chapter 7

BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL

COGNITIVE APPROACHES
chapter outline
1 What Is Learning? 3 Applied Behavior Analysis
Learning Goal 1 Define learning and describe
in Education
five approaches to studying it. Learning Goal 3 Apply behavior analysis to
What Learning Is and Is Not education.
Approaches to Learning What Is Applied Behavior Analysis?
Increasing Desirable Behaviors
2 Behavioral Approaches to Decreasing Undesirable Behaviors
Learning Evaluating Operant Conditioning and Applied
Behavior Analysis
Learning Goal 2 Compare classical
conditioning and operant conditioning. 4 Social Cognitive Approaches
Classical Conditioning to Learning
Operant Conditioning
Learning Goal 4 Summarize social cognitive
approaches to learning.
Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory
Observational Learning
To learn is a natural pleasure. Cognitive-Behavioral Approaches and
—Aristotle Self-Regulation
Greek Philosopher, 4th Century b.c. Evaluating the Social Cognitive Approaches

© Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock RF

216 Chapter 7 Behavioral and Social Cognitive Approaches

Connecting with Teachers Ruth Sidney Charney

Ruth Sidney Charney has been a teacher for more than 35 years. acknowledging Hector’s impending solo performance in the
She has developed the responsive classroom approach to teaching church choir.
and learning, a method that emphasizes positive reinforcement of •• “Snazzy new boots?” the teacher asks Leila as she struts into
students’ good behavior. Following are some of her thoughts about class. . . .
reinforcing students’ learning (Charney, 2005, pp. 1–2): •• “Thanks for helping Tessa with her spelling. I notice you gave
We reinforce children when we notice. We notice the personal detail her good hints so she could spell some of the words herself.”
our children bring to school and we notice their efforts to behave and •• “I noticed it took much less time today to get in line. What did
learn. . . . We applaud the five correct answers on the math paper you notice . . . ?”
(when last week there were only two), the extra sentence in writing, •• “I noticed you got your math done this morning with no inter-
the crisp adjectives, the ten minutes of fair play in a game. . . . ruption. That took lots of concentration. . . .”
We reinforce by noticing the positive attempts children make to •• “Thank you for your very efficient clean-up today. I noticed caps
follow the rules and meet class expectations. We reinforce when back on markers, pencils with points down in cans, paper off
children are practicing new skills or when they demonstrate behav- the floor. . . .”
iors recently modeled. . . . •• “You really found an interesting way to solve the problem and
Examples of noticing and reinforcing students include: complete the project together.”
•• “Today’s the day, isn’t it?” the teacher whispers to Hector.
He smiles at her and they share a quick high-five salute,

Preview
Virtually everyone agrees that helping students learn is an important function of schools.
However, not everyone agrees on the best way to learn. We begin this chapter by exam-
ining just what learning involves, then turn to the main behavioral approaches to learning.
Next, we explore how behavioral principles are applied to educating students. In the final
section, we will discuss the social cognitive approaches to learning.

LG 1  efine learning and describe five

D
approaches to studying it. 1 WHAT IS LEARNING?
What Learning Is and Is Not Approaches to Learning

Learning is a central focus of educational psychology. When people are asked what
schools are for, a common reply is “To help children learn.”

WHAT LEARNING IS AND IS NOT

When children learn how to use a computer, they might make some mistakes
along the way, but at a certain point they will get the knack of the behaviors
required to use the computer effectively. The children will change from being
individuals who cannot operate a computer into being individuals who can. Once
they have learned how, they don’t lose those skills. It’s like learning to drive a
car. Once you have learned how, you don’t have to learn all over again each time
you get behind the steering wheel. Thus, learning can be defined as a relatively
permanent influence on behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills, which comes
about through experience.
Not everything we know is learned. We inherit some capacities—they are
inborn or innate, not learned. For example, we don’t have to be taught to swallow,
to flinch at loud noises, or to blink when an object comes too close to our eyes.
Most human behaviors, however, do not involve heredity alone. When children
learning A relatively permanent influence on behavior, use a computer in a new way, work harder at solving problems, ask better ques-
knowledge, and thinking skills, which comes about tions, explain an answer in a more logical way, or listen more attentively, the
through experience. experience of learning is at work.
www.mhhe.com/santedu6e What Is Learning 217

The scope of learning is broad (Powell, Honey, & Symbaluk, 2017). It involves
academic behaviors and nonacademic behaviors. It occurs in schools and everywhere
else that children experience their world.

