Intelligence Testing

A Posey of Pretty Flowers By Carl Bauerle



Definition of Intelligence
There are many possible definitions of intelligence. There is
cognitive or intellectual intelligence, relating to the mind.
There is also emotional intelligence, how well an individual adapts
to his environment in an emotional sense, communication skills etc.

Basic ability to survive is an important form of intelligence,
as is longevity. Other forms of intelligence at the individual level,
are a person's health or degree of enjoyment of life.

At a broader level, there is intelligence of a group of people,
a community, a society, a whole species or even the intelligence of
an entire biosphere (i.e. the planet Earth).

A subgroup of the possible definitions are the thinking types of
intelligence. Thinking is used in all kinds of human activities, whether
its dancing, laying bricks, painting or whatever. Despite all these
possible definitions, it is still possible to categorize one type of
intelligence as the reading/writing thinking that is helpful in academic
success. IQ or intelligence tests,(or more accurately aptitude tests)
relate to this kind of thinking, and it is this that is the subject of the
current topic.

Intelligence Test
The most well known type of IQ tests are the written tests given to older
children and teenagers in school and the aptitude tests sometimes given to
job applicants. There are similar tests in books and on the net.
Most tests are "speed tests", there are more items than you are expected
to answer, so time is a factor.

The word intelligence evokes a lot of feeling and has many different
meanings, the word aptitude is probably better.

Intelligence tests measure verbal and/or performance(nonverbal) skills. These tests are designed to measure a person's potential or aptitude for intellectual performance. A long-term goal of intelligence testing is the development of a culture-free test that is valid regardless of cultural background. Two examples of popular intelligence tests are the Stanford-Binet Test for children and the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale(WAIS).

The Stanford-Binet
Traditionally, the Stanford-Binet contained age-graded items in a variety of skill areas. Items were coded according to the average age at which children succeed on those items.

A child taking the Standford-Binet would be classified be according to age level achieved(mental age or MA). The child's mental age was compared to the child's chronological age(CA) to produce an intelligence quotient or IQ, using the formula: IQ = MA/CA X 100. This procedure set the IQ score of the average child at 100.

Recent revisions of the Stanford-Binet have abandoned this ratio scoring procedure in favour of a point scale similar to that used in Wechsler tests. The average IQ, however, remains at 100.

The WAIS
The WAIS uses 11 subtests -- 6 verbal and 5 performance (nonverbal) to generate 3 IQ scores: a verbal IQ (VIQ), a performance IQ (PIQ), and a full-scale IQ (FSIQ) representing overall level of performance. The WAIS, and Wechsler tests developed for other age groups, use a point scale where points are earned for each correct answer. Standardization of Wechsler tests determines the scale for converting raw score (points earned) to an IQ score. The average IQ arbitrarily is set at 100.

Issues In Intelligence Testing
Years of study indicates that IQ is not necessary constant over the life span. Although infant intelligence tests are available, IQ scores do not begin to distinguish between those likely to be high or low ability until about age 5. Intelligence test score is reasonably stable from age 12 to adulthood, but wide fluctuations in test scores are still possible.

Although IQ tests were designed to predict success in school, school achievement is greatly influenced by other factors such as interest, motivation, family support, and the quality of instruction. Even greater care must be exercised when using IQ score to predict other outcomes, such as occupational success. Occupational success reflects the additional influences of personality and specialized talents. Nevertheless, people in professional or managerial careers traditionally have a higher average IQ than people in unskilled jobs.

Intelligence tests were conceptualized as a pure measure of intellectual potential, free from the influenced by type of upbringing, social background, and education. There is continuing debate over whether these tests measure inherited ability, which is genetically determined or learning, which incorporates the effects of experience. Although there is research to support both points of view, critics contend that intelligence tests have become instruments for discriminating against lower social class or minority group children.

Types Of Psychological Tests

Psychological tests can be grouped into several broad categories. Personality tests measure personal qualities, sometimes referred to as traits. Achievement tests measure what a person has learned. Aptitude tests are designed to predict future behaviour, such as success in school or job performance. Intelligence tests measure verbal and/or nonverbal skills related to academic success. Interest inventories are used to help individuals make effective career choices.

Psychological tests are usually administered and interpreted by a psychologist because studies in psychopathology, along with academic courses and supervision in psychological testing, are an integral part of the doctoral degree in clinical psychology. A counsellor who has had the appropriate academic courses and supervision may administer occupational tests or achievement and aptitude tests, but most counselors have not received the training to administer personality tests. Academic courses and supervision in psychological testing are usually not a part of a psychiatrist's medical training, so most psychiatrists can ethically administer only some specific clinical tests that are straight-forward check-lists of symptoms.

Of course, ethics is one thing, and the desire to make money is another thing. Therefore you will often find individuals offering to do all kinds of psychological testing—often on the Internet—even when they lack the training to administer and interpret such tests.

Psychological tests fall into several categories:

1. Achievement and aptitude tests are usually seen in educational or employment settings, and they attempt to measure either how much you know about a certain topic (i.e., your achieved knowledge), such as mathematics or spelling, or how much of a capacity you have (i.e., your aptitude) to master material in a particular area, such as mechanical relationships.

Intelligence tests attempt to measure your intelligence, or your basic ability to understand the world around you, assimilate its functioning, and apply this knowledge to enhance the quality of your life. Or, as Alfred Whitehead said about intelligence, “it enables the individual to profit by error without being slaughtered by it.”

Intelligence, therefore, is a measure of a potential, not a measure of what you’ve learned (as in an achievement test), and so it is supposed to be independent of culture. The trick is to design a test that can actually be culture-free; most intelligence tests fail in this area to some extent for one reason or another.

2. Neuropsychological tests attempt to measure deficits in cognitive functioning (i.e., your ability to think, speak, reason, etc.) that may result from some sort of brain damage, such as a stroke or a brain injury.

