PSY 301: Psychology of Learning - Class Notes
Professor: Dr. Sarah Mitchell | Semester: Fall 2024
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Unit 1: Introduction to Learning Theory
Class 1 (September 3, 2024): Foundations of Learning Psychology
**Key Question**: What is learning, and how do we study it scientifically?
**Learning Definition**:
A relatively permanent change in behavior, knowledge, or mental processes due to experience.
**Historical Context**:
- Early 20th century: Shift from introspection to observable behavior
- Scientific method application to psychological phenomena
- Laboratory-based research methodologies
**Major Paradigms**:
1. **Behaviorism** (1900s-1950s)
- Focus on observable behavior only
- Stimulus-response relationships
- Rejection of mentalistic concepts
2. **Cognitive Revolution** (1950s-1970s)
- Mental processes become legitimate study topics
- Information processing models
- Computer metaphor for human mind
3. **Modern Integrative Approach** (1970s-present)
- Combines behavioral and cognitive insights
- Neurobiological foundations
- Social and cultural contexts
**Research Methods in Learning Psychology**:
- Controlled experiments
- Longitudinal studies
- Cross-sectional comparisons
- Case studies
- Neuroimaging techniques
**Assignment**: Read Chapters 1-2 in textbook. Identify one learning experience from your own life
and analyze it using the scientific definition provided.
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Class 2 (September 5, 2024): Behavioral Learning Theory
Classical Conditioning (Ivan Pavlov)
**Basic Principles**:
- Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) ? Unconditioned Response (UCR)
- Conditioned Stimulus (CS) ? Conditioned Response (CR)
- Learning occurs through association
**Pavlov's Dog Experiment**:
- UCS: Food ? UCR: Salivation
- CS: Bell ? CR: Salivation (after conditioning)
**Key Phenomena**:
1. **Acquisition**: Gradual strengthening of CS-CR association
2. **Extinction**: Weakening when CS presented without UCS
3. **Spontaneous Recovery**: Return of CR after extinction period
4. **Generalization**: Response to similar stimuli
5. **Discrimination**: Different responses to different stimuli
**Real-World Applications**:
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- Phobia development and treatment
- Advertising and marketing
- Medical treatment associations
- Educational environments
Case Study: Little Albert (Watson & Rayner)
- Demonstrated fear conditioning in human infant
- Ethical concerns with this research
- Implications for understanding anxiety disorders
Operant Conditioning (B.F. Skinner)
