latent learning among rats. They learn the maze even when not hungry.

What were John Watson's contributions?

• In 1913, Waston was invited to Columbia University to deliver a lecture. It was a blockbuster, calling for radical revision of psychological research. Sometimes referred to as The Behaviorist Manifesto (down with the mind, only behavior!). • In 1915 Watson became president of the APA • Little Albert with grad student Rosalie Rayner; Peter and the rabbit study with Mary Jones; The press catching wind of his affair with Rayner ended his career; made room for Skinner • Watson reinvented career after fired form John Hopkins (e.g., dozen healthy infants, advertising)

What were Edward Thorndike's contributions?

• In cat experiments, he observed: 1. trail and error learning, 2. first learning curves, and 3. law of effect, which states that behavior changes because of it's consequences. • From above, he devised an entirely novel theory of learning and memory. • In addition to being one of the founders of behaviorism, Thorndike was very interested in educational psychology and the new field of psychological testing 1. Interested in psychometrics 2. First to use cluster analysis 3. Used skills in factor analysis to sort out various sources of error in tests

Who influenced Edward C. Tolman?

• Influenced by Thorndike and Watson • ALSO by the Gestalt psychologists (Koffka, Wertheimer, Kohler) • Opposed Jacques Loeb (animals as automatons) by arguing that animals learn, predict, plan, etc. • Cognitive approach was in reaction to Skinner's radical behaviorism going too far

What were B.F. Skinner's contributions?

• Interested in the behavior of whole organisms (not muscles like Pavlov) in the context of environmental forces acting on them, without concern for introspection or structuralism: radical behaviorism. • Radical behaviorism tenets = H.O.N.E. o HUMAN: Animal behavior can be meaningfully compared with human behavior o OPERATIONAL: Uses operational definitions. o NATURAL: Psychology is a natural science o ENVIRONMENTAL: Major role of environment as basis of learning • Studied rate of feeding in rats. Rewarded rats with Pellet after rat pushed lever a certain number of times. • Skinner distinguished his "operant condition" from Pavlovian "respondent conditioning". Pavlovians argued that operant conditions was a special case of pavlovian conditions; skinner argued the opposite. • Posited "empty organism" theory: Whatever is going on internally doesn't matter.

Who influenced John Watson?

• Russian school for reflex physiology, that had been founded by Sechenov and followed by Pavlov Bechterev, used conditioned reflex technique to the study of associational learning. • John Locke and the British empiricists. Waston believed behavior can be entirely explained by biology, chemistry and physics without any recourse in intangible mental processes. • Thorndike. Watson accepted Thorndike's law of effects and felt that there was no need for any reference to the mind. Thorndike's approach to animal learning was an inspiration to Watson. • John Dewey and Frank Angell. They supervised his dissertation.

Who or what did B.F. Skinner influence?

• Thorndike's approach to animal learning was an inspiration to Skinner • His students created aversive control of behavior (a response that is followed by an aversive stimulus will have a decrease probability of being made: punishment). • Tolman argued against "empty organism" theory -- convinced that animals think and plan