Content
- An Introduction
- Features of Learning
- Paradigms of learning
- Classical Conditioning
- Operant/Instrumental Conditioning
- Factor Influencing Operant conditioning
- Observation Learning
- Cognitive Learning
- Verbal Learning
- Concept Learning
- Skill Learning
- Transfer of Learning
- Style of Learning
- Learning Disability
- Application of Learning
An Introduction
As mentioned previously, learning is a critical component of human behavior. It is a term that refers to a range of changes that occur as a result of one's experiences. The term "learning" refers to "any relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral potential caused by experience." One must bear in mind that certain behavioural changes occur as a result of drug use or exhaustion. These changes are only temporary. They are not considered to be educational. Changes brought about by practice and experience are illustrative of learning because they are relatively permanent.
Features of Learning
The process of learning is unique in several ways. The first characteristic is that learning is always accompanied by some form of experience. On a number of occasions, we observe an event occurring in a particular sequence. If an event occurs, it may be followed by additional events. For instance, one learns that if the hostel's bell rings after sunset, dinner is ready to be served. The repeated experience of satisfaction from performing an action in a prescribed manner results in the formation of a habit. Occasionally, a single experience can result in learning. A child strikes a matchstick against the side of a matchbox, resulting in burns to her/his fingers. This experience teaches the child to be cautious when handling the matchbox in the future.
The changes in behavior that occur as a result of learning are relatively permanent. They must be distinguished from transient and unlearned behavioural changes. For instance, behavioural changes frequently occur as a result of fatigue, habituation, and drug use. If you spend an extended period of time reading a psychology textbook or attempting to learn how to drive a car, you will eventually become tired. You put down your book or your car. This is a temporary change in behaviour caused by fatigue. This is not considered education.
Consider another instance of behaviour modification. Assume a marriage is taking place near your residence. It generates a great deal of noise, which lasts until late at night. At first, the noise draws your attention away from whatever you are doing. You are distressed. You make some orienting reflexes while the noise continues. These reflexes gradually deteriorate and eventually become undetectable. This is also a type of behavioural modification. This alteration occurs as a result of continuous exposure to stimuli. This is referred to as habituation. This is not a result of education. You've probably noticed that when people take sedatives, drugs, or alcohol, their behaviour changes as a result of the drugs' or alcohol's effect on physiological functions. These changes are transient in nature and will fade away as the effect wears off.
Learning is the result of a series of psychological events. This becomes obvious when we describe a typical learning experiment. Assume that psychologists are interested in the process by which a list of words is learned. They will proceed in the following order:
- Conduct a pre-test to determine the level of knowledge the individual possesses prior to learning,
- Present the list of words to be remembered for a specified amount of time,
- During this time, the list of words is processed in order to acquire new knowledge,
- Once the processing is complete, new knowledge is acquired (this is LEARNING), and
- After a period of time has passed, the processed information is recalled by the individual. By comparing the number of words a person now knows to what s/he knew prior to the test, one can infer that learning occurred.
Thus, learning is a process that is inferred and distinct from performance. A person's performance is defined as their observed behavior, response, or action. Allow us to define the term "inference." Assume your teacher has assigned you the task of memorizing a poem. You've read the poem several times. Then you claim to have memorized the poem. You are asked to recite the poem, which you are capable of doing. Your performance is your recitation of the poem. The teacher infers from your performance that you have mastered the poem.
PARADIGMS OF LEARNING
Learning occurs in a variety of ways. Certain methods are used to acquire simple responses, while others are used to acquire complex responses.
This section will discuss each of these methods. Conditioning is the simplest form of learning. There are two distinct types of conditioning. The first is referred to as classical conditioning, while the second is referred to as instrumental/operant conditioning. Additionally, we have observational, cognitive, verbal, concept, and skill learning.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Ivan P. Pavlov was the first to investigate this type of learning. He was primarily interested in digestion physiology. He observed that the dogs on which he conducted his experiments began secreting saliva as soon as they saw the empty plate on which food was served. As you are probably aware, salivation is a reflexive response to food or other objects in the mouth. Pavlov devised an experiment to thoroughly understand this process, in which dogs were once again used. In the first phase, a dog was harnessed and placed in a box. The dog was left in the box for an extended period of time. This was repeated several times on various days. Meanwhile, a simple surgery was performed, with one end of a tube inserted into the dog's jaw and the other end into a measuring glass.
The dog was kept hungry during the second phase of the experiment and harnessed with one end of the tube in the jaw and the other end in the glass jar. A bell was sounded, and the dog was immediately served food (meat powder). The dog was permitted to consume it. For the next few days, each time the meat powder was presented, the sound of a bell preceded it. Following a series of such trials, a test trial was introduced in which everything was identical to the previous trials except that no food was served in response to the bell's sounding. The dog continued to salivate at the sound of the bell, anticipating the presentation of the meat powder with which the sound of the bell had become associated. This association between the bell and food resulted in the dog developing a new response, namely salivation in response to the sound of the bell. This process is referred to as conditioning. You may have noticed that when presented with food, all dogs salivate. Thus, food is an Unconditioned Stimulus (US), and salivation is an Unconditioned Response (UR) (UR). Salivation began to occur in response to the sound of the bell following conditioning.
The bell is converted to a Conditioned Stimulus (CS), and saliva secretion is converted to a Conditioned Response (CR) (CR). This is referred to as classical conditioning. Table 6.1 illustrates the procedure. Clearly, the learning situation in classical conditioning is one of S–S learning, in which one stimulus (e.g., the sound of a bell) serves as a signal for another stimulus (e.g., food). In this case, one stimulus indicates the possibility of the occurrence of another.
