Behaviorism and Classical Conditioning

Behaviorism
RUSARA SENEVIRATNE MBPSS
1

Overview of Lecture
 This lecture will cover:
 A definition of behaviorism
 An overview of key points
 An introduction to key figures
 Basic assumptions of behaviorism
 An introduction to gamification
2

Defining Behaviorism
• The behaviorist approach emphasizes the role of
environmental stimuli in determining the way we act.
• The behaviorist approach focuses on the relationship
between observable behavior (responses) and
environmental events (stimuli).
• It is focused on learning – changes in behavior which
occur as a result of experience.
(Glassman & Hadad, 2009, p.110)

Introducing Behaviorism: Key Points I
• Behaviorist psychology should concern itself with the
observable behavior of people and animals, not with
unobservable events that take place in their minds.
• The idea that we develop responses to certain stimuli that
are not naturally occurring is called ‘classical conditioning’.
• Operant conditioning refers to how an organism operates
on the environment or how it responds to what is
presented to it in the environment.
• Reinforcement means to strengthen, and it is used in
psychology to refer to any stimulus that strengthens or
increases the probability of a specific response.

Introducing Behaviorism: Key Points II
• There are four types of reinforcement: positive, negative,
punishment, and extinction.
• Behaviorist researchers used experimental methods
(puzzle box, operant conditioning or Skinner box, Little
Albert experiment) to investigate learning processes.
• Today, behaviorism is still prominent in applications such
as gamification.

Edward Lynn Thorndike (1874-1949)

Edward Lynn Thorndike (1874-1949)
He is best known for his “law of effect”, which foreshadowed
Skinner’s concept of reinforcement as a description of the role of
consequences in learning.
Education:
 He completed his bachelors at Wesleyan University.
 He went on to study psychology under William James at Harvard
University but transferred to Columbia University due to financial
difficulties.
 He studied under James McKeen Cattell – an influential American
psychologist.
 He studied problem-solving in animals, using a series of puzzle-
like tasks – his dissertation was titled “Animal Intelligence”.
Career:
 He taught at the Teachers College at Columbia University, where
he wrote on education and psychology.

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)
He is considered the founder of behaviorism and was one of the first
psychologists to apply psychology to advertising and marketing.
Education:
 He completed his PhD at the University of Chicago.
 He briefly explored the introspectionist approach.
 He studied under John Dewey and James Angell – who pioneered the
functionalist approach.
Career:
 He was a professor and chairman of the department at Johns Hopkins
University.
 He began publishing in 1913 and made (notorious) claims that he
could shape a child into anything he wanted.
 Due to prevailing moral views, he was dismissed after collaborating
with his graduate student (and wife) Rosalie Rayner on the “Little
Albert Experiment”.
 He went on to work at J. Walter Thompson (an advertising firm) and
published work on consumer behavior

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849-1936)
He is a Russian psychologist who pioneered the study of classical
conditioning
Education:
 He initially began seminary studies, but moved to St Petersburg
University where he graduated in natural science and received a
doctorate from the Military Medical Academy.
Career:
 He was a professor at the Military Medical Academy.
 He began his work on the physiology of digestion in 1879 which
won him a Nobel Prize in 1904.
 While studying digestion in dogs, he noticed “psychic salivation”
so he set out to determine what controlled this anticipatory
response.
 He formed a genetics institute a few years before his death.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-90)

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-90)
He is the best-known American behaviorist and the founder
of operant conditioning.
Education:
 He was educated at Hamilton College and then Harvard
(received his PhD in 1931).
Career:
 He taught at the University of Minnesota and Indiana
University.
 During World War II, he did military research including a
program designed to teach pigeons to direct missiles to
targets while flying in the nose-cone (which wasn’t
implemented).
 He was a professor at Harvard University from 1948.

Basic Assumptions of Behaviorism
• Occam’s Razor (parsimony) – in the philosophy of
science, the principle that one should always seek the
simplest possible explanation for any event.
• Physiological research was hampered by the limited
technology available for studying the brain (for example,
not even X-rays or EEGs existed) and introspectionism
proving limited due to problems of subjectivity in
describing sensory experience.
• Functionalism (William James) – psychologists should
focus on how behavior relates to its purpose.