3. Occupational tests attempt to match your interests with the interests of persons in known careers. The logic here is that if the things that interest you in life match up with, say, the things that interest most school teachers, then you might make a good school teacher yourself.

4. Personality tests attempt to measure your basic personality style and are most used in research or forensic settings to help with clinical diagnoses. Two of the most well-known personality tests are the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), or the revised MMPI-2, composed of several hundred “yes or no” questions, and the Rorschach (the “inkblot test”), composed of several cards of inkblots—you simply give a description of the images and feelings you experience in looking at the blots.

Personality tests are either objective or projective.

Objective Tests
Objective tests present specific questions or statements that are answered by selecting one of a set of alternatives(eg. true or false). Objective tests traditionally use a "paper-and-pencil" format which is simple to score reliably. Although many objective tests ask general questions about preferences and behaviours, situational tests solicit responses to specific scenarios.

The MMPI - The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory is the leading objective pesonality test. Its hundreds of true-false items cover a broad range of behaviours. A major advantage of the MMPI is the incorporation of validity scales designed to detect possible response bias, such as trying to present oneself in a socially desirable way.

Projective Techniques
Projective personality tests use ambiguouis stimuli into which hte test take presumably projects meaning. This indirect type of assessment is believed by many to more effectively identify a person's real or underlying personality.

a. Scoring Projective Techniques
Because the test taker is free to respond in any way, rather than being required to select an answer from a set of alternatives, projective tests can be difficult to score.

To ensure reliability, projective tests must be accompanied by a specific set of scoring criteria. Projective tests are more reliable and valid when scoring focuses on the way the questions are answered (sturcdture of responses) rather than the content of the answers.

Two leading projective tests are the Rorschach and the Thematic Apperception Test(TAT).

b. The Rorschach Test
In the Rorschach, individuals are asked to describe in detail their impressions of a series of inkblots. Scoring involves analysis of both the structure and content of responses.

c. The Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
In the TAT, individuals construct stories to describe a series of pictures. TAT analysis traditionally focuses on the role played by the main character in each story.

5. Specific clinical tests attempt to measure specific clinical matters, such as your current level of anxiety or depression.

Development Of Psychological Testing

Psychological testing and assessment has its origins in an interest in individual differences, which led to the development of specific tests for educational placement and psychological characteristics.

Individual Differences
Sir Francis Galton(1822-1911) maintained a lifelong interest in individual differences in abilities. His convictions about the origins of individual differences were apparently influenced by ideas about physiognomy.

Galton sought to identify key physical differences between "eminent" British citizens and their undistinguished, anonymous countrymen. He believed that the "eminence" of successful statesmen and scholars could be traced to such physical distinctions as head size, distance between the eyes, length of nose and hand-grip strength.

Galton failed to take into account important differences in education and environment(nurture) as well as inherited physical traits(nature), and failed to confirm his hypothesis. Nonetheless his early efforts mark the beginning of psychology's continued interest in assessing individual differences.

Intelligence Testing
In 1905 the French educator Alfred Binet(1857-1911) was asked by the French government to devise a means of classifying students for entry into a new nation-wide public education system. Binet and his colleague Theophile Simon(1837-1961) developed a test of age-graded items -- questions to answer, problems to solve -- for students to respond to, rather than measuring their head size or visual acuity. This was the forerunner of what we now call the intelligence test.

In 1916 Lewis Terman(1877-1956), on the faculty of Stanford University, revised the original Binet-Simon test, dubbing the new version the Stnaford-Binet. The Stanford-Binet test score was expressed as an Intelligence Quotient (I.Q). The I.Q is calculated by dividing the respondent's mental age by his or her chronological age, then multiplying by 100(to get an integer): IQ = MA/CA X 100.

Both the Binet-Simon and the Stanford-Binet tests were designed to be administered to one respondent at a time. After the outbreak of World War I, however, there emerged a need for a system for testing large numbers of military inductees to make appropriate leadership and task assignments. One psychologist, James McKeen Cattell(1860-1944), involved himself in this effort despite his personal opposition to America's entry into the war. Cattell had been Wilhelm Wundt's first laboratory assistant at Leipzig. In his career he pursued psychometric studies(measurement of psychological characteristics) as well as founding and editing several influential journals, including Psychological Review. The standardized tests so familiar to American college students are a modern legacy of the work of Cattell and other early assessment developers.

Personality Assessment
One of the most well-know psychological assessment techniques is the inkblot test. Swiss psychiatrist Hermann Rosrschach(1884-1922) first employed subjects' interpretations of inkblot shapes as keys to dimensions of personality. In 1935 American psychologist Henry A. Murray(1893-1988) and his colleagues developed the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), a technique in which a subject examines and tells stories about each of a series of pictures. Both the Rorschach and the TAT are termed projective techniques because the subject is assumed to project his or her own needs and character onto an ambiguous test stimulus -- one which can be interpreted in different ways -- in developing a story or description.

The best known objective technique for assessing personality is the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), develped by two University of Minnesota faculty members in 1943. The MMPI consists of 550 true-false items, whose response pattern reveals the respondent's scores on various personality traits first dianosed among a large clinical population, a group of patients in a setting like a clinic or psychiatric hospital.

The Sixteen Personality Factor Inventory(16PF), a personality inventory standardized on a normal population, was developed in 1950 by Raymond B. Cattell(1905) and his colleagues, who conducted a sophisticated mathematical analysis of many personality traits into a profile of sixteen basic personality "factors".

Psychological Assessment

Psychological assessment is a process designed to measure characteristics of individuals or groups. Assessment procedures involve gathering samples of resposnes or behaviours for description of present characteristics and/or prediction of future ones. The most common type of assessment is psychological testing; other techniques include observation, interview, and rating.

Psychological tests aren’t magic. They assess and evaluate information that you give to the examiner, which is why the formal name of psychological testing is psychological assessment. You give this information either in the form of answers to interview questions or as answers on paper—or on a computer—to specific questions. Ultimately, a test’s accuracy depends on how carefully and seriously you answer the questions you’re asked.

