Page 30 - Ignite Change: Unleashing thought leadership - A roadmap to thougth leadership
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However, many learning theories were developed in the past century and a half. It is
important to note that many of these theories developed simultaneously, or
influenced each other, and so should not be understood as being distinct
movements.
Behaviourism
Behaviourism is a theory arising from psychology
that focuses on observable behaviour. The
behaviourist relies on responses as evidence of
what is happening in mind. This means that a state
of mind, like beliefs, desires or consciousness, is
considered irrelevant or non-existent, especially if
there is no visible behaviour associated with that
mental state.
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1963) was one of the early Figure 8 Ivan Pavlov
(http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_pri
behaviourists, and his famous experiment with his zes/)
salivating dogs showed that behaviour can be seen
as a response to a stimulus. Pavlov viewed the reaction of his salivating dogs to the
bell that was rung at feeding time as a type of learning – or conditioning. The dog
had learned that the signal meant food (McLeod, 2018). Therefore, learning happens
through repetition.
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) followed in Pavlov’s
footsteps, but his view of human behaviour was
more complicated. For Skinner, the best way to
look at human behaviour was through the lens of
action and consequence, i.e. operant conditioning.
Skinner, through a series of experiments using
mice, found that behaviour that is rewarded was
reinforced, and a behaviour that was not reinforced
would diminish(McLeod, 2018).
Figure 9 B.F. Skinner
(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:B.F
._Skinner.jpg)
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