U N I T 2 PSYCHOLOGY AND LEARNING The Unit will explore the role of the mind in the learning process and the different psychological theories like Behavourism and Cognitivism, concerning the same process. Some attention will also be given to the role of the mind in the learning process. A. BEHAVIOURIST THEORIES Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) was a Russian physicist and university teacher involved in medical research on human and animal behaviour and reflexes. He became famous for his great contribution to psychology: the theory of classical conditioning, which explains how behaviour is learnt. Pavlov was considered a behaviourist because he believed that, Ivan Pavlov John B. Warson B.F. Skimer unlike thought, behaviour could 1849-1936 1878-1958 1904-1994 be observed and measured. For Pavlov, the human mind was a mystery, like a black box that cannot be opened we can only know what goes into and what comes out of it. He studied reflexes, automatic behaviour caused by a stimulus from the environment, like the sucking of a baby when something is put into its mouth, and believed that automatic behaviour could be manipulated. He defined this process as conditioning. In the conditioning process, people are given an unconditional stimulus, which causes a reflex, together with a conditional stimulus. With the presence of the unconditional stimulus there is a process of stimulus-response. The process is repeated a number of times, until only the conditional stimulus is offered. After the repeated association of the two stimuli, the conditional stimulus will now cause a reflex of its own. The analysis of this process has been very influential in the field of child psychology. Pavlov s most famous experiment involved dogs (see picture on p. 104). The dogs showed a salivation response when they were offered food (unconditional stimulus), then the offer of BEHAVIOURISM 1 Read the first part of the passage on Pavlov and choose the best title. a. Pavlov and the dog experiment b. Pavlov and the theory of classical conditioning c. Pavlov and Behaviourism 102
