Early American Cognitive Theory

Chapter 9Learning TheoryFall, 2003

Chapter HighlightsTolman’s Purposive BehaviorismCognition as Intervening VariablesPredictions from Tolman TheoryOf Rats and HumansEvaluation of TolmanTolman’s Continuing InfluenceThe Cognitive RevolutionSources of the RevolutionCauses of the Revolution

Chapter Terms

Cognitive mapcognitive revolutioncontinuity controversydemandinformation processinglatent learningpurposive behavorism

Tolman’s Purposive Behaviorism

Edward Chace Tolman spent most of his professional life on the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley.

His major work was Purposive Behaviorism in Animals and Men published in 1932.

Tolman thought that behaviorism did not show enough appreciation of the cognitive aspects of behavior. He argued that people do not simply respond to stimuli. We act on beliefs, express attitudes, and strive toward goals. In order to recognize these aspects of behaviorism without sacrificing objectivity, he developed “Purposive Behaviorism”.

What is “Purposive Behaviorism”?

1. Since it is a form of behaviorism, it is concerned with objective behavior, not with conscious experience and with how behavior if affected by external stimuli.

2. It is concerned with learning with the way that behavior changes with experience of the external world.

3. It is concerned with the purposes that impel and guide behavior.

Tolman’s system was called purposive behaviorism because it studies behavior as it is organized around purposes.

Tolman’s use of the term “purposive” rather than “purposeful” emphasizes that he is still a behaviorist.

Purposes is inferred from behavior, not our subjective feelings of wanting goals and hoping to reach them.

For Tolman, a purpose is an intervening variable.

Tolman wanted to study “molar” behavior. This refers, not to the kind of behavior, but to the way in which it is analyzed.

Molar behavior is analyzed into fairly large commonsense units such as driving to work or cooking a meal.

Cognitions as Intervening Variables

Tolman’s problem was to develop a theory for dealing with this complex variability of molar behavior as it operates in search of goals.

He considered it necessary to take account of the individual’s cognitions --- one’s perceptions of and beliefs about the world.

Tolman’s answer was the use of “intervening variables”.

He designated cognitions as intervening variables.

Tolman made the concept of cognition more respectable in behaviorist circles and introduced the concept of intervening variables into psychology.

Cognition is not a thing, but an abstract defined by the theorists.

Tolman’s definition of cognition includes both of the terms stimuli and responses since it intervenes between them.

Experience with certain stimuli results in the formation of certain cognitions.

Certain needs produce demands for certain goal objects.

(ex: deprivation of food produces a demand for for)

These demands also are intervening variables.

Cognitions and demands work together to produce responses.

Predictions from Tolman’s Theory

How is Tolmans’ theory different from a connectionist one?

Both attempt to predict behavior from stimuli and other antecedent conditions.

For Tolman’s theory, it produces a cognition that making the response will lead to the reward. If one now has a demand for the reward, one will make the response.

Cognitions from several different learning experiences may be put together so that the individual can respond adaptively to new situations.

This idea allows Tolman’s theory to deal with more original and flexible behavior than is covered by the connectionist interpretations of learning.

An example of greater flexibility is the cognition about what leads to what.

Ex: Once you learn how to get from one place to another, this knowledge can be used to obtain rewards quite different from the one obtained while learning.

Whenever learning goes on without its being evident in performance at the time, latent learning is taking place.

Another way his theory achieves flexibility is through its emphasis on learning the location of reward.

Once an individual has learned where a given kind of reward is located, that location can often be reached by means other than those originally used.

Ex: A shopper finds an interesting store while exploring a city on foot. The shopper can then return to the store either by car or bus.

Tolman’s most popular term was cognitive map.

Cognitive maps are intervening variables.

Tolman listed four main kinds of individual-difference variables:(HATE)

heredityage trainingendocrine, drug, or vitamin conditions(only one involves learning)

The HATE Variables help to illustrate the breadth of Tolman’s concern with different aspects of behavior. Discussions of such diverse factors as age and vitamin conditions are rare is learning theory. They are valuable in reminding us that learning is far from being the only determinant of behavior.

Of Rats and Humans

Tolman was atypical among cognitive theorists in having given more attention to the behavior of animals than of humans.

Reasons why he preferred animals:(1)The greater simplicity of animals

and the greater opportunity to control their environments.

(2)It reflects Tolman’s special concern to show that a cognitive system could still be objective, that it need not depend at all on anything that individual says.

(3) That psychologists begin with interest in solving problems in human life, then become frightened by the awesome implications of the task, so they flee to safer aspects such as learnings in rats.

Tolman was a man of strong social conscience.

In 1942 he published a small book called Drives Toward War in which he analyzed the psychological causes of war and presented some suggestions for removing them.

Tolman’s principle ambition was the development of a schematic rat world from which he could predict completely the behavior of rats in a laboratory environment.

He wrote Purposive Behavior to Mus norvegicus albinus.

Evaluation of Tolman

Tolman is the considered the greatest learning theorist.

His theory is good, but the conception was never really carried into execution.

Tolman discussed the kinds of laws psychology needs, but he did not develop the laws.

He did experiments intended to show that cognitive formulations are better than connectionist ones, but he did not do experiments to make these cognitive formulations precise enough to be really useful for prediction.

He pointed the way toward an extension of cognitive theory to include the best aspects of connectionist theory, but he did not carry the program through.

He gave a cognitive framework for interpreting learning, but he did not provide detailed laws of learning, or detailed theory, or a general principle of learning.

Because of his many shortcomings, Tolman was widely respected, but not widely followed.

He was regarded affectionately by his students, but had very few of his students follow in his footsteps.

Tolman’s Continuing Influence

Tolman’s immediate effect on the psychology of learning was on the connectionist theories of his time.

Tolman gave encouragement to cognitive approaches, and a number of psychologists did research and wrote with a cognitive bias.

The Cognitive Revolution

The cognitive approach began development in fields other than learning.

One such field was perception. This area of psychology was suited to a cognitive approach since its dependent variables were largely people’s descriptions and interpretations of what they saw or heard.

Perception gave rise to information processing.

This is the study of how we convert information from stimuli into interpretations of what we are perceiving and what it means.

Another field that contributed to the increase in cognitive interpretations was linguistics.

This is the study of language.These influences were a major change in

the theoretical bias of American psychology.

This transformation became the cognitive revolution.

Sources of the Revolution

When did the cognitive revolution happen?

1960 - The book: Plans and the Structure of Behavior

This book argued in detail that behavior is best analyzed, not in terms of responses or operants, but of plans for carrying out certain activities to achieve certain goals.

1962 - an article by Robert Cagne’This article was on the application of

learning principles to military training.1967 - the book, Cognitive PsychologyThe book discussed numerous topics

with some related to perception and thinking and language from a cognitive point of view.

Causes of the Revolution

What caused the cognitive revolution?Psychologists wanted very much for

their young field to be scientific.They wanted theories that fit

comfortably in the natural-scientific view of the world.

The rise of computers was the single biggest factor in the revolution.

Reference

This PowerPoint was taken from the book: Learning: A Survey of

Psychological Interpretations by Winfred Hill