LEARNING.it is the chapter in psychology

2. WHAT IS LEARNING?
•Learning is the act of acquiring new or
modifying existing knowledge, behaviors,
skills, values, or preferences and may
involve synthesizing different types of
information.

3. WHAT IS LEARNING?
•It is a relative permanent change in
behavior or mental state based on
experience.
• Learning may occur consciously or
unconsciously.

4. • BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING
• I) Learning has to change behaviour;
• ii) The change should be relatively permanent;
• iii) The change should be as a result of experience;
• iv) Learning is an internal process;
• v) Learning occurs under conditions of directed attention
and deliberate effort; and
• vi) Learning is distinct from biological maturation and
imprinting

5. • All Living is Learning i.e, the individual is in active relation with his environment.
• It results in Change in Behaviour. We note a change in the planarian’s response to
the light. It is a change of behaviour influenced by previous behaviour. It is any
activity that leaves a more or less permanent effect on later activity.
• Learning is an Adjustment. Most learning in children consists in modifying, adapting,
and developing their original nature. In later life the individuals acquire new forms of
behaviour.
• It comes about as a result of practice. This characteristic eliminates sources of
change such as illness and maturation. Potent effects of motivation on behaviour are
worth considerable here.
• Learning is Universal. Every creature that lives learns. Man learns most. Human
children have the longest period of immaturity and helplessness and hence the
longer period for opportunity for learning. The human nervous system is very
complex, so are human reactions and so are human acquisition.
• Learning is a relatively Permanent Change. After a rat wake up from his nap he still
remembers the path to the food. Even if you have been on a bicycle for years, in just
a few minutes practice you can be quite proficient again.

6. • Learning is Growth. It is never ending growth. At reach stage the
learner acquires new visions of his future growth and news ideals
of achievement in the direction of his effort. Each achievement
forms are basis of a fresh endeavour and thus the constant urge of
his soul to newer and higher ideals of work and achievement is
progressively fulfilled.
• Learning is not directly observable. The only way to study learning
is through some observable behaviour. Actually, we cannot
observe learning; we see only what precedes performance, the
performance itself, and the consequences of performance.

7. TYPES OF LEARNING
Motor learning:
• Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor
activities. The individual has to learn them in order to maintain
his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving,
climbing, etc. All these activities involve the muscular
coordination.

8. • Verbal learning:
• This type of learning involves the language
we speak, the communication devices we
use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words,
figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in
such activities. We use words for
communication.

9. • Concept learning:
• It is the form of learning which requires higher order
mental processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence,
etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For
example, when we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’,
we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal.
Concept learning involves two processes, viz. abstraction
and generalization. This learning is very useful in
recognizing, identifying things.

10. • Discrimination learning:
• Learning to differentiate between stimuli and
showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is
called discrimination learning. Example, sound
horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance,
etc.

11. • Learning of principles:
• Individuals learn certain principles related to
science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to
manage their work effectively. These principles
always show the relationship between two or more
concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations,
correlations, etc

12. • Attitude learning:
• Attitude is a predisposition which determines and
directs our behaviour. We develop different
attitudes from our childhood about the people,
objects and everything we know. Our behaviour
may be positive or negative depending upon our
attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse towards her
profession, patients, etc.

13. IVAN PAVLOV AND CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• One of most famous contributors in the study of learning is Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936).
• Originally studying salivation and digestion, Pavlov stumbled upon what has become
known as “classical conditioning” while he was experimenting on his dog.
• Classical Conditioning: A form of learning that occurs when a previously neutral stimulus is linked to
another neutral stimulus and therefore acquires the power to elicit a consistent and innate reflex.
Upon repetition, the individual will come to expect this response.

14. The Unconditioned Stimulus
is one that unconditionally, naturally, and automatically triggers
a response.
The Unconditioned Response
is the unlearned response that occurs naturally in response to
the unconditioned stimulus.
FOUR COMPONENTS OF CONDITIONING:

15. The Conditioned Stimulus
is previously neutral stimulus that, after becoming associated
with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a
conditioned response.
The Conditioned Response
is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus.

17. DEFINITION OF TERMS:
•CONDITIONED – learned
•UNCONDITIONED -unlearned

18. •Classical Conditioning
- “Pavlovian” or “Respondent Conditioning”.
- It is a learning process in which an innate response to a potent stimulus comes to be
elicited in response to a previously neutral stimulus; this is achieved by repeated
pairings of the neutral stimulus with the potent stimulus.

19. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS

20. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS
•Stage 1: Before Conditioning
•The Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS)
The unconditioned stimulus is one that
unconditionally, naturally, and
automatically triggers a response.

21. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS
•Stage 1: Before Conditioning
•The Unconditioned Response (UCR)
The unconditioned response is the
unlearned response that occurs naturally in
response to the unconditioned stimulus.

22. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS

23. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS
• Stage 1: During Conditioning
• The Neutral Stimulus
- Another stimulus which has no affect on a
person.
- NS could be a person, object, place etc.
- The NS in classical conditioning does not
produce a response until it is paired with the
unconditioned stimulus.

24. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS
•Stage 2: During Conditioning
•The Conditioned Stimulus
•The conditioned stimulus is previously
neutral stimulus that, after becoming
associated with the unconditioned
stimulus, eventually comes to trigger a
conditioned response.

25. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS

26. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS
•Stage 3 : After Conditioning
•The Conditioned Response
•The conditioned response is the learned
response to the previously neutral
stimulus.

27. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS

28. THE CLASSICAL CONDITIONING PROCESS

29. DEFINITION OF TERMS:
•STIMULUS
•RESPONSE
•CONDITIONED
•UNCONDITIONED
•REINFORCEMENT
•CONSEQUENCE

30. OPERANT CONDITIONING

32. • Operant Conditioning
- “Instrumental Conditioning”
- It is a learning process in which behavior is sensitive to,
or controlled by its consequences.
- It is a type of learning in which behavior is strengthened
if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed
by punishment

33. • Skinner is regarded as the father of Operant
Conditioning, but his work was based on Thorndike’s
(1905) law of effect. Skinner introduced a new term
into the Law of Effect - Reinforcement. Behavior which
is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened);
behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or be
extinguished (i.e. weakened).
• Skinner (1948) studied operant conditioning by
conducting experiments using animals which he
placed in a 'Skinner Box' which was similar to
Thorndike’s puzzle box.

35. • As the first step to his experiment, he placed a hungry rat inside the Skinner box. The
rat was initially inactive inside the box, but gradually as it began to adapt to the
environment of the box, it began to explore around. Eventually, the rat discovered a
lever, upon pressing which; food was released inside the box. After it filled its hunger,
it started exploring the box again, and after a while it pressed the lever for the second
time as it grew hungry again. This phenomenon continued for the third, fourth and the
fifth time, and after a while, the hungry rat immediately pressed the lever once it was
placed in the box. Then the conditioning was deemed to be complete.
• Here, the action of pressing the lever is an operant response/behavior, and the food
released inside the chamber is the reward. The experiment is also known
as Instrumental Conditioning Learning as the response is instrumental in getting food.
• This experiment also deals with and explains the effects of positive reinforcement.
Upon pressing the lever, the hungry rat was served with food, which filled its hunger;
hence, it’s a positive reinforcement.

36. • B.F. Skinner’s Second Experiment
• B.F. Skinner also conducted an experiment that explained negative reinforcement.
Skinner placed a rat in a chamber in the similar manner, but instead of keeping it
hungry, he subjected the chamber to an unpleasant electric current. The rat having
experienced the discomfort started to desperately move around the box and
accidentally knocked the lever. Pressing of the lever immediately seized the flow of
unpleasant current. After a few times, the rat had smartened enough to go directly to
the lever in order to prevent itself from the discomfort.
• The electric current reacted as the negative reinforcement, and the consequence of
escaping the electric current made sure that the rat repeated the action again and
again. Here too, the pressing of the lever is an operant response, and the complete
stop of the electric current flow is its reward.

37. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Reinforcement is any event that
strengthens or increases the behavior it
follows. (Positive Rein forcers, Negative
Reinforcers)
•In both of these cases of reinforcement,
the behavior increases.

38. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Positive reinforcers are favorable events
or outcomes that are presented after the
behavior. In situations that reflect positive
reinforcement, a response or behavior is
strengthened by the addition of
something, such as praise or a direct
reward.

39. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Examples:
•A mother gives her son praise (positive
stimulus) for doing homework (behavior).
•The little boy receives gifts (positive
stimulus) for every A he earns on his
report card (behavior).

40. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Negative reinforcers involve the removal
of an unfavorable events or outcomes
after the display of a behavior. In these
situations, a response is strengthened by
the removal of something considered
unpleasant.

