Cluster07 accessible ppt

Educational Psychology
Fourteenth Edition
Cluster 7
Behavioral Views of
Learning
Copyright © 2019, 2016, 2013 Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Learning Objectives (1 of 2)
7.1 Define learning from a behavioral perspective, including ties
to neuroscience and the processes involved in learning through
contiguity, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and
observational learning.
7.2 Explain early views of learning through contiguity and
classical conditioning and describe their implications for teaching.
7.3 Explain operant conditioning, particularly the differences and
similarities between positive and negative reinforcement and
presentation and removal punishment and how reinforcement
schedules affect learning.

Learning Objectives (2 of 2)
7.4 Apply behavioral approaches to modifying behavior in and out
of the classroom using applied behavioral analysis approaches to
encourage and discourage behaviors, shaping, positive practice,
contingency contracts, token reinforcement, group consequences,
and the appropriate use of punishment.
7.5 Apply functional behavioral assessment, positive behavioral
supports, and self-management techniques.
7.6 Evaluate contemporary challenges to behavioral theories of
learning and address concerns about their application.

Outline
• Understanding Learning
• Early Explanations of Learning: Contiguity and Classical
Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning: Trying New Responses
• Putting It All Together: Applied Behavior Analysis
• Current Applications: Functional Behavioral Assessment,
Positive Behavior Supports, and Self-Management
• Challenges and Criticisms

Understanding Learning
• Learning: Process through which experience causes permanent
change in knowledge, behavior, or potential for behavior
– Must be brought about by experience
– Not change brought about by maturation, illness, drugs,
hunger, and such
• Cognitive theorists emphasize change in knowledge (internal)
• Behavioral theorists emphasize change in behavior (observable)
• Behavioral learning theories focus on changes in behavior;
emphasize effects of external events on the individual

Ethical Issues, Learning Processes
• Ethical application of behavioral views to teaching and therapy
– Apply as behavior analysis, not behavior modification
• Ethical goals: Teachers apply strategies to academic learning
– Focus: Academic improvements, not classroom conduct
• Behavioral strategies pose concerns
– Side effects of punishment; effects on individual student
• Behavioral learning processes include:
– Contiguity learning
– Classical conditioning
– Operant conditioning
– Observational learning

Early Explanations of Learning:
Contiguity and Classical Conditioning
• Aristotle’s earliest explanation of learning
– We remember things that are similar, contrasting, or contiguous
• Contiguity: Association of two events because of repeated pairing
(learning by association)
– Stimulus occurs; response follows (observable reaction)
• Classical conditioning (involves contiguity): Learning of involuntary
emotional or physiological responses such as fear
– First, pair a new stimulus with a response
– Eventually, stimulus elicits automatic, involuntary response
• Respondents – automatic/involuntary responses to stimuli
– Including fear, increased muscle tension, salivation, sweating

Classical Conditioning
• Discovered by Pavlov, Russian physiologist, 1920s
• Observations with dogs
– First, salivated when being fed
– Next, learned to associate seeing food with being fed and salivated
upon seeing food
– Finally, began to salivate at hearing Pavlov’s footsteps
• Experiment with tuning fork to condition dogs to salivate
– 1st: Sound the tuning fork (neutral stimulus); no salivation
– 2nd: Sound fork, feed dog, dog salivates (contiguous pairing)
– Many repetitions later: Salivation after tuning fork, before food
– Turned neutral stimulus (sound) into conditioned stimulus (causing
salivation)

Stimuli and Responses
• Neutral stimulus – Not connected to a response
• Unconditioned stimulus (US)
– Automatically produces emotional/physiological response
• Unconditioned response (UR)
– Naturally occurring emotional/physiological response
• Conditioned stimulus (CS)
– Evokes emotional/physiological response after conditioning
• Conditioned response (CR)
– Learned (automatic) response to previously neutral stimulus
• Application of classical conditioning to Pavlov’s dogs:
– Sound initially is neutral; food is US; salivation is UR
– After conditioning, sound is CS; salivation is CR

