Story

Terms

• 3 laws of association
• act
• all or none
• Aristotle
• backward chain
• basal ganglia
• bonds
• breaking habits
• chain
• chain of associations
• contiguity
• control your environment
• counter-conditioning
• cue
• dress rehearsals
• fatigue
• fatigue method
• games & exhibitions
• goals
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Guthrie, Edwin Ray
• habit
• habit components
• habit loop
• habit replacement
• habit strength
• HAM
• incompatible response
• initial pairing
• irrelevant bonds
• Lally et al (2010): 66 days (18-254)
• law of effect
• learning by doing
• mindfulness
• motivation
• movement produced stimuli (MPS)
• movements
• one-shot learning
• opposites
• plan to fail
• pre-cognitive theory
• proprioceptive stimuli
• punishment
• puzzle box results
• reinforcement
• repetition
• response
• reward
• sidetracking
• similarity
• Skinner
• S-R associations
• steady
• stereotyping
• stimulus combinations
• superstitious behaviors
• systematic desensitization
• Thorndike
• threshold
• threshold method
• tracking
• transitions
• triggering event
• triggers
• William James: 21 days, varies
• willpower

Quiz

1. Guthrie observed that people tend to:

• a. do the same thing in similar situations
• b. change because of reinforcement
• c. change because of punishment
• d. learn by trail and error

 

2. For Guthrie, which proves a chain of movement was learned and not simply a single response:

• a. stereotyping
• b. mindfulness
• c. schema
• d. loops

3. For Guthrie, learning occurs in:

• a. incremental reinforcements
• b. drive reductions
• c. cluster patterns
• d. one shot

4. Which is a collection of movements:

• a. clusters
• b. actions
• c. goals
• d. acts

5. Which is determined by the number of stimuli connected to a response:

• a. generalization
• b. habit strength
• c. overlearning
• d. stereotyping

 

1. Guthrie observed that people tend to:

• a. do the same thing in similar situations
• b. change because of reinforcement
• c. change because of punishment
• d. learn by trail and error

2. For Guthrie, which proves a chain of movement was learned and not simply a single response:

• a. stereotyping
• b. mindfulness
• c. schema
• d. loops

3. For Guthrie, learning occurs in:

• a. incremental reinforcements
• b. drive reductions
• c. cluster patterns
• d. one shot

4. Which is a collection of movements:

• a. clusters
• b. actions
• c. goals
• d. acts

5. Which is determined by the number of stimuli connected to a response:

• a. generalization
• b. habit strength
• c. overlearning
• d. stereotyping

 

 

Habits seem to indicate consistency and reliability. They are the things you do all the time, at least every day. You start with your first cup of coffee, shop to the same store, buy the same items, buy your morning paper, take your afternoon nap, sit in the same spot at the table, watch the same TV shows and go to bed at the same time.

Habits give us comfort and reduce our cognitive load. You know how you’ll celebrate the coming of fall, the new year, the spring ritual and the summer vacation. You don’t have to give much thought to it. Habits make life easy. Unless you try to change them.

Here are 5 things we’ll discuss:

• Habits
• Aristotle
• Guthrie
• Making habits
• Breaking habits

 

There are five things we are going to look at:

• Personality vs. Habits
• Guthrie
• Habit Loop
• Making Habits
• Breaking Habits

 

1. Habits

• You will hear that habits are loops.
  • Loop
    • Cue triggers response
    • Results in reward
    • Reward links back to cue
      • by some undisclosed process
      • sometimes called reinforcement
  • Popular
    • We jump to Skinner’s reinforcement theory
    • Reinforcement impacts response
    • Not impact cues
  • No evidence loop theory is true
  • Or, at least, not whole story
• May be another explanation

2. Aristotle (384-323 BC)

• 3 laws of association
  • Similar things
  • Contrasts
    • Sesame Street’s
    • “One of these things is not like the others”?
  • Contiguity
    • Physically connected
      • pies on window ledge
      • solar system
      • country borders
    • Time
      • Find money & meet an old friend
      • Say “now” and traffic light changes
      • Can opener & cat appears

