Learning

 Has been described as a relatively permanent change in behavior as a result of experience or

interactions with our environment.
 Many of the scientist who have studied learning have chosen to study animals rather than humans.

Classical Conditioning

 The notion that the sequence of a certain events is important in producing learning is at the heart
of the study of classical conditioning also referred to as Pavlovian conditioning or respondent
conditioning carried out by Ivan P. Pavlov, a Russian psychologist.
 He studied the salivary reflex in dogs (1927). This observation forms the basis for the classical
conditioning.

Elements of Classical Conditioning

 Unconditioned stimulus and response

- Any stimulus that is capable of producing a particular reflex response is called
Unconditioned Stimulus (US). And when the Dog salivate, it is called Unconditioned
Response.
 Neutral Stimulus (NS) and Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
- A Bell or some other suitable stimulus, such as a tone, would be presented before the
onset of the US. It was a NS since it did not originally elicit salivation as did the US. This
reflexive response is called the Orienting Reflex. Eventually, this response would drop out
as conditioning proceeded called Acquisition. CS When the meat took away and just rang
the bell by itself, the dog learned to salivate to the sound of the bell. This was called
Habituation by Pavlov which is used in the study of learning and many investigators think
of habituation itself is a primitive form of learning.
 Conditioned Response (CR)
- any response to a CS.

Basic Principles of Conditioning

 Extinction
- Is when the CR stops because the CS hasn’t been presented with the US for a while.
 Spontaneous Recovery
- is when the CS produces the CR after the behavior has been extinct.
- Indicates that extinction is something more than a passive forgetting of a learned
response.
 Inhibition
- conscious or unconscious constraint or curtailment of a process or behavior, especially of
impulses or desires.
- Pavlov thought that there were two kinds of conditioning process. First, Excitatory
Conditioning is when the CS comes to excite the CR. Second, Inhibitory Conditioning is
when the CS actively suppressed a learned reflex. Pavlov also discovered that an inhibited
response could itself inhibited. This release of inhibition is called Disinhibition.
  Generalization and Discrimination
- Discrimination is the ability to perceive and respond to differences among stimuli. It is
considered a more advanced form of learning than generalization. For example, if a bell
tone were the conditioned stimulus, discrimination would involve being able to tell the
difference between the bell sound and other similar sounds.
- Generalization is the tendency to respond in the same way to different but similar stimuli.
For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a tone of a particular pitch and loudness will
also salivate with considerable regularity in response to tones of higher and lower pitch.

OPERANT CONDITIONING

is a learning process through which the strength of a behavior is modified by reinforcement or

punishment. It is also a procedure that is used to bring about such learning. Since the hallmark for learning for
Thorndike was the occurrence of errors, such errors had to occur and be eliminated in order for the correct
response to occur. He called this “Trial and error” and “Chance Success”. The notion that behavior can be
controlled by its consequences was formalized by Thorndike as the law of effect.

ELEMENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

B.F Skinner used reinforcement as the fundamental concept in his behavioral theory. Skinner
viewed the behavior organism as operating on its environment to produce change. Whether a given
behavior was strengthened or weakened depended on whether that behavior was or was not reinforced.
Because the organism is said to be operating on its environment, Skinner termed such learning as operant
conditioning and an alternative name is instrumental conditioning.

In operant conditioning, stimuli are not thought of as eliciting a response as they are in classical
conditioning. Rather, the organism is said to be freely emitting responses called operants as it interacts
with its environment. When an operant is followed by a reinforcer – a reward for specific response – that
response is strengthened and made more likely to recur – reinforcement has taken place. Reinforcement
refers to the behavioral process of response strengthening that takes place as a result of the delivery of
the reinforcer.

PRINCIPLES OF OPERANT CONDITIONING

Element Effect on Behaviour Example

A student increases a certain pattern of behaviour in

Behaviour
Positive studying leading to passing the exams with higher grades
is increased by
Reinforcement to get more pocket money (reward/positive
reward
reinforcement).

Behaviour
Negative
is increased by A student increases a certain pattern of behaviour in
Reinforcement
avoidance/escape studying leading to passing the exams with higher grades
 in order to avoid being grounded at home (the negative
event actively being avoided)

Behaviour
A student decreases procrastination during studying after
Punishment is decreased by
the parents ground him/her home
suppression

A child stops fooling around (trying to attract attention)

when the parents ignore this behaviour. There can be an
Behaviour
initial increase in the behaviour before it decreases and
Extinction is eliminated by non-
evenutally disappears. Extinction is more powerful than
reinforcement
punishment for long-term reduction in unwanted
behaviours.

ATTRIBUTES OF LEARNING

1. Learning is continuous, it happens at all stages in the life of an individual.

2. Learning is a gradual process; it extends and sometimes progresses slowly over a period of time.
3. Learning causes improvement in behavior as a result of maturation, practice or experience.