Guidelines: Applying Classical
Conditioning
• Associate positive, pleasant events with learning tasks
– Make reading pleasant by creating comfortable reading
space
• Help students face anxiety-producing situations successfully
– Student who fears public speaking presents to small group
first
• Help students recognize differences/similarities among
situations—discriminate and generalize appropriately
• Note: Emotions and attitudes are learned in classrooms
– Emotional learning can interfere with academic learning
– Classical conditioning can help students learn more
adaptive (automatic) emotional responses

Operant Conditioning: Trying New
Responses
• Operants: Voluntary, generally goal-directed behaviors
• Operant conditioning: Learning in which voluntary behavior is
strengthened or weakened by consequences or antecedents
• Concept developed by B. F. Skinner, 1953
– Classical conditioning accounts for small portion of learned
behavior; doesn’t account for acquiring new operant behaviors
– Behavior sandwiched between two sets of environmental
influences (antecedent-behavior-consequence)
▪ Antecedents: Events that precede the behavior
▪ Consequences: Events that follow it
– Behavior altered by change in antecedent, consequence, or
both

Types of Consequences
• Consequences strengthen or weaken behavior
– Reinforcement strengthens; punishment weakens
• Reinforcement: Use of consequences to strengthen
behavior
Behavior → Reinforcer → Strengthened/repeated behavior
• Reinforcer: Consequence that strengthens behavior it
follows
– If behavior persists, consequences are reinforcing it
• Two types of reinforcement: Positive or negative

Positive and Negative Reinforcement
• Positive: Strengthen behavior by adding a desired stimulus after
the behavior
– Peers laugh when child falls out of chair; child likes laughter
attention, child repeats behavior
– Bad behavior reinforced by teacher’s negative attention
▪ Child likes attention, repeats bad behavior, gets more
attention
• Negative: Strengthen behavior by removing an aversive stimulus
– Child fears giving report, gets sick, misses report
▪ Aversive stimulus removed (task of giving report)
▪ Strengthens behavior; child repeats behavior of getting
sick

Punishment
Process that weakens or suppresses behavior
Behavior → Punisher → Weakened/decreased behavior
• Presentation punishment: Decrease behavior by adding an
aversive stimulus following the behavior
• Removal punishment: Decrease behavior by removing a
pleasant stimulus following the behavior
• Distinguish negative reinforcement and punishment
– Reinforcement (both + and −) increases behavior
– Punishment suppresses behavior

Neuroscience of Reinforcement and
Punishment
• Why reinforcement and punishment work
– Diverse theories
– Do reinforcers satisfy needs or reduce tension?
• Growing knowledge about areas of brain involved with
learning new behaviors
– Part of cerebellum involved in simple reflex learning
– Other brain parts involved in learning to avoid painful
stimulation
• Many parts of brain and complex patterns of activity involved
in experiences we enjoy and learning how we get them

Reinforcement Schedules
• Continuous reinforcement schedule: Presenting a reinforcer after
every appropriate response (predictable)
– Effective when one is learning a new behavior
• Intermittent reinforcement schedule: Presenting a reinforcer after
some but not all responses (effective in maintaining behavior)
– Interval schedule (fixed or variable): Reinforcement based on
length of time between reinforcers
– Ratio schedule (fixed or variable): Reinforcement based on
number of responses between reinforcers
• Encourage persistence with variable/unpredictable schedules
• Extinction – disappearance of a learned response
– Occurs if the usual reinforcer is withheld long enough

Antecedents and Behavior Change
• Antecedents: Events preceding behaviors
• Stimulus control: Capacity for presence/absence of antecedents to
cause behaviors
– Skinner’s pigeons peck and get food when light is on (not when
light is off)
• Teachers’ use of cues in the classroom
– Instructions are important antecedent to increase positive student
responses
– Effective instruction delivery—concise, clear, specific instructions
that communicate expected result
– Cueing is an antecedent stimulus that “sets up” desired behavior
▪ Such as a reminder to walk (not run) as you exit to recess

