Chapter

5 Learning

After reading this chapter, you would be able to

• describe the nature of learning,
• explain different forms or types of learning and the procedures used in
such types of learning,
• understand various psychological processes that occur during learning
and influence its course, and
• explain the determinants of learning.

Contents
Introduction
Nature of Learning
Paradigms of Learning
Classical Conditioning
Determinants of Classical Conditioning
Operant/Instrumental Conditioning
Determinants of Operant Conditioning
Classical and Operant Conditioning : Differences (Box 5.1)
Key Learning Processes
Learned Helplessness (Box 5.2)
Observational Learning
Cognitive Learning
Verbal Learning
Skill Learning
Factors Facilitating Learning
Learning Disabilities

Learning preserves errors Key Terms

of the past as well as its Summary
wisdom. Review Questions
Project Ideas
– A.N. Whitehead

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 Introduction
At the time of birth every human baby is equipped with the capacity to make a
limited number of responses. These responses occur reflexively whenever
appropriate stimuli are present in the environment. As the child grows and
matures, s/he becomes capable of making diverse types of responses. These
include identifying the images of some persons as one’s mother, father or
grandfather, using a spoon when eating food, and learning how to identify
alphabets, to write, and to combine them into words. S/he also observes others
doing things in specific environmental conditions, and imitates them. Learning
names of objects such as book, orange, mango, cow, boy, and girl, and retaining
them is another important task. One also learns to drive a scooter or a car, to
communicate with others effectively, and to interact with others. It is all due to
learning that a person becomes hard working or indolent, socially knowledgeable,
skilled, and professionally competent. Each individual manages her or his life
and solves all kinds of problems because of the capacity to learn and adapt. This
chapter focuses on the various aspects of learning. First, learning is defined and
characterised as a psychological process. Second, an account is presented that
explains how one learns. A number of learning methods that account for simple
to complex types of learning are described. In the third section, some empirical
phenomena, that occur in the course of learning, are explained. In the fourth
section, different factors that determine the speed and extent of learning are
described including different learning disabilities.

always involves some kinds of experience. We

NATURE OF LEARNING
experience an event occurring in a certain
As indicated above learning is a key process in sequence on a number of occasions. If an event
human behaviour. It refers to a spectrum of happens then it may be followed by certain
changes that take place as a result of one’s other events. For example, one learns that if
experience. Learning may be defined as “any the bell rings in the hostel after sunset, then
relatively permanent change in behaviour or dinner is ready to be served. Repeated
behavioural potential produced by experience”. experience of satisfaction after doing
One must remember that some behavioural something in a specified manner leads to the
changes occur due to the use of drugs, or formation of habit. Sometimes a single
experience can lead to learning. A child strikes
fatigue. Such changes are temporary. They are
a matchstick on the side of a matchbox, and
not considered learning. Changes due to
gets her/his fingers burnt. Such an experience
practice and experience, which are relatively
makes the child learn to be careful in handling
permanent, are illustrative of learning.
the matchbox in future.
Behavioural changes that occur due to
Features of Learning
learning are relatively permanent. They must
The process of learning has certain distinctive be distinguished from the behavioural changes
characteristics. The first feature is that learning that are neither permanent nor learned. For