• Behaviorists reacted against introspectionism in part
because it seemed to invoke too many vague concepts,
and thereby lacked parsimony.
• Behaviorism focused on the use of operational
definitions (defining concepts in terms of observable
events) – and this led naturally to the focus on ‘stimuli’
and ‘response’.

• The second basic assumption relates to the basis of
behavior change.
• Like functionalism, behaviorism tries to understand the
conditions under which behavior occurs.
 When does a particular behavior occur?
 What conditions lead to it?
 What changes in the environment result from it?
• Associationism – the doctrine, supported by Aristotle,
Hume and others, that mental processes, particularly
learning, are based on forming connections between ideas
and/or events.

A Modern Application of Behaviorism: Gamification
Applying game incentives such as prompts, competition,
badges, and rewards to ordinary activities
• This is a growing approach to behavior modification.
• Health care has also applied some early innovative uses
gamification – from a Sony PS3 Move motion controller
used to help children diagnosed with cancer to the
of Games for Health, the first peer-reviewed journal
dedicated to the research and design of health games
behavioral health strategies.

Reflection Activity
Take some time to think about the following scenarios.
1. From a general perspective (any way you think of) to
explain the scenario.
2. From a purely behavioral perspective.
 A toddler hits another child in a school playground
 A driver ‘tailgates’ your vehicle while driving on a highway
 A classmate you encounter in the library offers to buy you a
coffee.
You can also think about which explanation better helps you
understand the situation in a range of ways, e.g. as a parent,
as a psychologist, etc.

Classical Conditioning
RUSARA SENEVIRATNE MBPSS
19

Overview of Lecture
 This lecture will cover:
 An introduction to Classical Conditioning
 The work of Ivan Pavlov and John Watson
 Key Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning
 Some Applications of Classical Conditioning
20

Introducing Classical Conditioning and Ivan Pavlov
• The study of learning which involves reflex responses, in
which a neutral stimulus comes to elicit an existing reflex
response.
• Key Thinker: Ivan Petrovich Pavolv (1849-1936)
 A Russian psychologist who pioneered the study of classical
conditioning.
 His work on the physiology of digestion, begun in 1879,
earned him a Nobel Prize in 1904.
 He first became aware of reflexes by reading Sechenov’s
work while studying at the seminary, but his own research
did not begin until 1902.
 He noticed ‘psychic salivation’ in dogs and decided to
determine what controlled this anticipatory response.

Key Definitions in Classical Conditioning
• Unconditioned response – a reflexive response produced
by a specific stimulus, such as pupil contraction to bright
light.
• Unconditioned stimulus – a stimulus which elicits a
reflexive (unconditioned) response.
• Neutral stimulus – a stimulus which initially produces no
specific response other than provoking attention, as
conditioning proceeds, the neutral stimulus becomes a
conditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned stimulus – a stimulus which by repeated
pairings with an unconditioned stimulus comes to elicit a
conditioned response.
• Conditioned response – a response to a previously
neutral stimulus by repeated pairing with an
unconditioned stimulus.

Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning I

Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning II
• Since the response involved is essentially a pre-existing
reflex, the learning which occurs does not involve a new
response.
• Instead, it consists of forming a connection (association)
between two stimuli (the CS and UCS).
•
• In order for optimal conditioning to occur, the
conditioned stimulus (CS) must occur a second or so
before the unconditioned stimulus (UCS).
• If the two occur simultaneously, conditioning may occur,
but is typically weaker.

Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning III
• If the CS is presented after the UCS (sometimes called
backward conditioning), then no learning occurs.
• Conditioning is closely linked to the ability of the CS to
serve as a signal that the UCS is going to occur.
• This is further demonstrated by studies which show that
conditioning is only likely when the CS reliably predicts
the occurrence of the UCS (Rescorla 2000).
• It is a valuable process for the organism because it allows
one to anticipate environmental events.

Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning IV
• This notion that classical conditioning helps in adapting to
the environment is supported by research on a
phenomenon called blocking.
• If a new stimulus is presented simultaneously with an
existing CS, conditioning to the new stimulus does not
occur, because the original CS is already an adequate
signal.

