Unit IV. Behaviorism

Task 1. Translate the Russian words into English to make the sentences complete:

Behaviorism was a (движение) in psychology and (философии) that emphasized the outward (поведенческие) aspects of thought and dismissed the (внутренний) experiential and sometimes the inner procedural aspects as well; a movement harking back to the methodological (предложениям) of John B. Watson. B.F. Skinner (позднее) hardened behaviorist strictures to (исключить) inner physiological (процессы) along with inward experiences as items of legitimate psychological (изучения). Consequently, the successful (когнитивная революция) of the 1960s styled itself a (вызов) against (бихевиоризма).

Task 2. Read and translate the text “Behaviorism”:

Behaviorism

John Watson coined the term “Behaviorism” as a name for his proposal to revolutionize the study of human psychology in order to put it on a firm experimental footing. He advocated an approach that led, scientifically, to the ignoring of consciousness and the illegitimacy of making consciousness a special object of observation. Consequently, J. Watson proposed making behaviour the objective point of attack, as the key to putting the study of human psychology on a scientific basis.

Edward Tolman and Clark Hull were the two most noteworthy figures of the movement’s middle years. Although both accepted the Stimulus-Response framework as basic, they were far more willing than Watson to hypothesize internal mechanisms or intervening variables mediating the S-R connection. In this regard their work may be considered precursory to cognitivism.

E. Tolman’s purposive behaviorism attempts to explain goal-directed or purposive behaviour, focusing on large, intact, meaningful behaviour patterns or “molar” behaviour (e.g. kicking a ball) as opposed to simple muscles movements or “molecular” behaviour (e.g. various flexings of leg muscles). He regarded molecular level as too far removed from our perceptual capacities and explanatory purposes to provide suitable units for meaningful behavioral analysis.

For Tolman, stimuli play a cognitive role as signals to organism, leading to the formation of “cognitive maps” and to “latent learning” in the absence of reinforcement. The stimuli which are allowed in are not connected by just one-to-one switches to outgoing responses. Rather the incoming impulses are usually worked over and elaborated in the central control room into a tentative cognitive-like map of the environment. And it is this tentative map, indicating routes and paths and environmental relationships, which finally determines what responses, if any, the animal will finally make (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Task 3. Translate the words into Russian:

1) proposal; 2) illegitimacy; 3) noteworthy; 4) framework; 5) cognitive maps; 6) switches.

Task 4. In the text “Behaviorism” find English equivalents to the following Russian words:

1) твердый, устойчивый; 2) сознание; 3) признавать, соглашаться; 4) предвещающий, предшествующий; 5) скрытое обучение; 6) перерабатываться; 7) пробный, экспериментальный.

Task 5. In the text “Behaviorism” find synonyms to the words:

1) to change radically; 2) basis; 3) to support; 4) as a result; 5) to suggest; 6) mediating; 7) goal; 8) to elaborate; 9) road.

Task 6. Correct mistakes in the words:

1) psyhology; 2) scientificaly; 3) conciousness; 4) stimulus-responce; 5) bexaviorism; 6) moleculare behaviour; 7) inncoming impalses; 8) enviroment; 9) to hypothezise.

Task 7. In the table match the antonyms:

1. attack	a) meaningless
2. precursory	b) incoming
3. meaningful	c) following, next
4. stimulus	d) defense
5. outgoing	e) response

Task 8. Answer the questions:

1) Who coined the term “behaviorism”?

2) Did J. Watson want to study behaviour or consciousness?

3) Who were Watson’s followers?

4) What did they study?

5) What is a molar behaviour according to E. Tolman?

6) What does a stimulus lead to according to Tolman’s thoughts?

Task 9. In the text “Behaviorism” find sentences with the word “object” and its derivatives. Translate them into Russian. Look through the words with the root “object”, study their meaning:

1) object – n. предмет, вещь; объект изучения и т.п.; цель (to fail in one’s object – не достичь цели, to succeed in one’s object – достичь цели); филос. объект (в противоп. субъекту); несуразный человек, нелепая вещь и т.д.