In everyday life, examples of classical conditioning abound. Consider that you have just finished your lunch and are satisfied. Then you notice a sweet dish being served on the adjacent table. This imparts a taste to the food in your mouth and initiates the secretion of saliva. You're tempted to eat it. This is a learned behaviour (CR). Consider another instance. In early childhood, one is naturally fearful of loud noises. Consider the case of a small child who catches an inflated balloon and it bursts in her/his hands, creating a loud noise. The child develops fear. When s/he is forced to hold a balloon again, it acts as a signal or cue for noise, eliciting a fear response. This occurs as a result of the balloon being presented as a conditioned stimulus (CS) concurrently with the loud noise being presented as an unconditioned stimulus (US).
Classical Conditioning's Determinants
The following factors influence the process of learning
- Temporal Relationships Among Stimuli:
- The classical conditioning procedures discussed below are classified into four broad categories based on the timing of the onset of the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US) (US). The first three procedures are referred to as forwarding conditioning procedures, while the fourth is referred to as backward conditioning procedures.
The following are the basic experimental arrangements for these procedures:
- Simultaneous conditioning occurs when the CS and US are presented concurrently.
- In delayed conditioning, CS occurs prior to US. The CS concludes prior to the conclusion of the US.
- In trace conditioning, the onset and termination of the CS occur prior to the onset and termination of the US, with a time interval between the two
- In reverse conditioning, the US occurs prior to the onset of CS.
The delayed conditioning procedure is now well established as the most effective method of obtaining a CR. While both simultaneous and trace conditioning procedures result in the acquisition of a CR, they necessitate a greater number of acquisition trials than the delayed conditioning procedure. It should be noted that response acquisition via backward conditioning is extremely rare.
2. Unconditioned Stimuli of the Following Types:
The unconditioned stimuli used in classical conditioning research are classified into two categories, namely appetitive and aversive. Unconditioned stimuli that are arousing automatically elicit approach responses such as eating, drinking, and caressing. These responses provide fulfillment and pleasure. The aversive US, on the other hand, such as noise, bitter taste, electric shock, or painful injections, are painful, harmful, and elicit avoidance and escape responses. Appetitive classical conditioning takes longer and requires a greater number of acquisition trials, whereas aversive classical conditioning takes one, two, or three trials, depending on the intensity of the aversive US.
The Intensity of Conditioned Stimuli has an effect on both the appetitive and aversive classical conditioning processes. Conditioning stimuli that are more intense are more effective at accelerating the acquisition of conditioned responses. This means that the stronger the conditioned stimulus, the fewer acquisition trials are required for conditioning.
OPERANT/INSTRUMENTAL CONDITIONING
B.F. Skinner was the first to investigate this type of conditioning. Skinner investigated the occurrence of voluntary responses when an organism interacts with its surroundings. He referred to them as operants. Operants are voluntary behaviors or responses emitted by animals and humans that are under their control. The term operant refers to how the organism interacts with its surroundings. Operant conditioning refers to the conditioning of operant behaviour. Skinner conducted his experiments on rats and pigeons in specially designed boxes known as the Skinner Box.
A hungry rat (one at a time) is placed in the chamber, which is designed so that the rat can move inside but not out. There was a lever in the chamber that was linked to a food container kept on the chamber's roof . When the lever is pressed, a food pellet falls onto the plate near the lever. The hungry rat accidentally presses the lever while moving around and pawing the walls (exploratory behavior), and a food pellet falls on the plate. It is devoured by the ravenous rat. After a while, the exploratory behaviour resumes in the next trial. The rat takes less and less time to press the lever for food as the number of trials increases. Conditioning is complete when the rat immediately presses the lever after being placed in the chamber. It is obvious that lever pressing is an operant response, and that the result is food.
In the preceding scenario, the response is critical to obtaining the food. As a result, this type of learning is also known as instrumental conditioning. In our daily lives, there are numerous examples of instrumental conditioning. Children who want to eat sweets in the absence of their mother learn to find and eat the jar in which their mother hides the sweets for safekeeping. To obtain favours from their parents and others, children learn to be polite and say 'please.' Based on the principle of instrumental conditioning, one learns to operate mechanical devices such as a radio, camera, television, and so on. Humans, in fact, learn shortcuts to achieve desired goals or ends through instrumental conditioning.
The Factors Influencing Operant Conditioning
You mentioned that operant or instrumental conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is learned, maintained, or changed by its consequences. Reinforcers are such consequences. A reinforcer is defined as any stimulus or event that increases the likelihood of a (desired) response occurring. A reinforcer has several characteristics that influence the direction and strength of response. They include its type (positive or negative), number or frequency, quality (superior or inferior), and schedule (constant or intermittent) (partial). All of these factors have an impact on the outcome of operant conditioning.
The nature of the response or behaviour to be conditioned is another factor that influences this type of learning. The time elapsed between the occurrence of a response and its reinforcement influences operant learning as well. Let's take a closer look at some of these factors.
Different Kinds of Reinforcement
Reinforcement can be both positive and negative. Positive reinforcement entails stimuli with pleasant outcomes. They reinforce and sustain the responses that caused them to occur. Positive reinforcers meet needs such as food, water, medals, praise, money, status, information, and so on. Unpleasant and painful stimuli are used as negative reinforcers. Negative reinforcement is provided by responses that lead organisms to avoid and escape from painful stimuli.
As a result, negative reinforcement leads to the development of avoidance and escape responses. To avoid the unpleasant cold weather, for example, one learns to wear woollen clothing, burn firewood, or use electric heaters. Because they provide negative reinforcement, one learns to avoid dangerous stimuli. It should be noted that negative reinforcement is not the same as punishment. Punishment reduces or suppresses the response, whereas a negative reinforcer increases the likelihood of avoidance or escape. Drivers and co-drivers, for example, wear seat belts to avoid injury in the event of an accident or to avoid being fined by the traffic police.