Putting It All Together: Applied
Behavior Analysis
• Applied behavior analysis: Application of behavioral
learning principles to understand and change behavior
• Steps in classroom application of applied behavior
analysis
– Clearly specify behavior to be changed and goal
– Observe, note current behavior (frequency, causes,
surroundings, time of day)
– Plan specific intervention using antecedents,
consequences or both
– Keep track of results and modify plan if necessary
• ABAB design used in applied behavior analysis research

Methods for Encouraging Behaviors
• Reinforcing with teacher attention
– Praise students for good behavior, ignore misbehavior (differential
reinforcement)
• Guidelines for using praise appropriately
– Clear and systematic; tied directly to appropriate behavior
– Appreciative, not evaluative; praise action/effort, not person
– Based on individual abilities and limitations; focused on student’s
progress, not comparison to others
– Attributed to effort and ability, not to luck, extra help, easy material
– Reinforcing to individual, not used to influence class
– Recognition of genuine accomplishment of met goal (not for less)

Selecting Reinforcers: The Premack
Principle
• Principle named for David Premack, 1965
• States that a more-preferred activity can serve as a
reinforcer for completing a less-preferred activity
– Sometimes called Grandma’s rule: First, do what I want
you to do, then do what you want.
• Less-preferred behavior must happen first
• Ideas for reinforcers in classroom application of rule
– Time to talk, sit with friend, use computer, make a
video, play games, test/homework exemption, lead the
line

Shaping – Successive Approximations
• Reinforce small step of progress toward desired goal/behavior
• Reinforce progress rather than waiting for perfection
– Especially useful when student cannot perform task to gain
reinforcement, but can perform part of task
• Process involves task analysis (breaking task hierarchically into
basic skills and subskills)
– Provides logical sequence of steps leading toward final goal
– Teacher sees where student struggles with subskill during
sequence and helps student succeed
• Time-consuming and not practical if success can be attained
through simpler cueing

Positive Practice
• Practicing correct responses immediately after errors
• Effective when students make academic errors
– Correct the mistake as soon as possible; practice the
correct response immediately
• Positive practice overcorrection: Practice correct behavior
until it becomes almost automatic
– Useful when student breaks classroom rule
• Specific practice of correct behaviors—essential part of
every behavioral learning program
– Practice makes permanent the behaviors practiced

Guidelines: Encouraging Positive
Behaviors
• Recognize positive behavior in ways students value
– Positive consequences for following rules; second chance
for honest admission of mistakes; desired rewards for effort
• Give plenty of reinforcement with new skills/material
• Reinforce on unpredictable schedule to encourage persistence
– Surprise rewards for getting into groups quietly
• Use Premack principle to identify effective reinforcers
• Use cueing to help establish new behaviors
• Praise, reward all students when they do something well
• Establish a variety of reinforcers

Contingency Contracts, Token
Reinforcement, Group Consequences
• Contingency contract between teacher/student specifying what
student must do to earn specified reward/privilege
– Teacher writes contract, specifies clear goals; student may
assist
• Token reinforcement system: Tokens eared for academic work or
positive behavior can be exchanged for desired reward
– Token economy—complicated, time-consuming system
– Use to motivate uninterested student, encourage student
making no progress, address class-wide problem
• Group consequences: Rewards/punishments given to class as a
whole for adhering to or violating rules of conduct
– Good behavior game: Teams receive demerits or rewards

Handling Undesirable Behavior
• Negative reinforcement: Use something aversive to get students to
achieve goal, then remove aversive stimulus
– Puts students in control; may not effect desired change
• Reprimands: Criticisms for misbehavior; rebukes
– Should be done quietly, privately to be effective
• Response cost: Punishment by loss of reinforcers
• Social isolation/time out: Briefly remove disruptive student
– If strategy fails, do not try longer time out
• Effective punishment—two-pronged attack
– 1st goal – carry out punishment, suppress bad behavior
– 2nd goal – make clear what student should do in place of the
misbehavior (strengthen positive responses)

