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Behaviorism

Overview

Behaviorists believe learning occurs through an individual's interaction with their environment. Behaviorism discounts the emotions and internal mental processes in the learning experience, emphasizing that learning is driven by external stimuli and reinforcement. The concluding premise is that observable behaviors (responses) are associated with specific stimuli in a rather predictable or fixed way, and that by leveraging stimuli observable behaviors can be predicted, and even changed or modified in another person, through reinforcement of that behavior.

Dates, Key Researchers, and Connections to Learning

1849 - 1936           Ivan Pavlov, Physicist

While researching the digestive system with dogs, Pavlov noticed the dogs salivated when presented with food, but would also salivate without the presence of food when the dogs saw the lab assistant who fed them. He realized he could produce the same behavior in the dogs when he paired other types of stimuli, like a bell, with food and then slowly removed the food. He recognized this as "stimulus response learning" and coined this term Classical Conditioning. Classical conditioning has been recognized as evolutionary beneficial. Once an organism has an experience (good or bad), it will develop expectations and responses for encountering similar situations. Note: classical conditioning is associated with involuntary behavior. Many subsequent researchers have built from Pavlov's research.

"Classic Conditioning Diagram" by Salehi.s licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.

1874 - 1949       Edward Thorndike, Psychologist

Thorndike studied the psychology of learning. He proposed a "law of effect" which postulates behavior is modified and reinforced based on the outcome and what we want. In other words, if the outcome is good or pleasurable, we will continue that behavior.  

1978 - 1958          John Watson, Psychologist

Watson popularized the theory of behaviorism by applying it to child behavior. Influenced by Pavlov, he conditioned a child to fear a white rat by pairing the rat with a loud noise. Based on this infamous experiment, Watson proposed that the environment formed a child's behavior rather than natural temperament or genetics.

"Albert Experiment" by Vibha C Kashyap is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.

1904 - 1990         B.F. Skinner, Psychologist

Skinner introduced the concept of operant conditioning, which became a significant aspect of behaviorism. Operant conditioning is learning that uses reward or punishment to modify behavior. Rewards increase a behavior and punishment decreases behavior. Note: operate conditioning is associated with voluntary behavior (ex: rat pressing a lever for food).

1884 - 1952        Clark L. Hull, Psychologist

Hull developed systematic theory, called drive reduction theory, based on the concept of homeostasis. Like the body regulating its functions to maintain itself, he proposed a reinforcement system where learning and habits are formed through the reinforcement of behavior. However, Hull's premise is that reinforcement of a response occurs be because it satisfies a need.

Image Source: Hillary Anderson "Hull's Drive-Reduction Theory," Accessed via https://www.verywellmind.com/drive-reduction-theory-2795381

1916 - 2002         Robert Gagné, Psychologist

Gagné proposed a learning theory influenced partly by stimulus-response learning. He classified an eight-tier hierarchy of learning that acknowledges the complexity of learning that includes both the teacher and the student in the learning process. The lowest four categories focused on the behavioral aspects of learning, and the top four focus on cognitive aspects. This work resulted in a nine-step sequence of events, referred to as the Nine Events of Instruction, proposed to enhance student learning.  

 "Gagne's Hierarchy of Learning: Levels in increasing complexity" by ManjeetYv is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-SA 4.0.

Implications for Instructional Design

  • Behaviorism is utilized in instructional design when there is a need to create measurable and observable learning outcomes.

  • Learning activities are organized around an identified skill or concept that the instructor wants students to achieve. The skill or concept is broken down into smaller, manageable elements that are then introduced sequentially during the learning process (Fonollosa, Neftci, Rabinvoch 2015).

  • A sequential approach helps the student retain and recall information in the correct order to fully master the skill. Application of repetition, informative feedback and rewards remain consistent during each sequence of learning process.

  • Repetition, drills, and practice activities that utilize informative feedback and tangible rewards are used to help students master a skill (Schwartz, 2018).