**Core Concept**: Behavior is shaped by its consequences
**Types of Consequences**:
1. **Positive Reinforcement**: Adding pleasant stimulus
- Example: Praise for good grades
2. **Negative Reinforcement**: Removing unpleasant stimulus
- Example: Seatbelt alarm stops when buckled
3. **Positive Punishment**: Adding unpleasant stimulus
- Example: Extra chores for misbehavior
4. **Negative Punishment**: Removing pleasant stimulus
- Example: Loss of privileges
**Schedules of Reinforcement**:
- **Continuous**: Every response reinforced
- **Intermittent**: Only some responses reinforced
- Fixed Ratio (FR): After set number of responses
- Variable Ratio (VR): After varying number of responses
- Fixed Interval (FI): After set time period
- Variable Interval (VI): After varying time periods
**Skinner Box Experiments**:
- Controlled environment for studying operant behavior
- Demonstrated effectiveness of different reinforcement schedules
- Applications to human behavior modification
**Discussion Questions**:
1. How do classical and operant conditioning differ?
2. What ethical considerations apply to behavioral modification techniques?
3. Can you identify examples of each type of conditioning in your daily life?
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Class 3 (September 10, 2024): Cognitive Learning Theory
Information Processing Model
**Basic Components**:
1. **Sensory Memory**: Brief retention of sensory information
2. **Short-term Memory**: Limited capacity working memory
3. **Long-term Memory**: Permanent storage system
**Memory Processes**:
- **Encoding**: Converting information for storage
- **Storage**: Maintaining information over time
- **Retrieval**: Accessing stored information
**Attention and Learning**:
- Selective attention filters relevant information
- Divided attention affects learning efficiency
- Sustained attention necessary for deep processing
Piaget's Cognitive Development Theory
**Four Stages**:
1. **Sensorimotor Stage (0-2 years)**
- Learning through senses and motor actions
- Object permanence develops
- Basic cause-effect relationships
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2. **Preoperational Stage (2-7 years)**
- Symbolic thinking emerges
- Language development accelerates
- Egocentrism and centration
- Limited logical reasoning
3. **Concrete Operational Stage (7-11 years)**
- Logical thinking about concrete objects
- Conservation concepts understood
- Classification and seriation abilities
- Reversibility of mental operations
4. **Formal Operational Stage (11+ years)**
- Abstract and hypothetical thinking
- Scientific reasoning develops
- Propositional logic
- Metacognition emerges
**Key Concepts**:
- **Schema**: Mental frameworks for understanding world
- **Assimilation**: Fitting new information into existing schemas
- **Accommodation**: Modifying schemas for new information
- **Equilibration**: Balance between assimilation and accommodation
**Educational Implications**:
- Age-appropriate instruction
- Hands-on learning experiences
- Scaffolding complex concepts
- Active construction of knowledge
**Modern Cognitive Research**:
- Working memory models (Baddeley & Hitch)
- Dual-process theories
- Expertise development
- Metacognitive strategies
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Class 4 (September 12, 2024): Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura's Social Cognitive Theory
**Core Principles**:
- Learning through observation and modeling
- Reciprocal determinism: behavior, cognition, and environment interact
- Self-efficacy beliefs influence behavior
**Observational Learning Process**:
1. **Attention**: Noticing model's behavior
2. **Retention**: Remembering observed behavior
3. **Motor Reproduction**: Ability to perform behavior
4. **Motivation**: Incentive to perform behavior
**Famous Bobo Doll Experiment**:
- Children observed adults behaving aggressively toward inflatable doll
- Children later imitated aggressive behaviors
- Demonstrated learning without direct reinforcement
- Raised concerns about media violence effects
**Types of Models**:
- **Live Models**: Real people in person
- **Symbolic Models**: Media representations
- **Verbal Models**: Descriptions of behaviors
**Factors Affecting Modeling**:
- Model characteristics (similarity, status, attractiveness)
- Observer characteristics (age, cognitive ability, self-esteem)
- Behavioral consequences observed
- Environmental context
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**Self-Efficacy Theory**:
- Beliefs about one's ability to perform specific behaviors
- Influences goal setting, effort, and persistence
- Sources: mastery experiences, vicarious experiences, verbal persuasion, emotional states
**Applications**:
- Educational modeling strategies
- Therapy and behavior change
- Media literacy and violence prevention
- Leadership development
**Moral Learning and Development**:
- Moral reasoning develops through stages (Kohlberg)
- Social context influences moral behavior
- Role of empathy and perspective-taking
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Class 5 (September 17, 2024): Constructivist Learning Theory
Lev Vygotsky's Sociocultural Theory
**Key Concepts**:
- Learning is fundamentally social
- Culture and language shape cognitive development
- Higher mental functions develop from social interactions
**Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD)**:
- Gap between current ability and potential ability
- Learning occurs within this zone with appropriate support
- More knowledgeable other provides scaffolding
**Scaffolding Process**:
1. **Modeling**: Demonstrating the skill
2. **Guided Practice**: Shared responsibility
3. **Independent Practice**: Learner takes control
4. **Gradual Release**: Support removed as competence increases
**Language and Thought**:
- Private speech guides behavior and thinking
- Inner speech develops from social speech
- Cultural tools (language, symbols) mediate learning
**Cultural-Historical Context**:
- Learning embedded in cultural practices
- Tools and symbols culturally determined
- Historical development of knowledge systems
