This document provides an overview of various learning theories including: - Watson's behaviorism which focuses on observable behaviors rather than internal processes. - Guthrie's contiguity theory which states that learning occurs through association between stimuli and responses. - Hull's drive reduction theory which proposes that drives create arousal states that motivate learning. - Tolman's purposivism which viewed learning as purposeful and involving cognition, not just responses. - Kurt Lewin's field theory which examines patterns of interaction between individuals and their environments. - Bandura's social learning theory which emphasizes observational learning and modeling. - Vygotsky's social constructivism which proposes that knowledge is socially constructed through interactions.

1. PSYCHOLOGY OF THE LEARNERS
UNIT-III
LEARNING THEORIES
Dr.N.SASIKUMAR
Assistant Professor
Department of Education
Alagappa University
Karaikudi-630003

2. MEANING OF LEARNING
• Learning is the process by which an individual acquires knowledge,
attitudes and skills that are necessary to meet the demands of life.
• While touching a burning candle, a child gets burnt and he withdraws
the fingers. When he faces a similar situation again he withdraws his
fingers faster. Gradually he learns to avoid not only the burning
candle but also other burning things. The behaviour of an individual
is thus changed through experiences. This change in behaviour
brought about by experiences is commonly known as learning.
• Learning means change in behaviour or behaviour potential that
occurs as a result of experience. Learning can result from both
vicarious and direct experiences. Vicarious means observing
someone and learning from that observation and not being directly
involved in the experience.

3. DEFINITIONS OF LEARNING
• Gardener Murphy: “The term learning covers
every modification in behaviour to meet
environmental requirements.”
• Henry P. Smith: “Learning is the acquisition of new
behaviour or the strengthening or weakening of old
behaviour as the result of experience.”
• Crow & crow: “Learning is the acquisition of
habits, knowledge & attitudes. It involves new ways
of doing things and it operates in individuals
attempts to overcome obstacles or to adjust to new
situations. It represents progressive changes in
behaviour. It enables him to satisfy interests to attain
goals.

4. NATURE OF LEARNING
• Learning is Universal
• Learning is through Experience.
• Learning is from all Sides
• Learning is Continuous.
• It results in Change in Behaviour
• Learning is an Adjustment
• It comes about as a result of practice.
• Learning is a relatively Permanent Change
• Learning as Growth and Development.
• Learning is not directly observable.

5. TYPES OF LEARNING
• Motor learning
• Verbal learning
• Concept learning
• Discrimination learning
• Learning of principles
• Problem solving
• Attitude learning

6. ATTENTION
• Attention is the ability to actively process specific
information in the environment while tuning out
other details.
• Attention is limited in terms of both capacity and
duration, so it is important to have ways to
manage effectively manage the attentional
resources we have available in order to make
sense of the world.
• attention determined the content of consciousness
and influenced the quality of conscious
experience.- Edward Titchener

7. TYPES OF ATTENTION
• Sustained Attention- the ability to focus on one thing for a
continuous period.
• Alternating Attention- multitasking or effortlessly shift
attention between two or more things with different cognitive
demands.
• Selective Attention- involves being able to choose and
selectively attend to certain stimuli in the environment.
• Focused Attention- involves being able to be suddenly
drawn to a specific visual, auditory, or tactile stimuli such as
a loud noise or a flash of light.
• Limited Attention- Limited attention, or divided attention, is
a form of attention that also involves multitasking.|(illusion-
Hallucinations are sensory experiences that appear real but
are created by your mind. They can affect all five of your
senses.

8. MOTIVATION
• Motivation is the process that initiates, guides,
and maintains goal-oriented behaviors.
• Motivation involves the biological, emotional,
social, and cognitive forces that activate
behavior. In everyday usage, the term
"motivation" is frequently used to describe why
a person does something. It is the driving force
behind human actions.

9. TYPES OF MOTIVATION
• Extrinsic motivations are those that arise from outside
of the individual and often involve rewards such as
trophies, money, social recognition, or praise.
• Intrinsic motivations are those that arise from within
the individual, such as doing a complicated crossword
puzzle purely for the personal gratification of solving a
problem.
• Positive Motivation Positive motivation or incentive
motivation is based on reward. The workers are offered
incentives for achieving the desired goals.
• Negative Motivation-Negative or fear motivation is
based on force or fear.

10. REMEMBERING & FORGETTING
• Memory is our ability to encode, store, retain and subsequently recall
information and past experiences in the human brain.
• Ryburn defines memory as “the power we have to store our
experiences and to bring them into the field of consciousness
sometimes after the experiences have occurred”
• The process of memorization , can not be viewed merely in terms of
reproduction or revival of past experiences or learning. It is quite a
complex process which involves factors like learning, retention, recall
and recognition .
• Memory is the sum total of what we remember , and gives us the
capability to learn and adapt from previous experiences as well as to
build relationships.
• It is the ability to remember past experiences , and the power or
process of recalling to mind previously learned facts, experiences,
impressions, skills and habits.

