Behaviourism

From 2010-02-04

Here is an annotated version of the full presentation, of which we saw only a few slides;


My summary page on behaviourism is at www.learningandteaching.info/learning/behaviour.htm, with links in the side-bar to other pages on the site and external links in the main body of the page.

If you are searching for yourself, remember that "behavior" will get many more hits than "behaviour". If you come across anything particularly good, let me know, please.

• For a fun simulation of Pavlov's original experiment, try: http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/pavlov.swf

Some videos I referred to can be viewed here:

• YouTube playlist "Skinner and Behaviourism" http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6439B7CD9DD445F9&page=1
  
• Basic chicken training (QuickTime movie: download free version here)
  
• Shaping chicken behaviour (also QuickTime)
  (Note: be careful when downloading movie players: they use sneaky tricks to get you to sign up for more than you bargained for!)

Books! Look at;

• SLATER L (2004) Opening Skinner's Box; great psychological experiments of the twentieth century London; Bloomsbury --on Skinner and the myths surrounding him, and lots of other good stuff in a popular-science style.

Particular issues we touched on:

• Learned Helplessness; http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/learned_helplessness.htm
  
• Anticipatory-avoidance learning; http://www.learningandteaching.info/learning/a_a_learning.htm
  
• The "Why don't you...?" "Yes, but..." game; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transactional_analysis#Why_Don.27t_You.2FYes_But
  
• The relationship between concrete behavioural objectives and vaguer, broader ones, which I drew on the board: http://www.learningandteaching.info/teaching/session2.htm#SoftandHardIssues

I'll probably add to these links in the next day or two...

  22:28