In its original sense, science (from the Latin scire, to know) simply meant the state or fact of knowing, as compared to intuition or belief. The current technical sense of the word, however, refers to knowledge obtained from systematic observation, study, and experimentation.

Psychological tests aren’t magic; most of them have been developed through sound scientific principles. In fact, anyone who wants to become a psychologist must learn all the scientific principles of test construction; even if a psychologist has no desire to create a new test, he or she must be competent to evaluate the scientific value of any specific test before using it clinically.

Unfortunately, there are many psychological tests in wide use that are accepted as being scientific just because they are called “tests.” For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Enneagram, often used in educational and corporate personnel settings to assess personality “types,” are based in pseudoscience and psychobabble and have about as much worth in clinical settings as astrology. Any competent psychologist can use intuition to get as much information as these “tests” provide.

And then there is the classic Rorschach test that uses inkblots to assess a person’s inner psychological experience. Several methods for administering and scoring the Rorschach have been developed, and although some of them are surrounded with a considerable amount of published research, it would be surprising if any two independent psychologists could administer the Rorschach to the same person and achieve identical findings.

Similarly, tests such as the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), which asks a person to tell stories about various pictures of social interactions, and the Draw-A-Person and House-Tree-Person, which ask a person to draw pictures, are not usually objectively scored and give results of questionable validity.

In the end, then, psychological testing can, in some ways, be both valid and reliable; yet, in other ways, it often does not achieve much more than an impressionistic evaluation of a person. And often the science and the pseudoscience are quietly mixed together in one “scientific” report.

Test scores can be very useful under the proper circumstances—and when the limitations of psychological testing are properly understood and respected.

Note, however, that the score you get on any psychological test is nothing more than “the score you have gotten on that test.” Let’s say you took an IQ test and got a score of 126. Well, your IQ test score may be 126, as measured by that test, at that time, under those circumstances. But what is your real IQ? Well, no one knows. And that’s a fact. So what does an IQ test really measure? Well, again, no one knows. And that’s another fact.

Note also that every well-known and widely used psychological test in the US was developed and standardized in English. This might not seem very important, but just consider what happens when someone needs to be tested who doesn’t speak English fluently. If the test is translated into another language—either in print or through a translator—all kinds of problems can occur. English words with multiple meanings cannot be adequately translated. English idioms cannot be expressed in another language without changing the entire sentence structure along with the underlying logic of the sentence—and when that happens standardization, and the guarantee of fairness it promises, is lost.

So, even though translated versions of tests might be used, and even though you might be given a score that appears to be official and scientific, that score is nothing more than “the score you have gotten on that test.” This might not mean much to you, and it might seem like philosophical quibbling. But what if your life depended on that score?

Lemon Juice Experiment

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The amount of saliva you produce after putting a drop of lemon juice on your tongue might tell you something about your personality.

It's to do with a part of your brain called the Reticular Activating System (RAS) which responds to stimuli like food, or social contact. For example, it controls the amount of saliva you produce in response to food. A good food stimulus is lemon juice. Squeezing lemon juice on to your tongue makes your mouth water, and it does this because your RAS is responding to the lemon juice.

Scientists now think introverts have increased activity in their RAS and therefore increased production of saliva. The theory is that the RAS in introverts has a high level of activity, even when it isn't being stimulated. So it only needs a small stimulus to produce a large response. This means that introverts are likely to produce a large amount of saliva in response to lemon juice. But because the RAS also reacts to social contact, introverts react more strongly to meeting people too.

In extroverts, on the other hand, there is a low level of activity in the RAS when it isn't stimulated, so they require a much larger stimulus to generate a response. So they usually produce less saliva in response to lemon juice than introverts, but are more comfortable with social contact.

Try this simple test with your friends and family and compare your results.

The Test

You will need:

• Lemon juice
• Kitchen scales
• Cotton wool balls

This is what you need to do:

• Put a large drop of lemon juice on your tongue and swill it around your mouth for ten seconds
• Use the cotton wool balls to mop up all the saliva that you produce
• When you've mopped it all up, put the cotton wool balls on your kitchen scales and see how much they weigh
• Compare your results with your friends and family, and see whose weighs the most

We expect that you will find:

• That introverts produce a lot of saliva in response to lemon juice
• That extraverts don't produce much saliva in response to lemon juice

Personality Psychology

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Personality psychology is a branch of psychology which studies personality and individual different processes - that which makes us into a person. One emphasis is on trying to create a coherent picture of a person and all his or her major psychological processes. Another emphasis views it as the study of individual differences. These two views work together in practice. Personality psychologists are interested in a broad view of the individual. This often leads to an interest in the most salient individual differences among people.

In psychology, personality is a collection of emotional, thought and behavioral patterns unique to a person that is consistent over time. The word originates from the Latin persona, which means "mask." Significantly, in the theatre of the ancient Latin-speaking world, the mask was not used as a plot device to disguise the identity of a character, but rather was a convention employed to represent, or typify that character.

There are several theoretical perspectives on personality in psychology, which involve different ideas about the relationship between personality and other psychological constructs, as well as different theories about the way personality develops. Most theories can be grouped into one of the following classes.

Generally the opponents to personality theories claim that personality is "plastic" in time, places, moods and situations. Changing personality may in fact resulting from diet (or lack of), medical effects, historical or subsequent events, or learning. Stage managers (of many types) are especially skilled in changing a person's resulting "personality". Most personality theories will not cover such flexible nor unusual people situations.

Types of personality tests include the Holland Codes, the Rorschach test, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, NEO PI-R, and the Thematic Apperception Test. Critics have pointed to the Forer effect to suggest that some of these appear to be more accurate and discriminating than they really are.

Personality psychology is often closely associated with social psychology.

