DARAGA COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

LESSON 8
NEO-BEHAVIORISM: TOLMAN AND BANDURA

Prof. Abelardo B. Medes

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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

OBJECTIVES

1. Explain Tolman’s purposive behaviorism

2. Explain Bandura’s social learning theory
3. Give specific applications of each theory in teaching
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

PRIMING ACTIVITY
Solve maze A. Enter on the top and exit at the bottom.
Solve maze B. Enter at the bottom and exit on the top.

Maze A Maze B
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ANALYSIS

• How did you solve Maze A? What strategy did you use?
(trial and error, examined the maze before proceeding
with your pen, etc.)
• Was it easier to solve Maze B? Why?
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KEY LEARNING POINTS

• Just like what other people who answered the maze activity, you would say that
solving the second maze is easier. This is because, you saw that the two mazes are
identical, except that the entrance and exit points are reversed. Your experience in
solving maze A helped you solved maze B a lot easier. People create mental maps
of things they perceived. These mental maps help them respond to other things or
tasks later, especially if they see the similarity. You may begin to respond with trial
and error ( behavioristic), but later on your response becomes more internally
driven (cognitive perspective). This is what neo behaviorism is about. It has
aspects of behaviorism but it also reaches out to the cognitive perspective.
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KEY LEARNING POINTS

What is Neo Behaviorism?

• Neo behaviorism is a branch of psychology that bases its teachings

on the idea that people learn their behaviors by watching others and
imitating them. It focuses more on behavioral conditioning and
cognitive processes.
▪ Neo behaviorism as a branch of psychology, is the study of
reinforcements and punishments. It has been used since 1890’s to help
explain how animals behave in their natural habitat.

https://biznewske.com/neobehaviorism-definition-and-neobehaviorism-examples/
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EDWARD TOLMAN’S PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM

▪ It combines the objectives study of behavior while considering the
purpose or goals of behavior.
▪ Tolman thought that learning develop from knowledge about the
environment and how the organism relates to its environment.
▪ Has also been referred to as Sign Learning Theory and is often
referred as the link between behaviorism and cognitive theory.
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

TOLMAN’S PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM

▪ Tolman believed that learning is a cognitive process. Learning involves

forming beliefs and obtaining knowledge about the environment and
revealing that knowledge through purposeful and goal-oriented
behavior.
▪ Tolman stated in his sign theory that an organism learns by pursuing
signs to a goal, i.e., learning is acquired through meaningful behavior.
He stressed the organized aspect of learning: The stimuli which are
allowed in are not connected by just simple one-to-one switches to the
outgoing responses.
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay

TOLMAN’S PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM

▪ Tolman’s form of behaviorism stressed the relationships between the
stimuli rather than stimulus-response. Tolman said that a new stimulus
(the sign) becomes associated with already meaningful stimulus (the
significance) through a series of pairings; there is no need for
reinforcement in order to establish learning.
▪ In your maze activity, the new stimulus or “sign” (maze B) became
associated with already meaningful stimuli, the significance (maze A).
So you may have connected the two stimuli, maze A and maze B; and
used your knowledge and experience in maze A to learn to respond to
maze B.
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TOLMAN’S KEY CONCEPTS

▪ Learning is always purposive and goal-oriented. Tolman held the notion that an
organism acted or responded for some adaptive purpose. He believed that
individuals do more than merely respond to stimuli; they act on beliefs, attitudes,
changing conditions, and they strive toward goals. Tolman saw behavior as holistic,
purposive and cognitive.
▪ Cognitive maps in rats. The experiment was to demonstrate that rats could make
navigational decisions based on knowledge of the environment, rather than their
directional choices simply being dictated by the effects of the rewards. To learn
location, signified the rats somehow formed cognitive maps that will help them
perform well on the maze. Tolman found out that organisms will select the shortest
or easiest way to achieve a goal.
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TOLMAN’S KEY CONCEPTS

▪ Applied in human learning, since a student passes by the same route going to
school everyday, he acquires a cognitive map of he location of his school. So when
transportation re-routing is done, he can still figure out what turns to make to get to
school the shortest or easiest way.
▪ Latent Learning. A kind of learning that remains or stays with the individual until
needed. It is a learning that is not outwardly manifested at once. According to
Tolman it can exist even without reinforcement. Applied in human learning, a tw0-
year old always see his dad operate the t.v. remote control and observes how the t.v.
is turned on or how channel is changed, and volume adjusted. After sometime, the
parents are surprised that on the first time that their son holds the remote control,
he already knows which buttons to press for what function. Through latent learning,
the child knew the skills beforehand, even though he has never done that before.
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TOLMAN’S KEY CONCEPTS

▪ The concept of intervening variable. These are variables that are not readily seen
but serve as determinants of behavior. Tolman believed that learning is mediated or
is influenced by expectations, perceptions, representations, needs and other
internal or environmental variables. In his experiments with rats, he found out that
hunger was an intervening variable.
▪ Reinforcement not essential for learning. Tolman concluded that
reinforcement is not essential for learning, although it provides an incentive for
performance. In his studies, he observed that a rat was able to acquire knowledge of
the way through a maze; i.e., to develop a cognitive map, even in the absence of
reinforcement.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

