What I would like you to do is to find a topic from this weeks readings that you were interested in and search the internet for material on that topic. You might, for example, find people who are doing research on the topic, you might find web pages that discuss the topic, you might find youtube clips that demonstrate something related to the topic, etc. What you find and use is pretty much up to you at this point. But use at least 3 sources.
Once you have completed your search and explorations, I would like you to say what your topic is, how exactly it fits into the chapter, and why you are interested in it. Next, I would like you to take the information you found related to your topic, integrate/synthesize it, and then write about it. At the end, please include working URLs for the three websites.
By now you all should be skilled at synthesizing the topical material you have obtained from the various web sites you visited. If you need a refresher please let me know.
Thanks,
Thorndike had a very influential impact to psychology. Thorndike was more interested in studying animal intelligence rather than human intelligence. One of Thorndike’s biggest contributions was his findings from his creation of the “puzzle box.” The puzzle boxes were created out of old fruit crates and looked pretty in-humane, however the discovers made from them were quite important.
Thorndike performed his experiment by placing a cat in this puzzle box. Thorndike wanted to see how long it would take for the cats to figure out how to open the latch on the puzzle box. Many of the cats at first pawed around and had somewhat a freak out moment once placed in the box. They moved around the boxes a lot and scratched and clawed things. While moving around so much the cats would usually step on the switch that would open the latch to the door of the puzzle box. Thorndike would then repeat the puzzle box again and again. He wanted to see if the cat would learn to open the latch any faster. This lead to the concept of trial and error. The cats would used associations to the correct behavior and would focus more on those behaviors that opened the door previously to open the door now. The cats would soon not show a wide assortment of behaviors, but rather just perform the ones that seemed to help open the latch on the puzzle box. Thorndike found that the cats learned faster and faster each time they were placed into the boxes. This helped to create the concept of trial and error and that we learn thorough our experiences.
http://www.psywww.com/intropsych/ch08_animals/thorndikes_puzzle_box.html
http://www1.appstate.edu/~beckhp/puzzlebox.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8
Thorndike was very influential in psychology by coming up with a variety of concepts to help us understanding learning processes. He would place cats in what he called “puzzle boxes” and observe them as they figured their way out. Essentially, he figured out that these animals were learning how to free themselves by trial and error learning, basically they would emit a number of different behaviors until one of them was reinforced and then they would repeat the reinforced behavior until they were freed from the box.
He came up with different laws about learning and our mental processes. His big one was the law of effect which stated that responses to a situation that are followed by pleasurable outcomes and satisfaction are strengthened and “stamped in,” and responses that were followed by discomfort were weakened and therefore “stamped out.” Similarly, his law of exercise was that “stimulus-response” connections that are repeated are strengthened and remembered, as well as stimulus-response connections that are not repeated are weakened and forgotten.
Thorndike also fathered “connectionism” which was the thought that through experience, neural bonds are formed between perceived stimuli and emitted responses and that those who were more intellectual could form more bonds and form them more quickly. He believed that intellect was obtained mostly through experience, not just genetics like many of his peers believed and claimed, therefore, most people had the ability to achieve higher levels of intellect.
http://www.nvc.vt.edu/alhrd/Theorists/Thorndike.htm
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/history/thorndike.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/edward-thorndike.html
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/ethorndike.shtml
I decided to look more into classical conditioning, and the components that are in classical conditioning, such as conditioned stimulus. Mainly because every time I read about it I think I really understand it and I always confuse myself. I thought looking more into it would help me understand it more. I wanted to look more into the before conditioning, and after conditioning, and some examples.
First I will define the steps. In classical condition there are several different terms. The Unconditional stimulus is what automatically triggers the response. If you smell something that you really like you will feel hungry for it. The unconditioned response which is the unlearn response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus, which would be that feeling of hungry when they smell the food. The conditioned stimulus which was the automatic stimulus, that after being associated with the unconditioned stimulus will become that triggered response. The conditioned response is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus.
