Complex Human Behavior: A Systematic Extension of Learning Principles PDF
Preview Complex Human Behavior: A Systematic Extension of Learning Principles
Complex Human Behavior Complex Human Beh a vi or A Systematic Extension of Learning Principles Arthur W. Staats and Carolyn K. Staats ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY H O L T, R I N E H A RT AND W I N S T ON New York • Chicago • San Francisco • Toronto • London To Jennifer and Peter Copyright © 1963 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc. All rights reserved Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 63-17967 28101-0113 Printed in the United States of America Preface THE PURPOSE of this book is to explore various experimental and naturalistic observations of complex human behavior in terms of learning principles and thereby to offer a relatively general conception of how the physical and social environments may shape human behavior. The strategy' is to employ an integrated set of learning principles that seem to have "heavy-weight" effects. There is no attempt to give an exhaus- tive account of learning principles or to consider the controversies and on-going research concerned with those that are presented. In extending the principles to complex human behavior, areas of application are some- times reached that have not yet been sufficiently subjected to experi- mentation. Nevertheless, there appears to be enough support of the basic principles as well as a sufficient number of demonstrations of the relevance of their extrapolations to consider a learning conception of complex human behavior to be a powerful approach. Certain aspects of the strategy of the book emerged from the experience of teaching general psychology to a population of students that included both psychology and education majors and general education students. It was found that lectures which presented a selected set of behavior prin- ciples were much more meaningful and interesting to the students when they were presented in simple form and the possible extensions to human behavior were outlined in some detail. It was concluded that for the student who will take only one or two courses in psychology the interpretive appli- cation of learning principles can yield a practical type of knowledge and yet remain consistent with a scientific approach. For the major in psychology, on the other hand, this approach seemed capable of leading the student to think of human behavior in terms of experimentally derived principles and to appreciate the technical research underlying the establishment of such principles. It will be recognized that the systematic orientation of the present book is coincident with other efforts to extend learning principles to complex human behavior. It does attempt, however, to give a more central position to description of the development and function of language. This is pos- sible because of recent theoretical and experimental extensions of learning principles to this area. The present interpretation also brings together the conceptions of a number of learning psychologists and in so doing attempts to abstract congruent principles rather than indicate conflicts. The most PREFACE VI influential conceptions have been those of B. F. Skinner, and F. S. Keller and W. N. Schoenfeld, on the one hand, and J. Dollard and N. E. Miller, C. L. Hull, O. H. Mowrer, C. E. Osgood, and K. Spence on the other. While the book that has developed from these considerations is in the same tradition as that of previous extensions of learning principles to human behaviors, it does have a new format and does incorporate relatively new theoretical and experimental developments. As such, teaching uses for the book can be suggested only tentatively. Thus, the book could be used in general psychology where the instructor is interested in the systematic presentation of a set of learning principles applied to various areas of human behavior, rather than with a survey of approaches and experiments in psychology. To the extent that the instructor wishes to emphasize learn- ing, the book might also find use in specific courses in the area of general psychology, such as child psychology, personality, the psychology of lan- guage, and human learning. The book also seems appropriate in a similar sense for students of educa- tion and educational psychology. In this field one is concerned primarily with human learning, and the various chapters deal with human behaviors that are significant to the educational enterprise. Furthermore, the growing extension of experimental methods and principles of learning to some of the problems of education enhances the need for an understanding of the approach and its applications. The point in the student's career at which the individual instructor might wish to introduce such a book may be expected to vary. The book is in- tended to be self-contained and to depend upon no prior special training in psychology. In this sense it could be thought of as introductory. On the other hand, the student who already has a background in the basic prin- ciples may find it productive to consider complex human behavior in terms of these principles. Although the authors interchanged comments and suggestions on all chapters and worked and re-worked the expressive aspects throughout, some of the chapters were individually and some jointly composed. Chap- ters 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, and 11 were composed by A.W.S., and chapters 2, 7, 8, and 10 were jointly composed. It was in the conduct of research supported by several governmental agencies that some of the conceptions basic to the book began to develop. For this support, appreciation is extended to the Office of Naval Research for a continuing research project on the psychological processes in language and communication; to the National Institute of Mental Health for a project to study personality and verbal response classes; and to the Office of Education, Cooperative Research Branch, for support of several prelim- inary experiments investigating certain aspects of the acquisition of reading PREFACE vii as discrimination learning. A.W.S. is also grateful for a National Science Foundation Faculty Fellowship for the first term of 1961-1962, spent at Maudsley Hospital of the University of London, and for a sabbatical leave from Arizona State University for both terms of that year—both of which contributed to the present project. The authors also wish to express appreciation to several individuals who read the book in whole or in part and contributed valuable suggestions: Albert Bandura, Dale Harris, John L. Michael, and Richard E. Schutz. In addition, Judson R. Finley and Karl A. Minke gave helpful assistance in the physical preparation of the manuscript. November 1963 A.W.S. Tempe, Arizona C.K.S. Contents Preface v 1. Introduction Psychology 4 2. The Method 8 Observation, Description, Classification 8 Operational Definitions 11 Description as Pseudo Explanation 13 Functional Relationships 16 S-R Laws 20 R-R Laws 22 S-R and R-R Laws Compared 2 •> Additional Aspects of Science 26 The Relationship between Conceptions and Actions 32 3. Relevant Principles of Behavior 35 Respondent or Classical Conditioning 35 Operant or Instrumental Conditioning 41 Conditioned Reinforcement 48 Extinction 55 Schedules of Reinforcement 59 Types of Schedules of Reinforcement 61 Generalization and Discrimination 70 Differentiation and Successive Approximation 77 Sequences or Chains of Responses 86 "Self-Reinforced Behavior 95 Mediated Generalization 98 CONTENTS Response Hierarchies 101 Motivation 107 4. Language Development 115 The Development of Speech 115 Early Development of Speech Responses 116 Formation of Verbal Discriminations 123 Development of Word Meaning 140 Semantic Generalization 147 Verbal Habit-Families 15 3 Verbal Conditioned Reinforcers and Meaning 154 Development of Word Associations 157 Learning and Grammatical Habits 169 Development of Verbal-Motor Behavior Associations 179 Summary 182 5. Language Function 185 COMMUNICATION 185 Communication Involving Transfer of Meaning 185 Additional S-R Processes in Communication 194 Efficacy of Communication 198 REASONING AND P R O B L EM SOLVING 199 A Learning Interpretation of Complex Problem Solving Involving Language 204 DEVELOPMENT OF MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE SEQUENCES 219 Counting Behavior 220 Addition 225 Multiplication 228 Division 231 Further Extensions of Mathematical Sequences 233 ORIGINALITY 236 SCIENTIFIC BEHAVIOR 245 Prediction and Control 246
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