Learning

Overview
 Nature and Meaning of Learning
 Concepts of Learning
 Processes of Learning

Overview
Classical Conditioning
 Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
 The Process of Classical Conditioning
 Changing Conditioned Responses
 John Watson and Emotional Conditioning

Overview
 The Principles of Classical Conditioning
 Classical Conditioning Applications

Overview
Operant Conditioning
 Thorndike and the Law of Effect
 B.F. Skinner: A Pioneer in Operant
Conditioning
 The Principles of Operant Conditioning

Overvie
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 Escape and Avoidance Learning
 Applications of Operant Conditioning

Overview
Cognitive Learning
 Insight Learning
 Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps
 Observational Learning

Learning
 Learning is the gift of man, the foundation of his
activities and the primary evidence of his
rational nature (Bucu and others, 1993)

Learning
 Learning is a relatively permanent change in
immediate or potential behaviour or mental
process that results from past experiences or
practice. (Dizon and others, 2003)

Learning
 Learning is a process through which one’s
capacity or disposition is changed as a result of
experience. (Craig and others)

Learning
 Learning is a process of acquiring knowledge,
skills, habits, attitudes and ideas, retaining and
utilizing them in the progressive adaptation and
modification of behaviour.

Concepts of Learning
 Complex process, not a product-acquiring
knowledge, attitudes and skills;
 That learning produces change in behaviour-a
progressive change;
 That the change is relatively permanent in
the individual’s behaviour;
 That learning is the result of interaction of the
individual with the environment. (physical,
natural and social)

 Classical conditioning is a type of learning
through which an organism learns to associate one
stimulus with another.
 Stimulus (the plural is stimuli): any event or
object in the environment to which an organism
responds.
 Classical conditioning is sometimes referred to as
respondent conditioning, or Pavlovian
conditioning.

Ivan Pavlov
 a Russian physiologist, first described classical conditioning in
1899 while conducting research into the digestive system of
dogs.
 He was particularly interested in the role of salivary secretions in
the digestion of food and was awarded the Nobel Prize for
Medicine or Physiology in 1904.

Pavlov and Classical Conditioning
 Pavlov conducted a study on dogs where he
collected the saliva that the dogs would secrete
naturally in response to food placed inside the
mouth; he observed saliva collecting when the
dogs heard their food dishes rattling, when they
heard the laboratory assistants coming to feed
them, and when they saw the attendant who fed
them.

Pavlov and Classical Conditioning (continued)
Ivan Pavlov’s laboratory
 The dogs were isolated inside soundproof
cubicles and placed in harnesses to restrain
their movements.
 The experimenter observed the dogs
through a one-way mirror.
 Food and other stimuli were presented and
the flow of saliva measured by remote
control.

The Process of Classical Conditioning
 Reflex: an involuntary response to a particular
stimulus, such as the eye blink response to a puff
of air or salivation when food is placed in the
mouth
 Two types of reflexes
 Conditioned reflexes (learned): a learned
reflex rather than a naturally occurring one.
 Unconditioned reflexes (unlearned): inborn,
automatic, unlearned response to a particular
stimulus.

The Conditioned and Unconditioned Stimulus and
Response
 Pavlov used tones, bells, buzzers, lights, geometric
shapes, electric shocks, and metronomes in his
conditioning experiments.
 Food powder was placed in the dog’s mouth,
causing salivation.
 Because dogs do not need to be conditioned to
salivate to food, salivation to food is an unlearned
response.

The Conditioned and Unconditioned
Stimulus and Response (continued)
 Unconditioned response (UR): a response
that is elicited by an unconditioned stimulus
without prior learning.
 Unconditioned stimulus (US): any
stimulus, such as food, that without prior
learning will automatically elicit, or bring
forth, an unconditioned response.

