Pavlov (1849 – 1936)
- 1897: experiment on conditioning after originally studying digestion in dogs, found that dogs would salivate at the sound of a tone that had previously been associated with the presentation of food
Watson (1878 – 1958)
- 1920 – Watson found that systematically exposing a child to a fearful stimuli in the presence of objects that did not themselves elicit fear could lead the child to respond with a fearful behaviour to the presence of the stimulus
BF Skinner (1904 – 1990)
- He investigated how learning was affected by stimuli presented after an act was performed. He found that certain stimuli caused the organism to repeat an act more frequently and called stimuli with this effect the ‘reinforcers’
- He found that by providing reinforcement in a systematic way one can shape the behaviour in desired directions
- He used these ideas to train pigeons and other animals and developed theories about how best to teach children and how to create societies that were peaceful and productive
- He argued that free will is an illusion