APPROACHES TO LEARNING
A number of approaches to learning have been proposed. Next we explore behavioral
and cognitive approaches to learning.

Behavioral The learning approaches that we discuss in the first part of this chapter
are called behavioral. Behaviorism is the view that behavior should be explained
by observable experiences, not by mental processes. For the behaviorist, behavior is
everything that we do, both verbal and nonverbal, that can be directly seen or heard:
a child creating a poster, a teacher explaining something to a child, one student
picking on another student, and so on. Mental processes are defined by psycholo-
gists as the thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences but that
cannot be observed by others. Although we cannot directly see thoughts, feelings,
and motives, they are no less real. Mental processes include children thinking about
ways to create the best poster, a teacher feeling good about children’s efforts, and
children’s inner motivation to control their behavior.
For the behaviorist, these thoughts, feelings, and motives are not appropriate
subject matter for a science of behavior because they cannot be directly observed.
Behaviorists don’t deny that thoughts, feelings, and motives exist; rather, they say
these mental processes are not needed to explain behavior. Classical conditioning
and operant conditioning, two behavioral views that we will discuss shortly, adopt
this stance. Both of these views emphasize associative learning, which consists
of learning that two events are connected or associated (Domjan, 2015). For exam-
ple, associative learning occurs when a student associates a pleasant event with
learning something in school, such as the teacher smiling when the student asks a
good question.

Cognitive Cognition means “thought,” and psychology became more cognitive

or began focusing more on thought in the last part of the twentieth century. The
cognitive emphasis continues today and is the basis for numerous approaches to
learning (Ashcraft & Radvansky, 2016; Sternberg, 2016a, b). We discuss four main
cognitive approaches to learning in this book: social cognitive; information-pro-
cessing; cognitive constructivist; and social constructivist. The social cognitive
approaches, which emphasize how behavior, environment, and person (cognitive)
factors interact to influence learning, will be covered later in this chapter (Bandura,
2012, 2015). The second set of approaches, information-processing, focuses on Thinking Back/Thinking Forward
how children process information through attention, memory, thinking, and other
Piaget’s theory is a cognitive constructiv-
cognitive processes (Siegler, 2016a, b). The third set of approaches, cognitive
ist approach. Vygotksy’s theory is a so-
constructivist, emphasizes the child’s cognitive construction of knowledge and
cial constructivist approach. Connect with
understanding (Grenell & Carlson, 2016). The fourth set of cognitive approaches,
“Cognitive and Language Development”
social constructivist, focuses on collaboration with others to produce knowledge
and “Social Constructivist Approaches.”
and understanding (Gauvain, 2016).
Adding these four cognitive approaches to the behavioral approaches, we arrive
at five main approaches to learning that we discuss in this book: behavioral, social
cognitive, information-processing, cognitive constructivist, and social constructivist. behaviorism The view that behavior should be
All contribute to our understanding of how children learn. A summary of the five explained by observable experiences, not by mental
approaches is presented in Figure 1. processes.
As you read about learning and cognition, keep in mind that students are more
mental processes Thoughts, feelings, and motives
likely to learn in optimal ways in appropriate learning environments. Students learn
that cannot be observed by others.
best when learning environments are tailored to specific learning goals, to the
students’ backgrounds and prior knowledge, and to the contexts in which learning associative learning Learning that two events are
will occur. Thus, teachers not only need to understand the basic principles of connected (associated).
218 Chapter 7 Behavioral and Social Cognitive Approaches

Information- Cognitive Social

Behavioral Social Cognitive Processing Constructivist Constructivist

Emphasis on Emphasis on interaction Emphasis on how Emphasis on the child’s Emphasis on

experiences, especially of behavior, children process cognitive construction collaboration with others
reinforcement and environment, and person information through of knowledge and to produce knowledge
punishment as (cognitive) factors as attention, memory, understanding and understanding
determinants of learning determinants of learning thinking, and other
and behavior cognitive processes

FIGURE 1 APPROACHES TO LEARNING

learning but must also know how to use them to meet diverse learning goals in
contexts where students’ needs differ (Bransford & others, 2005; Yasnitsky & Van
der Veer, 2016).