  • In education, this aligns with an objectivist approach to teaching, where teaching centers on terminology, formulas, facts, theories, and pretty much any other proven idea that exists outside our minds. In this scenario, the teacher controls what and how students learn and how the learner is assessed on what they learn (Bates, 2022).

  • Robert Gagné's Nine Events of Intruction provide strategic guidance in the instructional design process.

"Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction" by CourseArc is licensed under Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.

Strengths and Limitations

Strengths

  • Good strategy to help individuals learn objective content (theories, facts, steps for an activity, etc.).

  • Feedback informs learners about performance and provides an opportunity to make corrections and improvements.

  • Reinforcement motivates students to avoid undesirable behaviors and repeat desirable behaviors.

  • Practice helps learners consolidate knowledge in manageable pieces to learn a concept or skill.

  • Encourages social learning through observation and modeling.

Limitations

  • Oversimplifies learning and only focuses on observable behavior.

  • Not effective for higher-order or complex learning outcomes.

  • Does not account for critical thinking, problem-solving, personal experience, or emotions.

  • Treats students as passive with no consideration of prior knowledge, individual differences, moral code, or factors that affect learning.

  • Ignores the role of the student in actively building knowledge.

No More Levers! No More Levers!
No More Levers!

Learning Scenario

Scenario: Learners must match anatomical direction terminology to the correct anatomical image to progress to the next higher-level activity.

Type of Behaviorism: Operant Conditioning.  

Type of Behaviorism: Drag and Drop.

Stimulus:  Matching a term to an image.

Activity Description

Purpose:
This activity teaches foundational concepts required to learn and apply functional anatomy. The learner demonstrate proficiency in applying anatomical directions to the human body. Upon mastery, the learner may begin the next, more complex, activity.

  • Learners are presented with a fixed "Terms" box that contains anatomical directions located at the bottom of the screen:

  •  A view of the human body pops up in the middle of the screen in an "Anatomical Image" box. This is a posterior view of the human body, so the learner would drag the word "Posterior" to the image.

Source: Mikael Häggström, "Muscles Posterior," 2020. Accessed via https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Muscles_posterior.png

Scoring

  • ​There is only one correct answer for each image.

  • A progress bar is on the right of the screen displays the learner's status in the activity.

  • The bar starts fully green, and the leaner has 3 consecutive attempts before the bar is depleted.

  • The consecutive attempts are for the entire activity, not for each term.

  • The learner can "earn back" attempts.

  • After 3 consecutive attempts that are incorrect, the activity resets.

Example: In the beginning of the activity, the learner gets the term wrong twice for Image A and then gets it right, the bar drops two increments and then climbs one. If the learner gets the next attempt right for Image B, the bar climbs another increment and is now fully green again.

Reinforcement

  • Correct attempts are reinforced by "Correct!" in green with brief rationale that can be read.

  • Scoring bar: The scoring bar climbs incrementally when a learner answers correctly, or remains in full green status if there have not been any misses.

Punishment

  • Incorrect attempts show as "Incorrect." 

  • When an attempt is incorrect, they have lost one attempt and the number of overall attempts remaining for the overall activity is presented to the learner.

  • The scoring bar falls when a learner answers incorrectly. The green squares change to red.

  • When the learner misses two consecutive attempts, a prompt suggests that the learner pause the activity and review the terms to avoid the game resetting.

  • If the learner misses three consecutive attempts in a row, the activity resets itself which removes the leaner's previous responses. This prevents the learner from proceeding to the next activity until they have mastered anatomical direction. It also deters guessing to get past the activity.

References

Bates, T. (2022). Teaching in a digital age (3rd ed). Tony Bates Associates Ltd. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/teachinginadigitalagev3m/

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Fonollosa, J., Neftci, E., & Rabinvich. (2015) Learning of chunking sequences in cognition and behavior. PLOS Computational Biology. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1004592

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Schwartz, M. (2018). The implications of 3 adult learning theories on instructional design. eLearning Industry. Retrieved from https://elearningindustry.com/adult-learning-theories-on-instructional-design-implications-3 

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