After reading more on the conditioning I wanted to find more examples then the one given on the other examples so then I can understand the process of classical conditioning, but more specifically the components that are in classical conditioning. This is one example given from a website: An individual receives frequent injections of drugs, which are administered in a small examination room at a clinic. The drug itself causes increased heart rate but after several trips to the clinic, simply being in a small room causes an increased heart rate. The drug is the US, increase heart rate is the UR, the small room is the CS, and the increase heart rate with the room is the CR. After looking more into the components of classical conditioning I think that I am starting to understand it a little better!
http://www.ar.cc.mn.us/biederman/courses/p1110/conditioning2.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
http://www.learning-theories.com/classical-conditioning-pavlov.html
http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/condresp.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/cindex/g/condstim.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/uindex/g/uncondstim.htm
For this topical blog I decided to explore the works of Edward Thorndike and his impact on behavioral psychology over the years. I am particularly interested in animal intelligence research, we don't give these creatures enough credit. Thorndike with his conceptualization of the ideas of "Law of effect", the "law of exercise", and the "law of recency", Edward Thorndike opened many doors into the world of animal behavior research and behavioral testing of animals with the inventions of contraptions like the puzzle box for cats. Thorndike was able to carefully connect the information he found with his animals to the behaviors of humans, he called this connectionism.
He concluded that humans and animals have the same basic mechanisms for learning he called this the law of effect- behaviors or responses are followed by positive outcome, that association is stamped in, or the association is strengthened. The theory goes on to say that behaviors or responses that are unsuccessful or negative outcomes that are associated with aversive consequences will be stamped out of our brain... these are called unlearned behaviors. The cats in the puzzle box initially took about 160 seconds to escape from the box after 24 trials the cats began to escape at an average of 6 seconds. Two ways to explain why this happens is the law of exercise, which states that behaviors that are repeated will result in a strengthened association. Also the law of recency which states, the most recent response is most likely to reoccur if it was successful.
Thorndike described through his research and theories how animals and humans both learn new skills. If the action brings reward then the action is stamped into the subjects mind. Our behaviors change because of the consequences we recieve from the emitted behavior or response. The law of effect explains clearly how wild animals develop new habits and behaviors.
Terms: law of effect, law of exercise, law of recency, connectionism, puzzle box, association strenghthening, aversive, emmitted!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BDujDOLre-8
http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_effect
I give you and anyone props who does more research on the psychologists that we learn about because I am burnt out on learning about people and the history of them even though it makes our understanding of behavior modification much easier!
I agree about the animals being smarter than we know. I feel like sometimes they are smarter than we are as far as instincts and what their bodies need.
Thordikes theory of Law of Effect is a relatively easy concept to understand when you read about it. But before you read about it or research it, you maynot really see it in action. Once you know that the law of effect is through trial and error, creatures learn and develope new habits you will see it out in the real world more. THere comes to be an association between an action occuring and a reward being recieved. WHen this happens the elicitation of the action will be stronger. In the video with the chimp, it has associated the big rock with containing food underneath it. He therefore continuously tries to move the rock to get to the food. We see learning occuring when the rock is heavier and he is unable to move it himself. He see's the man can move the rock easily to allow the chimp to get to the food. He now associates the man with help accessing the food. Instead of trying for too long on his own he simply takes the mans hand, brings it to the rock in an effort to ask for his help moving the rock. If the man helps his everytime the chimp does this the repitition will strengthen the association which is the law of exercise.
I love Sudoku! When thinking about Thordikes Laws, this game come to mind! There is definately the law of effect going on. Lost of trial and error. While playing one might find little ways to look at the puzzle to help figure it out. If you try something and it works you will more likely do it again in your attempt to find another correct answer to the puzzle. This would be the law of recency occurring. The most recent response you emitted was rewarded so you'll do it again. If the stragegy you used works again, and then again on a different puzzle you will most likely use it on each puzzle you try and solve.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOrgOW9LnT4
http://show.websudoku.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_effect
The topic that interested me the most was the law of effect, like stated in my reading blog, there are many examples that come to mind when thinkin of this. While looking more online on info about this, I found a few interesting things. I learned how Thorndikes theory Thorndike's theory consists of three primary laws: (1) law of effect - responses to a situation which are followed by a rewarding state of affairs will be strengthened and become habitual responses to that situation, (2) law of readiness - a series of responses can be chained together to satisfy some goal which will result in annoyance if blocked, and (3) law of exercise - connections become strengthened with practice and weakened when practice is discontinued. A corollary of the law of effect was that responses that reduce the likelihood of achieving a rewarding state (i.e., punishments, failures) will decrease in strength. I was having difficulty understanding the diagram of S, R, etc, but this sort of explained it for me. Thorndike’s theoretical statement of the
law explains how this selection process might
work. The situation (S) evokes a variety of
responses; one response (R) happens to be
followed by satisfaction (SR); the satisfier
stamps in a connection or bond between the
situation and the response; and as a result,
when the same situation is presented, the response
is more likely to occur. I also learned more about it just by watching the you tube videe of the puzzle box. Seein the behavior change bc of the consequence was kinda cool!