Around the 1990s, neuroscience entered the domain of personality psychology. Whereas previous efforts for identifying personality differences relied upon simple, direct, human observation, neuroscience introduced powerful brain analysis tools like Electroencephalography(EEG), Positron Emission Tomography(PET), and Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging(fMRI) to this study. One of the founders of this area of brain research is Richard Davidson of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Mr Davidson's research lab has focused on the role of the prefrontal cortec(PFC) and amygdala in manifesting human personality. In particular, this research has looked at hemispheric asymmetry of activity in these regions.

Theories and Personality

A theory is a model of reality that helps us to understand, explain, predict, and control that reality. In the study of personality, these models are usually verbal. Every now and then, someone comes up with a graphic model, with symbolic illustrations, or a mathematical model, or even a computer model. But words are the basic form.

Different approaches focus on different aspects of theory. Humanists and Existentialists tend to focus on the understanding part. They believe that much of what we are is way too complex and embedded in history and culture to "predict and control." Besides, they suggest, predicting and controlling people is, to a considerable extent, unethical. Behaviorists and Freudians, on the other hand, prefer to discuss prediction and control. If an idea is useful, if it works, go with it! Understanding, to them, is secondary.

Another definition says that a theory is a guide to action: We figure that the future will be something like the past. We figure that certain sequences and patterns of events that have occurred frequently before are likely to occur again. So we look to the first events of a sequence, or the most vivid parts of a pattern, to serve as our landmarks and warning signals. A theory is a little like a map: It isn't the same as the countryside it describes; it certainly doesn't give you every detail; it may not even be terribly accurate. But it does provide a guide to action -- and gives us something to correct when it fails.

Personality

Usually when we talk about someone's personality, we are talking about what makes that person different from other people, perhaps even unique. This aspect of personality is called individual differences. For some theories, it is the central issue. These theories often spend considerable attention on things like types and traits and tests with which we can categorize or compare people: Some people are neurotic, others are not; some people are more introverted, others more extroverted; and so on.

However, personality theorists are just as interested in the commonalities among people. What, for example, does the neurotic person and the healthy person have in common? Or what is the common structure in people that expresses itself as introversion in some and extroversion in others?

If you place people on some dimension -- such as healthy-neurotic or introversion-extroversion -- you are saying that the dimension is something everyone can be placed on. Whether they are neurotic or not, all people have a capacity for health and ill-health; and whether introverted or extroverted, all are "verted" one way or the other.

Another way of saying this is that personality theorists are interested in the structure of the individual, the psychological structure in particular. How are people "put together;" how do they "work;" how do they "fall apart."

Some theorists go a step further and say they are looking for the essence of being a person. Or they say they are looking for what it means to be an individual human being. The field of personality psychology stretches from a fairly simple empirical search for differences between people to a rather philosophical search for the meaning of life!

Perhaps it is just pride, but personality psychologists like to think of their field as a sort of umbrella for all the rest of psychology. We are, after all, concerned about genetics and physiology, about learning and development, about social interaction and culture, about pathology and therapy. All these things come together in the individual.

Social Learning Theory

Observational learning or social learning is learning that occurs as a function of observing, retaining and replicating behaviour observed in others. It is most associated with the work of psychologist Albert Bandura, who implemented some of the seminal studies in the area and initiated social learning theory.

Although observational learning can take place at any stage in life, it is thought to be particularly important during childhood, particularly as authority becomes important.

Because of this, social learning theory has influenced debates on the effect of television violence and parental role models. Bandura's Bobo doll experiment is widely cited in psychology as a demonstration of observational learning and demonstrated that children are more likely to engage in violent play with a life size rebounding doll after watching an adult do the same.

Observational learning allows for learning without any change in behaviour and has therefore been used as an argument against strict behaviourism which argued that behaviour change must occur for new behaviours to be acquired.

Social Learning Theory
The social learning theory of Bandura emphasizes the importance of observing and modeling the behaviors, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others.

Bandura (1977) states: "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behavior is learned observationally through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action." (p22).

Social learning theory explains human behavior in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioral, an environmental influences. The component processes underlying observational learning are:
(1) Attention, including modeled events (distinctiveness, affective valence, complexity, prevalence, functional value) and observer characteristics (sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement),
(2) Retention, including symbolic coding, cognitive organization, symbolic rehearsal, motor rehearsal),
(3) Motor Reproduction, including physical capabilities, self-observation of reproduction, accuracy of feedback, and
(4) Motivation, including external, vicarious and self reinforcement.

Social learning theory explains behaviour patterns as having been learned through a process of operant conditioning and observational learning. According to social learning theorists, the reinforcement, punishment, and models are provided by the social environment.



Scope/Application
Social learning theory has been applied extensively to the understanding of aggression (Bandura, 1973) and psychological disorders, particularly in the context of behavior modification (Bandura, 1969). It is also the theoretical foundation for the technique of behavior modeling which is widely used in training programs. In recent years, Bandura has focused his work on the concept of self-efficacy in a variety of contexts (e.g., Bandura, 1997).

The most common (and pervasive) examples of social learning situations are television commercials. Commercials suggest that drinking a certain beverage or using a particular hair shampoo will make us popular and win the admiration of attractive people. Depending upon the component processes involved (such as attention or motivation), we may model the behavior shown in the commercial and buy the product being advertised.

Principles
1. The highest level of observational learning is achieved by first organizing and rehearsing the modeled behavior symbolically and then enacting it overtly. Coding modeled behavior into words, labels or images results in better retention than simply observing.

2. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if it results in outcomes they value.
3. Individuals are more likely to adopt a modeled behavior if the model is similar to the observer and has admired status and the behavior has functional value.

Observational Learning

Observational learning is when one animal can watch the actions of another and learn from those actions. This may be as simple as learning the location of a food source or as complicated as learning a sequence of actions that needs to be taken to earn a reward. Many animals can do this; good experimental evidence is available for the common octopus, Octopus vulgaris, quail, rats, and a variety of primates.

Observational learning occurs when behaviour changes to imitate that of models. Work by Albert Bandura and colleagues has shown the power of both live and media models. Social learning theories have have argued that behaviour patterns in general are learned as a result of social reinforcements, punishments and models.