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example, changes in behaviour often occur due or action. Let us understand what is meant by
to the effects of fatigue, habituation, and drugs. the term inference. Suppose you are asked by
Suppose you are reading your textbook of your teacher to memorise a poem. You read
psychology for sometime or you are trying to that poem a number of times. Then you say
learn how to drive a motor car, a time comes that you have learned the poem. You are asked
when you will feel tired. You stop reading or to recite the poem and you are able to recite
driving. This is a behavioural change due to it. The recitation of the poem by you is your
fatigue, and is temporary. It is not considered per for mance. On the basis of your
learning. performance, the teacher infers that you have
Let us take another case of change in one’s learned the poem.
behaviour. Suppose in the vicinity of your
residence a marriage is being performed. It
PARADIGMS OF LEARNING
generates a lot of noise, which continues till
late night. In the beginning, the noise distracts Learning takes place in many ways. There are
you from whatever you are doing. You feel some methods that are used in acquisition of
disturbed. While the noise continues, you simple responses while other methods are
make some orienting reflexes. These reflexes used in the acquisition of complex responses.
become weaker and weaker, and eventually In this section you will learn about all these
become undetectable. This is also one kind of methods. The simplest kind of learning is
behavioural change. This change is due to called conditioning. Two types of conditioning
continuous exposure to stimuli. It is called
have been identified. The first one is called
habituation. It is not due to learning. You must
classical conditioning, and the second
have noticed that people who are on sedatives
instrumental/operant conditioning. In
or drugs or alcohol, their behaviour changes
addition, we have observational learning,
as it affects physiological functions. Such
cognitive learning, verbal learning, and skill
changes are temporary in nature and
learning.
disappear, as the effect wears out.
Lear ning involves a sequence of
psychological events. This will become clear if CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
we were to describe a typical lear ning
experiment. Suppose psychologists are This type of learning was first investigated by
interested in understanding how a list of words Ivan P. Pavlov. He was primarily interested in
is learned. They will go through the following the physiology of digestion. During his studies
sequence : (i) do a pre-test to know how much he noticed that dogs, on whom he was doing
the person knows before learning, (ii) present his experiments, started secreting saliva as
the list of words to be remembered for a fixed soon as they saw the empty plate in which
time, (iii) during this time the list of words is food was served. As you must be aware, saliva
processed towards acquiring new knowledge, secretion is a reflexive response to food or
(iv) after processing is complete, new something in the mouth. Pavlov designed an
knowledge is acquired (this is LEARNING), and experiment to understand this process in detail
(v) after some time elapses, the processed in which dogs were used once again. In the
information is recalled by the person. By first phase, a dog was placed in a box and
comparing the number of words which a harnessed. The dog was left in the box for some
person now knows as compared to what s/he time. This was repeated a number of times on
knew in the pre-test, one infers that learning different days. In the meantime, a simple
did take place. surgery was conducted, and one end of a tube
Thus, learning is an inferred process and was inserted in the dog’s jaw and the other end
is different from performance. Performance of the tube was put in a measuring glass. The
is a person’s observed behaviour or response experimental setup is illustrated in Figure 5.1.

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 In the second phase of the experiment, the Unconditioned Stimulus (US) and salivation
dog was kept hungry and placed in harness which follows it, an Unconditioned Response
with one end of the tube ending in the jaw (UR). After conditioning, salivation started to
and the other end in the glass jar. A bell was occur in the presence of the sound of the bell.
The bell becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS)
One-way and saliva secretion a Conditioned Response
glass wall (CR). This kind of conditioning is called
classical conditioning. The procedure is
Food
illustrated in Table 5.1. It is obvious that the
learning situation in classical conditioning is
one of S–S learning in which one stimulus
(e.g., sound of bell) becomes a signal for
another stimulus (e.g., food). Here one stimulus
signifies the possible occurrence of another
stimulus.
Examples of classical conditioning abound
Tube from Cup for Recording in everyday life. Imagine you have just finished
salivary glands measuring saliva device your lunch and you are feeling satisfied. Then
you see some sweet dish served on the
Fig.5.1 : A Dog in Pavlovian Harness for Conditioning adjoining table. This signals its taste in your
mouth, and triggers the secretion of saliva. You
sounded and immediately thereafter food (meat
feel like eating it. This is a conditioned response
powder) was served to the dog. The dog was
(CR). Let us take another example. In the early
allowed to eat it. For the next few days,
stages of childhood, one is naturally afraid of
everytime the meat powder was presented, it
any loud noise. Suppose a small child catches
was preceded by the sound of a bell. After a
an inflated balloon which bursts in her/his
number of such trials, a test trial was
hands making a loud noise. The child becomes
introduced in which everything was the same
afraid. Now the next time s/he is made to hold
as the previous trials except that no food
a balloon, it becomes a signal or cue for noise
followed the sounding of the bell. The dog still
and elicits fear response. This happens because
salivated to the sound of the bell, expecting
of contiguous presentation of balloon as a
presentation of the meat powder as the sound
conditioned stimulus (CS) and loud noise as
of bell had come to be connected with it. This
an unconditioned stimulus (US).
association between the bell and food resulted
in acquisition of a new response by the dog,
Determinants of Classical Conditioning
i.e. salivation to the sound of the bell. This has
been termed as conditioning. You may have How quickly and strongly acquisition of a
noticed that all dogs salivate when they are response occurs in classical conditioning
presented with food. Food is thus an depends on several factors. Some of the major