3 Major Elements

 Stimulus - is any unit of the environment that causes a response in an individual. It could be
a condition, clue or signal, an event or situation to which a response is made.
 Organism – is the learner.
 Response – is any specific action done by an individual in reaction to something in the
environment.
 Overt responses which can be observed (such as speaking, writing, dancing, and the
like)
 Covert responses which cannot be observed (such as thinking, feeling or listening to
music).

OTHER FORMS OF LEARNING

 Learning by Listening and Reading. People communicate through language. They learn immense
amount of information by reading and listening to others. Learning through written or spoken
words is the same as Observational Learning because it permits people to learn not only from
experiences of others.
 Language Learning. One of the most complex types of learning is learning to speak and
understand language, yet normal children gain this skill during the first few years.
 Motor Skills Learning. A motor skill is the capacity to do coordinated sets of physical motions.
Learning a motor skill like playing a musical instrument is a gradual course that needs practice and
 feedback. Learners desires feedback from a Trainor to inform them which movements are well
performed and which need improvement. To learn a new motor skill, the learner should have full
concentration on the task and if learned well, the tasks can be performed automatically.
 Concept Formation Learning. Happens when individuals learn to group different objects as parts
of a single category. Concept information is important because it assists us to identify stimuli that
we have not met before and language plays an important role in learning concepts.
 Social Learning. An attitude is a learned disposition that actively guides us toward specific
behaviors. It consists of feelings, beliefs, and behavioral tendencies.

3 Concepts

 Habit is a learned association between a stimulus and a response.

 Imitation of role models is also called modelling. Certain social responses are learned due
to reinforcement of society, per norm of the society including other responses which are
unacceptable. Social Psychologists have generally presumed that attitude automatically
predict behavior. It is pointed out that the more specific the attitude, the more likely one
can predict accurately a specific behavior.
 E – Learning or Online Learning refers to instruction and delivery of training by computer online
through the internet or the web. Includes the web-based training, distance learning and learning
portals.

3 characteristics

- Involves electronic networks that enable information and instruction to be delivered,

shared and updated instantly.
- Delivered to the trainee using computers with internet technology.
- It focuses on learning solutions that go beyond training to include the delivery of
information and tools that improve performance.

COGNITIVE PROCESSES

Cognition refers to all processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated,
stored, recovered and used. Cognitive Psychology, therefore, deals with processes that could be
described this way:

- It begins with sensory input.

- This sensory input is transformed.
- Cognitive codes can be reduced or elaborated.
- Cognitive codes can be stored and recovered.

Cognitive Code

- is a mental event that seems to preserve many of the characteristics of the original
stimulation. Codes are created by the activity of the nervous system. Cognitive codes refer
to transformations of physical energy that are potentially capable of entering our
awareness or those transformations that form the basis of such event.
 Some cognitive codes enter our awareness but others’ don’t.

 Cognitive codes can be reduced or elaborated. The reduction of a cognitive code refers to the
fact that the code has not been preserved or retained all the characteristics of the original physical
stimulation.
 Cognitive codes can be elaborated. Elaboration refers to the relating of specific mental events to
one another. If, when you imagined the green mango, you noticed the ‘bagoong” and begin to
consider the taste. In this case you are elaborating.
 Cognitive codes can be stored and recovered. Highly reduced cognitive codes can be fleshed out
or reconstructed. Reconstruction of cognitive codes occurs quite commonly and this ability seems
to be based on our general knowledge of the world.

KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE

 Declarative knowledge is “knowing that”. It refers to knowledge that is static (not changing) in
nature and describable. Its organization is apparent to us.
 Procedural knowledge is “knowing how”. It refers to skillful action that is dynamic, mysterious
and resists verbal description.

Cognitive psychologists want to find out and study about the relationship between declarative and
procedural knowledge. It is through the distinction between the declarative knowledge and
procedural knowledge that we can study mental events.

Contemporary Cognitive Psychology

2 Approaches to Cognition:

 Information – Processing Approach

- the “mind works like a computer”. Human and computers have organized memories. They
follow directions on a line basis. Both represent information from the world in one form
(keystrokes or mouse clicks; sense in humans and store it in some form). The information
can be altered by the computer ‘s program, in humans by cognitive processes.
 Connectionist Approach
- The “mind works like a brain”. Computers do one thing at a time but speedy while
cognitive systems are much slower but they possess some awesome advantage. Cognitive
systems can do more than one thing at a time. Cognitive systems like our brain works as
parallel machines rather than serial as computers do.
Methods and Applications

Cognitive Psychologists often use experiments to their subject matter which involve manipulation
of some independent and observation of changes produced in a dependent variable. They measure
reaction time to the presentation of stimuli. The use of computers to model or simulate cognitive and
neutral processes. They use ecological validity. Ecological Validity refers to the quest of theories of
cognition that describe people’s use of knowledge in real, everyday, culturally significant situations.
Although the approach is theoretical, cognitive psychologists frequently hope for some possibility of
applying their findings to day to day life.