http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1284755/pdf/jeabehav007200300447.pdf
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk6H7Ukp6To&playnext=1&list=PLE06469C7D324A744
In my topical blog post I am going to talk about Thorndike's puzzle box in further detail. In Thorndike's experiment he took hungry cats and placed them in a simple box that he built to see if the cats would be able to figure out how to get out of the box therefore using the process of operant conditioning. After finding their way out of the box, the cat was positively reinforced with food. Over time, Thorndike found that it took less and less time for the cats to find their way out the more and more he tested them. He referred to the reinforcement of the latch opening as the Law of Effect.
It seems that towards the beginning of the experiment, the cats would extend their paws outside of the bars of the box and try and reach for the food that was placed just out of their reach. They would then go through the extinction process, including an extinction burst. After eventually finding the latch to open the door and give them access to the food. After being placed in the box a second time, the cat would then go through the same processes it did before, personally I see this as a superstitious process that was conducted by the cat in the earlier stages of the experiment, even if the cat did not know it was doing it in a superstitious effort.
Finally, Thorndike's theory of operant conditioning has been a big influence on the discipline of psychology and behavior modification. It seems that after Thorndike created his puzzle box, Skinner came out with his version of his own box. Skinner used a lever for rats or a key for pigeons that the individual can operate to obtain food or water with in the chamber as a reinforcer. The chamber was connected to electrical equipment that records the animals pressing of the lever or button thus allowing for a precise reading of the behavior.
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/Puzzle.html
http://www1.appstate.edu/~beckhp/puzzlebox.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fwt3unzfC8
http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/faculty/wasserman/glossary/skinner%20box.html
The topic that I chose to further research was classical conditioning. I wanted to further research classical conditioning because I felt it was the most important topic mentioned in section 3.2. Classical conditioning is a type of learning process in which a neutral stimulus, that hadn’t previously produced a particular response, becomes associated with an unconditioned response that produces the response. As a result, the conditioned response will elicit the response that the unconditioned stimulus produces. An example of classical conditioning is a grandmother who is nice and makes you feel warm and loved, who also wears a powder smelling perfume. You then go to the mall and smell perfumes and smell one that’s a powdered smelling perfume and it makes you feel warm inside because it reminds you of your grandmother. Pavlov demonstrated classical conditioning when he did the experiment with the bell and the dogs. In Pavlov’s experiment, the food served as the unconditioned stimulus which caused salivation (unconditioned response). Pavlov then began to ring a bell every time he presented the dog with food. Pavlov then rang the bell, but provided no food and the dogs still salivated. Pavlov trained the dogs to associate the bell with food which caused the dogs to salivate when hearing the bell, in the absence of food. The bell is the conditioned stimulus and the salivation in the absence of food is the conditioned response. The term unconditioned means that the stimulus and response are naturally connected; it was untaught because it was pre-existing. So, an unconditioned stimulus is something that can already elicit a response. An unconditioned response is a response that is already elicited by a stimulus. For example, food is an unconditioned stimulus and salivation is an unconditioned response, because the relationship between food and salivation is pre-existing because salivation is a biological response to food so our bodies can swallow and digest food. A conditioned stimulus is a stimulus that we deliver at the same time as the old (conditioned) stimulus. So, the bell in Pavlov’s experiment would be the conditioned stimulus because it’s rung every time food is given. Behaviors that are typically classically conditioned are those that involve involuntary responses, which are responses that occur automatically. Classical conditioning is many times used to increase desirable behaviors through the use of positive reinforcement. Any emotion can become conditioned, for example Watson conditioned fear in his little Albert experiment. Watson would allow Albert, an eleven month old child to play with a white lab rat. While Albert was playing with the white lab rat, Watson would produce a loud noise with cymbals and Albert would begin to cry. After several trials of pairing the rat (neutral stimulus) with the noise (unconditioned stimulus), Albert began to cry (unconditioned response) at the sight of the rat (conditioned stimulus) without the presence of the noise.
