William Cope
Pinakini Shah
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Miquel Colobran.png "Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi")
Samuel Chukwuemeka Obasi
Sara RichterLearning, Knowledge and Human Development MOOC’s Updates
Essential Update #1: Behaviorism – role of free will, teachers, intelligence tests
Author's note: Also posted on Coursera as I was confused by the instructions about Discussion Forums.
BEHAVIORISM
Free Will: Skinner posits that human beings have only so much agency over their behavior as they have been conditioned to respond with to external stimuli. Even to acquire such conditioning, each person has an innate, natural capacity, not more. Once triggered by a stimulus, a person shall -- they must -- respond reflexively as they've been conditioned to do so, and as much as they were able to learn within their natural limits. Operant conditioning can thus be used to control a subject's behavior, implying there's no room for free will in Skinner's framework.
Teachers: Teachers provide operant conditioning within the confines of a subject's nature. There is no further nurturing a teacher can deliver, e.g., to increase a subject's learning capacity.
Intelligence Tests: In behaviorism, an intelligence test calibrates how much a person will ever be able to learn, and potentially what they would be suited to learn. Such tests have been used -- perhaps controversially -- even in Authentic Education: e.g., students have traditionally been deemed "ready" or not for more or less rigorous colleges/universities based on their "standardized" aptitude test. This approach gives no latitude for the student's cultural, social, or linguistic endowment, and certainly none for neuroplasticity.
ABA & the "Wipsee" - a Case Study of mixed metaphors:
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is a counseling technique often used with autistic children. An ABA counselor guides the subject through a series of atomicized stimuli with desired responses. A canonical form of a stimulus/response is: "When presented with a fruit, Kashif will correctly identify it in 2 out of 5 trials, without prompt (aid)." Correct responses are often reinforced with cheers or a preferred activity (e.g., running up and down the hallway once). As the child gains mastery, the bar is raised and the stimuli made more complex, until the child graduates or plateaus. ABA is thus decidedly behaviorist in its pedagogy.
The progress of children taking ABA counseling is periodically measured (18-24 months) using a battery of tests. One of those is the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence test (WPPSI, commonly vocalized as "Wipsee"). This test calibrates a subject relative to their age-peers in verbal, performance, and processing speed. In that sense, the WPPSI and accompanying tests seem similar to other "IQ" tests. However, rather than impassively relegating a subject into a percentile, ABA therapists use these tests to recommend a counseling plan that helps children close the gap between their "mental age" and that of their age-peers. That is, the WPPSI finds utility as a developmentalist's building block, not just as a behavioralist's chisel. Moreover, ABA counselors can often modify the task plan with input from the family to suit the family's cultural norms (i.e., socio-cognitive adjustment).
Sources:
- Author has first-hand experience with ABA and the WPPSI, as a parent of two special needs students. Author is here interpreting his lived experienced through the lens of what he has learned in this course so far.
- Description of ABA: Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) | Autism Speaks
- Description of WPPSI test: Wechsler Preschool & Primary Scale of Intelligence | IQ Test Prep
- WPPSI test kit from Pearons
- Critical discussion of WPPSI
@Jana Epke
Jana thanks for your thoughtful response. My premise is that everyone is a student, at all stages in their lives. I think we have to see who asks for/uses tests like SAT, and to what end. Let me posit two cases:
1. Higher Ed: I'm not opposed to aptitude testing per se. What's important is the desired outcome, and that varies by socioeconomic and cultural factors. I think the Buyer of the test needs to be the student themselves. They can then can decide how to best shepherd their efforts (and what extent to believe the test). E.g., a vocational school (a la Swiss model) vs. laborious rigor (e.g., research-heavy major). I also think tests should directly reflect real life situations: ideally they should be supplanted by short apprenticeships. Or at least a higher proportion of questions need to reflect the academic syllabus (e.g., college level economics, science, math, etc.). That lends credibility to whatever bar I should accept for myself, and makes the test more objective.
2. Employers: One modern tech startup I know uses an IQ + psych profile (go getter, energetic), etc. They told me they need everyone to operate at a certain processing speed, plus 'deal with' a certain cut-throat environment. We're not for everyone. I agree with them: they're not. And I had the privilege at the time to not apply for that job. As a general principle though, this is a dangerous precedent in a society where there's a rise of the mega-employer that atomicizes each employee's specialized task (eventually to be replaced with AI). What if Amazon started filtering people based on an IQ/ Profile test? Or the Government sector? As such, I believe the use of IQ tests/psych profiles by employers during hiring process needs to be completely abolished.
Ultimately, privilege and access are at play here, not just IQ. That's a topic for another course and post. : )
Hi Kashif,
Thanks for your response, too. I agree there should be more options for students to lead in what bar is set for them rather than be subject to expectations of learning outside from them. I think this can lead to killing enthusiasm about learning, as students are constantly comparing themselves to something that they did not set for themselves. As you said, they can then decide to shepherd their efforts in a way that works for them.
I was not aware that employers can require IQ tests and a psych profile! I think this is quite a harmful idea about capability and the essence of employees... Societal conceptions of intelligence are indeed heavily induced by privilege and this is one way to promote that. Interesting topic!
Hi Kashif, I would like to respond to your update.
Your introduction of the ABA test as an example of a test based on behavioralist ideas is very interesting. It brings more clarity for me in how the behavioralist school is still influential in our current approaches to learning. Thank you!
I agree that standardized IQ tests leave little space for the cultural, social, and linguistic capacities of students and certainly do not consider neuroplasticity enough. However, it is generally believed that tests like these are essential in determining intelligence for a number of things- such as the SATs (I think). How do you think tests like these could be changed to consider more of the student's capacities than they do now?
Best,
Jana