Required conditions
Bandura called the process of social learning modelling and gave four conditions required for a person to successfully model the behaviour of someone else:
1. Attention to the model
A person must first pay attention to a person engaging in a certain behaviour (the model).
2. Retention of details
Once attending to the observed behaviour, the observer must be able to effectively remember what the model has done.
3. Motor reproduction
The observer must be able to replicate the behaviour being observed. For example, juggling cannot be effectively learned by observing a model juggler if the observer does not already have the ability to perform the component actions (throwing and catching a ball).
4. Motivation and Opportunity
The observer must be motivated to carry out the action they have observed and remembered, and must have the opportunity to do so. For example, a suitably skilled person must want to replicate the behaviour of a model juggler, and needs to have an appropriate number of items to juggle to hand.

Effect on behaviour
Social learning may effect behaviour in the follow ways:
1. Teaches new behaviours
2. Increases or decreases the frequency of which previously learnt behaviours are carried out
3. Can encourage previously forbidden behaviours
4. Can increase or decrease similar behaviours. For example, observing a model excelling in piano playing may encourage an observer to excel in playing the saxophone.

Bandura's Work on Modelling
1. Live Models
Albert Bandura studied learning by observation in nursery-school-aged boys and girls in the 1960s. The subjects were tested individually in the laboratory. While the child was playing alone, an adult entered the room and displayed verbal and physical aggression to a plastic punching -bag clown("Bobo")doll. Later, the child was frustrated by being shown some highly attractive toys but being allowed to play with them only for a few minutes. Then the child was watched through a one-way mirror. Children displayed aggression toward the Bobo doll, in many cases mimicking the behaviour of the adult model of aggression. (Children who were frustrated in the same way, but who had not seen the adult model of aggression did not act so aggressively toward the Bobo doll.)

2. Media Models
In other research, Bandura and colleagues found that children could learn aggression by observing the behaviour on a cartoon. These results have caused some psychologists to caution parents about television and movie violence that children observe.

Principles & Applications Of Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning is also called instrumental conditioning.

The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual's response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a math problem. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning relative to previous forms of behaviorism (e.g., Thorndike, Hull) is that the organism can emit responses instead of only eliciting response due to an external stimulus.

Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner's S-R theory. A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response. It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased accomplishment or satisfaction. The theory also covers negative reinforcers -- any stimulus that results in the increased frequency of a response when it is withdrawn (different from adversive stimuli -- punishment -- which result in reduced responses). A great deal of attention was given to schedules of reinforcement (e.g. interval versus ratio) and their effects on establishing and maintaining behavior.

One of the distinctive aspects of Skinner's theory is that it attempted to provide behavioral explanations for a broad range of cognitive phenomena. For example, Skinner explained drive (motivation) in terms of deprivation and reinforcement schedules. Skinner (1957) tried to account for verbal learning and language within the operant conditioning paradigm, although this effort was strongly rejected by linguists and psycholinguists. Skinner (1971) deals with the issue of free will and social control.

Principles:
1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent reinforcement is particularly effective
2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced
3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli ("stimulus generalization") producing secondary conditioning

Operant conditioning has been widely applied in clinical settings (i.e., behavior modification) as well as teaching (i.e., classroom management) and instructional development (e.g., programmed instruction). Parenthetically, it should be noted that Skinner rejected the idea of theories of learning (see Skinner, 1950).

An everyday illustration of operant conditioning involves training your dog to "shake" on command. Using the operant conditioning technique of shaping, you speak the command to "shake" (the discriminative stimulus) and then wait until your dog moves one of his forepaws a bit (operant response). Following this behavior, you give your dog a tasty treat (positive reinforcer). After demanding ever closer approximations to shaking your hand, your dog finally comes to perform the desired response to the verbal command "shake."

Applications of Operant Conditioning to Education:
Our knowledge about operant conditioning has greatly influenced educational practices. Children at all ages exhibit behavior. Teachers and parents are, by definition, behavior modifiers (if a child is behaviorally the same at the end of the academic year, you will not have done your job as a teacher; children are supposed to learn (i.e., produce relatively permanent change in behavior or behavior potential) as a result of the experiences they have in the school / classroom setting.

Behavioral studies in classroom settings have clearly established ways to organize and arrange the physical classroom to facilitate both academic and social behavior. Instruction itself has also been the focus of numerous studies, and has resulted in a variety of teaching models for educators at all levels. Programmed instruction is only one such model. Programmed instruction requires that learning be done in small steps, with the learner being an active participant (rather than passive), and that immediate corrective feedback is provided at each step.

Operant Conditioning

Operant Conditioning : Learned Helplessness
Operant Conditioning has been applied in a number of ways to human behaviour. One example is work by researcher Martin Seligman that has led to a theory of depression.

Experimental Helplessness
Seligman's work began with dogs in escape and avoidance conditioning procedures. He set up a chamber with a barrier in the center. Every few minutes a light came on for 10 seconds, followed by a painful electric shock. The dog could escape the shock by jumping over the barrier; the dog could avoid the shock altogether by jumping over the barrier during the light presentation.

Dogs learned to escape fairly quickly, and most learned to avoid the shock with extensive practice. However, Seligman was disapointed with the slow avoidance learning. He tried a different procedure with some new dogs. These animals were first restrained in a harness and given several light-shock pairings. Seligman thought that this might teach them the significance of the light as a signal for shock, and that this might encourage fast avoidance learning in the chamber. To the contrary, these dogs performed poorly in the chamber. When the light was presented they acted afraid. Although unrestrained, the animals lay on the floor and whimpered when the shock was presented.

Depression As Learned Helplessness
After thinking about this result, Seligman realized that the training with light and shock in the harness had taught these animals that they could not do anything aobut the delivery of shock. He called this phenomenon learned helplessness. Seligman and colleagues have performed many additional studies, and learned helplessness has been demonstrated in cats, rats and humans.