It should be understood that no punishment permanently suppresses a response. Punishment that is mild and delayed has no effect. The stronger the punishment, \sthe more lasting is the suppression effect but \sit is not permanent.
Punishment, no matter how severe, can sometimes have no effect. On the contrary, the punished individual may develop a dislike and hatred for the punishing agent or the person who administers the punishment.
Number of Reinforcements and Other Characteristics
The number of trials on which an organism has been reinforced or rewarded.
The amount of reinforcement refers to the amount of reinforcing stimulus (food or water or the intensity of the pain causing agent) received on each trial. The type of reinforcer is referred to as the quality of reinforcement. Chickpeas or bread are of lower quality when used as a reinforcer compared to raisins or cake. The course of operant conditioning is typically accelerated as the number, amount, and quality of reinforcement increases.
Reinforcement Schedules
A reinforcement schedule is the arrangement of reinforcement delivery during conditioning trials. Each reinforcement schedule influences the course of conditioning in its own unique way, resulting in conditioned responses with distinct characteristics. Reinforcement may be given to the organism being subjected to operant conditioning in every acquisition trial, or it may be given in some trials but not others. As a result, reinforcement can be continuous or intermittent. Continuous reinforcement occurs when a desired response is reinforced every time it occurs. In contrast, responses are sometimes reinforced and sometimes not in intermittent schedules. It's called partial reinforcement, and it's been shown to produce more resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement.
Reinforcement with Delay
The delay in the occurrence of reinforcement has a significant impact on the effectiveness of reinforcement. It has been discovered that a delay in the delivery of reinforcement leads to a lower level of performance. It is simple to demonstrate by asking children which reward they would prefer for completing a chore. Smaller rewards given immediately after completing a chore will be preferred over a large one given after a long period of time.
Important Learning Processes
Learning, whether classical or operant conditioning, involves the occurrence of certain processes. Reinforcement, extinction or non-occurrence of learned response, generalisation of learning to other stimuli under certain conditions, discrimination between reinforcing and non-reinforcing stimuli, and spontaneous recovery are examples of these.
- Reinforcement
- Reinforcement is the experimenter's administration of a reinforcer.
- Reinforcers are stimuli that increase the rate or likelihood of the preceding responses.
We found that reinforced responses increase in rate, whereas non-reinforced responses decrease in rate. A positive reinforcer boosts the rate of response that occurs prior to its presentation. Negative reinforcers increase the rate of the response that occurs before they are removed or terminated. Reinforcers can be either primary or secondary. A primary reinforcer is biologically significant because it determines an organism's survival (for example, food for a hungry organism). A secondary reinforcer is one that has acquired reinforcer characteristics as a result of the organism's experience with the environment. As reinforcers, we frequently use money, praise, and grades. They are referred to as secondary reinforcers. The systematic application of reinforcers can result in the desired response. A response of this type is formed by reinforcing successive approximations to the desired response.
Extinction
Extinction refers to the disappearance of a learned response as a result of the removal of reinforcement from the situation in which the response previously occurred. If the occurrence of CS-CR is not followed by the US in classical conditioning, or if food pellets in the Skinner box are no longer followed by lever pressing, the learned behaviour will gradually deteriorate and eventually disappear.
Learning demonstrates resistance to extinction.
It means that even if the learned response is no longer reinforced, it will continue to occur for a while. However, as the number of trials without reinforcement increases, the response strength gradually decreases and eventually ceases to occur. The length of time that a learned response remains resistant to extinction is determined by a number of factors. It has been discovered that as the number of reinforced trials increases, so does resistance to extinction, and the learned response reaches its peak. Performance is stabilised at this level. After that, the number of trials has no effect on the response strength. During acquisition trials, resistance to extinction increases with increasing number of reinforcements; however, any increase in number of reinforcements reduces resistance to extinction. Extinction resistance appears to decrease as the amount of reinforcement (number of food pellets) increases during the acquisition trials, according to research.
The resistance to extinction increases when reinforcement is delayed during acquisition trials. Reinforcement in each acquisition trial reduces the learned response's resistance to extinction. Intermittent or partial reinforcement during acquisition trials, on the other hand, makes a learned response more resistant to extinction.
Discrimination and generalization
Generalisation and discrimination are processes that occur in all types of learning. They have, however, been extensively researched in the context of conditioning. an organism has been trained to elicit a CR (saliva secretion or any other reflexive response) in response to the presentation of a CS (light or sound of a bell). After conditioning is established, and another stimulus similar to the CS (e.g., telephone ringing) is presented, the organism responds with the conditioned response. Generalisation refers to the phenomenon of responding similarly to similar stimuli. Assume a child has discovered the location of a jar of a specific size and shape in which sweets are kept. Even when the child's mother is not present, he or she discovers the jar and obtains the sweets. This is an operant that has been learned. The sweets are now kept in a different jar of different size and shape, in a different part of the kitchen. In the mother's absence, the child locates the jar and obtains the sweets.
This is an example of generalization as well. It is called generalisation when a learned response occurs or is elicited by a new stimulus.
Discrimination is a process that is complementary to generalization. Discrimination is a response to difference, whereas generalization is a response to similarity. Assume a child is conditioned to be afraid of a person with a long moustache and dressed in black. When the child meets another person dressed in black clothes with a beard in the following situation, he or she shows signs of fear. The child's apprehension is widespread. S/he meets another stranger who is dressed in grey and clean-shaven.
The child is unafraid. This is an example of prejudice. The occurrence of generalisation indicates a failure in discrimination.
Discriminative response is determined by the organism's discrimination capacity or discrimination learning.