Review, Reflect, and Practice

1 Define learning and describe five approaches to studying it.

REVIEW
∙ What is learning? Are there any behaviors that don’t reflect learning?
∙ What essentially is behaviorism? What are four main cognitive approaches to
learning?

REFLECT
∙ How do you learn? Think of a behavior you engage in and describe how you learned it.

PRAXIS™ PRACTICE
1. According to the psychological definition of learning, all of the following are examples of
learning except
a. writing
b. sneezing
c. swimming
d. washing dishes
2. Mr. Zeller does not believe his students have learned anything unless they demonstrate
it to him. This demonstration could be through assignments they turn in to him,
answering questions in class, or the way they behave. Which approach to learning is
most consistent with Mr. Zeller’s ideas?
a. cognitive
b. behavioral
c. social cognitive
d. conditioning

Please see answer key at end of book . . . .

LG 2  ompare classical conditioning and

C 2 BEHAVIORAL APPROACHES TO LEARNING
operant conditioning.
Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning

The behavioral approaches emphasize the importance of children making connec-

tions between experiences and behavior. The first behavioral approach we will exam-
ine is classical conditioning.
www.mhhe.com/santedu6e Behavioral Approaches to Learning 219

CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to connect,
or associate, stimuli. In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus (such as the sight
of a person) becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus (such as food) and
acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response. Classical conditioning was the
brainchild of Ivan Pavlov (1927). To fully understand Pavlov’s theory of classical
conditioning, we need to understand two types of stimuli and two types of responses:
unconditioned stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response (UCR), conditioned stimulus
(CS), and conditioned response (CR).
Figure 2 summarizes the way classical conditioning works. An unconditioned
stimulus (UCS) is a stimulus that automatically produces a response without any
prior learning. Food was the UCS in Pavlov’s experiments. An unconditioned
response (UCR) is an unlearned response that is automatically elicited by the UCS.
In Pavlov’s experiments, the dog’s salivation in response to food was the UCR. A
conditioned stimulus (CS) is a previously neutral stimulus that eventually elicits a
conditioned response after being associated with the UCS. Among the conditioned
stimuli in Pavlov’s experiments were various sights and sounds that occurred prior
to the dog’s actually eating the food, such as the sound of the door closing before
the food was placed in the dog’s dish. A conditioned response (CR) is a learned
response to the conditioned stimulus that occurs after UCS-CS pairing.
Classical conditioning can be involved in both positive and negative experiences classical conditioning A form of associative learning
of children in the classroom. Among the things in the child’s schooling that produce in which a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a
pleasure because they have become classically conditioned are a favorite song and meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a
feelings that the classroom is a safe and fun place to be. For example, a song could similar response.

Before Conditioning

UCS UCR Neutral stimulus No response

Food Dog salivates Bell No salivation

Conditioning After Conditioning

Neutral stimulus + UCS UCR CS CR

Bell Food Dog salivates Bell Dog salivates

FIGURE 2 PAVLOV’S CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

In one experiment, Pavlov presented a neutral stimulus (bell) just before an unconditioned stimulus (food). The
neutral stimulus became a conditioned stimulus by being paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
Subsequently, the conditioned stimulus (bell) by itself was able to elicit the dog’s salivation.
220 Chapter 7 Behavioral and Social Cognitive Approaches

