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The history of behaviorism

Behaviorism as a learning theory represents the culmination of various schools of thought in modern psychology. Some of the people and concepts that formed behaviorism as a learning theory include:

• Wilhelm Wundt
• Ivan Pavlov
• John Watson
• B.F. Skinner

Wilhelm Wundt 

Wilhelm Wundt, widely regarded as the “father of experimental psychology,” founded the first psychology laboratory in the world and carried out experiments that strongly influenced the field. His novel, 19th-century approach included the proposal that psychology is a natural science; he facilitated controlled experiments with reproducible results. This work primarily focused on objective measurement of qualities such as reaction times and attention spans.

Wundt’s contributions to the field are often considered significant, and the emphasis on external study greatly influenced later behaviorists.

Ivan Pavlov 

One of those behaviorists, Ivan Pavlov, is most known for his study of dogs who salivated as specific lab assistants entered the room. Because these lab assistants often fed the dogs, Pavlov noticed that the dogs associated the presence of the assistants with food, triggering a physiological response. He devised an experiment to tie the presence of food with the ringing of a bell. The dogs began to associate the bell’s ringing with the arrival of food.

These experiments helped formalize the concept of . According to this theory, a neutral stimulus can elicit a response when paired with a positive stimulus. In this example, the bell (a neutral stimulus) becomes associated with the positive stimulus (food) to produce the same behavior (salivation).

John Watson 

Even though Pavlov confined his experiments to animals, another psychologist — John Watson — performed experiments on people (with dubious ethical considerations). While he is widely regarded as the founder of behavioral psychology, Watson never claimed this title. He did believe that scientists could study behavior in an experimental setting, which led to one of the most infamous tests: the .

In his research, Watson conditioned a young child to fear a small rat by timing the arrival of the rat with a loud noise. Though many today consider this ethically inexcusable, Watson’s experiment had important implications, including that many of Pavlov’s findings also applied to human behavior.

This connection between external stimuli and developed behaviors is the bedrock upon which future innovators would build.

B.F. Skinner 

Many of behaviorism’s commonplace concepts, such as and , grew out of B.F. Skinner’s groundbreaking work.

Skinner’s landmark experiment involved placing a lab rat in an operant conditioning chamber or “Skinner box,” outfitted with a lever or button. The animal could press the lever or button to receive food.

In other versions of the experiment, the animal would receive a small shock if it pressed the lever outside of set conditions, such as a light being on or off.

These two responses, food and shock, are known as reinforcements and punishments, respectively. Skinner found that animals were prone to push the lever when they received rewards and less likely to do so when they didn’t. He called this operant conditioning. Contrasting this with Pavlov’s conclusions, where behavior depends on the preceding stimulus, Skinner argued that the subject’s behavior depends on the stimulus that follows it.

In operant conditioning, subjects receive positive and negative reinforcement and punishment:

• Positive reinforcement: Good behavior receives a reinforcement, such as a prize or gold star.
• Negative reinforcement: Good behavior ends with something negative, such as cleanup duty or assignments.
• Positive punishment: Bad behavior receives a new, unpleasant stimulus such as extra homework.
• Negative punishment: Bad behavior earns subtractive measures, such as recess time being taken away.

Skinner would go on to propose radical behaviorism, in which all psychological processes were deemed responses to environmental stimuli and reinforcement. Though many contemporary behaviorists aren’t as extreme in their views, Skinner’s work contributes heavily to modern behaviorist learning theory.