Recovery on its own
After a learned response is extinguished, spontaneous recovery occurs. Assume an organism has learned to make a response in order to receive reinforcement, and then the response is extinguished and some time passes. The question now is whether the response has been completely extinguished and will not occur if the CS is presented. It has been demonstrated that the learned or CR recovers and occurs to the CS after a significant time lapse. The amount of spontaneous recovery is determined by the amount of time that has passed since the extinction session. The greater the lapse of time, the greater the recovery of learned response. This type of recovery happens on its own.
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
The following type of learning occurs through observation of others. Previously, this type of learning was known as an imitation. Bandura and his colleagues investigated observational learning in depth in a series of experimental studies. Humans learn social behaviors in this type of learning, which is why it is sometimes referred to as social learning. Individuals frequently do not know how to act in a variety of situations. They observe others and try to imitate their actions. This type of learning is known as modelling.
In our social lives, there are numerous examples of observational learning. Fashion designers use tall, pretty, and gracious young girls and tall, intelligent, and well-built young boys to popularise clothing of various designs and fabrics. People see them on televised fashion shows and in magazine and newspaper advertisements. They try to imitate these models. It is common to observe superiors and likeable people and then mimic their behaviour in a novel social situation.
We can refer to Bandura's studies to better understand the nature of observational learning. Bandura showed a five-minute film to children in one of his well-known experimental studies. The film depicts a large room filled with toys, including a large 'Bobo' doll. A grown-up boy enters the room and takes a look around. The boy begins to act aggressively toward toys in general, and the bobo doll in particular. He smacks the doll, throws it to the floor, kicks it, and sits on it. There are three versions of this film.
In one version, a group of children witness an adult rewarding and praising the boy (model) for being aggressive to the doll. Another group of children sees the boy being punished for his aggressive behaviour in the second version. In the third version, the boy is neither rewarded nor punished by the third group of children.
Following the viewing of a specific version of the film, all three groups of children were placed in an experimental room with similar toys arranged around them. The toys were allowed to be played with by the children. These groups were secretly observed and their actions were recorded. It was discovered that children who saw aggressive behaviour rewarded were the most aggressive, while children who saw the aggressive model punished were the least aggressive.
Thus, in observational learning, observers gain knowledge by observing the model's behaviour, but performance is influenced by whether or not the model's behaviour is rewarded or punished.
You've probably noticed that children observe adults' behaviours, both at home and at social ceremonies and functions. In their plays and games, they play the roles of adults.
Young children, for example, engage in games such as marriage ceremonies, birthday parties, thief and policeman, housekeeping, and so on. In reality, they act out in their games what they see in society, on television, and in books. The majority of social behaviours are learned by children by observing and imitating adults. Observing others teaches people how to put on clothes, style their hair, and conduct themselves in public. It has also been demonstrated that children learn and develop various personality traits through observational learning. This method of learning teaches aggressiveness, prosocial behaviour, courtesy, politeness, diligence, and indolence.
COGNITIVE LEARNING
Some psychologists think of learning in terms of the cognitive processes that enable it. They have developed approaches that concentrate on such processes that occur during learning rather than solely on S-R and S-S connections, as seen in classical and operant conditioning. Thus, in cognitive learning, the learner's knowledge changes rather than what he or she does. This type of learning manifests itself in insight learning and latent learning.
Learning with Insight
Kohler demonstrated a learning model that was not easily explained by conditioning. He conducted a series of experiments with chimps that required them to solve complex problems. Kohler kept chimps in an enclosed play area where food was kept out of reach. In the enclosure, tools such as poles and boxes were placed. The chimps quickly figured out how to use a box to stand on or a pole to move food in their direction. In this experiment, learning did not happen through trial and error or reinforcement, but rather through sudden flashes of insight. The chimps would wander around the enclosure for a while before suddenly standing on a box, grabbing a pole, and striking a banana that was out of normal reach above the enclosure. The chimp demonstrated insight learning, which Kohler defined as the process by which the solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear.
In a typical experiment on insight learning, a problem is presented, followed by a period of inactivity, and finally, a solution emerges unexpectedly.
The rule of the sudden solution is the rule of insight learning.
Once the solution has been found, it can be applied immediately the next time the problem arises. As a result, it is clear that what is learned is a cognitive relationship between a means and an end rather than a specific set of conditioned associations between stimuli and responses. As a result, insight learning can be applied to similar problem situations in the future.
Learning that is dormant
Latent learning is another type of cognitive learning. A new behavior is learned but not demonstrated until reinforcement is provided for displaying it in latent learning. Tolman was an early proponent of the concept of latent learning. We can understand his experiment briefly to get a sense of latent learning. Tolman placed two groups of rats in a maze and allowed them to explore. Rats in one group discovered food at the end of the maze and quickly learned to navigate it quickly. The rats in the second group, on the other hand, were not rewarded and showed no signs of learning. However, after being reinforced, these rats ran through the maze as quickly as the rewarded group.
Tolman contended that the unrewarded rats had discovered the maze's layout early in their explorations. They simply did not demonstrate their latent learning until the reinforcement was provided. Instead, the rats created a cognitive map of the maze, which was a mental representation of the spatial locations and directions required to reach their goal.
VERBAL LEARNING
Verbal learning is distinct from conditioning and is only available to humans. Humans, as you may have noticed, primarily acquire knowledge about objects, events, and their characteristics through the use of words. Words become associated with one another as a result. In order to study this type of learning in a laboratory setting, psychologists have devised a number of methods. Each method is used to look into specific questions about how to learn a specific type of verbal material. Psychologists use a variety of materials in the study of verbal learning, including nonsense syllables, familiar words, and unfamiliar words.
Methods used in Studying Verbal Learning
1. Paired-Associates Learning: This technique is similar to S-S and S-R conditioning.
It's used to learn the equivalents of mother tongue words in foreign languages. A list of paired-associates is created first. The stimulus is the first word in the pair, and the response is the second word. Each pair's members may speak the same language or two different languages. Table 6.3 contains a list of such words.
