Lesson 04

Learning

- The process of learning is continuous which starts right from the time of birth of an
individual and continues till the death.
- We all are engaged in the learning activities in order to develop our adaptive capabilities as
per the requirements of the changing environment.
- A person keeps on learning across all the stages of life, by constructing or reconstructing
experiences.
- Learning is commonly understood as the act, process, or experience of gaining knowledge
or skill.
- For a layperson it is knowledge or skill gained through schooling or study.

▇ Definition of learning:
- “Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from
experience”.
- This definition of learning stresses on three important elements of learning:

 Learning involves a behavioral change which can be better (positive) or worse

(negative).
 This behavioral change should take place as a result of practice and experience. Changes
resulting from maturity or growth cannot be considered as learning
 This behavioral change must be relatively permanent and last for a relatively long time
enough.

▇ Types of Learning
 Motor Learning:
- Our day to day activities like walking, running, climbing, skating, driving, etc, must be learnt
for ensuring a good life/regular life. These activities to a great extent involve muscular
coordination for better movement around.

 Verbal Learning:
- This type of learning involves the language we speak, the communication devices we use.
Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We
use words for communication.

 Concept Learning:
- It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking,
reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when
we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular
animal. Concept learning involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalisation. This
learning is very useful in recognising, identifying things.
  Discrimination Learning:
- Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these
stimuli is called discrimination learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus,
car, ambulance, etc.

 Learning of Principles:
- Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order
to manage their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between
two or more concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

 Attitude Learning:
- Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our behaviour. Attitude shapes
our behaviour to a very great extent, as our positive or negative behaviour is based on our
attitudinal tendency.We develop different attitudes from our childhood about the people,
objects and everything we know. Our behaviour may be positive or negative depending
upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse towards her profession, patients, etc.

▇ Three Types of Behavioral Learning

- During the first half of the twentieth century, the school of thought known as behaviorism
rose to dominate psychology and sought to explain the learning process.
- Behaviorism is a school of thought that seeks to measure only observable behaviors. Hence
it only examines outward behavior when trying to understand if learning occurred.

- Behaviorism is based on the assumption that:

o All learning occurs through interactions with the environment i.e. the environment
shapes behavior

Taking internal mental states such as thoughts, feelings, and emotions into consideration is
useless in explaining behavior

- The three major types of learning described by behavioral psychology are:

1. Classical conditioning,
2. Operant conditioning, and
3. Observational learning.
 1. Classical conditioning or Associative learning

Classical Conditioning Experiment:

- In case of Classical Conditioning, the process of learning is described as a Stimulus-Response
connection or association.

- Classical conditioning refers to a learning procedure in which stimulus-response pairings are

learned - seeing tasty food typically triggers salivation (yummy!), for example.

- If encountering food is consistently accompanied by a (previously) neutral stimulus such as

ringing a bell, a new stimulus-response pairing is learned.

- The bell becomes a conditioned stimulus and is forceful enough to trigger salivation even in
absence of the actual food.
- Described as generalization, this learning process was first studied by Ivan Pavlov and team
(1927) through experiments with dogs, which is why classical conditioning is also referred to
as Pavlovian conditioning.

- Today, classical conditioning is the most widely understood of the basic learning processes.

