HUM 709 (Human Psychology & Environment)
CHAPTER – 4 : LEARNING, MEMORY and FORGETTING
Q.01. What is learning?
Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in immediate or potential behavior that
results from experience. This definition has three critical aspects: 1) Learning involves a change
in either immediate or potential behavior, 2) the change must be relatively permanent, and 3) the
changes must be due to experience.
If we learn something due to an accident, we cannot call it learning. In the same way, if we learn
something due to experience, but nothing changed in our behavior, we cannot also call it
learning. And finally this change must be relatively permanent. If it diminishes within few hours
or few days, this will not be considered as learning.
Q.02. What is classical conditioning. Describe it providing with Pavlov's experiment.
In the early 1900s, the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov began a series of experiments that had a
lasting influence in the way psychologists view the learning process. Pavlov's experiments were
first systematic study of the simple type of learning that came to be labeled classical
conditioning.
As part of his experiments, Pavlov caused dogs to salivate by placing meat powder in their
mouths. In the course of these studies, he noticed a remarkable phenomenon. The meat powder
was not the only stimulus that caused the dogs to salivate. Stimuli that came just before the gods
received the meat powder such as the sight of the food dish, also produced salivation. Pavlov
recognized the importance of this accidental discovery. He reasoned that the dogs had learned to
associate the sight of the dog's mouth near its salivary glands and then passed the tube through its
cheek. Whenever the dog salivated, the saliva ran through the tube and was collected outside the
dog's mouth.
As before, Pavlov found that whenever he placed that powder in the dog's mouth, the dog
salivated. Pavlov recognized that this response to the meat powder were simply a reflex. A reflex
is a specific and involuntary response to a stimulus and does not require any learning. To reflect
the nature of this response, Pavlov named the dog's natural response to a stimulus- salivating in
the presence of meat powder- the unlearned or unconditioned response (UR). The stimulus (the
meat powder) that produced the unlearned response (salivation) was termed as the
unconditioned stimulus (US).
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Next, Pavlov placed the animal in an apparatus. Once the animal was in place, Pavlov rang a
bell. The bell was a neutral stimulus because it did not produce salivation.
Pavlov then began to condition the dog to associate the bell with the meat powder by first ringing
the bell with the meat powder by first ringing the bell and then presenting the meat powder. Each
time the bell and meat powder were presented together, or paired, one trial occurred.
After about 12 trials, Pavlov simply rang the bell and did not present any meat powder. This
time, the previously neutral bell caused the dog to salivate. Because the dog had learned to
salivate in response to the bell, Pavlov called the bell the learned or conditioned stimulus (CS).
Salivation in this instance was called a conditioned response (CR). In classical conditioning,
the conditioned stimulus (CS) is the neutral stimulus that is paired with the unconditioned
stimulus (US) and eventually comes to elicit the conditioned response (CR). The conditioned
Response (CR) is the response that results from the paring of the CS with the US. The
relationship between the various stimuli in classical conditioning is diagrammed below.
Q.03. Describe the phenomena of classical conditioning.
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There are some process or phenomena of classical conditioning. These are described below:
1. Extinction: If the bell is continued to ring but no food is appeared to the dog, once the dog
will completely stop to salivate. This process in classical conditioning is called extinction. That
means, if conditioned response (salivation) is not followed by conditioned stimulus (bell), the
unconditioned response (salivation) will be diminished. This process is also true in real life
setting. If someone is conditioned to become caring to beloved one due to love got from him or
her, he or she will continue to be caring. But once the loving is stopped, caring behavior will be
diminished day by day and finally it will be completely extinguished.
2. Spontaneous Recovery: Once the conditioned response is completely diminished, if you
place the dog again after a long time in the same setting and ring the bell, the dog will salivate
without having any meat. This is called spontaneous recovery. But after few trials, this behavior
is diminished again. This diminishing is stronger than the previous one. It is also true for the life
setting example provided in the case of love and care. If that couple stays separate for a period of
time and get together again, the girl might be feel caring again despite of not having any love
from the boyfriend. But after few moments or few days, she will completely withdraw her caring
behavior.
3. Generalization: If the same dog is sent to another laboratory with same decoration and almost
same sound of the bell, its previous behavior might be back again. This is called generalization.
That dog might salivate in lower or upper level of sound than the previous one. In the same way,
if that girl go to a same type of house and notice almost same type of boy, her caring behavior
might be come back within her mind. But, though human being is more developed than the dog
(physiologically), it happens more in dogs.