Table 5.1 Relationship of Stages of Conditioning and Operations

Stages of Nature of Stimulus Nature of Response
Conditioning
Before Food (US) Salivation (UR)
Sound of the Bell Alertness (No Specific Response)
During Sound of the Bell (CS) + Food (US) Salivation (UR)
After Sound of the Bell (CS) Salivation (CR)

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factors influencing learning a CR are described 3. Intensity of Conditioned Stimuli : This
below: influences the course of both appetitive and
1. Time Relations between Stimuli : The aversive classical conditioning. More intense
classical conditioning procedures, discussed conditioned stimuli are more effective in
below, are basically of four types based on the accelerating the acquisition of conditioned
time relations between the onset of conditioned responses. It means that the more intense the
stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus conditioned stimulus, the fewer are the
(US). The first three are called forward number of acquisition trials needed for
conditioning procedures, and the fourth one conditioning.
is called backward conditioning procedure.
The basic experimental arrangements of these Activity 5.1
procedures are as follows:
a) When the CS and US are presented In order to understand and explain conditioning,
together, it is called simultaneous you may carry out the following exercise. Take
a few pieces of mango pickle on a plate and
conditioning.
show it to the students in the classroom. Ask
b) In delayed conditioning, the onset of them what they experienced in their mouth?
CS precedes the onset of US. The CS Most of your classmates are likely to report
ends before the end of the US. some salivation in their mouth.
c) In trace conditioning, the onset and
end of the CS precedes the onset of US
with some time gap between the two. OPERANT/I NSTRUMENTAL C ONDITIONING
d) In backward conditioning, the US
precedes the onset of CS. This type of conditioning was first investigated
It is now well established that delayed by B.F. Skinner. Skinner studied occurrence
conditioning procedure is the most effective of voluntary responses when an organism
way of acquiring a CR. Simultaneous and trace operates on the environment. He called them
conditioning procedures do lead to acquisition operants. Operants are those behaviours or
of a CR, but they require greater number of responses, which are emitted by animals and
acquisition trials in comparison to the delayed human beings voluntarily and are under their
conditioning procedure. It may be noted that control. The term operant is used because the
the acquisition of response under backward organism operates on the environment.
conditioning procedure is very rare. Conditioning of operant behaviour is called
2. Type of Unconditioned Stimuli : The operant conditioning.
unconditioned stimuli used in studies of Skinner conducted his studies on rats and
classical conditioning are basically of two pigeons in specially made boxes, called the
types, i.e. appetitive and aversive. Appetitive Skinner Box. A hungry rat (one at a time) is
unconditioned stimuli automatically elicits placed in the chamber, which was so built that
approach responses, such as eating, drinking, the rat could move inside but could not come
caressing, etc. These responses give out. In the chamber there was a lever, which
satisfaction and pleasure. On the other hand, was connected to a food container kept on the
aversive US, such as noise, bitter taste, electric top of the chamber (see Figure 5.2). When the
shock, painful injections, etc. are painful, lever is pressed, a food pellet drops on the
harmful, and elicit avoidance and escape plate placed close to the lever. While moving
responses. It has been found that appetitive around and pawing the walls (exploratory
classical conditioning is slower and requires behaviour), the hungry rat accidentally presses
greater number of acquisition trials, but the lever and a food pellet drops on the plate.
aversive classical conditioning is established The hungry rat eats it. In the next trial, after
in one, two or three trials depending on the a while the exploratory behaviour again starts.
intensity of the aversive US. As the number of trials increases, the rat takes

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lesser and lesser time to press the lever for food. response. They include its types – positive or
Conditioning is complete when the rat presses negative, number or frequency, quality –
the lever immediately after it is placed in the superior or inferior, and schedule – continuous
chamber. It is obvious that lever pressing is or intermittent (partial). All these features
an operant response and getting food is its influence the course of operant conditioning.
consequence. Another factor that influences this type of
learning is the nature of the response or
behaviour that is to be conditioned. The
interval or length of time that lapses between
occurrence of response and reinforcement also
influences operant learning. Let us examine
some of these factors in detail.