Additional Explanation

- Suppose that the smell of food is an unconditioned stimulus (UCS) and a feeling of hunger is
the unconditioned response (UCR).
- Now, imagine that when you smelled your favorite food (UCS), you also heard the sound of
a whistle (NS).
- While the whistle is unrelated to the smell of the food, if the sound of the whistle was
paired multiple times with the smell, the sound alone would eventually trigger the
conditioned response (CR).
- In this case, the sound of the whistle is the conditioned stimulus (CS).
- While food serves as unconditioned stimulus, salivation is the unconditioned response.
 ▇ More examples related to UCS AND UCR
 A feather tickling your nose (UCS) causes you to sneeze (UCR). The feather tickling your
nose is the unconditioned stimulus.
 Cutting up an onion (UCS) makes your eyes water (UCR). The onion is the unconditioned
stimulus.
 Pollen from grass and flowers (UCS) cause you to sneeze (UCR). The pollen is the
unconditioned stimulus.
 Your cat running to its bowl (UCR) whenever it smells food (UCS). The scent of food is the
unconditioned stimulus.
 A loud bang (UCS) causes you to Jump (UCR) away from the sound. The unexpected loud
noise is the unconditioned stimulus because it automatically triggers a response with no
prior learning.
In each of these examples, the unconditioned stimulus naturally triggers an unconditioned
response or reflex. You don't have to learn to respond to the unconditioned stimulus - it simply
occurs automatically.
Some examples of conditioned responses include:
 One day at a family picnic you have a plate of potato salad that was sitting out a little too
long. That night you become violently ill. The potato salad was initially a neutral stimulus,
but the illness turns it into a conditioned stimulus. Now every time you see or smell potato
salad, you think of the time you got sick from eating it.
 As you were backing out of a parking space (neutral stimulus), your car was hit by another
car. After that experience, when you back out of a parking spot you feel a tinge of hyper
vigilance and anxiety. The trauma of the car accident turned backing out of a parking space
into a conditioned stimulus.
 Many phobias begin after a person has had a negative experience with the fear object. For
example, after witnessing a terrible car accident, a person might develop a fear (CR) of
driving. This fear is a conditioned response.
 If your pet is accustomed to being fed after hearing the sound of a can or bag (CS) being
opened, he or she might become very excited (CR) when hearing that sound. This behavior
is a conditioned response.
 Many children receive regular immunizations, and a child may cry as a result of these
injections. In some instances, a child might come to associate a doctor's white jacket with
this painful experience. Eventually, the child might begin to cry (CR) whenever he or she
sees anyone wearing a white coat (CS: white jacket---injection). This crying behavior is a
conditioned response.
 A person who is bitten by a barking dog may experience feelings of fear and anxiety
whenever he or she hears a barking noise. The fear that people feel when they hear a bark
is a conditioned response.
 Sandy rides her motorbike to work every day through the same way. One day, on her way
back home, she slips on the road and falls down. Now, the place where she had an
accident has become a conditioned stimulus, and every time she passes that spot, she’s
extra careful.
 Every time when we are standing on the railway platform and we hear a whistle blown by
station master, we know it’s the time for arrival of train. We have learned it this way by
associating whistle (neutral stimulus paired with train) with arrival of train.
 2. Operant conditioning
- Think about this for a minute ... how did we learn to behave the way in which we do?
How did we learn that a particular behavior is good behavior and some other behavior is bad?
Our parents and the society taught us, yes?
But what were the tools that were used for driving the behavior home?
- Operant conditioning, also referred to as instrumental conditioning, was first described by
psychologist B.F. Skinner.
- “Operant Conditioning theory stresses on the fact that the consequences of actions shape
the behaviour”. I.e. behaviour is modified by the consequences (reward or punishment).
- In other words, we learn to perform behaviours that produce positive outcomes and avoid
behaviours that yield negative outcomes.

For example:

 If a child completes the home work she is praised (rewarded) by the parents and the child
learns to perform the task. If the child breaks a plate, he/she is scolded (punished) and she
will learn not to repeat the behaviour. This is called Operant Conditioning or instrumental
conditioning.
 According to Skinner, actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be
repeated while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated.
 ▇ Reinforcement in operant conditioning:

The 2 types of reinforcement are:

 Positive reinforcement – adding a factor to increase a behavior
 Negative reinforcement – removing a factor to increase a behavior

Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is adding a pleasant stimulus to enhance a behavior.
Positive Reinforcement Examples Pleasant Stimulus Desired Behavior

A mother gives her daughter a toy for doing toy do homework

homework.

A father praises his son for practicing soccer. praise practice soccer

Negative Reinforcement
Negative reinforcement is removing an aversive stimulus to enhance a behavior.
Negative Reinforcement Examples Aversive Stimulus Desired
Behavior
To stop his mother’s nagging, Alex does his nagging do chores
chores.
To remove the bad smell from her body, Erin bad smell take a shower
takes a shower

- While the goal of reinforcement is to reinforce a desired behavior, the goal of

punishment is to make an undesired behavior less likely to happen, continue or
strengthen in the future.
- As with reinforcement, the technical meanings of positive and negative punishment
refer to adding or removing a factor to obtain the results.