▪ Social learning theory. Focuses on the learning that occurs within a social context.
It considers that people learn from one another, including such concepts as
observational learning, imitations and modeling.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

General principles of social learning theory
1. People can learn by observing the behavior of others and the outcomes of those
behaviors.
2. Learning can occur without a change in behavior. Behaviorists say that learning
has to be represented by a permanent change in behavior, in contrast social learning
theorists say that because people can learn through observation alone, their
learning may not necessarily be shown in their performance. Learning may or may
result in behavior change.
3. Cognition plays a role in learning. Over the last 30 years, social learning theory has
become increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning. Awareness and
expectations of future reinforcements or punishments can have a major effect on the
behaviors that people exhibit.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

General principles of social learning theory

4. Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviorist

learning theories and cognitive learning theories.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

How the environment reinforces and punishes modeling

1. The observer is reinforced by the model.

2. The observer is reinforced by a third person.
3. The imitated behavior itself lead to reinforcing consequences.
4. Consequences of the model’s behavior affect the observer’s behavior vicariously.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Contemporary social learning perspective of reinforcement and punishment

1. Contemporary theory proposes that both reinforcement and punishment have

indirect effects on learning. They are not the sole or main cause.
2. Reinforcement and punishment influence the extent to which an individual exhibits
a behavior that has been learned.
3. The expectation of reinforcement influences cognitive processes that promote
learning.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Cognitive factors in social learning

1. Learning without performance: Bandura makes as distinction between learning

through observation and the actual imitation of what has been learned. This is
similar to Tolman’s latent learning.
2. Cognitive processing during learning: Social learning theorists contend that
attention is a critical factor in learning.
3. Expectations: As a result of being reinforced, people form expectations about the
consequences that future behaviors are likely to bring.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Cognitive factors in social learning

4. Reciprocal causation. Bandura proposed that behavior can influence both the
environment and the person. In fact each of these three variables, the person, the
behavior, and the environment can have an in fluence on each other.

5. Modeling. There are different types of models. There is the live model, an actual
person demonstrating the behavior. There can also be a symbolic model, which can
be a person or action portrayed in some other medium, such as television, videotape,
computer programs.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Behaviors that can be learned through modeling

Many behaviors can be learned through modeling. Examples that can be cited are,
students can watch parents read, students can watch demonstrations of mathematics
problems, or see someone act bravely in fearful situation.

Aggression can be learned through models. Research indicates that children become
more aggressive when they observed aggressive or violent models. Moral thinking and
moral behavior are influenced by observation and modeling. This includes moral
judgments regarding right and wrong which can, in part, develop through modeling.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Conditions necessary for effective modeling to occur

1. Attention – The person must first pay attention to the model.

2. Retention – The observer must be able to remember the behavior that has been
observed. One way of increasing this is using the technique of rehearsal.
3. Motor reproduction. The ability to replicate the behavior that the model has just
demonstrated. This means that the observer has to be able to replicate the action
which could be a problem with a learner who is not ready developmentally to
replicate the action. For example, little children have difficulty doing complex
physical action.
4. Motivation- Learners must want to demonstrate what they have learned.
Remember that since these four conditions vary among individuals, different people
will reproduce the same behavior differently.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Effects of modeling on behavior

1. Modeling teaches new behavior.

2. Modeling influences the frequency of previously learned behaviors.
3. Modeling may encourage previously forbidden behaviors.
4. Modeling increases the frequency of similar behaviors. For example, a student
might see a friend excel in basketball and he tries to excel in football because he is
not tall enough for basketball.
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ALBERT BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Educational implications of social learning theory in classroom use

1. Students often learn a great deal simply by observing other people.

2. Describing the consequences of behavior can effectively increase the appropriate
behaviors and decrease inappropriate ones. This can involve discussing with learners about
the rewards and consequences of various behaviors.
3. Modeling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviors. Instead of
using shaping , which operant conditioning, modeling can provide a faster, more efficient
means for teaching new behaviors. For effective modeling, the teacher must make sure that
the four essential conditions exist; attention, retention, motor reproduction and motivation.
4. Teachers and parents must model appropriate behavior and take care that they do not
model inappropriate behaviors.
5. Teachers should expose students to a variety of other models. This technique is especially
important to break down traditional stereotypes.
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ASSESSMENT TASKS (FOR INCLUSION IN THE SHOWCASE PORTFOLIO)

1. In your own words and in not more than 5 sentences each, explain:

a. Tolman’s purposive behaviorism

b. Bandura’s social learning theory

2. Give at least one teaching application of each theory.

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REFLECTION WRITING (FOR INCLUSION IN THE SHOWCASE PORTFOLIO)

From the lessons on Behaviorism: Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, Skinner,

and Neo Behaviorism: Tolman and Bandura,

1. What are your thoughts of what you have read and experienced?
2. What did you understand about the material? How does this affect
your ideas?
3. How possible that these ideas are practiced in the future? Cite
examples.
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Salvacion, Daraga, Albay