According to Seligman, the key factor in the development of learned helplessness is the experience of having a lack of control over the environment. Further, he has theorized that several such experiences of lack of control, and the accompanying feeling of helplessness, is the cause of human depression. He has pointed out that losses of a spouse, relative or loved one are cases where one may perceive a lack of control. These situations lead to helpless feelings and depression.

This view of depression has implications for therapy with depressed clients. Seligman has proposed that depressed clients should be encouraged to engage in activities that will lead to success and a perceived sense of control over the environment.

Punishment

In Extinction, a particular behaviour is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing a positive condition or stopping a negative condition. For example, a rat presses the lever in its cage and nothing happens. Neither a positive or a negative condition exists for the rat. The rat presses the lever again and again nothing happens. The rat's behaviour of pressing the lever is weakened by the consequence of not experiencing anything positive or stopping anything negative.

In Punishment, a particular behaviour is weakened by the consequence of experiencing a negative condition. For example, a rat presses the lever in its cage and receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses the lever again and again receives a shock. The rat's behaviour of pressing the lever is weakened by the consequence of receiving a shock.

Positive punishment
Skinner defined punishment as the opposite of reinforcement. Therefore, punishment is any operation that decreases the rate of response. For example, when the rat presses the lever, shock is presented. This leads to a decrease in lever pressing, hence punishment has occurred. When shock or other painful consquences are applied to decrease behaviour, the consequence is referred to as positive punishment. It is called "positive" because the consequence involves presenting or applying a painful or shocking treatment. It is "punishment" because it is followed by a decrease in behaviour.

Negative Punishment
An alternative to positive punishment is negative punishment. An example of negative punishment might be to follow an undesirable behaviour with removal of a privilege. For example, a child who misbehaves has her favourite toy taken away for two days. As a result she does not misbehave as often. This procedure is " negative" because something is removed or taken away (a toy or privilege). It is still a form of punishment because it results in a decrease of the unwanted behaviour.

Issues in the Use of Punishment
In child-rearing, punishment contingencies are often used. Parents identify a behaviour they wish to decrease. The contingency might be: if the child engages in the behaviour, the child will receive a spanking. Or, if the child engages in the behaviour, the child must go to bed early.

Skinner was a strong advocate for the use of reinforcement rather than punishment. He thought that reinforcement led to stronger control of behaviour than did punishment. Another reason was concern that, although punishment does eliminate unwanted behaviour, it cannot in itself teach or encourage alternative behaviours. Finally, repeated use of punishment has been found to make subjects behave in hostile or helpless ways.

Types Of Reinforcement

Operant Conditioning is the term used by B.F. Skinner to describe the effects of the consequences of a particular behavior on the future occurrence of that behavior. There are four types of Operant Conditioning: Positive Reinforcement, Negative Reinforcement, Punishment, and Extinction. Both Positive and Negative Reinforcement strengthen behavior while both Punishment and Extinction weaken behavior.

Positive Reinforcement
In Positive Reinforcement a particular behaviour is strengthened by the consequence of experiencing a positive condition. For example, a hungry rat presses the lever in its cage and receives food. The food is a positive condition for the hungry rat. The rat presses the bar again and receives food. The rat's behaviour of pressing the lever is strengthened by the consequence of receiving food.

Skinner defined reinforcement as any operant that increases the rate of a response. An operant conditioning contingency that leads to reinforcement is : if the rat responds (presses the lever), then food is presented. The rate of response increases. This procedure is called positive reinforcement. The word "positive" is used because the consequence is the presentation of food. The word "reinforcement" is used since the effect of the contingency is to increase the rate of response. In most examples "positive reinforcement" is recognizable as a form of reward.

Negative Reinforcement
In Negative Reinforcement a particular behaviour is strengthed by the consequence of stopping or avoiding a negative condition. For example, a rat is placed in a cage and immediately receives a mild electrical shock on its feet. The shock is a negative condition for the rat. The rat presses a lever and the shock stops. The rat receives another shock, presses the lever again, and again the shock stops. The rat's behaviour of pressing the lever is strengthened by the consequence of stopping the shock.

The word "negative" is used because the consequence is the removal of shock. The word "reinforcement" is used since the effect of the contingency is to increase the rate of response.

This kind of negative reinforcement is also called escape. A similar procedure called avoidance occurs when the lever pressing allows the animal to totally avoid shock.

Shaping
One can train an animal by positive reinforcement by waiting for the desired response and immediately rewarding the animal. Shaping is a process that speeds up the training process. To shape the animal's behaviour, the experimenter reinforces the animal for more and more specific steps in the desired behaviour. For example, a dog can be trained to roll over first by learning to lie down, then to lie down and roll onto one side, and ultimately to lie down, roll onto one side, and then over onto the other. Because of the step-by-step procedure, shaping is called the method of successive approximations.

Schedules of Reinforcements
The examples provided so far have all been cases of continuous reinforcement, because every response was reinforced. Alternatively, there are many ways to provide partial reinforcement, which involves less attention and expense because not every response is reinforced.

Reinforcement schedules may be timed according to either the ration or the interval of the responses. Ratio schedules involvce reinforcing every fixed number of response. Interval schedules involve reinforcing every specific time period, no matter how many responses have occurred.

In addition, both ratio and interval schedules can be either fixed or variable. A fixed schedule reinforces for the same ratio or interval everytime in the learning process. A variable schedule involves changing the ratio or interval between reinforcements from trial to trial.

According to research on schedules of partial reinforcement, the rates at which organisms learn and lose what they have learned depend both on the specific behaviour involved and the nature of the reinforcement schedule adhered to.

Extinction: Continuous Versus Partial Reinforcement
Extinction refers to the loss of an acquired response, or the failure to make a learned response. Extinction is brought about when, following a period of reinforcement for responding, reinforcement is no longer provided.

After continuous reinforcement, extinction is very fast. On the other hand, following partial reinforcement, extinction is typically very slow. This is called the partial-reinforcement extinction effect.