4. Discrimination: Discrimination refer to the capability of separating between two different
types of stimulus. For example, if a motor bike horn is rang instead of the ring of the bell, the
dog will be able to discriminate the two sounds and will not show any conditioned response.
Q.04. What is operant conditioning? What are the basic difference between classical and
operant conditioning?
Operant Conditioning: The basic assumption of operant conditioning is that behavior is
influenced by its consequences. A dog will learn to shake hands if a certain consequence, such as
getting food, follows the response. Similarly, a child might learn to clean up his or her room if
doing so produces a trip to the ice cream parlor. B.F. Skinner coined the term operant
conditioning to describe this type of learning because the organism produces a consequence by
operating on its environment.
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Difference between classical and operant conditioning: There are basically two major
differences between classical and operant conditioning.
First one is the organism's control over the environment. In the case of classical conditioning,
the total environment is controlled by the experimenter. No control of the environment is on the
hand of the subject. On the other hand, in operant conditioning, organism's behavior determines
the outcome of the situation.
The second difference is the type of response that can be conditioned. In classical conditioning,
responses are limited to reflexes, or autonomic responses to specific stimuli. On the other hand,
in operant conditioning, responses are not limited to reflexes but include an entire array of
voluntary behavior.
Q.05. Describe Thorndike's experiment with instrumental learning.
Thorndike placed hungry cats inside a wooden puzzle box like the one shown in figure 01. To
escape from the box and get a piece of fish, the cat had to learn to open a latch inside the box.
During the first trial the animal explored, sniffed, clawed, meowed, and howled. Eventually, the
cat accidentally tripped the latch, opened the door, got out of the box, and ate the fish. The next
time the cat was placed in the box it exhibited many of the same behaviors but took less time to
escape from the box and get the food. After several additional trials, the cat immediately opened
the latch to get the food.
Thorndike reasoned the responses such as exploring and clawing at the walls, which did not lead
to satisfying consequence (the fish), were 'stamped out', whereas the behavior of opening the
latch was 'stamped in' by the resulting satisfaction.
Based on these experiments, Thorndike proposed three laws:
The law of effect, which states that acts followed by a satisfying state of affairs are more likely
to recur than acts followed by an annoying state of affairs. In the case of Thorndike's cat, since
opening the latch led to the satisfying state of eating, the behavior occurred more frequently.
The Law of exercise: According to this law, exercise strengthens the connection between
stimulus and response. The more the cat will exercise the same task, the faster that will be able
to attain the goal.
The law of readiness: The main theme of this law is that the task for which the organism is
ready to do become satisfied if he or she is assigned to do that.
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*Q.06. Define reinforcement negative and positive reinforcement negative and positive
punishment.
Reinforcement: The process by which a stimulus increases or decreases the probability that a
preceding behavior will be repeated.
For example, if a child is given ice cream for accomplishing his or her home work, this process
will be called as reinforcement.
Reinforcer: The object, matter, or event which increases or decreases the probability of being
repeated any event again is called reinforcer. The ice cream is a reinforcer here.
Positive reinforcer: A stimulus added to the environment that brings about an increase in a
preceding response. Example, giving a raise for good performance.
Negative reinforcer: An unpleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an increase in the
probability that a preceding response will occur again in the future. Example, terminating a
headache by taking aspirin.
Punishment: A stimulus that decreases the probability that a previous behavior will occur again.
Positive punisher: An unpleasant stimulus added to the environment that brings about a
decrease in a preceding response. Example, frequency of misbehavior will decrease if a spanking
is given following misbehavior.
Negative punishmer: A pleasant stimulus whose removal leads to an decrease in the probability
that a preceding response will occur again in the future. Example, frequency of misbehavior will
decrease if a favorite toy is removed after misbehavior.
Q.07. Discuss Bandura's Social or Observational learning theory.
In social learning theory Albert Bandura (1977) states behavior is learned from the environment
through the process of observational learning.
Unlike Skinner, Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active information processors and
think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences. Observational learning
could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work.
Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during the
famous bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).
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Individuals that are observed are called models. In society children are surrounded by many
influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within
their peer group and teachers at school. These models provide examples of behavior to observe
and imitate, e.g. masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social etc.