Types of Reinforcement
Reinforcement may be positive or negative.
Positive reinforcement involves stimuli that
have pleasant consequences. They strengthen
and maintain the responses that have caused
them to occur. Positive reinforcers satisfy
Fig.5.2 : Skinner Box
needs, which include food, water, medals,
In the above situation the response is praise, money, status, information, etc.
instrumental in getting the food. That is why, Negative reinforcers involve unpleasant and
this type of lear ning is also called painful stimuli. Responses that lead organisms
instrumental conditioning. Examples of to get rid of painful stimuli or avoid and escape
instrumental conditioning abound in our from them provide negative reinforcement.
everyday life. Children who want to have some Thus, negative reinforcement leads to learning
sweets in the absence of their mother learn to of avoidance and escape responses. For
locate the jar in which mother hides the sweets instance, one learns to put on woollen clothes,
for safekeeping and eat it. Children learn to burn firewood or use electric heaters to avoid
be polite and say ‘please’ to get favours from the unpleasant cold weather. One learns to
their parents and others. One learns to operate move away from dangerous stimuli because
mechanical gadgets such as radio, camera, they provide negative reinforcement. It may
T.V., etc. based on the principle of be noted that negative reinforcement is not
instrumental conditioning. As a matter of fact punishment. Use of punishment reduces or
human beings learn short cuts to attain suppresses the response while a negative
desired goals or ends through instrumental reinforcer increases the probability of
avoidance or escape response. For instance,
conditioning.
drivers and co-drivers wear their seat belts to
Determinants of Operant Conditioning avoid getting injured in case of an accident or
to avoid being fined by the traffic police.
You have noted that operant or instrumental It should be understood that no
conditioning is a form of learning in which punishment suppresses a response
behaviour is learned, maintained or changed permanently. Mild and delayed punishment
through its consequences. Such consequences has no effect. The stronger the punishment,
are called reinforcers. A reinforcer is defined the more lasting is the suppression effect but
as any stimulus or event, which increases the it is not permanent.
probability of the occurrence of a (desired) Sometimes punishment has no effect
response. A reinforcer has numerous features, irrespective of its intensity. On the contrary,
which affect the course and strength of a the punished person may develop dislike and

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hatred for the punishing agent or the person some trials it is given and in others it is
who administers the punishment. omitted. Thus, the reinforcement may be
continuous or intermittent. When a desired
Number of Reinforcement and other Features response is reinforced every time it occurs we
call it continuous reinforcement. In contrast,
It refers to the number of trials on which an
in intermittent schedules responses are
organism has been reinforced or rewarded.
sometimes reinforced, sometimes not. It is
Amount of reinforcement means how much
known as partial reinforcement and has been
of reinforcing stimulus (food or water or
found to produce greater resistance to
intensity of pain causing agent) one receives
extinction – than is found with continuous
on each trial. Quality of reinforcement refers
reinforcement.
to the kind of reinforcer. Chickpeas or pieces
of bread are of inferior quality as compared
Delayed Reinforcement
with raisins or pieces of cake as reinforcer.
The course of operant conditioning is usually The ef fectiveness of reinforcement is
accelerated to an extent as the number, dramatically altered by delay in the occurrence
amount, and quality of reinforcement of reinforcement. It is found that delay in the
increases. delivery of reinforcement leads to poorer level
of performance. It can be easily shown by
Schedules of Reinforcement asking children which reward they will prefer
for doing some chore. Smaller rewards
A reinforcement schedule is the arrangement
immediately after doing the chore will be
of the delivery of reinforcement during
preferred rather than a big one after a long
conditioning trials. Each schedule of
gap.
reinforcement influences the course of
conditioning in its own way; and thus
Key Learning Processes
conditioned responses occur with differential
characteristics. The organism being subjected When learning takes place, be it classical or
to operant conditioning may be given operant conditioning, it involves the
reinforcement in every acquisition trial or in occurrence of certain processes. These include