be neutral for the child until the child joins in with other classmates to sing it
with accompanying positive feelings.
Children can develop fear of the classroom if they associate the classroom
with criticism, so the criticism becomes a CS for fear. Classical conditioning
also can be involved in test anxiety. For example, a child fails and is criticized,
which produces anxiety; thereafter, the child associates tests with anxiety, so
they then can become a CS for anxiety (see Figure 3).
Some children’s health problems also might involve classical conditioning
(Chance, 2014). Certain physical complaints—asthma, headaches, and high
blood pressure—might be partly due to classical conditioning. We usually say
that such health problems can be caused by stress. Often what happens, though,
UCS
is that certain stimuli, such as a parent’s or teacher’s heavy criticism, are
Teacher’s UCR conditioned stimuli for physiological responses. Over time, the frequency of
criticism Anxiety the physiological responses can produce a health problem. A teacher’s persis-
CR
tent criticism of a student can cause the student to develop headaches, muscle
CS tension, and so on. Anything associated with the teacher, such as classroom
Tests learning exercises and homework, might trigger the student’s stress and sub-
sequently be linked with headaches or other physiological responses.
FIGURE 3 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING INVOLVED
IN TEACHERS’ CRITICISM OF CHILDREN AND TESTS Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction In studying a dog’s responses
© Elizabeth Crews to various stimuli, Pavlov rang a bell before giving meat powder to the dog.
By being paired with the UCS (meat), the bell became a CS and elicited the
dog’s salivation. After a time, Pavlov found that the dog also responded to other
sounds, such as a whistle. The more bell-like the noise, the stronger the dog’s
response. Generalization in classical conditioning involves the tendency of a new
stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus to produce a similar response.
Let’s consider a classroom example. A student is criticized for poor performance on
a biology test. When the student begins to prepare for a chemistry test, she also
becomes very nervous because these two subjects are closely related in the sciences.
Thus, the student’s anxiety generalizes from taking a test in one subject to taking a
test in another.
Discrimination in classical conditioning occurs when the organism responds to
certain stimuli but not others. To produce discrimination, Pavlov gave food to the
dog only after ringing the bell, not after any other sounds. Subsequently, the dog
responded only to the bell. In the case of the student taking tests in different classes,
she doesn’t become nearly as nervous about taking an English test or a history test
because they are very different subject areas.
Extinction in classical conditioning involves the weakening of the condi-
tioned response (CR) in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). In
one session, Pavlov rang the bell repeatedly but did not give the dog any food.
Eventually the dog stopped salivating at the sound of the bell. Similarly, if the
student who gets nervous while taking tests begins to do much better on tests,
her anxiety will fade.

Systematic Desensitization Sometimes the anxiety and stress associated with

negative events can be eliminated by classical conditioning. Systematic desensitiza-
tion is a method based on classical conditioning that reduces anxiety by getting the
individual to associate deep relaxation with successive visualizations of increasingly
anxiety-producing situations. Imagine that you have a student in your class who is
extremely nervous about talking in front of the class. The goal of systematic desen-
sitization is to get the student to associate public speaking with relaxation, such as
walking on a quiet beach, rather than anxiety. Using successive visualizations, the
systematic desensitization A method based on student might practice systematic desensitization two weeks before the talk, then a
classical conditioning that reduces anxiety by getting the week before, four days before, two days before, the day before, the morning of the
individual to associate deep relaxation with successive talk, on entering the room where the talk is to be given, on the way to the podium,
visualizations of increasingly anxiety-provoking situations. and during the talk.
www.mhhe.com/santedu6e Behavioral Approaches to Learning 221

Desensitization involves a type of counterconditioning (Rajiah & Saravanan,

2014). The relaxing feelings that the student imagines (UCS) produce relaxation
(UCR). The student then associates anxiety-producing cues (CS) with the relaxing
feelings. Such relaxation is incompatible with anxiety. By initially pairing a weak
anxiety-producing cue with relaxation and gradually working up the hierarchy (from
two weeks before the talk to walking up to the podium to give the talk), all of the
anxiety-producing cues should generate relaxation (CR).
Chances are you will have students who fear speaking in front of the class or
have other anxieties, and there may be circumstances in your own life where you
might benefit from replacing anxiety with relaxation. For example, it is not unusual
for some teachers to feel comfortable when talking in front of their students but to
get very nervous if asked to give a presentation at a teaching conference. Counselors
and mental health professionals have been very successful at getting individuals to
overcome their fear of public speaking using systematic desensitization. Should you
be interested in adopting this strategy, do it with the help of a school psychologist
rather than on your own.