The Conditioned and Unconditioned Stimulus and
Response (continued)
 Pavlov demonstrated that dogs could be conditioned
to salivate to a variety of stimuli never before
associated with food.
 During the conditioning process, the researcher would
present a neutral stimulus such as a musical tone
shortly before placing the food powder in the dog’s
mouth.
 Pavlov found that after the tone and the food were
paired many times, usually 20 or more, the tone alone
would elicit salivation.

The Conditioned and Unconditioned Stimulus
and Response (continued)
 Conditioned stimulus (CS): a neutral
stimulus that, after repeated pairing with an
unconditioned stimulus, becomes associated
with it and elicits a conditioned response.
 Conditioned response (CR): the learned
response that comes to be elicited by a
conditioned stimulus as a result of its
repeated pairing with an unconditioned
stimulus.

Basic Principles of Classical
Conditioning
 Principle of Acquisition
 Principle of Extinction
 Principle of Spontaneous Recovery

 Principle of Acquisition or Excitation:
repeated pairings of the conditioned
response and unconditioned stimulus.
 Principle of Extinction: in classical
conditioning, the weakening and eventual
disappearance of a conditioned response as a
result of repeated presentation of the
conditioned stimulus without the
unconditioned stimulus.

 Principle of Spontaneous recovery: the
reappearance of an extinguished response
(in a weaker form) when an organism is
exposed to the original conditioned
stimulus following a rest period.

Changing Conditioned Responses
 When a conditioned response is extinguished in one
setting, it can still be elicited in other settings where
extinction training has not occurred.
 Pavlov found that a tone similar to the original
conditioned stimulus would produce the conditioned
response (salivation).
 Generalization: in classical conditioning, the
tendency to make a conditioned response to a
stimulus similar to the original conditioned stimulus.

Changing Conditioned Responses
(continued)
 Discrimination: the learned ability to
distinguish between similar stimuli so that
the conditioned response occurs only to the
original conditioned stimulus, but not to
similar stimuli.
 Generalization and discrimination have
survival value.
 Discriminating between a rattlesnake and a
garter snake could save your life.

JOHN B. WATSON
 John Broadus Watson was an American psychologist who established the
psychological school of behaviorism. Wikipedia
 Born: January 9, 1878,Travelers Rest, South Carolina, United States
 Died: September 25, 1958, New York City, New York, United States
 Spouse: Rosalie Rayner (m. 1921–1935), Mary Ickes (m. 1901–1920)
 Education: Johns Hopkins University, University of Chicago, Furman
University
 Books: Psychological Care of Infant and Child, more
 Children: Mary Watson, John Ickes Watson

John Watson and Emotional Conditioning
 John Watson and his assistant, Rosalie
Rayner, conducted a study to prove that
fear could be classically conditioned.
 The subject of the study, known as Little
Albert, was a healthy and emotionally
stable 11-month-old infant.
 Little Albert showed no fear except of the
loud noise Watson made by striking a
hammer against a steel bar near Albert’s
head.

(continued)
 Rayner presented Little Albert with a white
rat; as Albert reached for the rat, Watson
struck the steel bar with a hammer.
 This procedure was repeated several times.
 This procedure caused Albert to begin to cry
at the sight of a rat.

(continued)
 Watson also had ideas for removing fears
and laid the groundwork for some
behavior therapies used today.
 Watson and a colleague, Mary Cover
Jones, found 3-year-old Peter, who was
afraid of rabbits, and tried Watson's fear-removal
techniques on him.

Classical Conditioning Application
 Teachers can use classical conditioning to quiet
down the students
 Example:
 First day of class, students walk into class and teacher
sits at desk
 Teacher goes towards board when ready to teach and
children quiet down
 Second day of class, students are chatty when the
teacher goes to the board. Teacher asks to be quiet.
 Third day of class, students are automatically quiet
when the teacher walks to the board

Classical Conditioning Application
(continued)
 Teachers can use classical conditioning to
quiet down the students
 Example:
 First day of class, the teacher turns on the
projector to do their lesson and students quiet
down
 Second day of class, the students are still chatty
when the projector turns on. The teacher must ask
them to quiet down
 Third day of class, the students quiet down when
the projector is turned on

 Operant conditioning: a type of learning in which the
consequences of behavior are manipulated in order to
increase or decrease the frequency of an existing response or
to shape an entirely new response.
 Also called as instrumental learning.
 The learner is active.
 The learner is the one acting and discovering how his
behaviour affects his environment.
 It is instrumental in a sense that an instrument was used for
learning.
 The learner has to operate using an instrument to be able to
discover something in the environment.

