12-1-08 Chapter 9: Behaviorist Views of Learning

What??
Behaviorism defines learning as "a semi-permanent change in behavior." One behaviorist is Pavlov. He did an experiment with dogs, their food, and a bell. He began by giving the dogs their food to make them salivate. Then he began ringing a bell when he would give them their food, and they would salivate. Before long, the dogs would begin salivating when they heard the bell whether there was food or not.

So What??
What Pavlov learned was that he was able to teach the dogs to respond in a specific way (by salivating) to something that would not typically cause them to do so (they began salivating after hearing the bell). However, after a while of ringing the bell to get them to salivate without actually giving them food, they quit salivating at the ring of a bell. So the dogs salivating to the ringing of a bell could be classified as a semi-permanent change in behavior.

Now What??
Now that we know we can alter behavior by using stimuli and reinforcements, that knowledge could be used in the classroom. When our students do what we want them to do, we can give them a reward. Pretty soon we will be able to remove the reward from the equation and hopefully maintain the desired behavior.