Behaviorism is the oldest, most well developed, most researched theories in learning and behavior. It is a highly practical and broadly applicable theory that offers precise, prescriptive guidance on almost any aspects of instruction, coaching, and behavioral development. Having a practical understanding of behaviorism can be an invaluable tool for any L&D professional.
What is learning according to behaviorism?
In behaviorism, learning is said to have occurred when you change your behavior in the present or future because of things you have experienced in the past. In other words, Learning occurs when you react to a certain stimulus or set of stimuli with a specific behavior or set of behaviors. The thing that provokes the behavior is referred to as the “stimulus” and the corresponding behavior is the “response.”
Note that in this perspective, no learning occurs without action. To know is to act in specific, effective ways. Without action, one cannot be said to have learned something. Knowledge and action are effectively the same thing. When you are capable of acting in a certain way in response to certain stimuli and you have acted in that way in reality, then you can be said to have knowledge.
Behaviorism does not deny the existence of internal thoughts nor does it deny that such thoughts influence behavior. It merely acknowledges that we cannot observe internal thoughts nor can we ascertain for certain the cause and effect relationships between thought and action. The mind is considered beyond inspection. Since all that can be observed is stimulus and response, that is all that we can analyze and attempt to manipulate.
What are behaviorism’s philosophical roots?
Behaviorism is an “objectivist” theory. This means that is assumes that there is an objective world outside of ourselves with things that have fixed properties at any point in time. Reality does exist and is independent of any person’s understanding. People may interpret the world in subjective ways and/or may be incapable of fulling grasping the external world as it is, but that has no bearing on the fact that the world is the way that it is regardless of how we perceive it.
This is in contrast to relativistic theories like constructivism, which posit that the true meaning of things is entirely relative and thus that there is no true meaning or reality outside of the mind. There is no absolute truth in this viewpoint, but instead only individual constructions of meaning.
How does behaviorist learning work mechanically?
In behaviorism, there are three fundamental parts of learning, a stimulus, a response, and a function or consequence. The stimulus is the event in the outside world that triggers (or that we want to trigger) a certain behavior. The response is the behavior itself that is triggered. And the function, or consequence, refers to what happens after the behavior is occurred (though it also refers to a goal a learner wants to achieve or something the learner wants to avoid).
A person learns when they develop the instinct or habit to react to a certain stimulus or set of stimuli and specific behavior. When the association between the stimulus and response has been established, a person is said to have been “conditioned” to respond to the stimulus. Conditioning is the process of creating the stimulus-response association.
The strength of the association is a factor in learning as well. The more frequent and/or automatic a certain response is, the stronger it is. The less frequent and or automatic, the weaker the learned response is. The strength of the association is affected by how closely together the stimulus and response occur in time and space (contiguity) and how dependent they are on each other (contingency), which is to say, how likely it is that the stimulus invokes a specific response. Of course, repetition also strengthens the association.
When it comes to functions/consequences, sometimes they strengthen a stimulus-response association and sometimes they weaken it. A function that strengthens the association is referred to as “reinforcement” whereas a function that decreases it is referred to as a “punishment.” Functions/consequences often occur naturally, but when they are applied deliberately, you can use them to either encourage or extinguish behaviors. Incidentally, the absence of a function/consequence will slowly extinguish an existing stimulus-response association in the long-term, though in the near-term, it will cause a large increase in the association as the person seeks out the function to which he has become accustomed.
Finally, there are three types of conditioning:
- Respondent learning/classical conditioning – this is where involuntary actions are automatically elicited in response to certain stimuli. Think Pavlov’s dog salivating when it hears a bell ringing.
- Operant conditioning – this is when one actively develops a relationship between a stimulus and a response. This most represents what we think about when someone is being formally trained.
- Observational learning – changed in behavior that are brought about by observing other people’s stimulus-response-function experiences.
What are the behaviorist implications for designing instructional programs?
When you design learning programs from a behaviorist perspective, you do not analyze content or information. You analyze behaviors, the environmental triggers that should invoke them, and the consequences of those behaviors. You design activities that have learners respond to stimuli, getting feedback (functions/consequences). In other words the entire unit of analysis and design is the behavior and its causes. More specifically, you:
- Define observable behaviors that are the target of instruction
- Break those behaviors down into their constituent behaviors
- Identify the stimuli that are to be associated with those behaviors
- Identify the functions related to the success or failure to exhibit the behaviors
- Organize the instruction around the behaviors being taught
- For each behavior, teach in something approximating this sequence:
- Present stimuli
- Elicit a response
- Present function/consequence
- Repeat until sufficient conditioning has occurred
- Move on to the next behaviors
What are the behaviorist implications for reinforcement and coaching?