 Two Experiments were conducted to explain
operant conditioning:
- First, by EDWARD LEE THORNDIKE
- Second, by BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER

Edward Lee Thorndike
 Born
August 31, 1874
Williamsburg, Massachusetts,U.S.
 Died: August 9, 1949 (aged 74)
Montrose, New York
 Nationality: American, Roxbury Latin, Wesleyan,
 Education: Harvard, Columbia
 Occupation: Psychologist
 Employer: Teachers College, Columbia University
 Known for: Father of modern educational psychology
 Title:Professor
 Spouse(s):Elizabeth Moulton (married August 29, 1900)

Thorndike and the Law of Effect
 Edward Thorndike believed trial-and-error
learning was the basis of most
behavioral changes.
 Trial-and-error learning: learning that
occurs when a response is associated
with a successful solution to a problem
after a number of unsuccessful
responses.

Thorndike and the Law of Effect (continued)
 Law of effect: Thorndike’s law of learning,
which states that the consequence, or effect,
of a response will determine whether the
tendency to respond in the same way in the
future will be strengthened or weakened.
 In Thorndike’s best-known experiments, a
hungry cat was placed in a wooden box with
slats, which was called a puzzle box.

Thorndike and the Law of Effect (continued)
 The box was designed so that the animal had
to manipulate a simple mechanism – pressing a
pedal or pulling down a loop – to escape and
claim a food reward that lay just outside the
box.
 After many trials, the cat learned to open the
door almost immediately after being placed in
the box.

Burrhus Frederic (B. F.) Skinner
 Born: March 20, 1904
Susquehanna, Pennsylvania, United States
 Died: August 18, 1990 (aged 86)
Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States[1]
 Nationality: American
 Fields: Psychology, linguistics, philosophy
 Institutions:University of Minnesota, Indiana University, Harvard University, Hamilton
College
 Known for: Operant conditioning
 Influences: Charles Darwin, Ivan Pavlov, Ernst Mach, Jacques Loeb ,Edward Thorndike,
William James ,Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Henry David Thoreau
 Notable awards: National Medal of Science(1968)

B.F. Skinner: A Pioneer in Operant
Conditioning
 Skinner believed that the causes of
behavior are in the environment and do not
result from inner mental events, such as
thoughts, feelings, or perceptions.
 He claimed that these inner mental events
are themselves behaviors and, like any
other behaviors, are shaped and
determined by environmental forces.

The Principles of Operant Conditioning
 Principle of Reinforcement
 Principle of Shaping
 Principle of Punishment
 Principle of Spontaneous Recovery

Reinforcement
 any event that follows a response and
strengthens or increases the probability of
the response being repeated.
Positive and Negative Reinforcement
 Positive reinforcement: any pleasant or
desirable consequence that follows a
response and increases the probability that
the response will be repeated.

Positive and Negative Reinforcement
(continued)
 Negative reinforcement: a person’s or
animal’s behavior is reinforced by the
termination or avoidance of an unpleasant
condition.
 Reinforcer: anything that strengthens or
increases the probability of the response
that it follows.

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers
 Primary reinforcer: a reinforcer that
fulfills a basic physical need for survival
and does not depend on learning.
 Food, water, sleep and termination of
pain are examples of primary reinforcers.

