Stimulus-Response Theory

(B. F. Skinner)

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Burrhus Frederic Skinner 1904 – 1990

American psychologist, inventor, social philosopher, poet

Bachelor: English Literature (Hamilton University)

Master: Psychology (Harvard University)

Doctorate: Psychology (Harvard University)

professor of Psychology inHarvard University

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Theories on L1 Acquisition

Nativism

•N. Chomsky

•language is innate (LAD)

Functionalism

•J. R. Firth

•language is developed through simultaneous interaction & innate cognitive capacity

Behaviorism

•B. F. Skinner

•language is learned through operant conditioning

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Behaviorial Theory 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

developed by B. F. Skinner, among others

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Language 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

a verbal behavior modified by the environment

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Language the ―how‖ of language is more important than

the ―what‖ of language form

a child learns language ―when relatively

unpatterned vocalizations, selectively

reinforced, gradually assume forms which produce appropriate consequences‖

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stimulus → response (+ or -)

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Operant Conditioning the strength of the stimulus-response bond

determines the probability of occurrence of a

certain response

all behavior is learned or operant

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Operant Conditioning complex linguistic behaviors represent chains or

combinations of various stimulus-response

sequences

behavior is modified or changed by the events

that follow or are contingent upon that behavior

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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

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Reinforcer any event that increases the probability of

occurrence of a preceding behavior

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Positive Reinforcers benefits the person receiving it

examples:

praising

repetition

frequent exposure

material reward

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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

negative reinforcers ≠ punishment

punishment

occurs after a certain behavior has occurred

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Operant Conditioning complex behavior are learned by:

1. chaining - a sequence of behavior is trained in such a way that each step serves as a stimulus for the next

2. shaping - a single behavior is gradually modified by reinforcement of ever-closer (successive) approximations of the final behavior

thus, language results from the active role of the environment

the learner is secondary to the process

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Operant Conditioning once acquired, a behavior requires only

occasional reinforcement to be strengthened

and maintained

speech sounds that are ignored are produced

less frequently and eventually disappear

Extinction

process of decreasing a behavior without

punishment

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an example of Operant Conditioning

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Skinner Box•aka operant

conditioning chamber

•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, like a light or

sound signal

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Skinner Box•when 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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Rat Experiment1. the rat that was placed in the box did not

know what the lever was for at first

2. the rat pressed the lever, food eventually

came out

3. the rat (when it gets hungry) continue to press the lever, and gets satisfied with the food

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Rat Experiment this is operant behavior because this is an action

that results with a consequence

the food acts as a reinforcer because it causes

the operant behavior to increase

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Rat Experiment operant behavior may come to the points of its

extinction

1. the rat continues to press the lever and yet

food does not come out

2. the rat will eventually cease on pressing the lever, thus stopping an operant behavior

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Instead of punishing behavior, it is better to

simply take off the reinforcers that cause that

certain behavior. By doing so, the doer of the

behavior will not see the value of his actions,

because the reinforcers have been taken away

from him. The behavior will gradually start to

fade away.

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predictions and assumptions

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Language Acquisition word learning is more complex

mother has become discriminative stimulus (SD),

a stimulus in the presence of which ―mama‖ will

be reinforced

a bond is built between the referent ―mother‖ and the word mama

meaning is attached to the speech sound

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Language Acquisition more complex responses are learned through

successive approximation

language learning is based on learning,

imitation, practice, and selective reinforcement

longer sentences are also learned through imitation and chaining

by hearing and imitating enough examples, the

child learns word associations rather than

grammatical rules

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Language Acquisition a child acquires grammar by learning these

frames or chains, in which each word acts as a

stimulus for the next, thus, grammatical units are

controlled by surrounding words

grammar is developed through the learning of structured phrases and sentence frames

syntactic and semantic ―slots‖ within each

frame are filled by substituting words or phrases

that fulfill the same requirements

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Language Acquisition word ordering is learned as adults reinforce

chains of symbols that are increasingly more

adult-like

early language behavior is not rule governed

but rather shaped by the contingencies of the environment

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Children would make errors complex linguistic behaviors represent chains or

combinations of various stimulus-response

sequences

behavior is modified or changed by the events

that follow or are contingent upon that behavior

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Errors would differ from

child to child

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The level of linguistic

attainment would differ

from child to child this depends on the frequency and degree of

reinforcements

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(mostly by Chomsky, of course.)

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Limitations and Loopholes children will utter words that even adults do not

say

children would not know the duality property of

language

children would not know syntax

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Limitations and Loopholes retention of negative language (e.g., cuss

expressions)

no reinforcement on abstract ideas

highly dependent on adult control

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Summary(yey~)

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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Owens, Robert. Language Development: An Introduction.New York: Merill, 1992.

Skinner, Buhhrus Frederic. About Behaviorism. New York: Random House, 1974.

—. Verbal Behavior. New York: Random House, 1957.

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Prepared by:

Mejia, Coltz

Mendoza, Olive

Moulic, Ezra

Mutya, Daryll

Muyano, Jo

Presentation prepared for BLL 102 (Theories of Language and Language

Acquisition) under Prof. Rosario Florendo

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