[Session 7] Three Major Trends of Learning Psychology (1)
Behaviorism: Vicarious reinforcement and teaching machines
- Introduction -
A mechanism of behaviorist psychology is that stimulus leads to response by reinforcement. Since goals of psychology at that time included the application of animals' learning to humans, human minds were treated as a kind of a black box and only external behaviors were focused on as data to construct a theory. The theory was called S-R theory since people get Response by giving Stimulus. When preferable response is obtained, a reward (e.g., food, as an incentive) is given so that the response may repeatedly occur. Such an action was called Reinforcement. Scientists claimed that learning can be promoted better by giving rewards for preferable responses than giving punishment for unpreferable responses. Cognitivism, established after behaviorism, tried to explain what was happening in a human's mind (and body) by regarding the human mind as a "white box." In this regard, they are very opposite in attitude toward the human mind and behavior.
B. F. Skinner, a key scientist of behaviorist psychology at that time, studied the concept of Reinforcement by using pigeons and rats. Skinner later designed an apparatus, called a Skinner box, which provided a circular window that a pigeon pecked with its bill (or a button that a rat pressed with its forefoot). In the box, the pigeon was rewarded with a bit of food under a certain condition (for example, only when the window turned white) and was not under another condition (for example, the window was black). Gradually the pigeon came to ignore it when it was black and peck the window when it turned white. Skinner concluded "learning" was established by showing these animals' responses.
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