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers
(continued)
 Secondary reinforcer: a reinforcer that is
acquired or learned through association with
other reinforcers.
 Some secondary reinforcers (money, for
example) can be exchanged at a later time for
other reinforcers.

Shaping
 Shaping: an operant conditioning
technique that consists of gradually
molding a desired behavior (response) by
reinforcing any movement in the direction
of the desired response, thereby gradually
guiding the responses toward the ultimate
goal.
 B.F. Skinner demonstrated that shaping is
particularly effective in conditioning
complex behaviors.

Shaping (continued)
 Skinner box: a soundproof apparatus
with a device for delivering food to an
animal subject; designed by Skinner.
 Successive approximations: a series of
gradual steps, each of which is more like
the final desired response.

Punishment
 Punishment is the opposite of
reinforcement.
 Punishment can be accomplished by either
adding an unpleasant stimulus or removing
a pleasant stimulus.
 It is common to confuse punishment and
negative reinforcement.

Punishment (continued)
 With punishment, an unpleasant condition
may be added, but with negative
reinforcement, an unpleasant condition is
terminated or avoided.
 The two have opposite effects.
 Unlike punishment, negative reinforcement
increases the probability of a desired
response.

Disadvantages of Punishment
1. According to Skinner, punishment does
not extinguish an undesirable behavior;
rather, it suppresses that behavior when
the punishing agent is present. But the
behavior is apt to continue when the
threat of punishment is removed and in
settings where punishment is unlikely.

Disadvantages of Punishment (continued)
2. Punishment indicates that a behavior is
unacceptable, but does not help people
develop more appropriate behaviors. If
punishment is used, it should be
administered in conjunction with
reinforcement or rewards for appropriate
behavior.

Disadvantages of Punishment (continued)
3. The person who is severely punished often
becomes fearful and feels angry and hostile
toward the punisher. These reactions may be
accompanied by a desire to retaliate or to
avoid or escape from the punisher and the
punishing situation.
4. Punishment frequently leads to aggression.
Those who administer physical punishment
may become models of aggressive behavior.

Alternatives to Punishment
 Many psychologists believe that removing
the rewarding consequences of undesirable
behavior is the best way to extinguish a
problem behavior.
 Using positive reinforcement, such as
praise, will make good behavior more
rewarding for children.
 It is probably unrealistic to believe that
punishment will ever become unnecessary.

Making Punishment More Effective
1. Punishment is most effective when it is applied
during the misbehavior or as soon afterward as
possible. Interrupting the problem behavior is
most effective because doing so abruptly halts its
rewarding aspects.
2. Ideally, punishment should be of the minimum
severity necessary to suppress the problem
behavior. The intensity of the punishment should
match the seriousness of the misdeed.

Making Punishment More Effective
(continued)
3. To be effective, punishment must be
applied consistently. A parent cannot
ignore misbehavior one day and punish
the same act the next.

Spontaneous Recovery
 If the reinforcement is withdrawn or
terminated, responses decrease until it
returns to its predetermined frequency. If a
behaviour can be shaped, it can also be
extinguished.

Applications of Operant Conditioning
Shaping the behavior of animals
 The principles of operant conditioning
are used effectively to train animals not
only to perform entertaining tricks, but
also to help physically challenged people
lead more independent lives.

Applications of Operant Conditioning
(conditioned)
 A person sees that they have a
homework assignment, they complete it
and receive a good grade on it.
 The child performs poorly in school, and
the parent takes the child’s candy away.

Applications of operant conditioning (continued)
 Frank gets paid at Horner Box such that every 100
boxes he makes he gets 10.00
 Not making a lot of noise in class can get you a reward
of a sticker
 Many classroom teachers and parents use time out –
a behavior modification technique in which a child
who is misbehaving is removed for a short time from
sources of positive reinforcement.

Cognitive Learning
Types of Cognitive Learning
 Insight Learning
 Latent Learning or Cognitive Map
 Observational Learning

Cognitive Learning
 Cognitive processes: mental processes
such as thinking, knowing, problem
solving, remembering, and forming
mental representations.
 According to cognitive theorists, these
processes are critically important in a
more complete, more comprehensive
view of learning.