In human behaviour, there are similar effects. Parents who reinforce a child's crying on a partial schedule have a very difficult time extinguishing the crying behaviour.

What Is Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning (also called instrumental conditioning) is based on a contingency (casual connection) between a response and the consequence that follows the response. Contingencies can be expressed as if-then statements. In operant conditioning there is a contingency of this nature: If the response occurs, then this consequence follows.

Overview
The theory of B.F. Skinner is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt behavior. Changes in behavior are the result of an individual's response to events (stimuli) that occur in the environment. A response produces a consequence such as defining a word, hitting a ball, or solving a math problem. When a particular Stimulus-Response (S-R) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is conditioned to respond. The distinctive characteristic of operant conditioning relative to previous forms of behaviorism (e.g.,Thorndike, Hull) is that the organism can emit responses instead of only eliciting response due to an external stimulus.

Reinforcement is the key element in Skinner's S-R theory. A reinforcer is anything that strengthens the desired response. It could be verbal praise, a good grade or a feeling of increased accomplishment or satisfaction. The theory also covers negative reinforcers -- any stimulus that results in the increased frequency of a response when it is withdrawn (different from adversive stimuli -- punishment -- which result in reduced responses). A great deal of attention was given to schedules of reinforcement (e.g. interval versus ratio) and their effects on establishing and maintaining behavior.

One of the distinctive aspects of Skinner's theory is that it attempted to provide behavioral explanations for a broad range of cognitive phenomena. For example, Skinner explained drive (motivation) in terms of deprivation and reinforcement schedules. Skinner (1957) tried to account for verbal learning and language within the operant conditioning paradigm, although this effort was strongly rejected by linguists and psycholinguists. Skinner (1971) deals with the issue of free will and social control.

Scope/Application
Operant conditioning has been widely applied in clinical settings (i.e., behavior modification) as well as teaching (i.e., classroom management) and instructional development (e.g., programmed instruction). Parenthetically, it should be noted that Skinner rejected the idea of theories of learning.

Example
By way of example, consider the implications of reinforcement theory as applied to the development of programmed instruction (Markle, 1969; Skinner, 1968)

1. Practice should take the form of question (stimulus) - answer (response) frames which expose the student to the subject in gradual steps

2. Require that the learner make a response for every frame and receive immediate feedback

3. Try to arrange the difficulty of the questions so the response is always correct and hence a positive reinforcement

4. Ensure that good performance in the lesson is paired with secondary reinforcers such as verbal praise, prizes and good grades.

Principles:

1. Behavior that is positively reinforced will reoccur; intermittent reinforcement is particularly effective.

2. Information should be presented in small amounts so that responses can be reinforced ("shaping").

3. Reinforcements will generalize across similar stimuli ("stimulus generalization") producing secondary conditioning.

B.F. Skinner

B. F. Skinner
(1904 - 1990)
Psychologist

Burrhus Frederic Skinner was born March 20, 1904, in the small Pennsylvania town of Susquehanna. His father was a lawyer, and his mother a strong and intelligent housewife. His upbringing was old-fashioned and hard-working.

Burrhus was an active, out-going boy who loved the outdoors and building things, and actually enjoyed school. His life was not without its tragedies, however. In particular, his brother died at the age of 16 of a cerebral aneurysm.

Burrhus received his BA in English from Hamilton College in upstate New York. He didn’t fit in very well, not enjoying the fraternity parties or the football games. He wrote for school paper, including articles critical of the school, the faculty, and even Phi Beta Kappa! To top it off, he was an atheist -- in a school that required daily chapel attendance.

He wanted to be a writer and did try, sending off poetry and short stories. When he graduated, he built a study in his parents’ attic to concentrate, but it just wasn’t working for him.

Ultimately, he resigned himself to writing newspaper articles on labor problems, and lived for a while in Greenwich Village in New York City as a “bohemian.” After some traveling, he decided to go back to school, this time at Harvard. He got his masters in psychology in 1930 and his doctorate in 1931, and stayed there to do research until 1936.

Also in that year, he moved to Minneapolis to teach at the University of Minnesota. There he met and soon married Yvonne Blue. They had two daughters, the second of which became famous as the first infant to be raised in one of Skinner’s inventions, the air crib. Although it was nothing more than a combination crib and playpen with glass sides and air conditioning, it looked too much like keeping a baby in an aquarium to catch on.

In 1945, he became the chairman of the psychology department at Indiana University. In 1948, he was invited to come to Harvard, where he remained for the rest of his life. He was a very active man, doing research and guiding hundreds of doctoral candidates as well as writing many books. While not successful as a writer of fiction and poetry, he became one of our best psychology writers, including the book Walden II, which is a fictional account of a community run by his behaviorist principles.

Skinner expressed no interest in understanding the human psyche. He was as strict a behaviorist as John Watson, and he sought only to determine how behavior is caused by external forces. He believed everything we do are shaped by our experience of punishment and reward. He believed that the "mind" (as opposed to the brain) and other such subjective phenomena were simply matters of language; they didn't really exist. Skinner was known for making audacious statements on this matter (and others), following in Watson's tradition of being provocative, controversial, and an excellent publicist of his ideas.

August 18, 1990, B. F. Skinner died of leukemia after becoming perhaps the most celebrated psychologist since Sigmund Freud.

Theory
B. F. Skinner’s entire system is based on operant conditioning. The organism is in the process of “operating” on the environment, which in ordinary terms means it is bouncing around its world, doing what it does. During this “operating,” the organism encounters a special kind of stimulus, called a reinforcing stimulus, or simply a reinforcer. This special stimulus has the effect of increasing the operant.

The Work of B.F Skinner
Before his death, B.F. Skinner was considered the most influential living psychologist. In the second half of the twentieth century he was the leading advocate for behaviourism.