http://healthyinfluence.com/wordpress/steves-primer-of-practical-persuasion-3-0/doing/ding-dong-classical-conditioning/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhqumfpxuzI
http://dakota.fmpdata.net/PsychAI/PrintFiles/ClassCondOvrvw.pdf
According to Wikipedia, the law of effect states that responses that produce a a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become less likely to occur again in that situation. The law of effect is the idea that behaviors are selected by their consequences. A behavior that is repeated is often followed by a desired consequence and a behavior that is not repeated had been followed by a bad consequence.
Thorndike's theory has three primary laws
1. law of effect: responses to a situation which are followed by a rewarding state of affairs will be strengthened and become habitual responses to that situation
2. law of readiness: a series of responses can be chained together to satisfy some goal which will result in annoyance if blocked
3. law of exercise: connections become strengthened with practice and weakened when practice is discontinued.
Thorndike emphasized the importance of the situation in eliciting a response. His theory can be compared to Darwin's theory of natural selection where successful organisms are more likely to prosper and survive to pass on their genes to the next generation, while the weaker, unsuccessful organism were gradually replaced. Thorndike's prime example for his theory on this site is the cat in the box. The cats that successfully escaped the puzzle box were more likely to be successful the next time they got stuck in that situation. It appears that the discriminative stimulus in this situation is the lever, and the cat knew emit the pushing behavior in order to get out of the box. If the cat came across a similar lever outside of the box, it would learn not to push it because it would not be positively reinforced by being let out of the box.
This theory suggests that transfer of learning depends upon the presence of identical elements in original and new learning situations. Later on another part of the theory was developed and introduced. Belongingness was introduced which means connections are more readily established if the person perceives that stimuli or responses go together. As well as belongingness, polarity was introduced to the theory. This specifies that connections occur more easily in the direction in which they were originally formed than the opposite. Thorndike was especially interested in applying his theory to education.
Terms and Concepts: Law of effect, reinforcement, Thorndike's primary laws, eliciting, emitting, discriminative stimulus, positive reinforcement
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_effect
http://wik.ed.uiuc.edu/index.php/Law_of_Effect
http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html
A little more information about Thorndike...
He was primarily interested in animal intelligence which is why he used the cat as an example for the study. Thorndike's Law of Effect has great impact on Skinner's ideas of operant behaviors. HIs invention of the puzzle boxes were to study learning because researchers believed that cats, dogs, pigeons, and humans had all evolved on a continuum. He used the puzzle box to learn how the cats were escaping from the box. His trial and error suggests that over a period of attempts, some will be successful.
Since I really liked 3.1 and felt like I was left with little information, I felt that I needed to go some research. For my writing today I am choosing to talk about the puzzle box and Edward Thorndike. He was a great Psychologist. Many people would beg to differ because of his usage of experiemnts with animals. He is most known for his work with animals. Throughout his experiments he constructed a devices that is known to many of us as the puzzle box. This box was based on getting out of the box. The animal could excape out of the box by pulling a string or pushing a button. After his experiments he got the idea of trial and error along with the law of effect.
The experiment was that you place a hungry cat into the box. The only way that the cats could escape my opperating latche. The cat always seemed to be very clever when it came to how it got out. At first the cat just mess around so to speak in the box. To Thorndike this was trail and error. By trial and error the cats received food. This is just were something is tried and tried untill on gets its right or in this case gets out of the box. The trial and error behavior decreased when the amount of time it took the cat to get out was quicker. Thorndike stated that once the behavior is rewarded then the action is stamped into the mind. But the animals are able to stamp out actions that are not rewarded as well. What Thorndike found out was the amount of time that it took the cat to get out of the box.
The fact that the animal did not know that he had to escape, once he does escape the behavior that was emmited is now stamped in. Once the cat does the same behavior and is not rewarded then it is stamped out. I found this very interesting and the thought that an animal can act just as us humans and the brain process is just amazing! I never would of though that was even possible.
With the observations that Thorndike had seen suggested that certain stimuli and responses become connected or dissociated from each other according to his law of effect. He stated, "When particular stimulus-response sequences are followed by pleasure, those responses tend to be stamped in'; responses followed by pain tend to be stamped out'." What Thorndike found out from experimenting is that animals learn by trial and error, or reward and punishment. Thorndike used the puzzle box to show and experiment what happens when all beings learn anything. Anything can be as simple as counting or getting out of a box.