Cognitive Learning
Insight Learning (continued)
Wolfgang Köhler
 Psychologist
 Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and
phenomenologist who, like Max Wertheimer, and Kurt
Koffka, contributed to the creation of Gestalt
psychology. Wikipedia
 Born: January 21, 1887,Tallinn, Estonia
 Died: June 11, 1967
 Education: University of Tübingen, Humboldt University
of Berlin,University of Bonn

Cognitive Learning
Insight Learning(continued)
Wolfgang Köhler
 Nazi regime in Germany, he protested against
the dismissal of Jewish professors from
universities, as well as the requirement that
professors give a Nazi salute at the beginning of
their classes. In 1935 he left the country for the
United States, where Swarthmore College in
Pennsylvania offered him a professorship. He
taught with its faculty for 20 years, and did
continuing research.

Cognitive Learning
 Wolfgang Köhler
 Wrote The Mentality of Apes
 Did experiments on chimpanzees confined in
caged areas
 Observed the chimps’ unsuccessful attempts to
reach a bunch of bananas inside the caged area
that were overhead, out of reach of the chimps
 Eventually the chimps solved the problem by
piling the boxes one on top of the other and
climbing on the boxes until they could reach the
bananas

Cognitive Learning
 Insight: the sudden realization of the
relationship between elements in a problem
situation, which makes the solution apparent.
 A solution gained through insight is more
easily learned, less likely to be forgotten, and
more readily transferred to new problems
than a solution learned through rote
memorization.

Cognitive Learning
Latent Learning and Cognitive Maps
 Edward Tolman believed that learning could
take place without reinforcement.
 Latent learning is learning that occurs
without apparent reinforcement, but that is
not demonstrated until the organism is
motivated to do so.
 Cognitive map: a mental representation of
a spatial arrangement, such as a maze.

Cognitive Learning
Observational Learning
 Albert Bandura contends that many
behaviors or responses are acquired
through observational learning, or as he
more often calls it now, social-cognitive
learning.
 Observational learning (sometimes called
modeling): learning by observing the
behavior of others and the consequences of
that behavior; learning by imitation.

Cognitive Learning
Observational Learning (continued)
 A model is the individual who
demonstrates a behavior or serves as an
example in observational learning.
 The effectiveness of a model is related to
his or her status, competence, and
power.

Cognitive Learning
 Recent research has also shown that
observational learning is improved when
several sessions of observation precede
attempts to perform the behavior and are
also repeated in the early stages of
practicing it.
 An observer must also be physically and
cognitively capable of performing the
behavior in order to learn it.

Cognitive Learning
 Modeling effect: learning a new behavior from a
model through the acquisition of new responses.
 Elicitation effect: exhibiting a behavior similar to
that of a model in an unfamiliar situation.
 Disinhibitory effect: displaying a previously
suppressed behavior because a model does so
without receiving punishment.
 Inhibitory effect: suppressing a behavior because a
model is punished for displaying the behavior.

Cognitive Learning
Learning from Television and Other Media
 Albert Bandura
 Suspected that aggression and violence on
television programs tend to increase aggression
in children
 Demonstrated how children are influenced by
exposure to aggressive models
 His research sparked interest in studying the
effects of violence and aggression portrayed in
other entertainment media

Cognitive Learning
Learning from Television and Other Media
 Recently published longitudinal evidence
shows that the effects of childhood exposure
to violence persist well into the adult years.
 Just as children imitate the aggressive
behavior they observe on television, they also
imitate the prosocial, or helping, behavior
they see there.

-“Life is a series of
experiences, each of it grows us,
even sometimes it is hard to
realize this. The world is meant
to build character, and we must
learn that the downfalls and
grieves we endure help us in our

THANK YOU!!!
-End of Discussion-

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