Psychology as the behaviorist views it is a purely objective experimental branch of natural science. Its theoretical goal is the prediction and control of behavior. Introspection forms no essential part of its methods, nor is the scientific value of its data dependent upon the readiness with which they lend themselves to interpretation in terms of consciousness. The behaviorist, in his efforts to get a unitary scheme of animal response, recognizes no dividing line between man and brute. The behavior of man, with all of its refinement and complexity, forms only a part of the behaviorist's total scheme of investigation.It has been maintained by its followers generally that psychology is a study of the science of the phenomena of consciousness. It has taken as its problem, on the one hand, the' analysis of complex mental states (or processes) into simple elementary constituents, and on the other the construction of complex states when the elementary constituents are given. The world of physical objects (stimuli, including here anything which may excite activity in a receptor), which forms the total phenomena of the natural scientist, is looked upon merely as means to an end. That end is the production of mental states that may be 'inspected' or 'observed.' The psychological object of observation in the case of an emotion, for example, is the mental state itself. The problem in emotion is the determination of the number and kind of elementary constituents present, their loci, intensity, order of appearance, etc. It is agreed that introspection is the method par excellence by means of which mental states may be manipulated for purposes of psychology. On this assumption, behavior data (including under this term everything which goes under the name of comparative psychology) have no value per se. They possess 158

speculations havebeen entered intoconcerning possibility of conditioning various typesof emotionalresponse. but diexperimental evidence in support of such a view has been lacking. If the advanced by Warson and Morgan to the effect that in infancy the emotionalreaction patterns are few, consisting. so far as observed of and love, then there must be some simple method hy means of range of stimuliwhichcancallout these emotions and theircomis greatly increased. Otherwise, complexity in adultresponse could authors withoutadequate experimental evidence advanced the view.that this range was increased by means of conditioned factors. It was suggested there, that the early home life a laboratory situation for establishing conditioned emotional responses. The present authors have recently put the whole experimental test. Experimental work had been done so faron only infant was reared almost from birth in a hospital environmenf was a wet nurse in the Harrier Lane Home life was normal: he was healthy from developed youngstets ever brought to the hospital, weighing rwenty-one months of age. He was on the whole stolid arid uneniciiorial, stability was one of the principal test. We felt that we could do experiments as those outlined At approximately nine months tests that have become whether fear reactions can be the sudden removal of supporr. the senior author in another CHAPTER SEVEN-LEARNING 116 \ Ever since, psychologists have been struggling to come up with a more nuanced view of learning. As we saw from Pinker's selection in Chapter 6, Chomskys view has only become more plausible over time. Capacities such as the human gift foracquiringlanguagedo indeed seem to require much more than simple conditioning. And, in fact, there maybe no such thing as a single general mechanism for learning; different kinds of learning may each depend on different mental mechanisms. In place of a one-size-fits-all view in which simple conditioning is the motor of learning, psychologists and animal ethologists are working toward a new view, presentedin the selection fromMarc Hauser s WildMinds (2000), in which each species has its own unique set of tools for learning. 2. Rat alone.Whimpered immediately, withdrew righthandand turned headand trunk away. Blocks again offered. Played readily with them, smiling and gurgling. 4. Ratalone.Leaned overto the leftside as far away fromthe ratas possible,then fellover, gettingupon allfoursandscurrying away as rapidly as possible. Blocks again offered. Reached immediately for them, smiling and laughing as before. W',TSON AND RAYNER • CONDITIONED EMOTIONAL REACTIONS 121 CHAPTER SEVEN-LEARN I N G i. Tested first with blocks. He reached readily for them, playing with them as usual. This shows that there has been no general transfer to the room,table,blocks,ere. is thus seen that the two joint stimulations given the previous week were not without effect. He was tested with his blocks immediately afterwards to see if they shared in the processof conditioning. He began immediately to pickthem up. dropping them, p...

ALMOST any infant can be made to cry by presenting very loud sounds; indeed, nearly any form of stimulation-cold, heat, hunger, pain-will cause crying if the stimulus is very intense. Contrariwise, weak or mild stimuli will not ordinarily cause crying.WATSON, in the article which follows, shows how a previously ineffective stimulus can be made effective through conditioning. The student should relate this experiment to Pavlov's work which is described in Chapter VI. Watson is best known as the founder of behaviorism, a point of view which argued that only behavior, not consciousness, could be studied scientifically.IN REGENT literature various speculations have been entered into concerning the possibility of conditioning various types of emotional response, but direct experimental evidence in support of such a view has been lacking. If the theory advanced by Watson and Morgan to the effect that in infancy the original emotional reaction patterns are few is correct, then there must be some simple method by means of which the range of stimuli which can call out these emotions and their compounds is greatly increased.

No abstract

The criticism is extremely just. One of the principal reasons which makes psychology an unattractive subject is the fact that there is no realm of application for the principles which are being worked out in content terms.What makes us hopeful that the behaviorist 's position is a defensible one is the fact that those branches of psychology which have already partially withdrawn from the parent, experimental psychology, and which are consequently less dependent upon introspection, are today in a most flourishing condition. Experimental pedagogy, the psychology of drugs, the psychology of advertising, legal psychology, the psychology of tests, and psychopathology are all vigorous growths. These are sometimes wrongly called ' ' practical " or ' ' applied ' ' psychology. Surely there was never a worse misnomer. In the future there may grow up vocational bureaus which really apply psychology. At present these fields are truly scientific and are in search of broad generalizations which will lead to the control of human behavior. E.g., we find out by experimentation whether a series of stanzas may be acquired more readily if the whole is learned at once, or whether it is more advantageous to learn each stanza separately and then pass to the succeeding. We do not attempt to apply our findings.The application of this principle is purely voluntary on the part of the teacher. In the psychology of drugs we may show the effect on behavior of certain doses of caffeine.We may reach the conclusion that caffeine has a good effect upon the speed and accuracy of work. But these are general principles. We leave it to the individual as to whether the results of our tests shall be applied or not.Again, in legal testimony, we test the effects of recency upon the reliability of a witness's report. We test the accuracy of the report with respect to moving objects, stationary objects, color, etc. It depends upon the judicial machinery of the country whether these facts are ever to be applied. For a ' ' pure ' ' psychologist to say that he is not interested in the questions raised in these divisions of the science because they relate indirectly to the Now it is this type of implicit behavior that the introspectionist claims as his own and denies to us because its neural seat is cortical and because it goes on without adequate bodily portrayal. Why in psychology the stage for ' These substitutes are discussed in detail on p. 332. 8 It may be said in passing that the explicit and implicit forms of behavior referred to throughout this book are acquired and not congenital.PSYCHOLOGY AND BEHAVIOR forms, if the phenomena of behavior are ever to be brought within the sphere of scientific control. 4. This suggested elimination of states of consciousness as proper objects of investigation in themselves will remove the barrier which exists between psychology and the other sciences.