Makalah : Behavioral Learning Theories

A.    Title

Learning and Evolution of Behavioral Learning Theories

B.     Background

In modern age, all science and technology have to develop so rapidly. This is what requires us to plunge into it that is not out of dated. Development of science and technology led to significant changes in the learning process. Since the study itself can be done anywhere and anytime. For example, before the people of Indonesia know about internet, students get only a description of the teacher and read a book in the library, but now the learning process itself can be done anywhere by an electronic device, such as a laptop or mobile phone.

Besides progress was easier for us, but we also have to be careful to accept because it looks now the next generation is very happy to use the product abroad than domestically. In addition, the behaviour has also shifted from a culture of Indonesia like, a lot of young people to be individualists who do not really like to chat with your neighbour himself, but instead were watching television or playing video games. This is an example of the change in behaviour due to learning less cautious.

Other than that, now the students are also mostly to carry a cell phone when examination, is intended to facilitate the student can ask for answers on the others. It is the act of cheating that has been handed down the students. The act is certainly very damaging morale and spirit as the next generation. In addition, students also become more relaxed in answering the question than the ancient times, the students really worked hard to learn.

C.     Problem statements

From the background above, we can be formulated several problems, they are:

a.       What is learning?

b.      How learning theory views expressed by some experts on the development of human behaviour?

c.       What behavioural learning theories have evolved?

D.    Objectives

The goals that we can get from this paper is

a.       Knowing what it means to learn.

b.      Knowing some expert opinion of behaviourist.

c.       Knowing the behavioural learning theories evolution.

E.     Discussion

1.      Many experts have expressed understanding of learning

a.       Kimble (1961, h.6) also defines learning as a relatively permanent change in behavioural potentiality that occurs as a result of reinforced practice.

b.      Winkel (1989) defines learning as a process of mental activity in a person that he/she goes in the individual active interaction with the environment, resulting in changes in the relative living/survive in the ability of the cognitive, affective and psychomotor.

c.       Slameto (1995) formulate learning as a process of individual efforts in the interaction with the environment.

d.      Learning is a result of the interaction between stimulus and response (Slavin, 2000:143). Stimulus is whatever the teacher to the student, while the response in the form of student reactions or responses to the stimulus provided by the teacher.

Thus, Learning is a change in an individual that results from experience.

2.      This view of behavioural learning is a change in behaviour as a result of the interaction between stimulus and response. Opinions of experts who argue about behaviour are:

a). Thorndike(1911)

Learning is a process of interaction between the stimulus (in the form of thoughts, feelings, or motion) and response (which also can include thoughts, feelings, or motion). According to Thorndike, changes in behaviour can manifest anything concrete (observable), or not concrete (not observable). Thorndike theory referred to as "flow connectionist" (connectionism).

The process of learning by Thorndike through two processes, they are:

1)      Trial and error (try and error and a failure)

2)      Law of effect, which means that any behaviour that results in a satisfactory condition (matched with the demands of the situation) will be remembered and studied with the best.

                        b). Watson(1963)

Unlike with Thorndike, according to Watson stimulus and response should be shaped behaviour "observable" and can be measured. In other words, Watson neglected the mental changes that may occur in the study and take it as a factor that does not need to know. Not that all the mental changes that occur in the minds of the students is not important. All of that is important, but these factors could not explain whether learning has occurred or not.

c). Clark Hull(1943)

Hull theory used a variable relationship between the stimulus and the response to their understanding of learning, such as the theory of evolution (Charles Darwin). Two things are very important in the learning process of Hull is the Incentive motivation (incentive motivation) and Drive reduction (stimulus driving). Responds speed change when the magnitude reward of change.

1)      Practical use of Hull's learning theory to classroom activities, as follows:
Learning theory based on a drive-reduction or drive stimulus reduction.

2)      Instructional objective should be specific and clearly defined.

3)      Classroom should start in such a way so as to facilitate the learning process.

4)      Lessons must start from the simple / easy access to the more complex / difficult.

5)      Anxiety must be generated to drive and willingness to learn.

6)      Exercise must be distributed carefully so that no inhibition. In other words, fatigue should not interfere with learning.

7)      Ordinal of the subject is arranged so that the former subjects do not hinder but rather should be incentives that encourage learning in the following subjects.

d). Edwin Guthrie

The principle of learning is the main Guthrie contiguity law. That combined of stimuli accompanied by a movement, at the time arises again tend to be followed by the same movement (Bell, Gredler, 1991). According the punishment, if it given at the right time, will be able to change one's habits. For example a child who has never made his/her bed. When he/she want to get out of the room, waiting for him/her in front of his mother directly and immediately begged him to go back to bed and smoothed and then the child is allowed to leave the room. After a few times, responses for making the beds isolated by stimuli out of the room.

e). Skinner(1968)

According to Skinner the relationship between stimulus and response that occurs through interaction with the environment, which then lead to changes in behaviour. According to the response received by someone not as simple as other experts said, because the given stimuli will interact and the interaction between the stimuli will affect the resulting response. The response given this has consequences that will affect the appearance of behaviour (Slavin, 2000). Therefore in understanding the person's behaviour must correctly understand the relationship between the stimuli with one another. Skinner also noted that by using mental changes as a tool to explain the behaviour will only add to the complexity of the problem.

The learning principles Skinner are:

1)      Learning outcomes should be immediately notified if any student-corrected, if it is given a booster.

2)      Learning process should follow the rhythm of the student. The subject matter is used as a module system.

3)      In the process of learning is more important student independence, no use of punishment. For that, the environment needs to be changed in order to avoid punishment.

4)      Educators desired behaviour should be rewarded and awarded prizes by the use variable ratio schedule of reinforcement.

