The document discusses several theories of learning: 1) Behavioral theories including Pavlov's classical conditioning, Thorndike's law of effect, and Skinner's operant conditioning which use reinforcement and consequences to shape behavior. 2) Social learning theory developed by Bandura which emphasizes learning from observing and modeling others, involving attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. 3) Definitions of learning focus on acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes through experience that enables better adaptation. Learning is explained as a reflective process that develops understanding or changes mental processes.

1. Theories of
By RALPH NICOLE A. SEVILLA

2. Theory of Learning
• Theories of learning are
set of conjectures and
hypotheses that explain
the process of learning
or how learning takes
place.

3. Definitions of Learning
1.Ornstein (1990)
Learning is a reflective
process wherby the
learner either develops
new insights and
understanding or changes
and restructures his
mental process.

4. 2. Lardizabal (1991)
Learning is an integrated,
on-going process occurring
within the individual,
enabling him to meet
specific aims, fulfill his needs
and interests, and cope
with the learning process.

5. 3. Slavin (1995)
Learning is a change in an
individual caused by
experience.

6. 4. Calderon (1998)
Learning is the acquisition through
maturation and experience of new and
more knowledge, skills, and attitudes
that will enable the learner to make
better and more adequate reactions,
responses, and adjustments to new
situations.

7. How about you,
how do you
define learning?

8. Behavioral Theories
of Learning

9. Behavioral Theories of Learning
• Behavioral learning theories help us
to explain much of human behavior,
particularly observable behavior.

10. 1. Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning Theory
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Pavlov and
his colleagues studies the digestive process in
dogs. During the research, the scientists noticed
changes in the timing and rate of salivation of
these animals. Pavlov observed that if meat
powder was placed in or near the mouth of a
hungry dog, the dog would salivate.

11. Because the meat powder provoked this
response automatically without any prior
training or conditioning the meat powder is
referred to as an unconditioned stimulus.
Similarly, because salivation occurred
automatically in the presence of meat, also
without the need for any training of
experience, this response of salivating is
referred to as an unconditioned response.

12. Pavlov’s experiments showed that if a
previously neutral stimulus (ringing of the bell)
is paired with an unconditioned stimulus, the
neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned
stimulus and gains the power to prompt a
response similar to that produced by the
unconditioned stimulus.

14. Principles of Classical Conditioning
a. Generalization appears to explain the transfer of
a response to a situation other than that in which
the original learning occurred.
b. Discrimination refers to the process by which we
learn not to respond to similar stimuli in an
identical manner.
c. Extinction refers to the process by which
conditioned responses are lost.

15. 2. Thorndike’s S-R Theory
Thorndike, like many of the early behavioral
learning theorists, linked behavior to physical
reflexes. In his early work he also viewed most
behavior as a response to stimuli in the
environment. This view that stimuli can
prompt responses was the forerunner of what
became known as stimulus-response (S-R)
theory.

16. Thorndike went beyond Pavlov by showing that
stimuli that occurred after a behavior had an
influence on future behaviors. In many of his
experiments, Throndike placed cats in boxes
from which they had to escape to get food. He
observed that over time, the cats learned how
to get out of the box more and more quickly by
repeating the behaviors that led to escape and
not repeating the behaviors that were
ineffective.

18. Laws of Learning by Thorndike
a. Law of Effect
It states that if an act is followed by a
satisfying change in the environment,
the likelihood that the act will be
repeated in similar situations increases.

19. b. Law of Readiness
It states that when an organism, both human
and animal, is ready to form connections to do so
is satisfying and not to do so is annoying.
c. Law of Exercise
It states that any connection is strengthened in
proportion to the number of times it occurs and
in proportion to the average vigor and duration
of the connection.

20. 3. B.F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning Theory
He proposed that reflective behavior accounts for
only a small proportion of all actions. He
proposed another class of behavior, which he
labeled operant behaviors because they operate
on the environment in the apparent absence of
any unconditioned stimuli, such as food. The use
of pleasant and unpleasant consequences to
change behavior is often referred to as operant
conditioning.

21. The operant conditioning theory was based on
Skinner’s experiment with a hungry rat that was
placed in a box. Upon its accidental pressing of a
lever in the box, it was rewarded with a food
pellet which served as reinforcement to the
reinforcing behavior. Reinforced thus, the rat kept
on pressing that bar, this time no longer
accidentally but intentionally. Skinner has shown
that basic to operant conditioning is the use of
reinforcement.

22. • Reinforcement
- It is defined as any behavioural
consequence that strengthens a
behavior. It refers to any event that
increases the probability that a
particular response will increase in
frequency.

23. 2 Forms of Reinforcers
a. Positive reinforcers (Presentation)
- These are events that are presented after a
response has been performed and that
increases the behavior or activity they follow.
b. Negative reinforcers (Removal)
- These are escapes from unpleasant situations
or ways of preventing something unpleasant
from occurring.

24. 4. Social Learning Theory
This theory is a major outgrowth of the behavioural
learning theory tradition. Developed by Albert
Bandura, the social learning theory accepts most of the
principles of behavioural theories but focuses to a much
greater degree on the effects of cues on behavior and
on internal mental processes, emphasizing the effects of
thought on action and action on thought. Bandura felt
that much of human learning is not shaped by his
consequences but is more efficiently learned directly
from a model.

25. Bandura’s Model of Observational Learning
a. Attention. An observer must attend to and
recognize the distinctive features of the model’s
response because mere exposure to a model
does not ensure acquisition of behavior.
b. Retention. Reproduction of the desired behavior
implies that a student symbolically retains the
observed behavior.

26. c. Reproduction. Bandura believes that symbolic
coding produces internal models of the
environment that guide the observer’s future
behavior.
d. Motivation. Although an observer acquires and
retains the ability to perform modelled behavior,
there will be no overt performances unless
conditions are favorable.

27. REFERENCE
Vega, V.A. & Prieto, N.G., (2006), Facilitating
Learning, Mandaluyung City, Philippines