The first pair (stimulus term) consists of nonsense syllables (consonantvowel-consonant), while the second consists of English nouns (response term). After seeing both stimulus-response pairs together, the learner is instructed to remember and recall the response after each stimulus term is presented. Following that, a learning trial will begin. The stimulus words are presented one by one, and the participant must guess the correct response term. In the event of a failure, the response word is displayed. All of the stimulus terms are displayed in one trial. Trials continue until the participant correctly responds to all of the response words. The total number of trials required to meet the criterion is used to determine how well paired-associates learning is working.
2. Serial Learning: This verbal learning method is used to determine how participants learn lists of verbal items and what processes are involved. To begin, make a list of verbal items, such as nonsense syllables, most familiar or least familiar words, interrelated words, and so on. The participant is given the entire list and must produce the items in the same sequential order as they appear on the list. The first item on the list is shown in the first trial, and the participant must produce the second item. If he or she does not complete the task within the time limit, the experimenter will present the second item. This item now serves as the stimulus, and the participant must respond with the third item, the response word. If he or she fails, the experimenter will give the correct item, which will serve as the stimulus for the fourth word.The serial anticipation method is the name of this procedure. The learning trials are repeated until the participant correctly predicts all of the items in the given order.
3. The Right to Recall: Participants are given a list of words to read and say out loud in this method. Each word is displayed at a set rate of exposure time. The participants are immediately required to recall the words in any order they can after the list is presented. The words in the list may or may not be related. There are more than ten words on the list. The order in which words are presented varies from trial to trial. This method is used to investigate how people organise words for memory storage. According to studies, items at the beginning or end of lists are easier to remember than those in the middle, which are more difficult to recall.
The Factors That Influence Verbal Learning
The most extensive experimental studies have been conducted on verbal learning. A number of factors, according to these studies, influence the course of verbal learning. The different characteristics of the verbal material to be learned are the most important determinants. They include the length of the to-be-learned list and the material's relevance. The usefulness of a piece of content can be assessed in a number of ways. The number of associations elicited in a given amount of time, the material's familiarity and frequency of use, the relationships among the words in the list, and the sequential dependence of each word in the list on the preceding words are all used to determine meaningfulness. There are various levels of associations available for lists of nonsense syllables.
The nonsense syllables should be chosen from a list of nonsense syllables that have the same association value. The following generalisations have been made based on research findings. The length of the list, the presence of words with low association values, and the lack of relationships among the items in the list all increase learning time. The longer it takes to learn the list, the more effective it will be. In this case, psychologists discovered that the total time principle is in effect.
This principle states that regardless of the number of trials divided into that time, a fixed amount of time is required to learn a fixed amount of material. The longer it takes to learn something, the more powerful it becomes. Verbal learning becomes organisational when participants are not restricted to the serial learning method and are allowed to give free recall. It implies that in free recall, participants recall the words in a different order or sequence than when they were presented. This was first demonstrated experimentally by Bousfield. He compiled a list of 60 words that included 15 words from each of the four semantic groups: names, animals, professions, and vegetables. Participants were given these words one by one, in a random order. The participants were required to recall the words without prompting.
They did, however, recall the words from each category as a group. It was dubbed "category clustering" by him. It's worth noting that, despite the fact that the words were presented at random, the participants organised them into categories in their recall. Because of the nature of the list, category clustering occurred. It's also been proven that free recall is always subjectively organised. Subjective organisation demonstrates that participants organise words or items in their own unique ways and remember them as a result.
Although most verbal learning is deliberate, some aspects of the words may be learned unintentionally or incidentally. Participants in this type of learning pay attention to details like whether two or more words rhyme, start with the same letters, have the same vowels, and so on. As a result, verbal learning is both intentional and unintentional.
CONCEPT LEARNING
There are numerous objects, events, and living beings in the world in which we live. The structures and functions of these objects and events differ. One of the many things that humans must do is organise objects, events, animals, and other things into categories so that objects within the category are treated as equivalent despite their differences in features. Concept learning is required for such categorizations.
What is the definition of a concept?
A concept is a term that refers to a collection of objects and events. Concepts or categories include things like animal, fruit, building, and crowd. It should be noted that the terms concept and category are frequently used interchangeably. "A set of features or attributes connected by some rule" is how a concept is defined. Instances of a concept are objects, events, or behaviours that share common characteristics. Any characteristic or aspect of an object, event, or living organism that is observed in them and can be considered equivalent to some features observed or discriminated in other objects is referred to as a feature. There are numerous types of features, and their discriminability is determined by the degree of perceptual sensitivity of the observer.
Features include things like colour, size, number, shape, smoothness, roughness, softness, and hardness. The rules that link the features together to form a concept can be simple or complex. A rule is a directive that tells you what to do. Psychologists have studied two types of concepts: artificial concepts and natural concepts or categories, taking into account the rules that are used to define concepts.
Artificial concepts are those that are well-defined, with precise and rigid rules connecting the features. The features that represent a well-defined concept are both individually and collectively sufficient in a well-defined concept.
To become an instance of the concept, every object must have all of the features. Natural concepts or categories, on the other hand, are frequently ill-defined. Instances of a natural category have a variety of characteristics. Biological objects, real-world products, and human artefacts such as tools, clothes, and homes are examples of such concepts.
Let's take the concept of a square as an example. It's a concept with a clear definition. It must have four characteristics: a closed figure, four sides with equal lengths on each side, and equal angles. A square is made up of four features that are connected by a conjunctive rule. Relevant features are a group of features that are linked together by a rule. Irrelevant features are those that are not included in the rule. Shape, shade, cross or no cross on the top, and circle on the right or left side are four features of the cards shown in Figure 6.4. When creating a conjunctive concept with two features, the relevant ones are shape and side, while the irrelevant ones are two others.