Rats In Skinner Boxes
Skinner developed an experimental chamber to study learning in laboratory rats. He always called this an operant conditioning chamber, but others refer to it as a Skinner box. (An operant is a voluntary behaviour which a person or animal emits in response to its environment). The chamber included a lever, a metal bar attached to the front wall. Pressing the lever was the response studied in this chamber. Small pieces or pellets of food were presented in a food cup. The floor of the chamber consisted of metal rods through which electric shock could be applied to the feet of the animal.
Skinner performed many experiments with the operant conditioning chamber. He developed operational definitions of reinforcement, punishment, shaping and schedules of reinforcement.

Edward L. Thorndike

Edward L. Thorndike

(1874-1949)
Psychologist

Education

• Wesleyan University (BS, 1895)
• Harvard University (MA, 1897) - Worked with William James
• Columbia University (Ph.D., 1898) - Under James M. Cattell

Career

• Assistant Professor of Pedagogy at Case Western Reserve University (1898)
• Faculty at Teachers College, Columbia University (1899-1940)
• President of American Psychological Association (1912)
• 2nd President of Psychometric Society
• President of American Association for the Advancement of Science (1934)
• William James Lecturer, Harvard University (1942-1943)

Major Contributions

• During his 55-year career, he published about 500 books and articles on diverse as learning in fish, methods of statistical analysis and the elements of aesthetic quality in urban life.
• Studied animal intelligence (known for his 'cats in a puzzle box' experiments on Trial and Error)
• Applied animal to human educational experience; he was once the leader in this field.
• Constructed a scale to measure children's handwriting (1910) and a table of word-frequency in English (1944).

Ideas and Interests
Thorndike's early studies with animal behavior led him to declare his Law of Effect.

The Law of Effect states that a) Responses to a situation that are followed by satisfaction are strengthened; and b) Responses that are followed by discomfort are weakened. Thorndike's Law of Exercise continued this line of thought; a) Stimulus-response connections that are repeated are strengthened, and b) Stimulus -response connections that are not used are weakened. Thorndike later conducted research that provided evidence that the Law of Exercise lacked validity. Thorndike characterized the two most basic intelligences as Trial-and-Error and Stimulus-Response Association.

Thorndike and his students used objective measurements of intelligence on human subjects as early as 1903. By the time the United States entered WWI, Thorndike had developed methods for measuring a wide variety of abilities and achievements. During the 1920's he developed a test of intelligence that consisted of completion, arithmetic, vocabulary, and directions test, known as the CAVD. This instrument was intended to measure intellectual level on an absolute scale. The logic underlying the test predicted elements of test design that eventually became the foundation of modern intelligence tests.

Thorndike drew an important distinction among three broad classes of intellectual functioning. Standard intelligence tests measured only "abstract intelligence". Also important were "mechanical intelligence - the ability to visualize relationships among objects and understand how the physical world worked", and social intelligence - the ability to function successfully in interpersonal situations". Thorndike called for instruments to develop measures for these other types of intellect.

Thorndike developed psychological connectionism. He believed that through experience neural bonds or connections were formed between perceived stimuli and emitted responses; therefore, intellect facilitated the formation of the neural bonds. People of higher intellect could form more bonds and form them more easily than people of lower ability. The ability to form bonds was rooted in genetic potential through the genes' influence on the structure of the brain, but the content of intellect was a function of experience. Thorndike rejected the idea that a measure of intelligence independent of cultural background was possible.

Thorndike proposed that there were four general dimensions of abstract intelligence:

• Altitude: the complexity or difficulty of tasks one can perform (most important)
• Width: the variety of tasks of a give difficulty
• Area: a function of width and altitude
• Speed: the number of tasks one can complete in a given time .

His intellectual development of this multi-factored approach to intelligence contributed to a great debate with with Charles Spearman (Spearman proposed a single, general intelligence factor 'g') that encompassed twenty five years.

The Work Of Edward L. Thorndike
Cats In Puzzle Boxes
Edward L. Thorndike (1874-1949) being an early pioneer in conditioning research, studied the behaviour of cats in a chamber called the puzzle box. The cat was confined inside the chamber. A number of devices inside the chamber included rings, loops of wire, and panels. The cat's task was to learn to escape from the box. However, only by pulling a particular device could the cat escape. Since there were several devices, the task was difficult. The cat ususally escaped after a number of minutes.

As trials proceeded, the escape response occurred more quickly. The learning was gradual and orderly. Thorndike concluded that the cats did not use reasoning to solve this problem but rather slow trial-and-error learning. He stated this formally as the law of effect: responses followed by a satisfying state of affairs were gradually stamped in (developed) as habits; responses followed by an annoying state of affairs were gradually stamped out as habits(eliminated from the animal's behavioural repertoire).

Application Of Classical Conditioning

An Application of Classical Conditioning: Systematic Desensitization
Systematic desensitization was developed by the therapist Joseph Wolpe as a treatment for phobia(irrational fear) in humans. Wolpe believed that such fears were learned through classical conditioning. Therefore, they could be treated with a classical conditioning method.

The treatment of phobia with classical conditioning has three phases:
1. construction of the fear hierarchy
2. relaxation training;
3. pairing of fearful thoughts with relaxation.

In step one, the client and the therapist develop a list of the client's fears. The list orders items from strongest fear to weakest fear. For example, a client with a fear of heights might create a list of 15 fearful situations, ranging from " strongest fear : falling down a mountain", to "weakest fear: walking down a slight incline".

In step two, the therapist instructs the client in techniques of deep relaxation. These techniques include muscle tension and relaxation, breathing exercises, and peaceful imagery.

Step three is the actual classical conditioning treatment. The client first uses the various techniques to become totally relaxed. Then the therapist asks the client, while relaxed, to imagine being in the situation at the bottom of the fear hierarchy. The idea is to pair the thought of the fear situation with relaxation. Since the item at the bottom of the fear hierarchy is used first, it is likely that the relaxation will overwhelm the fear. Once that item is conquered, the therapist and client proceed up the fear hierarchy, one item at a time. Research has demonstrated that systematic desensitization is an effective treatment for phobia.