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/thorndike.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb-6DqfYw6U&feature=related
http://psychology.about.com/od/lindex/g/lawofeffect.htm
I chose to look more into the topic of classical conditioning for this topical blog. One way to think of classical conditioning and what it means is that it is essentially "learning by association" (www.changingminds.org). I like this way of thinking about it because it is simple, and gets to the point. With classical conditioning, if a stimulus is presented, then a response will occur. The neutral stimulus does not result in any behavioral responses. Using an animal example is easiest for me to understand. The unconditioned stimulus are stimuli that the animal reacts to without any training. This could be anything that is "instinctive." The response that the animal gives to this unconditioned stimulus is the unconditioned response. The conditioned stimulus, on the other hand, are the stimuli that the animal reacts to after having received some kind of training. And the response that the animal gives as a result of the conditioned stimulus is the conditioned response. In the Pavlov example with the dogs, the unconditioned stimulus was the presentation of the food. The dog did not need to have any training to know that food was coming to it. The unconditioned response (the unlearned response occurs in response of the unconditioned stimulus) would be salivating. The dogs began to salivate when they saw the food and knew it was coming to them. The conditioned stimulus was previously a neutral stimulus until it became associated with the unconditioned stimulus and eventually triggers the conditioned response. The conditioned stimulus was the ringing of the bell and being presented with the food. And finally, the conditioned response (the learned response to the neutral stimulus) is the dog beginning to salivate when hearing the bell. This is a conditioned response because the dog knows that the food is coming when the bell is rung. The dog had to learn that.
Classical conditioning is largely a stimulus-response relationship. When presented with a stimulus, a response will occur. An example would be a door slamming right in front of you (stimulus) and then flinching (response). There is also the response-stimulus relationship, which is different from the first. The response-stimulus relationship can also be thought of as behavior-consequence relationship. In our book, the example of Aili seeing that it is noon and begins to get hungry. This would be an example of stimulus-response. She is seeing that the clock says noon and associates that with being hungry, so she begins to become hungry. Aili finding a vending machine and putting her money in it and getting food was another example given. This is an example of response-stimulus. She put her money into the vending machine (behavior) and received food (consequence). I was originally confused when I read this, but thinking if it in the simplest way helps best. it is important not to over think the concepts.
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
http://www.wagntrain.com/OC/#Classical
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/classical_conditioning.htm
For my topic, I chose to look more into Pavlov and his classical conditioning. The process begins with an unconditioned stimulus. This means that the stimulus is natural and automatically stimulates a response. For my example, I'll use the action of touching a hot pan then pulling your hand back. The hotness of the pan would be the unconditioned stimulus. Next there is the unconditioned response. This would be the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to the unconditioned stimulus. So in my example, pulling your hand back. Next is the conditioned stimulus. This would be a previously neutral stimulus, but after conditioning, it elicts a response in you. This could be perhaps the beeping of the stove. If each time you heard the beeping of the stove and then burnt yourself, you would then associate that noise with the burn. And lastly there is the conditioned response. This is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. So this would be every time you hear the beeping of the stove, you pull your hand back.
This study is so intriguing because you may emit one behavior and believe it is a natural response, but your elicted response is essentially conditioned in you.
It's like being at school and hearing the bell ring. We learn what this means at such a young age that we just assume it's natural. The ABC's for this behavior would be
A- Sitting in class
B- The bell ringing
C- Everyone moves to their next class.
We are reinforced by doing this because everyone else is changing classes with us and we are not left alone in the classroom. This continues the the conditioned behaviors.
http://www.emotionalcompetency.com/conditioned.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/classicalconditioning/a/pavlovs-dogs.htm
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
I have always had a little trouble discriminating between the conditioned stimulus (CS), conditioned response (CR), Unconditioned response (UR), and Unconditioned stimulus (US). I thought it would be helpful to create more examples of classical conditioning using these terms.
If your door is loud when you open it and eventually your dog comes running toward you every time you come in the door. The neutral stimulus is the squeaky door, US is the owner of the dog, the UR is the dog’s excitement, the CS is the squeaky door and the CR is the dog’s excitement.
