Ever wonder how we learn?

Behaviorism says it's all about what we do

and how the world reacts to our actions.

It's like a dance between us and our environment.

Behaviorism is a learning theory in psychology

that focuses on observable behaviors, the things

we can actually see and measure.

It says we learn through two

main classical and operant conditioning.

Behaviorists believe that to understand learning, we

should focus on those outward actions and

responses to things in our surroundings.

They tend to avoid trying to explain

the inner stuff, thoughts, feelings, motivations, because

those are harder to study scientifically.

For example, we can observe a dog salivating,

but we can't directly observe what it's thinking

or feeling when it does so.

Now let's dive into the history.

Early work on behaviorism can be traced back

to 1897 with Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist.

He was studying digestion in dogs, but

he stumbled upon a major classical conditioning.

Pavlov noticed that dogs naturally

drool when they see food.

But then he started ringing a

bell every time he fed them.

Guess what?

The dogs started drooling just at

the sound of the bell.

Even before they saw the food, they had learned

to associate the bell with the upcoming meal.

Fast forward to 1913.

John B. Watson enters the scene

and formally defines behaviorism.

He insisted that psychology should be a

purely objective science focused on predicting and

controlling behavior that we can observe.

No need to try and figure

out what's happening in people's minds.

Watson's ideas were a big hit, and for the

next few decades, behaviorism ruled the world of psychology.

It provided a way to study human

behavior in a measurable, scientific way.

But wait, there's more.

Around 1905, Edward Thorndike was busy exploring

how animals learn through trial and error.

He called this law of effect.

He put cats in puzzle boxes and observed how they learned

to escape by pressing levers to get a tasty reward.

Thorndike showed that consequences shape our behavior.

We tend to repeat actions that lead to good stuff.

Then, in 1938, B.F.

skinner took center stage.

He expanded on Thorndike's ideas and

gave behaviorism a clear structure.

He identified different types of reinforcement, rewards

and punishment, explaining how they increase or

decrease the likelihood of behaviors.

Skinner even designed special boxes

to study animal learning.

Though some folks argue that behaviorism is

too simplistic because it doesn't consider our

thoughts and feelings, it's still a super

influential theory in learning and psychology.

It helps us understand how we form habits,

learn new skills, and respond to our environment.