Guidelines: Using Punishment
• Try to use negative reinforcement rather than punishment
– Ignore student promise to do better; stick to plan
• Keep punishment mild, brief; pair with doing the right thing
• Be consistent in applying punishment
– Keep confrontations private
– Make sure students know rules, consequences of breaking rules
• Focus on students’ actions, not students’ personal qualities
– Be calm, firm, not sarcastic or vindictive
• Adapt punishment to infraction
– Make sure punishment isn’t worse than crime; should fit the crime
– If misbehavior continues, punishment is not working

Reaching Every Student: Severe
Behavior Problems
• Applied behavioral principles help students with severe
behavior problems
• Example of 5 adolescent males, severe emotional disorders
– ABAB design (applied behavior analysis) was
successful
• Behavioral interventions often used with students with
autism
– Response cost (ABAB design) strategy used effectively
with 8-year-old boy with autism
– Boy returned to regular classroom; teacher continued
strategy successfully

Current Applications: Functional
Behavioral Assessment
• General reasons students act out
– Receive attention from others
– Escape unpleasant situation–academic or social demand
– Get a desired item or activity
– Meet sensory needs
• Functional behavioral assessment (FBA) tries to discover “why”
– Obtain information about antecedents, behaviors, consequences
to identify reason/function of the behavior
– Use variety of ways to gather information
– Analyze to determine what functions the behavior serves
• FBA observation guide: List time, antecedent event, exact behavior,
and consequences; analyze

Positive Behavior Supports (PBS)
• Interventions designed to replace problem behaviors with
new actions that serve the same purpose for the student
– Based on functional behavioral assessment
– Examples: Teach student to ask for help or request a
break
• Precorrection: Tool for PBS (preventive strategy)
– Identify context for student’s misbehavior
– Specify alternative expected behavior
– Modify situation to make problem behavior unlikely
– Rehearse expected positive behaviors; reinforce
• PBS used successfully in school-wide programs

Self-Management
• Student responsible for learning, changing own behavior
• Goal setting step
– Student sets specific goals for self-direction, problem solving,
critical thinking, social responsibility, and more
• Monitoring and evaluating progress step
– Student often monitors own progress
– Student maintains chart, checklist, other record of frequency or
duration of behaviors in question
– Self-evaluates; judges quality of own progress; self-corrects or
improves work; compares improvement to standards
• Self-reinforcement step: Student controlling own reinforcers
– Denies self a reward until goal is met; then reinforces with reward

Guidelines for Applying Operant
Conditioning: Student Self-Management
• Introduce system to parents/students in positive way
• Help families/students establish reachable goals
– Suggest goals such as beginning homework early
• Give families ways to record, evaluate progress
– Divide work into easily measured steps
– Provide models of good work when needed
– Give families a form/checklist
• Encourage families to check accuracy of student records
and help child develop forms of self-reinforcement
– Start with frequent checkups, then fewer checkups

Challenges to Early Behavioral
Approaches
• Albert Bandura challenges behaviorism, develops new theories
• Social learning theory—learning through observation of others
• Distinguishes between enactive and observational learning
– Enactive: Learn by doing, experiencing consequences
– Observational: Learn vicariously; observe and imitate
others
• Distinguishes between knowledge and performance
– One can know and wait for appropriate situation to
perform/demonstrate the knowledge/learning
• Bandura’s later work – Social cognitive theory

Criticisms of Behavioral Methods
• Debate about whether students should be rewarded for
schoolwork, academic accomplishments
• One view: Students are punished by system of rewards
– Seen as a controlling system that decreases students’
interest in material, limits intrinsic motivation
• Other view: Learning should be rewarding
– Rewards maintain intrinsic motivation, bolster
confidence; some may not learn without rewards
• Proper use of behavioral strategies
– Help students learn academically, grow in self-
sufficiency

Behavioral Approaches: Lessons for
Teachers
• Principles teachers can use that apply to all people
– No one eagerly repeats behaviors that have been
punished/ignored
– When actions lead to consequences that are positive,
those actions are likely to be repeated
– Teachers often fail to recognize appropriate behavior
with reinforcement; respond more to inappropriate
behavior
– Praise must be sincere recognition of real
accomplishment to be effective
– Students can learn to be more self-managing

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