Mechanisms of Classical Conditioning V

Stimulus Generalization I
The tendency to produce a CR to both the original CS and
to stimuli which are similar to it in some way.
• In practical terms, stimulus generalization results in
responding to a whole class of related stimuli, after initial
learning with a single stimulus.
• In this sense, stimulus generalization can enable
organisms to adapt better to their environment – though
it may not always be adaptive.

Stimulus Generalization II
• For example, stimulus generalization had been noted in
how people respond to brand names for products (Till and
Priluck 2000)
• After using conditioning to establish favorable attitudes to
imaginary brands, the researchers found that ratings
carried over to products with the same brand in a different
category.
• Hence, companies ‘build on the brand name’ to market
new products.

How, exactly, can we define or measure ‘similarity’?
• Ideally, we should have some general procedure,
operationally defined, to measure similarity for any stimuli.
• Considerable attention has been given to this problem,
but as yet there is no universal standard to determine
similarity.
• Lacking a clear general definition, one must resort to
defining similarity by observing the outcome of
experimental tests.
• Thus, if two stimuli elicit essentially identical results, they
are highly similar; if CS1 produces a strong conditioned
response, but CS2 elicits only a weak response, then they
are not very similar.
(Glassman & Hadad, 2009, p. 120)

Stimulus Discrimination I
Selective responding to the CS, but not to stimuli which are
similar in some way as a result of training.
• *** This always requires training – in the absence of such
training, organisms tend to generalize. ***
• WHAT we discriminate may depend on past experience.
The CAPACITY to discriminate seems to be inborn (often
crucial to adaptation).
• Thus, in some circumstances, lacking the capacity to
discriminate could seriously reduce our capacity to adapt
or even survive.

Extinction I
The cessation of responding when the CS is presented
repeatedly without being paired with the UCS.
• Thus, extinction seems to suggest that what can be
learned can be unlearned, and that conditioned
are not necessarily permanent.
• One should distinguish between active training in
extinction, and the persistence of conditioned responses
in the absence of such training. Potentially without active
extinction, a conditioned response may simply remain
dormant until the person encounters the CS again.

Extinction II
• For example, a fear response associated with the sound of
a dentist’s drill may persist despite lengthy intervals
between visits, because no extinction training occurs.
• The effectiveness of extinction also depends on the type
of conditioned response.
• One might assume that the effects of extinction in
‘erasing’ the original conditioning would be as long-
lasting as conditioning itself is in the absence of
extinction.
• While the response was weaker than when originally
learned, and could in turn be re-extinguished, the most
striking point was that it reoccurred at all.

Spontaneous Recovery
The reoccurrence of the CR when the CS is presented after some
time has elapsed since extinction training.
• What is learnt is never really forgotten, it is simply overlaid
different experience.
• A good example of the enduring nature of conditioned
behavior is the re-emergence of old fears long after they were
‘thought’ to have been conquered.
• The results of research on extinction and spontaneous
suggest that conditioning is a ‘one-way street’, whereby
conditioned behavior can be modified, but no conditioning is
ever simply erased.
• Instead, extinction, and even new learning, are overlaid on
earlier learning.

Higher Order Conditioning I
A form of classical conditioning in which a previously established
conditioned stimulus is used as if it were an unconditioned
stimulus to create conditioning to a new stimulus.
• In Pavlov’s original experiment, he first trained a dog to
to the sound of a buzzer (CS1), using food as a UCS.
• Once conditioning was established, he introduced a new
stimulus, a black square, which was repeatedly paired with the
sound of the buzzer (but not food).
• After several such pairings, presenting the black square alone
tended to elicit salivation.

Higher Order Conditioning II
• Not surprisingly, the effect was rather weak, since each
trial also functioned as extinction training for the original
buzzer-food association.
• Pavlov called such conditioning second order
conditioning, and tried to extend the sequence by using
the black square as if it were a UCS and attempting to link
a new stimulus (third order conditioning).
• He found this was not possible when food was the UCS,
however it worked with electric shock as the UCS, which
may tell us more about the significance of aversive stimuli
than it does about higher order conditioning as such.

Little Albert Experiment: Case Study
• This experiment was conducted by John B. Watson and his
graduate student Rosalie Rayner at Johns Hopkins
University.
• It provides empirical evidence of classical conditioning
and example of stimulus generalization.
• The aim was to condition a phobia in an emotionally
stable child.
• A 9-month old infant was chosen and named ”Albert”.