▇ Punishment in Operant conditioning

The 2 types of punishments are:
Positive punishment—adding a factor to decrease a behavior
Negative punishment—removing a factor to decrease a behavior

Positive Punishment
Positive punishment is adding an aversive stimulus to discourage a behavior.
Positive Punishment Examples Aversive Stimulus Undesired Behavior
Mom gives Mag additional chores additional chores lying
for lying
Jon was assigned extra homework extra homework be late for school
because he was late to school.
Negative Punishment
Negative punishment is removing a pleasant stimulus to deter a behavior.
Negative Punishment Examples Pleasant Stimulus Undesired Behavior
Mary’s TV time was cut by 20 TV time did not listen
minutes because she did not
listen to her Mom
Jack was grounded for talking go out talk back
back

Reinforcement Vs Punishment
- Both reinforcement and punishment can modify behavior . The difference between
them is that reinforcement aims to increase a behavior while punishment aims to
decrease a behavior .

Add / Remove Stimulus Behavior

Positive Add pleasant enhance desired

Reinforcement
Negative Remove Aversive enhance desired
Reinforcement
Positive Punishment Add Aversive Discourage
undesired
Negative Punishment Remove Pleasant Discourage
undesired
 3. Observational learning (modeling)/Social learning

- Observational learning, also called social learning theory, we learn by watching others and
then imitating, or modeling, what they do or say. The individuals performing the imitated
behavior are called models.

- Albert Bandura (1977) introduced the social learning theory to emphasize that humans
learn through observing others’ behavior or by imitating others.

- For example, think of how a child watches his parents’ wave at one another and then
imitates these actions himself. A tremendous amount of learning happens through this
process of watching and imitating others. In psychology, this is known as observational
learning.

- If you've ever made faces at an infant and watched them try to mimic your funny
expressions, then you certainly understand how observational learning can be such a
powerful force even from a very young age.

▇ Stages of observational learning

The four stages of observational learning are:
i. Attention
ii. Retention
iii. Production
iv. Motivation
▇ Examples of observational learning include:

 A child watches his mother folding the laundry. He later picks up some clothing and imitates
folding the clothes.
 A young couple goes on a date to a Chinese restaurant. They watch other diners in the
restaurant eating with chopsticks and copy their actions in order to learn out to use these
utensils.
 A boy watches another boy on the playground get in trouble for hitting another child. He
learns from observing this interaction that he should not hit others.
 A group of children plays hide-and-seek at recess. One child joins the group, but has never
played before and is not sure what to do. After observing the other children play, she
quickly learns the basic rules of the game and joins in.

 An infant learns to make and understand facial expressions

 A child learns to chew
 After witnessing an older sibling being punished for taking a cookie without asking, the
younger child does not take cookies without permission
 A newer employee avoids being late to work after seeing a co-worker fired for being late
 A child learns to walk
 A child learns how to play a game while watching others
 A child shows that she has learned the basic steps of cooking a meal by doing so at a play
kitchen in her classroom
 A child learns a science concept by demonstration from the teacher
 An inexperienced salesperson is successful at a sales meeting after observing the behaviors
and statements of other salespeople
 A child shows observational learning of how to drive a car by making appropriate motions
after seeing a parent driving
 A young boy swings a baseball bat without being explicitly taught how to do it after
attending a baseball game
 A student learns not to cheat by watching another student be punished for cheating
 A girl sees another child fall on ice in front of her so she avoids stepping on the ice
 A new customer in a store learns the process for lining up and checking out by watching
other customers
 A man in a coffee shop learns where to find cream and sugar by watching other coffee
drinkers locate that area
 A girl learns how to mow her own lawn by watching neighbors mowing their lawns
As you can see, you encounter examples of observational learning all the time and have likely
learned many things yourself using this method of learning.