SKILL LEARNING
A skill is the ability to carry out a complex task with ease and efficiency. Skills include driving, aeroplane piloting, ship navigating, shorthand writing, and writing and reading. Practice and exercise are used to learn such skills. A skill is made up of a series of perceptual motor responses, or S-R associations.
Phases of Skill Development
Learning a skill goes through several stages, each of which is qualitatively different. With each subsequent attempt at learning a skill, one's performance becomes more fluid and requires less effort. In other words, it becomes more automatic or spontaneous. It has also been demonstrated that performance improves with each phase. Performance plateau occurs when a person's level of performance remains constant as they transition from one phase to the next. When the next phase begins, performance begins to improve and the level begins to rise.
Fitts presents one of the most influential accounts of the stages of skill acquisition. He claims that skill learning is divided into three stages: cognitive, associative, and autonomous. Different types of mental processes are involved in each phase or stage of skill learning. The learner must comprehend and memorise the instructions, as well as comprehend how the task must be completed, during the cognitive phase of skill acquisition. Every external cue, instructional demand, and response outcome must be kept alive in consciousness during this phase.
Associative is the second phase.
Different sensory inputs or stimuli are linked with appropriate responses during this phase. Errors decrease as practise increases, performance improves, and time taken decreases. With enough practise, errorless performance emerges; however, the learner must be aware of all sensory inputs and maintain focus on the task. The third phase, referred to as the autonomous phase, then begins.
Two important changes occur in per formance during this phase: the associative phase's attentional demands decrease, and interference from external factors decreases. Finally, skilled performance becomes automatic with little conscious effort required. Transitions from one phase to the next clearly demonstrate that practise is the only way to learn a skill. It is necessary to continue exercising and practising. As the amount of practise increases, the rate of improvement rises, and the automaticity of errorless performance becomes the hallmark of skill. As a result, it is said that "practise makes perfect."
TRANSFER OF LEARNING
The term "transfer of learning" is also known as "training transfer" or "transfer effect." It refers to how prior learning influences new learning. If previous learning aids current learning, it is considered a positive transfer. If new learning is slowed, this is referred to as negative transfer. If there is no facilitative or retarding effect, there is no transfer. In order to study transfer effects, psychologists use specific experimental designs.
Assume you want to know if learning English has an impact on learning French. To investigate this, a large sample of people is chosen. Now divide the sample into two groups at random, one for the experimental condition and the other for the control group. The experimental group of participants learns English for a year and is then tested to determine their English proficiency. They study French in the second year. Finally, this group is tested to determine its French achievement levels. In the first phase, the control group does not learn English and instead goes about their daily routine for a year. These participants learn French for a year in the second year, after which their achievement scores are calculated.
The two groups' French achievement scores are then compared. If the experimental group's achievement score is higher than the control group's, this indicates that positive transfer has occurred. Negative transfer occurs when the score falls below that of the control group. If the two groups are performing equally well, the transfer effect is zero.
It's worth noting that in the study of transfer effect, there's a distinction between general and specific transfer. Prior learning always leads to positive general transfer, it is now a well-known fact. Transfer effects are only positive or negative in specific transfer, and in some cases, there is no effect at all, despite the fact that zero transfer is theoretically impossible due to general transfer. Let us try to comprehend the differences between general and specific transfer.
Transfer (Generic) in its broadest sense
In its details, general transfer is not clearly conceptualised and defined. Prior learning, on the other hand, makes it easier to learn a new task. Learning one task prepares the learner for learning the next task more easily. You've probably seen a cricketer walk onto the pitch and take a position near the wicket. When the cricketer walks, he jumps from one foot to the next.
To loosen up, s/he moves her/his two hands holding the bat sideways. When you write answers while taking an exam, your writing is slow and your sitting position is inconvenient for efficient writing. After two or three pages, however, you will have warmed up. Your writing speed improves as your body becomes more accustomed to the task. This continues until the last answer has been written. Warm-up effect wears off after a while. The warming-up effect lasts for one learning session. Only during that session can two or more tasks be learned.
Transfer of Specific Information
A series of stimulus-response associations are formed whenever an organism learns something. Any task can be thought of as a series of distinct stimuli, each of which must be linked to a distinct response.
The effect of learning task A on learning task B is referred to as specific transfer. Learning task A may make learning task B easier or more difficult, or it may have no effect at all. Such transfers are dependent on the degree of similarity and dissimilarity between the first and second learning tasks
FACTORS FACILITATING LEARNING.
The specific determinants of learning, such as contiguous presentation of CS and US in classical conditioning; number, amount, and delay of reinforcement in operant conditioning; status and attractiveness of models in observational learning; procedure in verbal learning; and the nature of rules and perceptual features of objects and events in concept learning, were all discussed in the preceding section. Now we'll talk about some general learning determinants. This is not an exhaustive list. Rather, it focuses on a few key factors that have been identified as crucial.
Continuous vs Partial Reinforcement
In learning experiments, the experimenter can plan for reinforcement to be delivered on a set schedule. Two types of schedules, continuous and partial, have been found to be very important in the context of learning. After each target response, the participant receives reinforcement in continuous reinforcement. This type of reinforcement schedule results in a high rate of response.
When reinforcement is withheld, however, response rates drop dramatically, and the responses learned under this schedule tend to fade away. Because the organism receives reinforcement on each trial, the reinforcer's effectiveness is reduced. Some responses are not reinforced in such schedules because reinforcement is not continuous. As a result, they're referred to as partial or intermittent reinforcement. There are several ways to reinforce responses on an intermittent basis. Partial reinforcement schedules have been found to produce very high response rates, especially when responses are reinforced according to ratio. In this type of schedule, an organism is likely to make a number of unreinforced responses. As a result, distinguishing between when a reinforcement has been completely discontinued and when it has simply been postponed becomes difficult. It's easier to tell when reinforcement has stopped when it's continuous.