Children pay attention to some of these people (models) and encode their behavior. At a later
time they may imitate (i.e. copy) the behavior they have observed. They may do this regardless
of whether the behavior is ‘gender appropriate’ or not but there are a number of processes that
make it more likely that a child will reproduce the behavior that its society deems appropriate for
its sex.
First, the child is more likely to attend to and imitate those people it perceives as similar to itself.
Consequently, it is more likely to imitate behavior modeled by people of the same sex.
Second, the people around the child will respond to the behavior it imitates with either
reinforcement or punishment. If a child imitates a model’s behavior and the consequences are
rewarding, the child is likely to continue performing the behavior. If parent sees a little girl
consoling her teddy bear and says “what a kind girl you are”, this is rewarding for the child and
makes it more likely that she will repeat the behavior. Her behavior has been reinforced (i.e.
strengthened).
Reinforcement can be external or internal and can be positive or negative. If a child wants
approval from parents or peers, this approval is an external reinforcement, but feeling happy
about being approved of is an internal reinforcement. A child will behave in a way which it
believes will earn approval because it desires approval.
Positive (or negative) reinforcement will have little impact if the reinforcement offered
externally does not match with an individual's needs. Reinforcement can be positive or negative,
but the important factor is that it will usually lead to a change in a person's behavior.
Third, the child will also take into account of what happens to other people when deciding
whether or not to copy someone’s actions. This is known as vicarious reinforcement.
This relates to attachment to specific models that possess qualities seen as rewarding. Children
will have a number of models with whom they identify. These may be people in their immediate
world, such as parents or elder siblings, or could be fantasy characters or people in the media.
The motivation to identify with a particular model is that they have a quality which the
individual would like to possess.
Identification occurs with another person (the model) and involves taking on (or adopting)
observed behaviors, values, beliefs and attitudes of the person with whom you are identifying.
The term identification as used by Social Learning Theory is similar to the Freudian term related
to the Oedipus complex. For example, they both involve internalizing or adopting another
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person’s behavior. However, during the Oedipus complex the child can only identify with the
same sex parent, whereas with Social Learning Theory the person (child or adult) can potentially
identify with any other person.
Identification is different to imitation as it may involve a number of behaviors being adopted
whereas imitation usually involves copying a single behavior.
*Q.08. What is memory? Describe structure of memory.
Memory
Memory is the ability to store information so that it can be used at the later time. By this
definition, memory is not limited only to human being or any other living being. It also covers
other electric devices like, tape recorder, computer and so on.
There are some unique characteristics of human memory. Firstly, human memory might contain
information for extremely long time, even for the lifetime. But other devices cannot do so.
Secondly, human memory takes a fraction of seconds to capture an event into the memory.
Thirdly, human memory has the extraordinary capacity to mix, intermingle, and combine
information in a way that no artificial memory system can approach.
Structure of memory
Memory consists of three elements. This model was proposed by Richard Atkinson and Richard
Shiffrin (1968, 1971). This model is known as 'Three Component Model'. According to this
model, memory can be divided into three parts:
1. Sensory Memory
2. Short-term Memory
3. Long-term Memory
1.Sensory Memory
The first stage of memory is sensory memory. Information is entered into our brain by different
sensory organs (ear, eyes, skin, tongue etc). These information is first registered into the sensory
memory. It holds the information for a very short period of time. This time is normally one
second or less. There are some very important characteristics of sensory memory:
o It reserves almost unlimited amount of information whatever we see or listen.
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o It store these information for a very short period of time.
Sensory memory is important because all information that we reach is first gathered in
our sensory store and then transferred into other types of memory. If we do not transfer it,
it is lost almost immediately. This is a very clear importance of it-- without it nothing
would be perceived. Sensory memory has a huge survival importance. We remember
smells, like fire, we remember feeling a burn, like from touching a stove, we remember
bitter or sour tastes, like from bad milk etc. These memories teach us not to do it again, or
invoke the flight or fight response in us if a memory is triggered.
2. Short-term Memory
Short-term memory is the center for processing of information. Because before sending the
information to the long-term memory, processing is needed and it occurs in short-term memory.
Furthermore it is also used to use the information instantly from long-term memory. It works as
the RAM of the computer. Example of short-term memory is recalling the name of newly
introduced person after a few moments.
The capacity of short-term memory is very limited. The information can be stored less than 20
seconds here. If rehearsal is not done, the information is lost for forever. The capacity of short-
term memory is 7+/-2.