11. Our mind possesses a special ability by
which every experience or learning leaves
behind memory images or traces which are
conserved in the forms of engrams .
 Thus what is learned leaves its after effect
which is conserved in the form of engrams
composed of memory traces. This preservation
of the memory traces by our central nervous
system or brain is known as retention of the
learned or experienced act

12. Learning
Memory depends upon learning. It is not possible to
keep memorized any thing without learning. Learning
by understanding and learning mechanically have
significance in learning.
Retention
Keeping the learnt things in the rain is its retention. If
the retention power of a person is weaken, his related
memory also weaken. There are found individual
difference in the retention power

13. Recall
Remembering a prior experience is its recall. Recall is
such a mental process by which we bring to our
present consciousness the past incidents and
experiences without presenting a physical stimuli.
Recall classified into two:
Natural or Dispositional : Natural recall occurs by
itself when we let the thought flow freely, any thought
can come to the mind.
Reflective or Deliberative : here the thought occur to
the mind on making effort.Eg. student recall the
answer pertaining to the question given to the question
paper.

14. Recognition
It is a mental process by which an individual
separates or distinguishes recognized objects
and places from unknown objects and places
from a new objects or places.Recognition is the
completeness of memory

15. Hereisasimplifieddescriptionof howmemory works:
Encoding: the information gets
into our brains in a way that
allows it to be stored
Storage: the information is held
in a way that allows it to later be
retrieved
Retrieval: reactivating and
recalling the information,
producing it in a form similar to
what was encoded
Encodin
g
Storage
Retrieva
l

16. Encoding is based on perception and is
the first step to creating a memory.
The strength of the memory depends on
how much attention is paid to the
stimuli.
During encoding memories are developed
in the hippocampus by using the
language of electricity and chemicals.
When we create new memories with
words and images it adds strength to
our encoding abilities.

17. LION BEAR PIG
COW CHICKEN BIR
D
ELEPHAN
T
GIRAFFE DOG

18. Whichof thefollowingwordswasnotonthelist?
A. Lion
B. Chicken
C. Elephant
D. Tiger
E. Dog

19. HATE IRATE HAPPY
MAD FURIOUS MEAN
CALM ENRAGED FUMIN
G

20. Types/Kinds ofmemory
HabitMemoryandTrueMemory
Habit memory is depends upon mere
motor mechanism and the true
memory depends on independent
recollections
Immediate memory :
Here we learn
and remember a thing for a short
time and forget it Permanent
memory: Here retentionis
of a
permanent nature. It is also known as
stable memory. Here we memories
things for a lifetime/long time

21. Active memory : when we are able to bring the past
experience to the upper level of consciousness with
effort , it is called active memory
Passive memory : when our past
experiences surface to the upper level
of consciousness without any effort, it
is called passive memory
Logical memory: materials are learned
with insight, understanding and
logical thinking is known as logical
memory
Associate memory: Here the individual
associate newly learned things so
many related things existing in the
memory and then establish a multiple

22. Methods of Memory Whole method
Under this method the whole subject matter is
learnt at a time. Under this method the lesson is
read from beginning to end repeatedly. This
method is quite useful for smaller lessons
Part method
Here the subject matter is divided into separate
parts. Eg learning long poetry in parts. This
method is simple and convenient
Break/interval method
Here the subject matter is learnt by taking
intervals . Learning things over long time
continuously may weaken memory. It relaxes the
mind and readies learning.

23. Continuous Method
Under this method the whole subject matter is
memorized in one sitting without giving a break in
between.
This method is effective for immediate memory
Active method
Under this method the subject
matter is memorized by speaking
loudly . This method is more beneficial for
children.
Passive method
Under this method the subject matter is learnt
silently. Association method
Here the subject matter is correlated to any other
important subject matter , by which there are

24. Learning by activity
Here the subject matter is learned
through an activity by which all senses
of the child become active and it helps to
memorize easily and conveniently.
Repetition method
Here the subject matter is repeated at the
end of the lesson. Generally the more the
time given to repetition of a subject, the
more it is memorized

25. Factors influencing memory
Physical and mental health
A physically and mentally healthy
individual can learn a new topic soon.
Diseased body and mind weaken memory
Motivation
Motivation occupies a very prominent
place in memory. Motivation makes a
difficult task easy .
Desire to learn
Desire or curiosity to learn also influence
on memory . No task can be
accomplished by pressure.

26. Subject matter
If the subject matter is simple, clear,
interesting and useful, the child
memorize subject mater easily.
Method oflearning
The method of learning has influence on
memory. If the method suitable to the
subject is not adapted the children never
learn or memorize it
Testing
Child memory can be developed by
testing, so testing and evaluation should
continue in order to keep memory active

27. FORGETTING
Forgetting is inability to recall a learnt topic or
inability recognize a seen object.
“Forgetting means failure at any time to recall an
experience when attempting to do so or to perform
an action previously learned” – Drever
“forgetting is the failure of the individual to revive
in consciousness an idea or group of ideas
without the help of the original stimuli”- Bhatia

28. Types of forgetting
Forgetting may be broadly classified into
natural and morbid forgetting
in natural or passive forgetting, forgetting
occurs with the lapse of time in a quite normal
way without any intention of forgetting on the
part of the individual
In morbid or abnormal forgetting one
deliberately tries to forget something.