41. POSITIVE/NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
BOTH ARE GOOD THINGS!!!

42. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Punishment, is the presentation of an
adverse event or outcome that causes a
decrease in the behavior it follows.
(Positive Punishment, Negative Punishment)
•In both of these cases of punishment, the
behavior decreases.

43. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Positive punishment sometimes referred
to as punishment by application, involves
the presentation of an unfavorable event
or outcome in order to weaken the
response it follows.

44. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Examples
• An employee exhibits bad behavior at work
and the boss criticizes him. The behavior will
decrease because of the boss’s criticism.
• In an experiment, the subject received a slight
electric shock when they got an answer
wrong.

45. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
•Negative punishment, also known as
punishment by removal, occurs when an
favorable event or outcome is removed
after a behavior occurs.

46. THE COMPONENTS OF OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Examples
• After getting in a fight with his sister over who
gets to play with a new toy, the mother simply
takes the toy away.
• A third-grade boy yells at another student
during class, so his teacher takes away "good
behavior" tokens that can be redeemed for
prizes.

49. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSICAL CONDITIONING AND
OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Classical Conditioning:
• First described by Ivan Pavlov,
a Russian physiologist
• Involves placing a neutral
signal before a reflex
• Focuses on involuntary,
automatic behaviors
• Operant Conditioning:
• First described by B. F. Skinner,
an American psychologist
• Involves applying reinforcement
or punishment after a behavior
• Focuses on strengthening or
weakening voluntary behaviors.

50. OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

51. • It is a type of learning most associated with the work and social
learning theory of psychologist Albert Bandura.
• Observational learning is thought to be particularly important
during childhood. It allows for learning without any direct change
to behavior; because of this, it has been used as an argument
against strict behaviorism.
• Observational learning can produce new behaviors, and either
increase or decrease the frequency with which a previously
learned behavior is demonstrated. This type of learning can also
encourage previously forbidden behaviors.
•

52. PEOPLE LEARN THROUGH:
Observation
ImitationModeling

53. WHAT IS OBSERVATION?
The act of watching somebody or something
carefully for a period of time, especially to
learn something.
Students learn through vicarious
experiences.

54. WHAT IS IMITATION?
The act of copying
somebody or something.
(Oxford,2012)
Children are more likely to imitate
the actions of others who seem
competent, powerful, prestigious
and enthusiastic.
Eg: Adults, older siblings,
celebrities.

55. WHAT IS MODELING?
A person or thing that is
considered an excellent
example of something.
Modeling consists of 4
component process : Attention,
Retention, Reproduction,
Motivation
Modeling describes the process of
learning or acquiring new
information, skills, or behavior
through observation

57. Albert Bandura and the Bobo-Doll Experiment
One of the first recorded instances of observational learning in research was the 1961
study performed by Albert Bandura. This experiment demonstrated that children can learn
merely by observing the behavior of a social model, and that observing reinforcement of
the model's behavior could affect whether or not a behavior was emulated. Bandura
believed that humans are cognitive beings who, unlike animals, are (1) likely to think about
the links between their behavior and its consequences, and (2) more likely to be influenced
by what they believe will happen than by actual experience.
In his experiment, Bandura studied the responses of nursery-school-aged children to the
actions of adults. The children were presented with a short film in which an adult model
directed aggression towards an inflatable Bobo doll. Three main conditions were included:
a) the model-reward condition, in which the children saw a second adult give the
aggressive model candy for a "championship performance"; b) the model-punished
condition, in which the children saw a second adult scold the model for their aggression;
and c) the no-consequence condition, in which the children simply saw the model behave
aggressively.

58. Results indicated that after viewing the film, when children were
left alone in a room with the Bobo doll and props used by the
adult aggressor, they imitated the actions they had witnessed.
Those in the model-reward and no-consequence conditions were
more willing to imitate the aggressive acts than those in the
model-punished condition. Further testing indicated that children
in each condition had equal amounts of learning, and it was only
the motivation factor that kept behaviors from being similar in
each condition.

59. EC TOLMAN, RATS AND MAZES
LATENT LEARNING

60. E.C. TOLMAN
• Edward Tolman (1948) challenged these assumptions by proposing
that people and animals are active information processes and not
passive learners as behaviorism had suggested. Tolman developed
a cognitive view of learning that has become popular in modern
psychology.
• Tolman believed individuals do more than merely respond to
stimuli; they act on beliefs, attitudes, changing conditions, and
they strive toward goals. Tolman is virtually the only behaviorists
who found the stimulus-response theory unacceptable, because
reinforcement was not necessary for learning to occur. He felt
behavior was mainly cognitive.