3. Long-term Memory
Though sensory and short-term memory is essential for survival, we also need to store huge
amount of memory for long time in order for further use. This capacity of storing memory for
very long time, even for lifetime is called long-term memory. Some portion of short-term
memory is processed and sent it to the long-term memory. The capacity and duration of this
memory is unlimited. This can store information year after year. It can be compared with a
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library or a reference book. It can help us to remember the event happened before 5 minutes and
50 years as well.
Q.09. What are the divisions of long- term memory. Discuss each of the classifications.
Modern psychologists believe that the information sent to the long-term memory are
accumulated in different portions of long-term memory. They think that the long-term memory is
not a single store-house, but consists of different parts. These are discussed below:
1. Declarative Memory
This is one of the very fundamental portion of long-term memory. The portion which contains
factual memory is called declarative memory. This contains sound, definition, name, date, event,
concept, mode etc.
For example, the score of an innings in T-20 cricket match is declarative type of memory.
2. Procedural Memory
This is another fundamental type of memory. It contains actions, skills and operations. For
example, typing, cycling, wearing the shoes etc are some example of procedural memory.
The declarative and procedural memories are primitive type of memory and these are also
evident in animals as well.
3. Semantic Memory
Semantic memory refers to general world knowledge that we have accumulated throughout our
lives. This general knowledge (facts, ideas, meaning and concepts) is intertwined in experience
and dependent on culture. Semantic memory is distinct from episodic memory, which is our
memory of experiences and specific events that occur during our lives, from which we can
recreate at any given point. For instance, semantic memory might contain information about
what a cat is, whereas episodic memory might contain a specific memory of petting a particular
cat. We can learn about new concepts by applying our knowledge learned from things in the past.
Some examples of semantic memory:
Knowing that grass is green
Recalling that Washington, D.C., is the U.S. capital and Washington is a state
Knowing how to use scissors
Understanding how to put words together to form a sentence
Recognizing the names of colors
Remembering what a dog is
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Knowing how to use the phone
4. Episodic Memory
Episodic memory is a person’s unique memory of a specific event, so it will be different from
someone else’s recollection of the same experience. Episodic memory is the memory of
autobiographical events (times, places, associated emotions, and other contextual who, what,
when, where, why knowledge) that can be explicitly stated. It is the collection of past personal
experiences that occurred at a particular time and place.
Some examples of episodic memory:
Where you were and the people you were with when you found out about the 9/11 attacks
Your skiing vacation last winter
The first time you traveled by airplane
Your roommate from your first year in college
The details about how you learned of a relative’s death
Fearing water because you were knocked over by a wave at the beach as a child
Your first day at a new job
Attending a relative’s 75th birthday party
Neighbors on the block where you grew up
The movie you saw on your first date with your wife
Q.10. What are the main concepts of forgetting? Discuss of it.
Forgetting is the inability to retrieve or recall a piece of information from long-term memory.
According to some psychologists, forgetting can simply be defined as failure of memory process;
i.e. forgetting occurs when we fail to encode, store or retrieve any information properly. For
example, many of us cannot correctly give the minute details of either side of the coin of 1 taka,
although we use to handle the same coin many times a day. In this particular case, we fail to
remember because of lack of giving attention to the details or failure to proper encoding.
Psychologists have proposed four major views of forgetting.
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1. Encoding failure
Memories cannot be recalled because they were never stored to begin with. It is as if a book in a
library cannot be found because it was never placed there. This is the failure of encoding by the
short-term memory.
2. Decay theory
Memory of an item spontaneously fades or decays with the passage of time. Nothing other than
the passage of time is necessary. It is as if the print on the pages of a book in a library have
faded. This is a failure of storage. It might happen due to not using the memory or lack of
rehearsal. If stored information is not use, it is naturally faded out with passage of time.
3. Interference theory
Other memories interfere with the memory we care trying to recall. It is as if other books have
been piled on the library book we are looking for. This is a failure of recall. Interference might
be two types: Proactive interference where previous learned information interfere the later
learned information. On the other hand, retroactive interference happens when information
learned later interferes with recall of information learned earlier.
4. Retrieval failure
The information is there but cannot be located because the proper cues are not present. It would
be like searching for a book in a large library without proper aids, perhaps because the signs
directing you to the proper shelf have been removed.
Beside these four major causes, there are some more causes of forgetting. It might happen due to
an accident, brain injury and so on. It might also happen because of conscious endeavor. It is
called motivated forgetting. People normally want to forget painful memories which are
traumatic.
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