2) to object – v. возражать, протестовать (to, against); не любить, не переносить.

3) to objectify – воплощать.

4) objection – возражение, протест (to take an objection – возражать, to lodge an objection – заявить протест, to raise no objection – не возражать); неодобрение, нелюбовь; недостаток, дефект.

5) objectionable – вызывающий возражения, нежелательный, спорный (to be least objectionable – встречать меньше всего возражений); неприятный, неудобный.

6) objective – n. цель, стремление.

7) objective – adj. филос. объективный, реальный, действительный (objective method – индуктивный метод); объективный, беспристрастный; предметный, вещественный.

8) objectivity – объективность.

9) object language – изучаемый иностранный язык.

10) objectless – беспредметный, бесцельный.

11) objector – возражающий; тот, кто возражает.

Task 10. Translate the sentences into Russian. Pay attention to the words with the root “object”:

1) He succeeded in his object and became a dentist.

2) The object of our investigation is human behaviour in extreme situations. Today we’ll study what to do in a heavy snowfall.

3) What an object you look in that hat!

4) I strongly object to your idea. We can’t walk to the station. It’ll take us too much time and we may miss our train. Let’s take a taxi.

5) I’d like to lodge an objection! My client was unable to be on the place of the incident at 5 p.m., because at this time he was leaving his office, his colleagues can prove it.

6) There is no objection to his leaving.

7) What an objectionable smell! Is anything burning in the kitchen?

8) She has a constant objection in her life, she wants to loose weight.

9) English is our object language. I hope to speak fluently at last.

10) From the first days of existence ducklings know that the objective world is full of danger.

11) Take this strange object with caution and throw it in the waste bin.

12) These shoes are objectionable. I don’t think I’ll buy them.

13) Objectivity is hard to achieve, if achievable at all.

14) Don’t live in the world of dreams, come back to the objective world.

Task 11. Translate the sentences into English. Pay special attention to the words with the root “object”:

1) Джон не достиг своей цели выиграть квалификационный турнир по гольфу в этом году. Но он не сдается, будет усиленно тренироваться и попробует сделать это в следующем году.

2) Выброси эту нелепую юбку. Она тебя совсем не красит.

3) Я не переношу, когда курят в моем присутствии.

4) С самого детства у Федора была несбыточная мечта совершить кругосветное плавание. И только в 33 года он смог воплотить ее в жизнь.

5) Ваша честь, я не возражаю против того, чтобы пригласить мистера Смита в качестве свидетеля обвинения.

6) Согласно закону о правах потребителей, вы обязаны заменить этот телевизор на равноценный, потому что в нем обнаружился неустранимый дефект.

7) Этот план неприемлем.

8) Судья вынес свое беспристрастное решение.

9) Ты не можешь оценить ситуацию объективно, ведь ты – заинтересованное лицо.

10) Прекрати бесцельно бродить по дому. Займись чем-нибудь.

11) Возражающий был упорен в своих требованиях. Поэтому его жалобу пришлось зарегистрировать.

Task 12. Read and translate a text about main features of Behaviorism. Sum them up and tell about them to your group-mates:

Views commonly styled “behaviorist” share various of the following marks:

1) allegiance to the fundamental premise that psychology is a natural science and is empirically based and objective;

2) denial of the utility of introspection as a source of scientific data;

3) theoretic-explanatory dismissal of inward experiences or states of consciousness introspection supposedly reveals;

4) specifically anti-dualistic opposition to the “Cartesian theatre” picture of the mind as essentially a realm of such inward experiences;

5) more broadly anti-essentialist opposition to physicalist or cognitivist portrayals of thought as necessarily neuro-physiological or computational;

6) theoretic-explanatory minimization of inner physiological or computational processes intervening between environmental stimulus and behavioral response;

7) mistrust of the would-be causal character of its central “belief-desire” pattern of explanation in particular;