**Modern Constructivist Approaches**:
**Jean Piaget vs. Lev Vygotsky**:
- Piaget: Individual construction of knowledge
- Vygotsky: Social construction of knowledge
- Both emphasize active learner role
**Constructivist Classroom Principles**:
- Authentic, meaningful activities
- Collaborative learning opportunities
- Multiple perspectives encouraged
- Reflection and metacognition emphasized
- Assessment integrated with instruction
**Problem-Based Learning**:
- Real-world problems as learning context
- Student-directed inquiry
- Teacher as facilitator
- Knowledge constructed through problem-solving
**Discovery Learning**:
- Learners explore and discover concepts
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- Minimal direct instruction
- Inductive reasoning emphasized
- Intrinsic motivation promoted
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Class 6 (September 19, 2024): Memory and Learning
**Types of Long-Term Memory**:
1. **Declarative Memory** (Explicit)
- **Episodic**: Personal experiences and events
- **Semantic**: Facts and general knowledge
2. **Procedural Memory** (Implicit)
- Skills and habits
- Often unconscious
- Resistant to forgetting
**Memory Consolidation**:
- Transformation from fragile to stable memory
- Role of sleep in consolidation
- Hippocampus and long-term storage
**Forgetting and Memory Interference**:
- **Decay Theory**: Memory traces fade over time
- **Interference Theory**: New learning disrupts old
- **Proactive Interference**: Old interferes with new
- **Retroactive Interference**: New interferes with old
**Strategies for Improving Memory**:
**Encoding Strategies**:
- Elaborative rehearsal
- Visual imagery
- Mnemonic devices
- Spacing effect
- Testing effect
**Organization Strategies**:
- Chunking information
- Hierarchical organization
- Category clustering
- Semantic networks
**Retrieval Strategies**:
- Multiple retrieval cues
- Context-dependent learning
- State-dependent learning
- Distributed practice
**Metacognition and Learning**:
- Knowledge about one's own thinking
- Regulation of cognitive processes
- Planning, monitoring, evaluating
- Strategy selection and modification
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Unit 2: Applications and Current Issues
Class 7 (September 24, 2024): Individual Differences in Learning
**Learning Styles Controversy**:
- Popular belief in distinct learning styles
- Lack of empirical support for style-based instruction
- Importance of matching methods to content, not styles
**Intelligence and Learning**:
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- **Multiple Intelligences Theory** (Gardner)
- **Triarchic Theory** (Sternberg)
- **Growth vs. Fixed Mindset** (Dweck)
**Motivation and Learning**:
**Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation**:
- Intrinsic: Internal satisfaction and interest
- Extrinsic: External rewards and consequences
- Over-justification effect
**Self-Determination Theory**:
- **Autonomy**: Sense of control and choice
- **Competence**: Feeling capable and effective
- **Relatedness**: Connection to others
**Achievement Goal Theory**:
- **Mastery Goals**: Focus on learning and improvement
- **Performance Goals**: Focus on appearing competent
- **Approach vs. Avoidance orientations**
**Emotional Factors**:
- Test anxiety effects
- Emotional regulation strategies
- Growth mindset development
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Class 8 (September 26, 2024): Learning Disorders and Interventions
**Common Learning Disabilities**:
**Dyslexia**:
- Reading difficulties despite normal intelligence
- Phonological processing deficits
- Evidence-based interventions
**ADHD**:
- Attention and hyperactivity challenges
- Executive function difficulties
- Multimodal treatment approaches
**Autism Spectrum Disorders**:
- Social communication challenges
- Repetitive behaviors and restricted interests
- Individualized educational approaches
**Intervention Strategies**:
- Response to Intervention (RTI) model
- Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
- Assistive technology applications
- Collaborative team approaches
**Neurodiversity Perspective**:
- Viewing differences as variations, not deficits
- Strengths-based approaches
- Environmental modifications vs. remediation
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Study Guide for Midterm Exam
**Key Concepts to Review**:
1. **Classical Conditioning**
- Basic principles and terminology
- Real-world applications
- Ethical considerations
2. **Operant Conditioning**
- Types of consequences
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- Reinforcement schedules
- Behavior modification techniques
3. **Cognitive Development**
- Piaget's stages
- Information processing model
- Memory systems and processes
4. **Social Learning**
- Observational learning process
- Self-efficacy theory
- Modeling effects
5. **Constructivist Theory**
- Vygotsky's ZPD
- Scaffolding techniques
- Cultural influences on learning
6. **Individual Differences**
- Motivation theories
- Learning disabilities
- Intervention approaches
**Practice Questions**:
1. Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning
2. Explain how Piaget's and Vygotsky's theories differ in their view of learning
3. Describe the four components of observational learning
4. What is the zone of proximal development and how is it used in education?
5. Analyze the role of motivation in academic achievement
**Recommended Study Strategies**:
- Create concept maps linking theories
- Generate real-world examples for each principle
- Practice explaining concepts to someone else
- Review class notes and textbook summaries
- Form study groups for discussion and review
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*Note: These notes represent key concepts covered in class. Students should supplement with textbook
readings and additional resources. Office hours available Tuesdays and Thursdays 2-4 PM.*
**Next Week**: Unit 3 - Technology and Future of Learning
**Reading Assignment**: Chapters 8-9 in textbook
**Project Proposal Due**: October 1, 2024
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