Most training is intended to help people create a new capability that they carry with them indefinitely. However, behaviorist theory asserts that the associations between stimulus and response weaken without exercise. Thus, from this perspective, training cannot be made permanent without some form of ongoing post-training “maintenance” (the behaviorist would not likely make a distinction between training and post-training reinforcement – they would both be part of the same ongoing process of continued strengthening or weakening of stimulus-response associations).
Reinforcement
When you are trying to generate more of a behavior, which is to say, strengthening an S-R association, that is referred to as “reinforcement.” In behaviorism, reinforcements are always about encouraging behaviors (rather than extinguishing them). There are two types of reinforcements, positive and negative. With a positive reinforcement you are giving a positive consequence when the right S-R association happens and with a negative reinforcement, you are taking something negative away. Giving someone praise or a reward to strengthen an association would be positive reinforcement. Allowing someone to skip their chores in exchange for the right S-R association would be negative reinforcement.
Punishment
Whereas the focus of post-training interventions would almost always be on continued strengthening of an S-R association, outside of training, such as in coaching, parenting, therapy, etc. you will certainly be interested in weakening and eliminating unproductive S-R associations (i.e. eliminating unproductive behavior). Behaviors are eliminated with punishments. Just as there are with reinforcements, there are positive and negative punishments. Positive punishments involve giving an undesired thing, such as extra duties at work, in order to reduce an S-R association. Negative punishments involve taking something away, such as access to the best parking space, in order to reduce an S-R association.
Maintenance schedules
How often and how long does reinforcement and/or punishment need to happen for a response to become permanent? In general, it never become permanent unless you reinforce the S-R association repeatedly with enough frequency and over a sufficiently long period of time that the response becomes automatic. Even then the association can weaken over time without reinforcement. For an S-R bond to remain in place, it needs to be reinforced in an ongoing way. Behaviorism offers specific strategies for this that are referred to as “maintenance schedules.”.
Maintenance schedules are about the frequency with which a behavior is met with an associated consequence. There are various possible maintenance schedules and each one has a different impact on the strength of the association.
- Continuous – every time a stimulus is met with a certain behavior, the reinforcement occurs.
- Intermittent, predictable intervals – when a stimulus is met with a certain behavior, the reinforcement does not occur all of the time, but it does so at regular, predictable intervals
- Intermittent ,unpredictable intervals – when a stimulus is met with a certain behavior, the reinforcement does not occur all of the time, but it does so at regular, predictable intervals
- None – when a stimulus is met with a certain behavior, the reinforcement never occurs
When it comes to encouraging behavior (strengthening the S-R bond), reinforcements occurring at a continuous pace and those at intermittent, unpredictable intervals are equally effective. Those at intermittent, predictable intervals are less effective because the individual knows that during the interval, they can violate the S-R bond without any ill consequence.
When it comes to extinguishing behaviors, the same ideas applies to the scheduling of punishments, though ultimately, no response will always extinguish behaviors (though it is worth nothing that when you withdraw reinforcement or punishment from a S-R bond that is presently strong, you will at first see an uptick in the S-R response as the person desperately tries to reinstate the reinforcement).
Notable behaviorist thinkers
The notable thinkers and researchers involved in the development of behaviorism include:
Behaviorism conclusion
Behaviorism is the oldest, most well-developed learning theory in existence. Founded on almost 100 years of empirical research. it has proven itself to be a valid and useful framework for thinking about learning and how to build skill and manage behavior. The major theories that came later used behaviorism as their reference point, meaning they offered ideas counter to those in behaviorism. This made the theory even more robust, as it spent decades in research defending it’s major propositions. Behaviorism offers a valid theoretical explanation for virtually all of the research from competing theories. Neither cognitivism nor constructivism can make such a claim.
Of all of the major learning theories, behaviorism is the most coherent, meaning that all of the practices grow naturally from a singular, central concept of learning and behavior (whereas most others embody a wider range of sub concepts that are not always directly connected to each other). This adds to its practicality and ease with which it can be understood.
As a theory, behaviorism is one of the most practical. It’s principles and lessons can be used in any learning environment, any coaching scenario, and change scenario, or in any situation where the goal is to shape behavior. It offers very specific, very actionable guidance on shaping behavior.
Perhaps because of its roots in objectivism and because its practical implications or so simple and prescriptive, behaviorism does not appeal to everyone. Regarding its objectivist viewpoint, it can be difficult for some to accept that when you are trying to help others learn that you would not give consideration to what is happening in the mind. Further, distilling complex human behavior down into something that may seem like a very simply algorithm may seem intuitively reductionist to some. None-the-less, it is hard to argue with is results and evidence.
Regardless of how one reacts to the main tenets of behaviorism, there is no doubt that it offers many highly useful tools for the L&D professional at any level. It also provides context needed to fully understand the theories that followed it. That’s why it is important for L&D professionals to be as familiar with it as they can be.