Evaluating Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning helps us understand some

aspects of learning better than others (Domjan, 2015). It excels in explaining how
neutral stimuli become associated with unlearned, involuntary responses (Poulos &
Thompson, 2015). It is especially helpful in understanding students’ anxieties and
fears. However, it is not as effective in explaining voluntary behaviors, such as why
a student studies hard for a test or likes history better than geography. For these B. F. Skinner conducting an operant conditioning study
areas, operant conditioning is more relevant. in his behavioral laboratory. The rat being studied is in
a Skinner box.
OPERANT CONDITIONING © Nina Leen/The Life Picture Collection/Getty Images

Operant conditioning (also called instrumental conditioning) is a form of learning

in which the consequences of behavior produce changes in the probability that the
behavior will occur. Operant conditioning is at the heart of B. F. Skinner’s (1938)
behavioral view. Consequences—rewards and punishments—are contingent on the
organism’s behavior.

Reinforcement and Punishment Reinforcement (reward) is a consequence that

increases the probability that a behavior will occur. In contrast, punishment is a
consequence that decreases the probability a behavior will occur. For example, you
might tell one of your students, “Congratulations. I’m really proud of the story that
you wrote.” If the student works harder and writes an even better story the next time,
your positive comments are said to reinforce, or reward, the student’s writing behav-
ior. If you frown at a student for talking in class and the student’s talking decreases,
your frown is said to punish the student’s talking.
To reinforce behavior means to strengthen the behavior (Domjan, 2015). Two
forms of reinforcement are positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement. operant conditioning A form of learning in which the
consequences of behavior produce changes in the
In positive reinforcement, the frequency of a response increases because it is
probability that the behavior will occur.
followed by a rewarding stimulus, as in the example in which the teacher’s posi-
tive comments increased the student’s writing behavior. Similarly, compliment- reinforcement (reward) A consequence that
ing parents on being at a parent-teacher conference might encourage them to increases the probability that a behavior will occur.
come back again. punishment A consequence that decreases the prob-
Conversely, in negative reinforcement, the frequency of a response increases ability that a behavior will occur.
because it is followed by the removal of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus. For
example, a father nags at his son to do his homework. He keeps nagging. Finally, positive reinforcement Reinforcement based on the
the son gets tired of hearing the nagging and does his homework. The son’s response principle that the frequency of a response increases
because it is followed by a rewarding stimulus.
(doing his homework) removed the unpleasant stimulus (nagging).
One way to remember the distinction between positive and negative rein- negative reinforcement Reinforcement based on
forcement is that in positive reinforcement something is added. In negative rein- the principle that the frequency of a response increases
forcement, something is subtracted, or removed. It is easy to confuse negative because an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus is removed.
222 Chapter 7 Behavioral and Social Cognitive Approaches

Positive Reinforcement Negative Reinforcement Punishment

Behavior: Behavior: Behavior:

Student asks a good question Student turns homework in on time Student interrupts teacher

Consequence: Consequence: Consequence:

Teacher praises student Teacher stops criticizing student Teacher verbally reprimands
student

Future behavior: Future behavior: Future behavior:

Student asks more good questions Student increasingly turns home- Student stops interrupting teacher
work in on time

Remember that reinforcement comes in positive and negative forms. In both forms,
FIGURE 4 REINFORCEMENT
the consequences ANDInPUNISHMENT
increase behavior. punishment, behavior is decreased.
Remember that reinforcement comes in positive and negative forms. In both forms, the consequences increase behavior. In punishment,
behavior is decreased.
(left to right) © Daniel Laflor/Getty Images RF; © Hero/Corbis/Glow Images RF; © Westend61/Getty Images RF

reinforcement and punishment. To keep these terms straight, remember that

­negative reinforcement increases the probability a response will occur, whereas
punishment decreases the probability it will occur. Figure 4 summarizes and
presents examples of the concepts of positive reinforcement, negative reinforce-
ment, and punishment.

