is a worldview that operates on a principle of stimulusresponse. All behavior caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning).

All behavior can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.

Originators and important contributors: John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, E. L. Thorndike (connectionism), Bandura, Tolman (moving toward cognitivism)

Keywords: Classical conditioning (Pavlov), Operant conditioning (Skinner), Stimulusresponse (S-R)

Several types of learning exist. The most basic form is associative learning, i.e., making a new association between events in the environment. There are two forms of associative learning: classical conditioning (made famous by Ivan Pavlovs experiments with dogs) and operant conditioning.

is a reflexive or automatic type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

Originators and Key Contributors: First described by Ivan Pavlov (18491936), Russian physiologist, in 1903, and studied in infants by John B. Watson (1878-1958). Keywords: stimulus-response, psychic reflexes, unconditioned stimulus, conditioned response, respondent conditioning

is a term used to describe behaviour which has been reinforced by reward or discouraged through punishment.

For example, if a mother wants her daughter to clean her room then she may give her some sweets every time she cleans it. Given enough time, the girl will start to clean her room more often because she knows she will get some sweets in return. As a result, the girls behaviour (cleaning) has been modified (conditioned) because she learnt to associate that behaviour with a reward.

Although this may sound similar in principle to classical conditioning, it is in fact different because operant conditioning requires action on the part of the learner. As a result, the girl wil not get any sweets until after she cleans her room. In classical conditioning the conditioned stimulus (sweets) is used regardless of what the learner does.

 Operant behaviour is defined as actions which have consequences.

The Skinner box: operant conditioning apparatus

Reinforcers: Positive: the one that has some sort of value for whoever is receiving it. (food when hungry; water when thirsty)

Negative: the one that has no value for whoever receives it. It may also injure, harm or cause discomfort in some way.

Primary reinforcer: has some value to whoever is receiving it, and this value has not been learnt (food when hungry; water when thirsty) Secondary reinforcer: has an acquired value for whoever receives it, which means you are taught its value/worth over a period of time before you see it as being valuable for you. (money)

Skinner suggested that a child imitates the language of its parents or carers. Successful attempts are rewarded because an adult who recognises a word spoken by a child will praise the child and/or give it what it is asking for. Successful utterances are therefore reinforced while unsuccessful ones are forgotten.

 While there must be some truth in Skinner's explanation, there are many objections to it. Language is based on a set of structures or rules, which could not be worked out simply by imitating individual utterances. The mistakes made by children reveal that they are not simply imitating but actively working out and applying rules.

The child has discovered that past tense verbs are formed by adding a /d/ or /t/ sound to the base form. The "mistakes" occur because there are irregular verbs which do not behave in this way. Such forms are often referred to as intelligent mistakes or virtuous errors.

Children are often unable to repeat what an adult says, especially if the adult utterance contains a structure the child has not yet started to use. Few children receive much explicit grammatical correction. Parents are more interested in politeness and truthfulness.

There is evidence for a critical period for language acquisition. Children who have not acquired language by the age of about seven will never entirely catch up. The most famous example is that of Genie, discovered in 1970 at the age of 13. She had been severely neglected, brought up in isolation and deprived of normal human contact. (...) she never became a fluent speaker, failing to acquire the grammatical competence of the average five-year-old.