61. • Tolman coined the term cognitive map, which is an internal representation (or
image) of external environmental feature or landmark. He thought that
individuals acquire large numbers of cues (i.e. signals) from the environment
and could use these to build a mental image of an environment (i.e. a cognitive
map).
• By using this internal representation of a physical space they could get to the
goal by knowing where it is in a complex of environmental features. Short cuts
and changeable routes are possible with this model.
• Tolman also worked on latent learning, defined as learning which is not
apparent in the learner's behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests
later when a suitable motivation and circumstances appear. The idea of latent
learning was not original to Tolman, but he developed it further.

62. • Tolman and Honzik (1930)
• In their famous experiments Tolman and
Honzik (1930) built a maze to investigate
latent learning in rats. The study also shows
that rats actively process information rather
than operating on a stimulus response
relationship

64. • Procedure
• In their study 3 groups of rats had to find their way around a complex
maze. At the end of the maze there was a food box. Some groups of
rats got to eat the food, some did not.
• Group 1: Rewarded
• Day 1 – 17: Every time they got to end, given food (i.e. reinforced).
• Group 2: Delayed Reward
• Day 1 - 10: Every time they got to end, taken out.
• Day 11 -17: Every time they got to end, given food (i.e. reinforced).
• Group 3: No reward
• Day 1 – 17: Every time they got to end, taken out.

65. • Results
• The delayed reward group learned the route on days 1 to 10 and
formed a cognitive map of the maze. They took longer to reach the
end of the maze because there was no motivation for them to
perform. From day 11 onwards they had a motivation to perform
(i.e. food) and reached the end before the reward group.
• This shows that between stimulus (the maze) and response
(reaching the end of the maze) a mediational process was
occurring the rats were actively processing information in their
brains by mentally using their cognitive map.

67. INSIGHT LEARNING - KOHLER
• Insight learning refers to the sudden realisation
of a solution of a problem
• After a period of mentally manipulation of
aspects of a problem for a while
• Kohler experimented with Sultan the chimp
who was caged with food strategically placed
outside the cage.
• Some boxes and sticks were placed in the cage.
• Through some manipulation of these objects
which got Sultan nowhere, he seemed to
suddenly figure out that the sticks could be
joined to get the food.
• He used Insight to solve similar problems

68. 4 STAGES OF INSIGHT LEARNING
• Can’t solve the problem initially
• Data gathering
1:
Preparation
• Problem put on hold
• Problem work on unconsciously
2:
Incubation
• Suddenly there is a mental
representation of solution
3:
Insight
4:
Verification
Solution checked

69. EXAMPLE
• Can’t work out how to load the
songs initially
• Data gathering
1:
Preparation
• Song loading problem put on hold
while she goes on a walk
• Problem worked on unconsciously
2:
Incubation
• During her walk, she suddenly
there is a mental representation of
how to load the songs
3:
Insight
4:
Verification
Solution checked, her
songs do load
• E.g. Amelia can’t figure out how to load free
songs from youtube on to her iphone
• After spending an hour trying a variety of
unsuccessful strategies.
• She ‘cracks it’ and decides to go for a walk.
• ½ way through the walk, she suddenly
realises, that she needs to put the songs in
iTunes 1st.
• She bolts home and tests her theory out and
sure enough it works

70. STEP 1: PREPARATION
• Initially the learner feels helpless
(‘I’m never going to figure this out’)
• The individual gathers information
about the problem (trial & error)
• E.g. You are trying to program the
new DVD recorder to tape shows,
you try different settings, turning
the TV to AV mode, etc........

71. STEP 2: INCUBATION
• The problem is
consciously put aside,
• But worked on at an
unconscious level
• So you go outside and
shoot some hoops,
because you are getting
angry that you can’t solve
the problem, meanwhile
your brain is working on
the problem

72. STEP 3: INSIGHT – ‘AHA’
• ‘Aha – now I know what
to do’
• Some mental event
bridges the gap between
the problem & the
solution
• Unconsciously the learner
has reassembled the
elements of the problem
into a meaningful whole

73. STEP 4: VERIFICATION
• Solution (arrived at
mentally) is now tested
out (physically)
• This will now help with
future problem solving
(in a sense the learner is
learning how to learn)