Learning involves relatively permanent changes in behavior or capacity that result from experience. There are two main theories of learning: association/stimulus-response theories which view learning as the strengthening of connections between stimuli and responses, and cognitive theories which focus on internal cognitive processes rather than external stimuli. Famous association theorists include Thorndike, Pavlov, and Skinner, while cognitive theorists include Köhler and Bandura. Key concepts in learning theories are conditioning, reinforcement, extinction, generalization, discrimination, and observational/social learning.

2. DEFINITION OF LEARNING
 A process through which one’s capacity or
disposition is changed as a result of
experience – Craig
 The process by which behavior originates
or is altered through experience –
Whittaker

3. DEFINITION OF LEARNING
 A relatively permanent change in behavior that
occurs as a result of experience – Witting and
Hilgard
 Changes resulting from development and
experience are emphasized; changes resulting
from maturation such as growing, innate
tendencies like reflexes and conditions caused
by fatigue, drugs and diseases are strictly not
considered as learned behavior.

4. THEORIES OF LEARNING
 The association or stimulus-response (SR)
theories – emphasize the establishment and
strengthening of relationships between the
stimulus (S) and the response (R) and
emphasize the role of reinforcement in the
learning process.
 The non-association or cognitive theories –
do not see learning as just a stimulus-response
interaction. They focus on the cognitive
structures of man as a basis for learning.

5. ASSOCIATION OR STIMULUS-
RESPONSE THEORIES
1. Thorndlike’s connectionism
(1)Man learns by trial and error.
(2)Man learns the act which leads to a “satisfactory
state of affairs” and eliminates those which do not.
(3)Two Laws of Learning
 The law of exercise – states that stimulus-response
(SR) connections are strengthened by practice or
repetition
 The law of effect – states that the SR bound or
connections are strengthened by rewards or

6. ASSOCIATION OR STIMULUS-
RESPONSE THEORIES
2. Classical or Respondent Conditioning
(1)Classical conditioning involves the formation
(or strengthening) of an association between a
conditioned stimulus together with an
unconditioned stimulus.
(2)For variables
 Unconditioned stimulus (US) – any stimulus
that has the ability to elicit a response without
previous training

7. ASSOCIATION OR STIMULUS-
RESPONSE THEORIES
 Conditioned stimulus (CS) – a stimulus
which initially does not elicit the response
under study but comes to do so by being
paired with the unconditioned stimulus
 Unconditioned response (UR) – the original
response to an unconditioned stimulus
 Conditioned response (CR) – the learned
response to a conditioned stimulus

8. FOUR BASIC LAWS OF
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
1. Law of excitation – applies when a
previously neutral stimulus acquires the
property of eliciting the conditioned
response.
2. Law of internal inhibition – The conditioned
response will not be elicited if the conditioned
stimulus is not simultaneously presented with
the unconditioned stimulus.

9. FOUR BASIC LAWS OF
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
3. Law of external inhibition – Excitatory or
inhibitory processes in conditioning can occur
when new and distracting stimuli are
presented and then removed.
4. Extinction – It occurs when the conditioned
response is no longer elicited by the
conditioned stimulus because the conditioned
stimulus was constantly presented alone
without the paired stimulus.

10. OTHER CONCEPTS INVOLVED IN
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
1. Stimulus generalization – The conditioned
response can be elicited not only by the
original conditioned stimulus but only other
stimuli similar to the conditioned stimulus.
2. Spontaneous recovery – A conditioned
response which does not appear for some
time re-occurs without further conditioning.

11. OTHER CONCEPTS INVOLVED IN
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
3. Higher order conditioning – the process
by which a conditioned stimulus may become
an unconditioned stimulus.

12. PRINCIPLE OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING
1. Reinforcement
(1) Anything that increase the
probability that a particular response
will increase in frequency
(2) Response may be reinforced by the
presentation (positive) or removal
(negative) of particular consequences.
Positive and negative reinforces do not
connote “good” or “bad”.
(3) Primary reinforces - satisfy basic

13. PRINCIPLE OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING
(4) Secondary or conditioned reinforces –
are not innately reinforcing. (money, grades, and
praise)
(5) A single reinforce is not reinforcing for long
periods due to satiation. Satiation refers to the
process whereby the effectiveness of a reinforce
decreases with repeated presentation.
(6) Continuous schedule – The reinforcement
follows every correct response. This seems to
be the quickest way to teach a new response.
Only correct responses are to be reinforced.

14. PRINCIPLE OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING
(7) Ratio schedule – Reinforces are given
only after a particular number of responses
have been made.
 Fixed-ratio schedule – If a reinforce is
given after a definite number of correct
responses.
 Variable-ratio schedule – When the
reinforcement is given after a varying number
of responses.