29. CAUSES OF FORGETTING
Meaninglessness of content
We forget meaningless and useless content as
compared to meaningful and useful content, because
meaningless content does not leave any imprint on the
mind and it fails to establish any relationship with life.
Time Lapse
We forget with the passage of time. Memory weakens
with the passage of time and forgetting strengthen.

30. Exercise
So long the knowledge or activity is not
repeatedly exercised, it gradually forget. Forgetting
occurs due to the absence of exercise, therefore
more exercise is helpful in memory.
Mental conflict or Mental illness
Situations like mental conflicts or illness people
find himself unable to retain a thing in memory for
a long time.
Anxiety
Anxiety also cause in enhancing forgetting. An
individual forgets many things or does them
wrongly when he is anxious.

31. Learning methods
When the teacher does not use the method
which are according to the physical, mental,
emotional and social levels of the child, then
the forgetting occurs more by the use of
these methods.
Intoxicants
Excessive use of different type of intoxicants
has ill effect on the mind and memory power
weakens.

32. Transfer of learning
Transfer of learning means the use of previously acquired
knowledge and skills in new learning or problem-solving
situations. Thereby similarities and analogies between
previous and actual learning content and processes may
play a crucial role.
There are three types of transfer of learning:
Positive transfer: When learning in one situation
facilitates learning in another situation, it is known as
positive transfer.
Negative transfer: When learning of one task makes the
learning of another task harder- it is known as negative
transfer
Neutral transfer:

33. Learning Styles are based on the idea that people learn in
different ways, and that each individual has a natural or
preferred way of learning.
Types of Learning Styles
Visual learning (pictures, movies, diagrams)
Auditory learning (music, discussion, lectures)
Reading and writing (making lists, reading textbooks,
taking notes)
Kinesthetic learning (movement, experiments, hands-on
activities)
Learning Styles

34. Cognition & Meta Cognition
Cognition is a term referring to the mental processes involved in
gaining knowledge and comprehension. These cognitive processes
include thinking, knowing, remembering, judging, and problem-
solving. These are higher-level functions of the brain and
encompass language, imagination, perception, and planning.
Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one's thinking.
More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and
assess one's understanding and performance.
Metacognition is "cognition about cognition", "thinking about
thinking", "knowing about knowing", becoming "aware of one's
awareness" and higher-order thinking skills.
Metacognition can take many forms; it includes knowledge
about when and how to use particular strategies for learning or
problem-solving.

35. Watson's behaviorism
Watson's behaviorist theory focused not on the internal
emotional and psychological conditions of people, but rather on
their external and outward behaviors.
He believed that a person's physical responses provided the
only insight into internal actions.
Behaviorism emphasizes the role of environmental factors in
influencing behavior, to the near exclusion of innate or inherited
factors. This amounts essentially to a focus on learning.
Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable
behavior, as opposed to internal events like thinking and
emotion.
We learn new behavior through classical or operant
conditioning .

36. Guthrie's contiguity theory specifies that “a combination of stimuli which has
accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement”.
According to Guthrie, all learning was a consequence of association between a
particular stimulus and response.
Guthrie's contiguity theory

37. Hull used the term drive to refer to the state of tension or arousal caused by
biological or physiological needs. Thirst, hunger, and the need for warmth are all
examples of drives. A drive creates an unpleasant state, a tension that needs to be
reduced
Hull’s Drive reeducation theory

38. Tolman’s theory of Purposivism
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's purposive behaviorism, behavior
implied a performance, the achievement of an
altered relationship between the organism and its
environment; behavior was functional and
pragmatic; behavior involved motivation and
cognition; behavior revealed purpose.

41. kurt lewin’s field theory
Field theory is a psychological theory which examines patterns of interaction between the
individual and the total field, or environment. The concept first made its appearance in
psychology with roots to the holistic perspective of Gestalt theories. It was developed by
Kurt Lewin, a Gestalt psychologist,

43. Bandura is known for his social learning theory. He is quite different from other
learning theorists who look at learning as a direct result of conditioning, reinforcement,
and punishment. Bandura asserts that most human behavior is learned through
observation, imitation, and modeling.
Bandura’s Modeling and observation
Learning Theory

46. Vygotsky’s Theory of Social Constructivism
Vygotsky's theory states that knowledge is co-constructed and
that individuals learn from one another.
It is called a social constructivist theory because in Vygotsky's
opinion the learner must be engaged in the learning process.
Vygotsky's approach to child development is a form of social
constructivism, based on the idea that cognitive functions are the
products of social interactions.
 Vygotsky emphasized the collaborative nature of learning by the
construction of knowledge through social negotiation