8) positive characterization of the mental in terms of intelligent adaptive behavioral dispositions or stimulus-response patterns (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Task 13. Choose proper words that would suit the meaning of the text:

Wilhelm Max Wundt is often … (called, call, calling) the father of experimental psychology. He conceived the … (subjective, subjected, subject) matter of psychology to be experience in its relations to the subject. The science of experience he envisaged was … (supposition, supposed, supposedly) to be chemistry like: introspected … (experiential, experience, experientially) data were to be analysed; the basic constituents of conscious experience thus identified; and the patterns and … (lawyers, laws, lawful) by which these basic constituents … (combine, combination, combining) to constitute more complex conscious experience (e.g. emotions) described. Data were to be … (acquisition, acquisitive, acquired) and analyzed by trained introspective observers. While the … (analyze, analysis, analytical) of experience was supposed to be a self-contained enterprise, Wundt – originally trained as a … (physiology, physiological, physiologist) – fully expected that the … (structures, structural, structurally) and processes introspective analysis uncovered in experience would parallel structures and processes physiological … (investigate, investigator, investigation) revealed in the central … (nerve, nervous, innervate) system. Introspectionism, as the approach was called, soon spread, and … (laboratorial, laborant, laboratories) sprang up in the United States and elsewhere aiming to investigate the facts of consciousness, its combinations and … (relations, relative, relate), so as to ultimately discover the laws which … (governor, govern, government) these relations and combinations. The approach … (failure, failed, fail) primarily due to the unreliability of … (introspection, introspect, introspective) observation. Introspective experimental results were not reliably … (reproducible, reproduce, reproduction) by outside laboratories. Observers from different laboratories failed to … (agreement, agreeable, agree), for instance, in their observation or failure to observe imageless … (think, thinker, thoughts).

Task 14. Read the text “Ivan Pavlov” and say whether the statements are true or false, correct the false statements:

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Pavlov’s successful discovery of the classical conditioning laws provided positive inspiration for J. Watson’s Behaviorist manifesto. Pavlov’s stimulus-response model of explanation is also paradigmatic to much later behaviorist thought. In his famous experiments Pavlov paired presentations to dogs of an unconditioned stimulus (food) with an initially neutral stimulus (a ringing bell). After a number of such joint presentations, the unconditional response to food (salivation) becomes conditioned to the bell: salivation occurs upon the ringing of the bell alone, in the absence of food. In accord with Pavlovian theory, then, behavioral responses (salivation) can be predicted to occur or not, and be controlled (made to occur or not), on the basis of laws of conditioning, answering to the stimulus-response pattern.

Everything was publicly observable, even measurable, enabling Pavlov to investigate experimentally and formulate laws concerning temporal sequencing and delay effects, stimulus intensity effects, and stimulus generalization, which opened doors to experimental investigation of animal perception and discrimination (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Statements:

1) Pavlov’s name was Igor.

2) Pavlov’s experiments inspired J. Watson to write and publish Cognitive Manifesto.

3) Stimulus-response model became basic to later behavioral experiments.

4) I. Pavlov experimented with the connection of an unconditioned stimulus (a ringing bell) and neutral stimulus (food).

5) I. Pavlov proved that unconditional response to food can be conditioned.

6) According to I. Pavlov behavioral responses can be predicted and controlled on the basis of unconditioned laws.

7) I. Pavlov worked with rats.

8) I. Pavlov could not formulate the laws of temporal sequencing and delay effects.

Task 15. Read the text “E. Thorndike” and choose the best variant of answers to the questions:

Edward Thorndike

Edward Thorndike, in a similar methodological vein as Ivan Pavlov, proposed that psychology may be, at least in part, as independent of introspection as physics and pursued experimental investigations of animal intelligence. In experimental investigations of puzzle-solving by cats and other animals, he established that speed of solution increased gradually as a result of previous puzzle exposure. Such results, he maintained, support the hypothesis that learning is a result of habits, formed through trial and error. E. Thorndike formulated “laws of behaviour”, describing habit formation processes, based on these results. Most notable among Thorndike’s laws is his Law of Effect:

Of several responses made to the same situation, those which are accompanied or closely followed by satisfaction to the animal will, other things being equal, be more firmly connected with the situation, so that, when it recurs, they will be more likely to recur; those which are accompanied or closely followed by discomfort to the animal will, other things being equal, have their connections with the situation weakened, so that, when it recurs, they will be less likely to occur. The greater the satisfaction or discomfort, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond.