Conditioned Emotional Responses
• John B. Watson saw in Pavlov’s paradigm a model for the
behaviorist methodology he was trying to foster.
• Contrary to introspectionists – who previously studied
emotions as aspects of experience trying to described the
mental states involved – Watson believed that emotions
represented observable responses and proceeded to
study the issue by attempting to create emotional
responses experimentally.
 While he used a number of subjects, including his own
children, the best-known case was a study done on a
toddler identified as Albert.

• Baseline emotional tests:
 Infant was exposed – briefly and for the first time – to a
white rat, a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks (with and
without hair), cotton, wool, burning newspaper.
 No fear was shown at this time.
• The conditioning: loud noise
 Every time Albert touched the object/animal, a loud
distressing noise was made with a hammer, which made the
baby cry and show fear.
 This was repeated and then Albert was presented with just
the animal and responded with fear and distress.

• The rat – originally a neutral stimulus - had become a
conditioned stimulus, and it was eliciting an emotional
response (conditioned response) similar to the distress
(unconditioned response) originally given to the noise
(unconditioned stimuluse).
• Watson called this fear a conditioned emotional
response.
• They sought to eliminate the fear response – using
Pavlov’s extinction procedure – by presenting the rate
without the noise.
• However, the fear did not extinguish.

Failure of Extinction
• There are two factors that contributed to the failure of
extinction.
• One is the fact that fear responses, like various other
responses of the autonomic nervous system, are hard to
extinguish.
 (Similar to Pavlov’s findings with higher order conditioning
working for the shock but not the food).
• The occurrence of stimulus generalization, which is
common for fear responses, tends to make extinction
difficult, since a whole range of stimuli must be
extinguished.

Conditioned Drug Responses I
• Interestingly, work suggests that with some drugs the
conditioned response is the opposite to the primary effect of
the drug itself.
• For example, rats were conditioned by giving injections of
morphine in a specific environment.
• While morphine normally reduces sensitivity to painful stimuli,
the rats after conditioning showed increased sensitivity to pain
when placed in the conditioning context (Siegel 1976)
• This phenomenon of conditioning associated with drug use has
been proposed as the basis of tolerance effects for addictive
drugs, whereby repeated usage leads to lowered response to
the drug.

Conditioned Drug Responses II
• Sometimes the cues involved are based on location: for
example, being in a pub can trigger both cigarette
cravings and cardiac changes in smokers (Lazev et al.
1999).
• Internal bodily cures may also serve as conditioned
stimuli. Thus, the physiological state or even the
emotional state (such as anxiety) of the individual prior to
using may trigger the desire for an addictive drug (Siegel
2005).
• Why would conditioning mimic the effects of some drugs,
and counteract others?

Objectives of this Lecture
• The basic assumptions of behaviorism
• The nature of stimuli and responses
• The principles of classical conditioning, including:
 Unconditioned stimulus and response
 Conditioned stimulus and response
• The phenomena of classical conditioning, including:
 Stimulus generalization and discrimination
 Extinction and spontaneous recovery
 Higher order conditioning
• The applications of classical conditioning, including:
 Conditioned emotional responses
 Conditioned drug responses

References and Further Reading
Glassman, W.E., Hadad, M. (2013) Approaches to psychology. London: McGraw-Hill
Higher Education.
Beck, H.P., Levinson, S., Irons, G. (2009) Finding little Albert: A journey to John B.
Watson’s infant laboratory. American Psychologist. 64(7), 605–614.
LINK:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hall_Beck/publication/26890384_Finding_Little_
Albert_A_Journey_to_John_B_Watson%27s_Infant_Laboratory/links/57b0894e08ae15c
76cba2713/Finding-Little-Albert-A-Journey-to-John-B-Watsons-Infant-Laboratory.pdf
Harris, B. (2002) Whatever happened to little Albert? Evolving perspectives on the
history of psychology., 237–254.
LINK: http://users.sussex.ac.uk/~grahamh/RM1web/Classic%20papers/Harris1979.pdf
Kim, J.J., Jung, M.W. (2006) Neural circuits and mechanisms involved in Pavlovian fear
conditioning: A critical review. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 30(2), 188–202.
LINK: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4342048/

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