3. Guthrie (1886-1959)

• Life
  • Edwin Ray Guthrie
  • Born in Lincoln, Nebraska
  • BA, U of Nebraska, mathematics
  • MA, U of Nebraska, philosophy
  • PhD, U of Pennsylvania, philosophy
  • 1912-1956, professor at U of Washington
  • Philosopher until in his 30’s
• Theory
  • When $ & R occur close together in time or space, bonds are formed
  • Bonds (associations)
  • All that is needed to explain learning
  • No other conditions are required
  • Once bonded, same sequence of movements is repeated
• Puzzle Box
  • Thorndike’s work with cats
  • Guthrie used film camera
    • photographed exact movements of cats
    • glass paneled box.
  • Puzzle box results
    • Cats release themselves faster
    • Repeated same sequence of movements
    • including unsuccessful attempts
    •  Calls this stereotyping
• Stereotyping
  • Repeating all behaviors
  • Proves a chain of movement was learned and not simply a single response
  • Skinner called them superstitious behaviors
  • Skinner would say these extraneous behaviors were caused by reinforcement
• Guthrie
  • Not reinforcement
  • Association alone
  • All or none
  • One-shot learning
  • Full strength
  • Yet improve
• Size of bonds
  • We think of bonds as large
  • Guthrie thinks they are extremely small
  • Remember Gulliver’s Travels
• Millions of bonds
  • Repeatedly break some, make others
  • Improvements come from
    • breaking irrelevant bonds
    • strengthening relevant bonds
  • Tiny bonds stay in place until replaced
• 3 Components
• HAM
  • habits
  • acts
  • movements
• Movements
  • Smallest units
  • Where bonds are made
  • Each muscle & tendon movement produces proprioceptive stimuli
    • help produce next movement
  • Small S-R combinations
    • form chain of associations
  • Learning occurs in movements
• Acts
  • Collections of movements
  • Observable behavior
  • What we see
  • Can be composed of thousands or millions of movements
• Habit
  • A well-established act
  • Habit strength
  • determined by # of $ connected to R
  • more stimuli involved, stronger the habit
• Change habits by changing $
  • Change movements
  • Change movements by changing response to $
    • movement produced stimuli (MPS)
  • Replace old behaviors with new behaviors
    • by doing them
  • Respond differently to same stimuli
  • Form new associations in the chain
• Learning by doing
  • Pre-cognitive theory
  • don’t need to change your thinking
  • change your behavior
  • Practice where triggering stimuli are present
• Applications
  • More dress rehearsals
  • More games & exhibitions
  • Hang up coat
    • Go back outside
    • come in again
    • hang up your things
    • Not punishment
      • though it might feel like it.
      •  It is practice
      • Form tiny bonds between muscle movements
• Unlearn bad habits
  • Learn to do something else in the same situation
  • Practice new behavior when old cues present
• Summary
  • People tend to do what they did in a similar situation in the past
  • Situation provides cues about how to behave
  • Learning is one-shot process of association
  • Full strength on initial pairing
  • His model was deterministic but learner centered
  • Guthrie wasn’t concerned with what happened after a behavior
  • No law of effect (Thorndike)
  • Contiguity
  • Practice doesn’t improve performance because of repetition
    • because new S-R associations are being made
  • Single movement is learned in one trial
    • infinite number of stimulus combinations
  • Movement produces proprioceptive stimuli
    • more stimuli connected, stronger the habit
  • We learn what we do

4.  Making Habits

• Unhelpful Advice
  • Have a goal
    • goals = outcome-oriented motivation
  • Get motivated
  • Get more willpower
  • Reduce stress
  • Resolve underlying issue
    • nervousness
    • procrastination
    • fidgeting
    • nail-biting
  • Habits caused by stress & boredom
    • Stop them!
    • Stress
    • smoking
    • drugs
• Habits are automatic
  • Mindfulness is nice but not easily achieved
  • Low-level brain work
  • Basal ganglia remembers context so if trigger reappears, ready to respond
• Longer have had the habit, harder to change
  • more synaptic connections (alternative paths)
• Habits are not high level cognitive structures
  • unaware have a habit; automatic, unintentional
  • formed by repetition

Actually do

• Dozen suggestions
• What actually do?
• 1. Select one small behavior
• 2. Replace a habit
• 3. Track progress
• 4. Pick a triggering event
  • The best triggering event is another behavior
• 5. Add to a chain (context)
  • backward chain
  • in-between links
• 6. Make natural transitions
• 7. Plan what to do when you fail
  • Best thing is to track, ignore and continue
• 8. Repetition
• 9. Steady
  • Control your environment
  • Help from others
  • People around you can be triggers
• 10. Vary the situations
  • Follow same pattern on holidays, travel, etc.
  • More stimulus situations; generalization
• 11. Continue for 3 months
  • William James            21 days, varies
  • Lally et al (2010) 66 days (18-254)
• 12. Reward?

