Principles of Psychology
Dr. Ankita Sharma
Principle of Psychology
Introduction: Root, Field, Goal, Methods, Misconceptions about
Psychology
The Aware Mind: Consciousness, State of Consciousness
The Feeling Mind: Feeling, Expressing and Interpreting Emotion
The Thinking and Knowing Mind: Learning, Memory, Forgetting,
Thinking, Intelligence
The Individual Mind: Personality, Seeking Selfhood: Self concept,
Personal Control, Mastery and Growth
The Connected Mind: Attitude, Attribution, Prejudice, Group Behavior
Psychology Today: Stress: Good or Bad, Success: Intelligence or More
Definition: Learning is…
A change in behavior as a result of experience or practice.
The acquisition of knowledge.
Knowledge gained through study.
To gain knowledge of, or skill in, something through study,
teaching, instruction or experience.
The process of gaining knowledge.
A process by which behavior is changed, shaped or controlled.
The individual process of constructing understanding based on
experience from a wide range of sources.
Learning is
knowledge base
relative change
Acquisition of information
Learning is a relative change in the knowledge base
through acquisition of information.
Learning
Some First Principles
Learning is something all humans do
◦ Fetuses learn
◦ Infants learn
◦ Children learn
◦ Adults learn
Learning is not uniquely human – all living things learn
Learning evolved as an adaptation for promoting
survival
What is Learning?
Learning is a process
Learning is a product
Process of Learning
Learning involves the individual
◦ Brain
◦ Body
Learning involves others
◦ Dyads
◦ Groups
◦ Organizations
◦ Communities
◦ Society
Learning takes place somewhere
◦ In physical environment
◦ With things and tools
Learning occurs over time
Broad domains of theories
⚫ Behaviorism: Classical and Operant Conditioning
⚫ Socio-cognitive theory: Observational Learning
⚫ Cognitivism
Classical Conditioning
Power of association
Events Leading to Behaviorism
Pavlov’s Dogs (1927)
Pavlov’s Importance
The dog had learned a connection between the click and food.
And we could OBSERVE IT SYSTEMATICALLY.
Read the blog for everyday examples:
https://sites.psu.edu/intropsychs14n1/2014/04/09/classical-co
nditioning-in-everyday-life/
Before Conditioning: Naturally Occurring S–R
This happens automatically. It is not learned, so both the
stimulus and response are called “unconditioned.”
Unconditioned Stimulus leads to an Unconditioned Response
US UR
Meat Powder
Automatic Salivation
US UR
Necessary Conditions
During Training: Repeatedly pair NS with US
The goal is to turn the Neutral stimulus (NS) into a Conditioned Stimulus
(CS) that will lead to the same response, now a Conditioned Response (CR).
NS
Presentation
Paired
US UR
After Conditioning, The NS becomes a Conditioned Stimulus, which leads to
Conditioned Response
CS CR
Necessary Conditions
During training NS always comes before US.
It need to occur in close proximity.
Terminology
NS and CS are same stimulus, before training it is called neutral
stimulus and after training it becomes conditioned stimulus.
Similarly, UR and CR are the same response; it depends on what
led to that response.
When the response occur for due to unconditioned stimulus it is
called unconditioned response, when it is due to conditioned
stimulus, it is called conditioned response.
Operant Conditioning
A science of making others do your bidding
Skinner Box
Law of Effect: Basic of Operant Conditioning
“organisms tend to repeat those responses that are followed by
favorable consequences.” Thorndike (1898)
If you do something and it leads to good consequences, you do
it more.
If you do something and it leads to bad consequences, you do
it less.
Key Points
The focus is on the organism being conditioned.
If the consequences after a response increase the
likelihood of the response happening again
◦ It’s reinforcement
If the consequences after a response decrease the
likelihood of the response happening again
◦ It’s punishment
Two Types of Reinforcement
1. Positive Reinforcement – add something desirable
2. Negative Reinforcement – remove something aversive
Two Types of Punishment
1. Positive Punishment – add something aversive
2. Negative Punishment – remove something desirable
Types of consequences
Positive Negative
Reinforcement Add desirable, Remove aversive,
Increase response Increase response
Punishment Add aversive, Remove desirable,
Decrease response Decrease response
Basic principles in classical and operant
conditioning
Acquisition/Extinction
Spontaneous recovery
Latent inhibition
Partial reinforcement effect in extinction
Generalization/discrimination
Little Albert Experiment
Conditioning in real life
Learning and overcoming fear
Addiction and de-addiction
Attitude and prejudices
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Observational Learning
Socio-cognitive theory
Observational Learning
Learning by observing others.
Also called SOCIAL LEARNING.
Do we learn by observing others?
What do we learn by observing others?
What make us learn by observation
Bobo Doll Experiment
What is going on during the
experiment?
What does this experiment prove?
Why do you think the violence
increased?
Do you think the results would be
the same if this experiment was
redone today?
Factors Influencing Modeling: Impact Tendency to Imitate
Characteristics of the models: similarity, age, sex,
status, prestige, simple vs. complex behavior
Characteristics of observers: Low self-confidence, low
self-esteem, reinforcement for imitation
Reward consequences of behavior: Directly witnessing
associated rewards
The Observational Learning Process: 4 Steps
Attentional processes
Retention processes
Production processes
Incentive and motivational processes
Step 1: Attentional Processes
Developing cognitive processes to pay attention to a model-
more developed processes allow for better attention
Must observe the model accurately enough to imitate behavior
Step 2: Retention Processes
To later imitate behavior, must remember aspects of the
behavior
Step 3: Production Processes
Taking imaginal and verbal representations and translating
into overt behavior- practice behaviors
Receive feedback on accuracy of behavior- how well have you
imitated the modeled behavior?
Important in mastering difficult skills
◦ Ex: Driving a car
Step 4: Incentive and Motivational Processes
With incentives, observation more quickly becomes
action, pay more attention, retain more information
Incentive to learn influenced by anticipated
reinforcements
Cognitive learning
Main Assumptions
Learning results from internal mental activity and not from
externally imposed stimuli
The learner comes with knowledge, skills and related
experiences to the learning situation
Learner plays active participant in the learning process, using
various strategies to process and construct their personal
understanding of the content to which they are exposed
Information Processing Approach
The information processing approach
Depicts how mental processes operate
See the human mind as a computer that processes
information from external sources, then stores and
retrieves it
Thinking is a rational process
Memory is central to information processing
Information Processing Theory
Encoding – process of gathering and representing
information
Storage – process of putting new information in
memory
Retrieval – remembering previously stored information
Quiz
Ujjain Kadipur
Banana Watermelon
Shoe Dress
Aurangabad Lalghat
Corn Cantoment
Shirt Coat
Bijanpur Falloudi
Hat Boxers
Characteristics
Learning Curve
Primacy Effect
Recency Effect
Moving from LOTS to HOTS
Learning and memory are closely related concepts. Learning is the
acquisition of skill or knowledge, while memory is the expression of what
you’ve acquired.
Learning is about acquiring information, memory about storing it. In a way,
you could say that learning is a process, and memory is the record of that
process.
Learning is a process that will modify a subsequent behavior. Memory, on
the other hand is the ability to remember past experiences.
Memory is essential to all learning because it lets you store and retrieve the
information that you learn. Memory is basically nothing more than the
record left by a learning process.
You learn a new language by studying it, but you then speak it by using your
memory to retrieve the words that you have learned.
Not all learning is transformed into lasting memories and there is no
memory without learning.
