BEHAVIORAL LEARNING THEORIES Educational Psychology Journal Article Presentation Most theorists agree that learning occurs when experience causes a change in a person's knowledge or behavior . Behaviorists emphasize the role of environmentalstimuli in learning and focus on the behavior, i.e., an observable response. Behavioraltheories are based on contiguity, classical and operant conditioning, applied behavioranalysis, social learning theory and self-regulation/cognitive behavior modification.Early views of learning were contiguity and classical conditioning. In contiguitylearning, two events are repeatedly paired together and become associated in thelearner's mind. Pavlov took this idea one step further in his experiments on classicalconditioning where a previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with a stimulus thatevokes an emotional or physiological response. Later, the previously neutral stimulusalone evokes the response. In other words, the conditioned stimulus brings forth theconditioned response.Operant conditioning is the most applicable of all the behavioral theories to actualclassroom learning. Operant conditioning was developed by B.F. Skinner and states thatpeople learn through the effects of their deliberate responses. The effects ofconsequences following an action may serve as a reinforcement or as a punishment forthat action. Both positive and negative reinforcers strengthen or increase a response. Punishment decreases or suppresses the behavior. Also, the scheduling of reinforcersinfluences the rate and persistence of behaviors. In a paper presented at the AnnualConvention of the American Psychological Association in 1994 the principles of operantconditioning were evaluated.This paper discusses the integration of educational and mental health services forchildren and adolescents within a psychiatric day treatment setting at the Bradley Schoolhoused in a private psychiatric hospital affiliated wit...