5)      Learning to use the process of formation, which brings students toward or achieve certain targets, making the students are not free to be creative and imaginative.

3.      The behavioural learning theories evolution

Learning takes place in many ways. Sometimes it is intentional, as when students acquire information presented in a classroom or when they look something up on the Internet. Sometimes it is unintentional, as in the case of the child's reaction to the needle. All sorts of learning are going on all the time.

The problem educators face is not how to get students to learn; students are already engaged in learning every waking moment. Rather, it is how to help students learn particular information, skills, and concepts that will be useful in adult life. How do we prepare students with the right stimuli on which to focus their attention and mental effort so that they will acquire important skills? That is the central problem of instruction.

Two of the most important early researchers were Ivan Pavlov and Edward Thorndike. Among later researchers, B. F. Skinner was important for his studies of the relationship between behaviour and consequences.

1.      Pavlov: Classical Conditioning

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Russian scientist Ivan Pavlov and his colleagues studied the digestive process in dogs. During the research, the scientists noticed changes in the timing and rate of salivation of these animals. Pavlov observed that if meat powder was placed in or near the mouth of a hungry dog, the dog would salivate. Because the meat powder provoked this response automatically, without any prior training or conditioning, the meat powder is referred to as an unconditioned stimulus (a stimulus that naturally evokes a particular response). Similarly, because salivation occurred automatically in the presence of meat, also without the need for any training or experience, this response of salivating is referred to as an unconditioned response (a behaviour that is prompted automatically by a stimulus). Whereas the meat will produce salivation without any previous experience or training, other stimuli, such as a bell, will not produce salivation. Because these stimuli have no effect on the response in question, they are referred to as neutral stimuli (stimuli that have no effect on particular response).

Pavlov's experiments showed that if a previously neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (a previously neutral stimulus that evokes a particular response after having been paired with an unconditioned stimulus) and gains the power to prompt a response similar to that produced by the unconditioned stimulus. In other words, after the bell and the meat are presented together, the ringing of the bell alone causes the dog to salivate. In experiments such as these, Pavlov and his colleagues showed how learning could affect what were once thought to be involuntary, reflexive behaviours, such as salivating. Pavlov's emphasis on observation and careful measurement and his systematic exploration of several aspects of learning helped to advance the scientific study of learning. Pavlov also left other behavioural theorists with significant mysteries, such as the process by which neutral stimuli take on meaning.

2.      Thorndike: The Law of Effect

Pavlov's work inspired researchers in the United States such as E. L. Thorndike (Hilgard & Bower, 1966). Thorndike, like many of the early behavioural learning theorists, linked behaviour to physical reflexes. In his early work he also viewed most behaviour as a response to stimuli in the environment. This view that stimuli can prompt responses was the forerunner of what became known as stimulus-response (S-R) theory. Early learning theorists noted that certain reflexes, such as the knee jerking upward when it is tapped, occur without processing by the brain. They hypothesized that other behaviour was also determined in a reflexive way by stimuli that are present in the environment rather than by conscious or unconscious thoughts.

Thorndike went beyond Pavlov by showing that stimuli that occurred after behaviour had an influence on future behaviours. In many of his experiments, Thorndike placed cats in boxes from which they had to escape to get food. He observed that over time, the cats learned how to get out of the box more and more quickly by repeating the behaviours that led to escape and not repeating the behaviours that were ineffective. From these experiments, Thorndike developed his Law of Effect, which states that if an act is followed by a satisfying change in the environment, the likelihood that the act will be repeated in similar situations increases. However, if behaviour is followed by an unsatisfying change in the environment, the chances that the behaviour will be repeated decrease. Thus, Thorndike showed that the consequences of one's present behaviour play a crucial role in determining one's future behaviour.

3.      Skinner: Operant Conditioning

B. F. Skinner proposed that reflexive behaviour accounts for only a small proportion of all actions. Skinner proposed another class of behaviour, which he labelled operant behaviours because they operate on the environment in the apparent absence of any unconditioned stimuli, such as food. Like Thorndike's, Skinner's work focused the relation between behaviour and its consequences. For example, if an individual's behaviour is immediately followed by pleasurable consequences, the individual will engage in that behaviour more frequently. The use of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to change behaviour is often referred to as operant conditioning.

Skinner is famous for his development and use of a device that is commonly referred to as the Skinner box. Skinner boxes contain a very simple apparatus for studying the behaviour of animals, usually rats and pigeons. A Skinner box for rats consists of a bar that is easy for the rat to press, a food dispenser that can give the rat a pellet of food, and a water dispenser. The rat cannot see or hear anything outside of the box, so all stimuli are controlled by the experimenter.

In some of the earliest experiments involving Skinner boxes, the apparatus was first set up so that if the rat happened to press the bar, it would receive a food pellet. After a few accidental bar presses, the rat would start pressing the bar frequently, receiving a pellet each time. The food reward had conditioned the rat's behaviour, strengthening bar pressing and weakening all other behaviours (such as wandering around the box). At this point, the experimenter might do any of several things. The food dispenser might be set up so that several bar presses were now required to obtain food, or so that some bar presses produced food but others did not, or so that bar presses no longer produced food. In each case the rat's behaviour would be recorded. One important advantage of the Skinner box is that it allows for careful scientific study of behaviour in a controlled environment (Bigge & Shermis, 2004; Delprato & Midgley, 1992).

F.      Conclusion

Learning is a process of us, from we cannot do anything thus we can do it by ourselves by imitate of others in doing or by the experience we get.

Learning theory can be divided into two, learning can be studied by the observation and manipulation of stimulus-response associations and intervening variables are appropriate and necessary components for understanding the processes of learning.

Behavioral learning can be divided into two, classical conditioning and operant or instrumental conditioning.