In short, rewarded responses tend to be reinforced and punished responses eliminated. His methodological innovations (particularly his “puzzle-box”) facilitated objective quantitative data collection and provided a paradigm for behaviorist research methods to follow (from http://www.encyclopedia.com).

Questions:

1) Did E. Thorndike follow Ivan Pavlov’s principles?

1. Yes, he used similar principles

2. Yes, he used the same methodological vein

3. No, he invented his own methodology

2) Why did he compare Psychology and Physics?

a) to show that psychology is off introspection whereas physics depends on this method

b) to prove that psychology should not use introspection technique as well as physics

c) to introduce introspection into psychology to make it as distinct as physics

3) What was the subject of his experiments?

1. animal therapy

2. human intelligence

3. animal intelligence

4) What influenced the speed of solution in Thorndike’s experiments?

1. exposure to previous food stimulation

2. experience acquired in previous experiments

3. exposure to laboratory environment

5) What hypothesis did E. Thorndike support as concerned with learning?

1. habits are formed through the learning process

2. learning is followed by trial and error process

3. learning is formed by habits made in trial-error process

6) What laws did Thorndike define?

1. laws of behaviour

2. laws of habits

3. laws of trial and error

4. laws of law

7) What is his Law of Effect about?

a) satisfaction or discomfort do not influence the value or level of the bond

b) the more neutral the emotional reaction, the greater the strengthening or weakening of the bond

c) the greater the emotional reaction, the greater the value of the bond.

Task 16. Match the authors and their works:

1. J. Watson	a. Elements of Folk Psychology
2. W. Wundt	b. Verbal Behaviour
3. I. Pavlov	c. Classical Conditioning Laws
4. E. Thorndike	d. Manifesto of Behaviorism
5. B. Skinner	e. Law of Effect

Task 17. Write down sentences using these words. The beginning of the sentence is given:

1) John … psychological research, coined, and excluded, the name “behaviorism”, Watson, from, consciousness.

2) Wihelm Max Wundt … experimental, the founder, psychology, is considered, of.

3) Ivan … enabled him, stimulus intensity effect, Pavlov’s experiments, laws, of, to formulate.

4) According to … rewarded responses, are eliminated, Edward Thorndike, and punished responses, are reinforced.

Task 18. Answer the questions:

1) What is Behaviorism?

2) Who was the founder of this movement?

3) Who were the precursors of the movement?

4) What were Wundt’s ideas connected to behaviorism?

5) What was I. Pavlov’s methodology of work?

6) What did E. Thorndike add to the development of Behaviorism?

7) What is J. Watson’s contribution to the movement?

8) What did B. Skinner do in the field of behaviorism?

9) What was Tolman’s problem to work on?

10) What movement changed behaviorism in development?

Task 19. Think over the crossword puzzle. Write down the words according to their definitions:

Questions:

1. a psychological movement which main followers were J. Watson, E. Tolman; 2. branch of a science; 3. experimental; 4. connected with experience; 5. places where experiments are conducted; 6. something which activity leads to the action-answer; 7. a state of mind which is a result of some pleasant situation; 8. non-positive and non-negative; 9. to go to, to cause a result; 10. to exclude; 11. to change from one state to another; 12. a thing which we do almost always in a usual manner; 13. a behaviorist whose name was Edward; 14. to think over and work over; 15. in a different place, somewhere; 16. the same; 17. lawful.

1										2
7											8
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				17						15		9
6		13
					16							10
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			12					11
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