Generalization, Discrimination, and Extinction In our coverage of classical condi-

tioning, we discussed generalization, discrimination, and extinction. These processes
also are important dimensions of operant conditioning (Miltenberger, 2016).
Remember that in classical conditioning, generalization is the tendency of a stimulus
similar to the conditioned stimulus to produce a response similar to the conditioned
response. Generalization in operant conditioning means giving the same response to
similar stimuli. Especially of interest is the extent to which behavior generalizes
from one situation to another. For example, if a teacher praises the student for asking
good questions related to English, will this generalize to harder work in history,
math, and other subjects?
Remember that in classical conditioning, discrimination means responding to
certain stimuli but not others. Discrimination in operant conditioning involves dif-
ferentiating among stimuli or environmental events. For example, a student knows
that the tray on the teacher’s desk labeled “Math” is where she is supposed to place
today’s math work, whereas another tray labeled “English” is where today’s English
assignments are to be put. This might sound overly simple, but it is important
because students’ worlds are filled with such discriminative stimuli. Around school
these discriminative stimuli might include signs that say “Stay Out,” “Form a Line
Here,” and so on.
In operant conditioning, extinction occurs when a previously reinforced response
is no longer reinforced and the response decreases. In the classroom, the most com-
mon use of extinction is for the teacher to withdraw attention from a behavior that
www.mhhe.com/santedu6e Behavioral Approaches to Learning 223

the attention is maintaining. For example, in some cases a teacher’s attention inad-
vertently reinforces a student’s disruptive behavior, as when a student pinches
another student and the teacher immediately talks with the perpetrator. If this hap-
pens on a regular basis, the student might learn that pinching other students is a
good way to get the teacher’s attention. If the teacher withdraws his or her attention,
the pinching might extinguish.

Review, Reflect, and Practice

2 Compare classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

REVIEW
∙ What is classical conditioning? What are the UCS, UCR, CS, and CR? In the context
of classical conditioning, what are generalization, discrimination, extinction, and system-
atic desensitization?
∙ What is operant conditioning? Explain the different types of reinforcement and punish-
ment. In the context of operant conditioning, what are generalization, discrimination,
and extinction?

REFLECT
∙ Do you think that your emotions are the result of classical conditioning, operant con-
ditioning, or both? Explain.

PRAXIS™ PRACTICE
1. Sylvia is participating in a class spelling bee. The teacher asks her to spell the word
mortgage. “Don’t forget the t, don’t forget the t,” Sylvia says to herself. “M-O-R-T-A-
G-E,” says Sylvia. “I’m sorry, that’s incorrect, Sylvia,” says her teacher. One of the
­students in the back of the class snickers and comments, “Gee, about time Miss
Smarty-pants got one wrong. See, she’s not so smart.” Some other students join in
the laughter. Sylvia begins to cry and runs out of the room. After that, Sylvia becomes
very anxious about spelling bees. According to classical conditioning theory, what is the
conditioned stimulus in this scenario?
a. the teacher telling her she is incorrect
b. the other students’ laughter
c. the word mortgage
d. spelling bees
2. Tyler is a fourth-grade student. He loves to crack jokes, often at his teacher’s
expense. One day he called his teacher, Ms. Bart, “Ms. Fart.” Ms. Bart quickly
admonished him for his behavior and told him that name-calling was unacceptable.
She made him stay after school to discuss his behavior. The other students in the
class thought Tyler’s nickname for Ms. Bart was hilarious, laughing along with Tyler
and later telling him what a good name that was for Ms. Bart. The next day, Tyler
again called Ms. Bart by the insulting nickname. According to operant conditioning
theory, Tyler continued to use this name in spite of having to stay after school the
day before because
a. the behavior had continued for a lengthy period of time
b. he was positively reinforced by his classmates for the behavior
c. he was negatively reinforced by his teacher for his behavior
d. he was punished by his teacher for his behavior

Please see answer key at end of book . . . .