1. Behavioral Theory (b.f. Skinner).pptx

f o s e i e r g o a e u h T ng a L

MS. DANICA D. DUCSA, LPT

Language

It is an attribute that sets humans apart from all other creatures and binds humans together across all geographic barriers. Language can be the tool for great achievement in any discipline. Language helps in the formation of concepts, analysis of complex ideas, and to focus attention on ideas which would otherwise be difficult to comprehend.

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BEHAVIORAL THEORY B.F. Skinner

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Burrhus Frederic Skin (1904 – 1990) • American psychologist, inventor, social philosopher, poet • Bachelor: English Literature (Hamilton University) • Master: Psychology (Harvard University) • Doctorate: Psychology (Harvard University) • Professor of Psychology in Harvard University • Proponent of Behaviorist Theory [email protected]

BEHAVIORAL THEORY He is a man who opposes Chomsky's linguistic theory with his behaviorist approach. Skinner believes that behavior explains the speaker's verbal activity as an effect of environmental contingencies. According to him, reinforcement of appropriate grammar and language would therefore lead to a child's acquisition of language and grammar.

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BEHAVIORAL THEORY A child acquires language when relatively unpatterned vocalizations, selectively reinforced gradually assume forms which produce appropriate consequences in a given verbal community. According to Skinner, a child acquires language when relatively unpatterned vocalizations, selectively reinforced gradually assume forms which produce appropriate consequences in a given verbal community.

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BEHAVIORAL THEORY He believed that a sentence is merely part of a behavior chain each element of which provides a conditional stimulus for the production of the succeeding element (Fador, Bever and Garrett). The probability of a verbal response was contingent on four things: reinforcement, stimulus control, deprivation, and adverse stimulation. The interaction of these things in a child’s environment would lead to particular associations, the basis of all language.

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BEHAVIORAL THEORY suggests that… • Behaviors, such as acting, thinking, and feeling, can be scientifically observed and measured • Language, as a behavior, is a set of habits acquired by operant conditioning and reinforcement • Language -is as a subset of other learned behaviors a set of associations between meaning and word, word and phoneme, and statement and response, -is learned or conditioned through association between a stimulus and the following response -is a verbal behavior modified by the environment [email protected]

OPERANT CONDITIONING Skinner Box aka operant conditioning chamber is used to contain

animals such as rats or pigeons • study behavior conditioning (training)by teaching a subject animal to perform certain actions (like pressing a lever) in response to specific stimuli. If the subject correctly performs the behavior, the chamber mechanism delivers food or another reward • the mechanism delivers a punishment for incorrect or missing responses

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OPERANT CONDITIONING Operant Conditioning • If a particular response is reinforced, it then becomes habitual. Thus, children produce linguistic responses that are reinforced, and loses those that are left out 10 Reinforcer- any event that increases the probability of occurrence of a preceding behavior Positive Reinforcer- benefits the person receiving it. Examples: praising , repetition , frequent exposure , material reward Negative Reinforcers- has no value to the person receiving, causes the recipient to try to escape from it. Examples: physical punishment, discomfort ,criticism and scolding

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CONCLUSION • • • •

Language is a behavior. As a behavior, it requires reinforcers and stimuli from the environment. Reinforcers may be positive or negative, primary or secondary. Languages can be unlearned by putting away the stimuli/reinforcers

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