5. Breaking Habits

• 1. Fatigue method
  • Present a stimulus so often that response is impossible
  • Ride a horse until can’t buck
  • Smoke until sick of it
  • Ice cream store
    • Employees eat all they want
• 2. Incompatible response
  • Connects new response to old stimulus
  • Can’t chew gum and smoke at the same time
  • Can’t blow your nose and cry at the same time
• 3. Threshold method
  • Presents the stimulus in increasing increments
  • Get use to the water gradually
  • Systematic desensitization
  • Counter-conditioning
  • Combines techniques
    • relaxation: incompatible response
    • hierarch: threshold
• 4. Sidetracking
  • Avoiding habits is easier than breaking them
  • Give up smoking while on vacation
  • Child & a vase
• Punishment
  • Punishment works because it distracts person from habit situation (provides new stimuli)
  • All other techniques “sidetrack” person from giving an old response
• Guthrie FITS
  • Fatigue
  • Incompatible Response
  • Threshold
  • Sidetracking

 

 

 

 

Get Prepared

To do well in this class it is important that you come to class prepared. Class is to help clarify the material. It is not the primary delivery system.

Before coming to class, here is what you need to do. Read the assigned posts, articles and book chapters. Watch the videos. And get an overview of the material with a mind map. It will help you understand how the components relate to each other.

Take notes on all of this material. Come up with three questions you want to ask. Submit your two questions on Canvas and get two points. Ask one in class, if I don’t cover it.

Mind Map

A mind is a diagram of information. It helps you see hierarchies, paths and interrelationships. Mind maps have a circle in the middle and spokes  that radiate out. All of the arms relate back to the central point but can intersect with each other. They can be simple or quite complex.

Here is the TOPIC mind map.

Videos

Some things are better presented in video. Films can cover the same material as a book but produce vastly different experiences. I’m disable with poor vision, so TV, films and videos work much better for me. My doctoral program would have been much easier if journal articles had been made into movies.

Here are the LINK TO videos.

Readings

Some things are better presented in words. I’m sorry I don’t have audio recordings of all the material you need to cover. But I’ve had pretty good luck getting my computer to read to me.

If you happened to be one of those sighted folk, you’ll find these sources even easier to access.

In general, read these quickly, like a novel. I’ll tell you what you need to know. These readings are to give you another voice, the same material but presented in different way.

Here they are the assigned readings in order of importance:

• A
• B
• 3
• And

Class

Go to class.

 

 

 

 

Five Things To Know

Here are 5 things you need remember from this class session. Each class covers a lot of material but I want you to focus on only a few items. Everything is valuable but some things are more important

Read all of the supplemental material you want. Explore everything that catches your fancy but here are five things you need to know:

• Personality vs. Habits
• Guthrie
• Habit Loop
• Making Habits
• Breaking Habits

Notes

Here are the class notes for TOPIC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Key Terms

Here are the terms you need to know about TOPIC.

 

 

 

 

Quiz

It is important to check your progress. Here’s a short quiz for you: TOPIC Quiz

Discussion

Check on Canvas to see if there is a discussion due.

 

 

 

 

Progress Check

Check on Canvas to see if there is a progress check due this week.

 

 

 

Links to Explore

If you want more information on this topic, here are some links to sites you that might interest you.

These are starting places for you, not destinations. Read the posts, look at the resources listed in them and then read those articles. Enjoy!

• Wikipedia:
• And

Summary

Infographic goes here

 

 

 

Edwin Guthrie (1886-1959)

---

Born and raised in Lincoln, Nebraska, Guthrie received his BA in mathematics and a masters in philosophy from the University of Nebraska. In 1912, he earned a doctorate in philosophy and logic from the University of Pennsylvania. In 1914, Guthrie moved to the University of Washington where he stayed until his retirement 42 years later.

