Neo Behaviorism 436d2b

Neo Behaviorism: Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorsm and Bandura’ Social Learning Theory Bridging the gap between behaviorism and cognitive theories of learning.

Objectives: At the end of the lesson, students are expected to: • Explain Tolman’s purposive behaviorism • Explain Bandura’s social learning theory • Give specific applications of each theory in teaching

Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism • Edward Chace Tolman spent most of his professional life on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley • His major work was Purposive Behaviorism in Animals and Men published in 1932.

Purposive Behaviorism • Tolman believed that learning is a cognitive process. Learning involves forming beliefs and obtaining knowledge about the environment and then revealing that knowledge through purposeful and goal-directed behavior. • Tolman’s system was called purposive behaviorism because it studies behavior as it is organized around purposes.

• A new stimulus (the sign) becomes associated with already meaningful stimuli (the significate) through series of pairings; there was no need for reinforcement in order to establish learning.

Tolman’s Key Concepts • Learning is always purposive and goaldirected Individuals act on beliefs, attitudes, changing conditions, and they strive towards goals. Tolman saw behavior as holistic, purposive, and cognitive.

• Cognitive map Learning the location of reward. Once an individual has learned where a given kind of reward is located, that location can often be reached by means other than those originally used. Example: A shopper finds an interesting store while exploring a city on foot. The shopper can then return to the store either by car or bus.

• Latent Learning Whenever learning goes on without its being evident in performance at the time.

Example: • Rats spent several nights in mazes with- out being fed. • ½ found their way to the goal box without reinforcement. • They develop cognitive maps without rewards.

• The concept of intervening variable Learning is mediated or is influenced by expectations, perceptions, representations, needs and other internal or environmental variables.

Example: hunger was the intervening variable with rats

• Reinforcement not essential for learning. Tolman concluded that reinforcement is not essential for learning although it provides an incentive for performance.

Example: Rat was able to acquire knowledge of the way through a maze even in the absence of reinforcement.

Bandura’s Social Learning Theory People learn from one another by observational learning, imitation, and modeling.

General principles of social learning theory • People can learn by observing the behavior of others. • Learning can occur without a change in behavior. • Cognition plays a role in learning. • It is a bridge or a transitions between behaviorist learning theory and cognitive learning theory.

How the environment reinforces and punishes modeling 1. The observer is reinforced by the model. Example: student who changes dress to fit in with a certain group of students has a strong likelihood of being accepted and thus reinforced by that group

2. The observer is reinforced by a third person. – The observer might be modeling the actions of someone else.

Example: an outstanding class leader or student. The teacher notices this and compliments and praises the observer for modeling such behavior thus reinforcing that behavior

3. The imitated behavior itself leads to reinforcing consequences. Many behaviors that we learn from others produce satisfying or reinforcing results. Example: A students observe how the extra work a classmate does is fun. This student in turn would do the same extra work and also experience enjoyment.

4. Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observer’s behavior vicariously. – This is known as vicarious reinforcement. This is where the model is reinforced for a response and then the observer shows an increase in that same response.

Example: a model hitting an inflated clown doll. One group of children saw the model being praised for such action, so the children began to also hit the doll.

Contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and punishment • Both reinforcement and punishment have indirect effect on learning. • Influence the extent to which an individual exhibits a behavior that has been learned. • The expectation of reinforcement influences cognitive processes that promote learning.

Cognitive factors in social learning 1. Learning without performance: a distinction between learning through observation and the actual imitation 2. Cognitive processing during learning: attention is the critical factor for learning 3. Expectations: people form expectations about the consequences that future behaviors are likely to bring

3. Reciprocal causation: the three variables, the person, the behavior, and the environment can have an influence on each other 4. Modeling: there are different types of modes: live model – actual demonstration symbolic model - person or action portrayed in othe medium (television, videotape, computer programs)

Conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur • Attention – the person must pay attention to the model • Retention – the observer must the able to the behavior • Motor reproduction – the ability to replicate the behavior • Motivation – learner must want to demonstrate what they have learned

Effects of modeling on behavior • Modeling teaches new behavior. • Modeling influences the frequency of previously learned behaviors. • Modeling may encourage previously forbidden behavior. • Modeling increases the frequency of similar behavior.

Educational implications of social learning theory

• Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other people. • Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively increase the appropriate behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones. • Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviors. • Teachers and parents must model appropriate behaviors. • Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models.