This kind of distinction has been discovered to be critical for extinction. It has been discovered that extinction of a response after partial reinforcement is more difficult than extinction after continuous reinforcement. The partial reinforcement effect refers to the fact that responses learned through partial reinforcement are highly resistant to extinction.
Motivation
Humans, like all other living organisms, have survival and growth requirements. Motivation is a mental and physiological state that prompts an organism to act in order to meet a current need. In other words, motivation energises an organism to act aggressively in order to achieve a goal. Such behaviours continue until the goal is met and the need is met. Learning requires a certain level of motivation. When the mother is not present, why does a child forage in the kitchen? S/he is doing so because s/he requires sweets and is attempting to locate the jar containing sweets. The location of the jar is discovered by the child while foraging. In a box, a ravenous rat is placed. The animal forages for food in the box.
It also happens to press a leve causing food to fall into the box. After repeated exposure to this activity, the animal learns to press the lever as soon as it is placed there.
Have you ever wondered why you're in Class XI studying psychology and other subjects? You are doing so in order to pass your final examination with high marks or grades.
You will put in more effort to learn if you are motivated. Your desire to learn something stems from two sources. Many things are learned because you enjoy them (intrinsic motivation) or because they help you achieve another goal (extrinsic motivation).
Preparedness for Learning
Members of different species have vastly different sensory capacities and response abilities. The mechanisms required for forming associations, such as S-S or S-R, differ from one species to the next. Biological constraints on learning capacities can be said to exist for species. The associative mechanism an organism is genetically endowed with or prepared for determines the types of S-S or S-R learning it can easily acquire. For apes or humans, a specific type of associative learning is simple, but for cats and rats, it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible. It implies that only those associations for which one is genetically prepared can be learned.
The concept of preparedness is best understood as a continuum or dimension, with those learning tasks or associations that are simple for members of some species on one end and those learning tasks for which those members are completely unprepared and unable to learn on the other. Tasks and associations for which members are neither prepared nor unprepared fall in the middle of the continuum. They can learn such tasks, but only after a lot of effort and perseverance.
LEARNING STYLES
You may have noticed that some children, sometimes from the same family, excel academically while others struggle. Over the last few decades, there has been a lot of research on learning styles. It demonstrates the differences in learning styles between people from the same class, culture, community, or socioeconomic group and those from other groups.
A learner's consistent way of responding to and using stimuli in the context of learning can be defined as their learning style. To put it another way, it's 'how each learner begins to concentrate, process, and retain new and complex information.' It should be noted that everyone's experience with this interaction is unique. You may have noticed, for example, that the children in your class have distinct personalities, cultural experiences, and values. Students prefer various learning environments and learning modalities, and they all have their own set of strengths, talents, and weaknesses.
As a result, each learner's personal characteristics must be examined to determine what is most likely to trigger, maintain, and respond to her or his natural processing style, as well as facilitate long-term memory. To determine a student's learning style, a variety of instruments are used.
Perceptual Modality, Information Processing, and Personality Patterns are the main sources of learning styles. The following is a brief description of these approaches:
- Biologically based reactions to the physical environment are known as perceptual modalities. It refers to a person's preferred methods of receiving information, such as auditory, visual, olfactory, kinesthetic, and tactile.
- Information Processing distinguishes between the ways in which we are wired to think, solve problems, and remember data. This can be compared to how we process information. Active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, sequential/global, serial/simultaneous, and so on are some examples.
- Individuality Patterns are how we interact with the world around us. Each of us has a preferred, consistent, and distinct method for perceiving, organising, and retaining data. This method focuses on determining how personality influences how people interact with their surroundings, as well as how this influences how people respond to one another in the classroom.
Learning styles differ along several dimensions. Anderson, for example, distinguished between analytic and relational learning styles.. It is obvious that people with a relational learning style benefit from exposure to a complete unit or phenomenon. They can only comprehend parts of the unit if they understand how they relate to the whole.
People with an analytical learning style, on the other hand, learn more easily when information is presented in a cumulative sequential pattern that leads to a conceptual understanding.
It's important to remember that different learning styles are points on a scale that can help us discover different types of mental representation. They don't make people who they are. As a result, we should avoid categorising the population (e.g., visual person, extrovert, etc.). We are capable of learning in any style, regardless of our preference.
LEARNING DISABILITIES
Thousands of children are enrolled in schools, as you have probably heard, seen, or read. Some of them, on the other hand, find the educational demands too difficult to meet and drop out. "Drop-outs" are the term for such students. There are a variety of reasons for this, including sensory impairment, intellectual disability, social and emotional disturbance, poor family economic circumstances, cultural beliefs and norms, and other environmental influences.
Apart from these issues, there is also the issue of learning disabilities, which can make it difficult to continue with your education.It makes learning in school, i.e. acquiring knowledge and skills, too difficult to deal with. In addition, such children are unable to progress in their academic pursuits.
The term "learning disability" refers to a wide range of issues. It refers to a diverse group of disorders characterised by difficulty learning, reading, writing, speaking, reasoning, and mathematical skills. These disorders have their origins in the child. These difficulties are thought to be caused by issues with the central nervous system's functioning. It can occur with or without physical disabilities, sensory impairment, or intellectual disability.
Learning disabilities can be seen as a distinct handicapping condition in children with average to above-average intelligence, adequate sensory motor systems, and adequate learning opportunities. If not addressed, it has the potential to affect one's self-esteem, career, social relationships, and daily activities throughout one's life.