Guthrie rejected both Watson’s classical conditioning and Skinner’s operant conditioning. Watson held that conditioning gradually builds strength; the more the unconditioned and the conditioned stimulus are associated with each other, the stronger the conditioning. Guthrie maintained that learning was a one-shot process; it occurred at full strength on the initial pairing. Although new S-R associations are made at full strength, there are many stimuli in a situation and each must be connected with the response. Improvement has the illusion of building strength but is the process of relating a large number of stimuli with a specific response. Although any single movement is learned in one trial, there is an infinite number of stimulus combinations possible. Throwing a ball through a basketball hoop, for example, is composed of a number of movements. Each minute “movement” is learned one at a time but there are so many combinations to learn that one gets better at basketball. Guthrie’s one shot learning did not preclude improvement but insisted that practice doesn’t improve performance because of repetition but because new S-R associations are being made.

In contrast Skinner, Guthrie wasn’t concerned with what happened after a behavior. He believed that behavior is the result of stimuli; the stimulus causes the response. Starting with the observation that people tend to do the same thing in similar situations, Guthrie concluded that it is the circumstances (all of the situational cues) that elicit behavior. Anything that changes the situation, any shifts of stimuli, impact behavior. His model was deterministic but learner centered. For Guthrie, the more stimuli which can be associated with a response the stronger the habit becomes. Consequently, he was an advocate of learn by doing. Ideally behavior should be practiced under the same conditions where performance is required. A theater director should not add more rehearsals to improve performance but more dress rehearsals. A coach would schedule more games and exhibition matches.

For Guthrie, an act (a learned behavior) is a collection of movements (small S-R combinations) and these movements form a chain of association. Life is a reiterative process, and any response produces stimuli that in turn produce more movements. Movement produces proprioceptive stimuli in the muscles and tendons which help produce the next movement. Well-established movements and acts are called habits.

According to Guthrie, each S-R connection is created at full strength and remains in full force until it is replaced by new learning. Habit strength is determined by the number of stimuli which can produce a response. For example, to increase the strength of a habit (hanging up a coat), the proper cues must be associated with that response. According to Guthrie’s theory, the best way to teach children to hang up their coats when coming in from play is not to make them do it after they forget. Instead, they should practice the whole sequence by going back outside, coming in, and hanging up their coats.

Guthrie described four ways to break connections: sidetracking, fatigue, threshold, and incompatible response. In sidetracking, he assumes that avoiding habits is easier than breaking them. Instead of allowing the child to play with a breakable vase, it is easier to sidetrack her away from vase-playing and into rolling a ball. In sidetracking the person avoids the cues which produce the unwanted response (give up smoking while on vacation). The fatigue method presents a stimulus so often that response is impossible (ride a horse until it can’t buck, smoke until sick of it). The threshold method presents the stimulus in increasing increments (don’t throw into the pool; get use to the water gradually). In the third method, an incompatible response is substituted (can’t chew gum and smoke at the same time).

Like Aristotle, Guthrie’s associationism was based on contiguity; two things that occur about the same time are associated together. No other conditions are required. Once the association of a stimulus and a response has been established, the same sequence of movements is repeated. Working with cats in puzzle boxes, Guthrie found that the entire chain of responses (including the unsuccessful components) tried prior to a successful solution was repeated. What Skinner would have called superstitious behavior, Guthrie called stereotyping. Skinner would have said that the extraneous behaviors were the result of reinforcement; Guthrie held stereotyping to be proof that the chain of movements was learned and not simply a single response.

 

Gloss

Guthrie, Edwin (1886-1969).

For almost 45 years, Edwin R. Guthrie was a major force in learning theory. Like Watson, Guthrie focused on observable behavior. Unlike Watson, Guthrie held that learning was a one-shot process of association.

In contrast to classical conditioning , Guthrie’s associationism followed Aristotle’s concept of contiguity. Basically, Guthrie held that people tend to do what they did in a similar situation in the past. That is, the situation provides cues about how to behave. Unlike Thorndike, Guthrie did not hypothesize a law of effect. It was simply a matter of contiguity. When a stimulus situation reoccurs, it tends to be followed by the same movement which followed it before.

Guthrie’s one-shot learning did not preclude improvement. He maintained that practice doesn’t improve performance because of repetition but because new S-R associations are being made. Although any single movement is learned in one trial, there is an infinite number of stimulus combinations possible. Each minute “movement” is learned one at a time but there are so many combinations to learn that one gets better at basketball.

A movement is a collection or pattern of motor responses. Movement produces stimuli (proprioceptive stimuli) in the muscles and tendons which help produce the next movement. An “act” is a collection of movements. Well-established movements and acts are called habits.

