A FEW LEARNING THEORIES ARE:

• Cognitive learning theory

• Constructivism learning theory

• Humanism learning theory

• Connectivism learning theory

• And of course, behaviorist learning theory

 Behaviorism emphasizes how people interact with their environment. Over time, these interactions (called “stimuli”) form particular behaviors. The process by which this behavior is formed is known as conditioning.

In general, behaviorists are concerned solely or primarily with understanding behavior as the response to environmental stimuli. They’re generally unconcerned with psychological phenomena that cannot be systematically observed. As we will see, some behaviorists are more extreme in this way of thinking than others. The most extreme of this set, known as the radical behaviorists, entirely discount innate psychological phenomena outside of stimulus and response. For radical behaviorists, in other words, everything that makes up a person’s psychology, personality and knowledge is a result of interaction with their environment since birth.

THE HISTORY OF BEHAVIORIST LEARNING THEORY

Behaviorist learning theory represents the culmination of various schools of thought in modern psychology. Here are some of the people and concepts that formed the behaviorist learning theory we know today.

• Wilhelm Wundt and experimental psychology

No discussion of modern psychology would be complete without the “father of experimental psychology” himself, Wilhelm Wundt. Born in 1832 in Germany, Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in the world and carried out experiments that heavily influenced the field.

• Ivan Pavlov and classical conditioning

One of the most well-known figures in the history of behaviorism, Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov produced a body of work that’s crucial to behaviorist learning theory. While working with dogs in his laboratory, Pavlov observed that his canine subjects began to salivate when certain lab assistants entered the room. It was these lab technicians who normally fed the dogs, but Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to salivate regardless of whether the assistants were coming in to feed them or not

• John Watson and methodological behaviorism

Though Pavlov and Wundt were primary precursors, later psychologists would formalize their work into the behaviorist learning theory we know today.

A pioneer in this regard is the American psychologist John Watson. Though he never actually claimed to be the founder of behavioral psychology, his work sits at the center of the discipline. In 1913, he published the seminal “Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It,” an article that drew a connection between the conclusions of classical conditioning to human psychology.

• B.F. Skinner and radical behaviorism

Many of the behaviorism concepts that are commonplace today, such as positive and negative reinforcement and operant conditioning, grew out of the work performed by our next behaviorist: the American psychologist B.F. Skinner.

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 then press the lever or button to receive food.

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