Learning Disabilities Symptoms
Learning disabilities manifest themselves in a variety of ways. They manifest in various combinations in children with this disorder, regardless of their intelligence, motivation, or dedication to learning.
- Writing letters, words, and phrases, reading text, and speaking are all common difficulties. They frequently have hearing problems, even if they do not have auditory problems. When it comes to developing learning strategies and plans, such children are very different from others.
- Children with learning disabilities have attention problems. They are easily distracted and have trouble focusing on one thing for long periods of time. Attention deficit disorder frequently leads to hyperactivity, which means they are constantly moving, doing different things, and trying to manipulate things.
- Inadequate sense of time and poor spatial orientation are common symptoms.
- These children have a hard time orienting themselves in new environments and become disoriented. They have a poor sense of time and are frequently late or early for work. They also display a lack of directionality, misjudging right, left, up, and down.
- Children with learning disabilities have poor motor coordination and manual dexterity. This is evident in their inability to balance, sharpen pencils, handle doorknobs, and learn to ride a bicycle, among other things.
- These children are unable to comprehend and follow verbal instructions.
- They make assumptions about which classmates are friendly and which are uninterested. They are unable to recognise and interpret body language.
- Perceptual disorders are common in learning-disabled children. Visual, auditory, tactual, and kinesthetic misperception are examples. They can't tell the difference between a ringing phone and a call bell. It's not as if they lack sensory acuity.
- They simply do not employ it in their performances.
- Dyslexia affects a large number of learning-disabled children. They frequently make mistakes when copying letters and words; for example, they can't tell the difference between b and d, p and q, P and 9, was and saw, unclear and nuclear, and so on. They don't know how to organise verbal materials.
- It is important to note that learning disabilities are not fatal. Remedial teaching methods go a long way toward assisting them in learning and becoming more like their peers.
Educational psychologists have devised effective methods for resolving the majority of the symptoms associated with learning disabilities.
APPLICATIONS OF LEARNING PRINCIPLES
Learning principles are extremely valuable for enriching human life in all areas. All activities and behaviours that make life peaceful and enjoyable on a personal, social, and economic level are learned. Their education should be based on psychological principles. For improving many aspects of life, modern psychologists have developed techniques and procedures based on the principles of classical and operant conditioning, social learning, verbal learning, concept learning, and skill learning.
We can see how learning principles are applied in four different areas: organisations, treatment of maladaptive behaviours, child rearing, and school learning.
A number of issues in organisations, such as absenteeism, frequent medical leave, indiscipline, and a lack of appropriate skills, pose serious problems. These issues could be solved by employing learning principles. In some organisations, an interesting device is used to increase attendance and reduce absenteeism. Name slips of employees who have not missed a single working day are placed in a drum at the end of every third month. Four to five percent of the names are chosen at random, and they are rewarded handsomely for not missing a single working day.
The use of such incentives has been shown to reduce absenteeism. Various benefits are offered to increase the number of employees who have not taken a full year of medical leave.
Medical leave is less common as a result of such partial rewards. Managers begin to act as role models for employees, or employees are placed under such model managers, in order to improve discipline.
A number of therapeutic procedures based on learning principles have been developed to modify maladaptive and socially incapacitating habits and behaviours. The principle of extinction is used in these procedures, and implosive therapy and flooding are used in the case of children and adults who exhibit irrational and unfounded fear with accompanying avoidance behaviour.
Implosive therapy begins with the client imagining their most feared form of contact with the feared object, which is then followed by the therapist's vivid verbal descriptions. The therapist takes on the role of a coach. Flooding, on the other hand, is in-vivo exposure (e.g., with an actual feared object) and is considered the most effective of all treatments for fear.
The technique of systematic desensitisation is used to help those who suffer from excessive anxieties and fears. It is a type of behaviour therapy that attempts to reverse the process of classical conditioning by associating the crucial stimulus with a new conditioned response in phobic patients. Aversion therapy is used to help people break bad habits that are harmful to their health and happiness. The therapist arranges things so that the occurrence of maladaptive habits results in painful experiences, and clients learn to avoid them. When alcohol is combined with an emetic drug (a drug that causes severe nausea and vomiting), nausea and vomiting become a conditioned response to alcohol.
Modeling and systematic use of reinforcement are widely used to shape and develop competence. Assertive learning is used to help people who suffer from excessive shyness and have difficulty interacting with others. This therapy is also based on learning principles. At the slightest provocation, some people experience accelerated breathing, loss of appetite, and a rise in blood pressure, and they lose their mental peace. In such cases, biofeedback is used by psychotherapists. The interaction of classical and instrumental conditioning is the foundation of this technique. A bodily function (such as heart rate or blood pressure) is monitored in biofeedback, and information about the function is fed back to the person to help them control the physiological process better. In your advanced classes, you will learn more about these therapies.
Learning principles are widely used in the classroom. After analysing the instructional tasks and fitting them into various types of learning such as S-S or S-R, verbal, observational, and skill learning, educational objectives are determined. Students are told what they need to learn and given appropriate practise opportunities. Students are involved in the acquisition of information, meaning, and correct responses as active participants. Teachers serve as role models and mentors for students, encouraging them to emulate them in order to promote appropriate social and personal habits. Due to the fact that students are required to do homework, they are given numerous opportunities for practise. S-R chains are used to analyse skills, and students are allowed to practise them.
Learning principles are best applied in child rearing if both parents are aware of the principles of learning. Children are taught the necessary signs of danger and safety using the classical conditioning procedure. Using the operant conditioning procedure, children's behaviour can be easily modified and shaped. Parents can motivate their children to learn by judiciously using rewards. Parents, as role models and mentors, help children develop social skills, responsibility, and resourcefulness.