For Guthrie, each S-R connection is created at full strength and remains in full force until it is replaced by new learning. Habit strength is determined by the number of stimuli which can produce a response.

To increase the strength of a habit (hanging up a coat), the proper cues must be associated with that response. According to Guthrie’s theory, the best way to teach children to hang up their coats when coming in from play is not to make them do it after they forget. Instead, they should practice the whole sequence by going back outside, coming in, and hanging up their coats. For Guthrie, the more stimuli which can be associated with a response the stronger the habit becomes. A director should not add more rehearsals to improve performance but more dress rehearsals.

There are four ways to break connections: sidetracking, fatigue, threshold, and incompatible response. In sidetracking, the person avoids the cues which produce the unwanted response (give up smoking while on vacation). The fatigue method presents a stimulus so often that response is impossible (ride a horse until it can’t buck). The threshold method presents the stimulus in increasing increments (don’t throw into the pool; get use to the water gradually). In the third method, an incompatible response is substituted (can’t chew gum and smoke at the same time).

 

Edwin R. Guthrie (1886-1959)

Life

Edwin Ray Guthrie

Born in Lincoln, Nebraska

BA, U of Nebraska, mathematics

MA, U of Nebraska, philosophy

PhD, U of Pennsylvania, philosophy

1912-1956, professor at U of Washington

Guthrie’s Contiguity Theory

Like Aristotle, Guthrie’s associationism was based on contiguity

Two things that occur about the same time are associated together

When a stimulus and response occur close together in time or space, bonds are formed

No other conditions are required

Once the association of a stimulus and a response has been established, the same sequence of movements is repeated

Cats in a puzzle box

photographed the exact movements of the cats

used a glass paneled box

Puzzle-box Results

Cats learned to repeat the same sequence of movements

Repeated the entire chain of responses tried prior to a successful solution

(including the unsuccessful components)

Guthrie called this “stereotyping”

Stereotyping

Repeating all behaviors

Proves a chain of movement was learned and not simply a single response

Skinner called them superstitious behaviors

Skinner would say these extraneous behaviors were caused by reinforcement

Learning

Occurs without reinforcement

Occurs all or none; full strength

Improvement in speed of solution comes because irrelevant movements are unlearned or not included in successive associations

Forgetting is

Due to interference, not passage of time

S-R bond stays until replaced

3 Components of Learning

1. Movement

Small S-R combinations that form a chain of association

Movements produces proprioceptive stimuli in the muscles and tendons which help produce the next movement

2. Act

A learned behavior

A collection of movements

3. Habit

A well-established movement or act

Habit strength

Determined by the number of stimuli which can produce a response

Change behavior by changing the stimuli

The more stimuli which can be associated with a response the stronger the habit becomes

Advocate of learn by doing

Practiced under the same conditions where performance is required

A theater director should add more dress rehearsals

A coach should add more games and exhibitions

Teach children to hang up their coats when coming in from play is to practice the whole sequence by going back outside, coming in, and hanging up their coats

4 ways to break connections

1. Sidetracking

Avoiding habits is easier than breaking them

Give up smoking while on vacation

Child & a vase

2. Fatigue method

Present a stimulus so often that response is impossible

Ride a horse until it can’t buck

Smoke until sick of it

3. Threshold method

Presents the stimulus in increasing increments

Get use to the water gradually

Systematic desensitization

4. Incompatible response

Connects new response to old stimulus

Can’t chew gum and smoke at the same time

Can’t blow your nose and cry at the same time

Summary

Started with the observation that people tend to do the same thing in similar situations

Concluded that it is the circumstances (all of the situational cues) that elicit behavior

Anything that changes the situation, any shifts of stimuli, impacts behavior

Guthrie wasn’t concerned with what happened after a behavior

His model was deterministic but learner centered

Behavior is the result of stimuli; the stimulus causes the response

Learning is a one-shot process

Occurs at full strength on the initial pairing

There are many stimuli in a situation

Infinite # of combinations

Each stimuli must be connected with the response

Example

Throwing a ball through a basketball hoop

Act

Composed of a number of movements

Each minute “movement” is learned one at a time

Lots of combinations to learn

Practice doesn’t improve performance because of repetition

Practice improves performance  because new S-R associations are being made

 

 

Credit: Photo by Rico Van de Voorde on Unsplash