You have to keep in mind that the confusing part is the UR and CR are the same thing. They are topographically similar and functionally similar. This means that they look the same and they have the same function. In this case the dog’s excitement was an unconditioned response that occurred every time the dog sees his owner, most likely because they want their attention. The conditioned response is also the dog’s excitement but occurs when the dog hears the squeaky door. The only difference between the UR and CR is what elicits the behavior. The dog seeing their owner and the dog hearing the door.
John B. Watson and "Little Albert": Every time little Albert would play with a rabbit, Watson would bang two bars together behind the child's head. The loud banging noise was the neutral stimulus, the US was the rabbit, the UR was fear, the CS was the banging noise which led to little Albert seeing the rabbit (US) and becoming afraid of rabbits (CR). Now whenever Little Albert heard the banging noise he became afraid. CR and UR was the boys fear, they were just elicited by different behaviors. Fear is untrained, but little Albert became trained to have fear when he was around rabbits.
http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/classical_conditioning.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_conditioning
http://psychology.about.com/od/behavioralpsychology/a/classcond.htm
I like the examples here, it makes it easier for students to understand these concepts especially when we can make our own examples and learn from other people's examples!
I chose to do my research on Thorndike’s 3 laws of learning: “ Thorndike's theory consists of three primary laws: (1) law of effect - responses to a situation which are followed by a rewarding state of affairs will be strengthened and become habitual responses to that situation, (2) law of readiness - a series of responses can be chained together to satisfy some goal which will result in annoyance if blocked, and (3) law of exercise - connections become strengthened with practice and weakened when practice is discontinued. A corollary of the law of effect was that responses that reduce the likelihood of achieving a rewarding state (i.e., punishments, failures) will decrease in strength.”
His laws interest me because of how they go together and how exactly they work with any given situation. Law of effect- the more you are rewarded for something the more someone will repeat their response/behavior, which like continuous reinforcement, when the child was rewarded a prize for using the big boy potty in potty training, he tried harder to use the potty and he tried to use it more times to gain the prize.
http://userwww.sfsu.edu/~foreman/itec800/finalprojects/annie/thorndike'slaw.html
http://tip.psychology.org/thorn.html
Behaviorism seemed to be so impermeable I wanted to know how it ever lost its power. Naom chompsky, stated that the. The rise- behaviorist manefesto
The thing that interested me the most in recent weeks was behaviorism and just remembering all the historical significance that it had. I took History and Systems with Otto last semester and this was one of the things we covered. However, I couldn’t remember much as to how it all came to an end. I mean, in America behaviorism was the leading perspective in psychological science for a long time. Therefore, I decided to take a look at just how Watson’s behavioral empire came to a halt and why it isn’t as strongly held as it initially was.
After doing a bit of research many sources kept pointing to Naom Chomsky as the murder of behaviorism. Naom was a linguist but he still held a lot of sway over the area of psychology because language and everything involving it is considered to be a part of cognitive psychology. After several years of research and personal experience Chomsky had found several critical problems to the kind of strict behavioral approach that Watson and others held. Being he was a linguist he had been studying how we acquire language. Through this process he deemed that behaviorism cannot account for how individuals, especially children, pick up a language. There are simply too many innate, untaught aspects of language for it to have been learned. Then try as he may, B.F. Skinner, another popular behavoriist, could not rationally explain through behavioral terms how individuals acquired language. His attempt went something like this. We acquire language through an approach that is very similar to social learning theory; we see others do language and then we naturally pick it up as we go. However, Chomsky was able to prove that there is indeed something innate about language and that not all of it is learned. Remember, that Watson and Skinner believed that we come into the world as blank slates and that they could mold us into whatever they desire. For example, no matter what the language a child is born into they can adapt to that culture. This was further tested by examining adopted children from various places around the world. In the end Noam Chomsky was able to prove that too strict of a behavioral view limits us in our ability to comprehend and understand much of human behavior. Watson had a good run, but as with all good things, they must come to an end. I also found a goofy video clip of some twins chatting it up. It is funny to think that such a simple behavior, especially in various twin studies, was able to knock Watson off the top of psychological theory.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noam_Chomsky#Contributions_to_psychology
http://carolbaldwin.suite101.com/the-behaviorist-manifesto-a185568
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY&feature=related