Other groups of behaviorists believe that factors besides environmental influences should be considered. Although development is a function of learning, there is a reciprocal give and take relationship between the organism and the environment. It is essential to understand processes such as memory, perception and other operations in order to understand how humans acquire behaviors. The greatest contribution of these theorists has been in the area of imitation, or modeling the process of learning new things without directly experiencing them. According to the behavioral perspective, the model, often a parent, is one of the most powerful influences on development.
Children are more likely to do as their parents do, rather than as they say.
Some people feel that the behavioral view represents development as a passive process with no input whatsoever from the organism. On the other hand, the behavioral perspective has allowed us the opportunity of coordinating and understanding factors that influence behavior by the application of rigorous scientific procedures. Not only are behavioral techniques used in many different therapeutic situations, such as in desensitizing people to certain fears, but they have led to such developments as programmed instruction which have greatly benefited education in recent years. In Skinners view, thinking is a behavior that precedes and guides the final performance of finding a solution. I can see how this can apply to individual and organizational learning.