15. PRINCIPLE OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING
(8) Interval schedule – is dependent on time. For
reinforcement to be considered under this
type, two conditions must be met. First, a
particular interval of time must elapse since the
last reinforcement. Second, a correct response
must occur after the first interval. Both time and
response must be considered.
 Fixed-interval schedule – Reinforcement is
given after a fixed time or duration
 Variable-interval schedule – Reinforcers are
administered invariably without any fixed time.

16. PRINCIPLE OF OPERANT
CONDITIONING
2. Shaping – the process whereby the responses are
successively conditioned gradually in an ever-
increasing fashion to resemble the terminal
behaviour.
3. Extinction – The reinforcement is withdrawn
resulting in a gradual decline in response frequency
until it goes back to its pre-conditioning frequency.
Extinction is usually employed to terminate an
undesirable behavior.
4. Punishment – may be occur in two ways; the
presentation of an unpleasant event, the removal of a
pleasant event.

17. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
1. The principle of generalization – the
tendency of the human organism to attribute
learned bits of information, or a particular
movement or skill to a whole class of similar
information or skill
2. Principle of Discriminative learning - allows
a person to learn different responses to be used
in situations that are similar to other situations
already encountered.

18. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING
3. Principle of reinforcement schedule – refers to the
retention or learned skills without the need for further
coaching or rewards.
(1) Continuous rewards which entail that in the
beginning of trained; a person is rewarded every time
the proper response is elicited.
(2) Intermittent rewards involves providing praise or
reward at regular intervals
(3) No reward should be given once the skill has
already been acquired.
4. Principle of imitation and identification – involves
learning desired behaviours by observing others who
deliberately or inadvertently demonstrate the
responses

19. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
1. Albert Bandura and Richard H. Walter believe
that there is a reciprocal relationships between
behaviour and the conditions that control it.
Their theory also maintains the importance of
the stimulus-response connection in social
learning.
2. Modeling and imitation – Human beings learn
from the models they are exposed to. Children
who often see aggressive behaviour display
more aggressive behaviour than those who are
not exposed to such behavior. The age, sex, and
status of subjects are also crucial factors.
Imitation involves copying the behaviour of the
mode one is exposed to.

20. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
3. Four subprocesses
(1) Attention – For any observational learning
to occur, the model stimulus must be attended
to.
(2) Retention – What has been observed must
be retained if the model’s behaviour is to exert
influence even after a period of time.
(3) Motoric reproduction – Imitation follows
only if the individual had motoric reproduction or
actually imitated the behaviour of the model.
(4) Reinforcement – is internal rather than
external. The reinforcement is a motivational
factor rather than a strengthening factor.

21. COGNITIVE LEARNING
1. This theory focuses on the cognitive structured rather
than on stimulus-response connections as the crucial
factors in learning.
2. Insight learning
(1) Wolfgang Kholer believed that animals are
capable of intellectual accomplishments other than
trial-and-error learning that Thorndlike proposed. He
maintained that animals are able to see relationships
between objects and events and act accordingly to
achieve their ends. He believed that animals can have
a clear and immediate understanding of the solution to
a problem that presumably does not involve trial-and-
error learning.

22. COGNITIVE LEARNING
(2) Human beings have the power of looking into
relationships involve in a problem and in coming up
with a solution.
(3) Insight involves a sudden restructuring or
organization of the organism’s perceptual world into
a new pattern or gestalt.
(4) Insight learning has five characteristics. First, the
greater the intelligence the greater are the
possibilities of achieving insight. Second, the
stringer the experiences of the organism, the greater
possibility it will have of achieving insight.
Third, insight learning can be tested in the
laboratory. Fourth, insight learning can be applied to
new situation. Finally, even if insightful learning is
not the result of trial and error, trial and error is

23. COGNITIVE LEARNING
3. Sign Learning
(1) Sign learning is defined as and acquired
expectation that one stimulus will be followed
by another in a particular context.
(2) Behavior is goal-oriented and defined by a
purpose. It is either going towards something or
getting away from something.
(3) Cognitive learning is usually more than the
gathering of information; it involves new ways of
learning, acting, and evaluating.

24. TRANSFER OF LEARNING
1. Learning to learn – experiments with verbal learning
show that subjects increase their speed in learning
word lists over a period of days. This is seen when
the words are not similar, and indication that during
the learning process, the subjects develop a
technique that facilitates subsequent learning.
2. Mastery of principles – when principles are
mastered, it will be easy to apply them to new
situations. The principles learned in radio repairing, if
mastered, may easily facilitate the learning of other
tasks.