B o x 5.1 Classical and Operant Conditioning : Diff

Differences
erences

1. In classical conditioning, the responses are 3. In classical conditioning, the experimenter

under the control of some stimulus because controls the occurrence of US, while in operant
they are reflexes, automatically elicited by conditioning the occurrence of the reinforcer is
the appropriate stimuli. Such stimuli are under the control of the organism that is learning.
selected as US and responses elicited by Thus, for US in classical conditioning the
them as UR. Thus Pavlovian conditioning, in organism remains passive, while in operant
which US elicits responses, is often called conditioning the subject has to be active in order
respondent conditioning.
to be reinforced.
In instrumental conditioning, responses
4. In the two forms of conditioning, the technical
are under the control of the organism and
are voluntary responses or ‘operants’. Thus, terms used to characterise the experimental
in the two forms of conditioning different proceedings are different. Moreover what is called
types of responses are conditioned. reinforcer in operant conditioning is called US in
2. In classical conditioning the CS and US are classical conditioning. An US has two functions.
well-defined, but in operant conditioning CS In the beginning it elicits the response and also
is not defined. It can be inferred but is not reinforces the response to be associated and
directly known. elicited later on by the CS.

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 B o x 5.2 Learned Helplessness

It is an interesting phenomenon, which is a result suffered the shock through, and did not attempt to
of an interaction between the two forms of escape. This behaviour of the dog was called learned
conditioning. Learned helplessness underlies helplessness.
psychological cases of depression. Seligman and This phenomenon has been shown to be operative
Maier demonstrated this phenomenon in a study in humans also. It has been found that continuous
on dogs. First, they subjected dogs to sound (CS) failure in a set of tasks shows the occurrence of
and electric shock (US) using classical conditioning learned helplessness. In an experimental study, the
procedure. The animal had no scope to escape or subjects are initially given failure experience
avoid the shock. This pairing was repeated a irrespective of their performance. In the second phase
number of times. Then the dogs were subjected to the subjects are given a task. Learned helplessness
shock in an operant conditioning procedure. The is often measured in terms of the subject’s ability and
dogs could escape the shock by pressing their persistence before they give up the task. Continuous
heads against the wall. After having experienced failure leads to little persistence and poor performance.
inescapable shock in the Pavlovian contingency, This shows helplessness. There are numerous studies
the dog failed to escape or avoid shock in the that demonstrate that persistent depression is often
operant conditioning procedure. The dog just caused by learned helplessness.

reinforcement, extinction or non-occurrence lead to the desired response. Such a response

of lear ned response, generalisation of is shaped by reinforcing successive
lear ning to other stimuli under some approximations to the desired response.
specifiable conditions, discrimination
between reinforcing and non-reinforcing Extinction
stimuli, and spontaneous recovery.
Extinction means disappearance of a learned
response due to removal of reinforcement from
Reinforcement
the situation in which the response used to
Reinforcement is the operation of occur. If the occurrence of CS-CR is not
administering a reinforcer by the experimenter. followed by the US in classical conditioning,
Reinforcers are stimuli that increase the rate or lever pressing is no more followed by food
or probability of the responses that precede. pellets in the Skinner box, the learned
We have noted that reinforced responses behaviour will gradually be weakened and
increase in rate, while non-reinforced ultimately disappear.
responses decrease in rate. A positive Learning shows resistance to extinction.
reinforcer increases the rate of response that It means that even though the learned
precedes its presentation. Negative reinforcers response is now not reinforced, it would
increase the rate of the response that precedes continue to occur for sometime. However, with
their removal or termination. The reinforcers increasing number of trials without
may be primary or secondary. A primary reinforcement, the response strength
reinforcer is biologically important since it gradually diminishes and ultimately it stops
determines the organism’s survival (e.g., food occurring. How long a learned response shows
for a hungry organism). A secondary reinforcer resistance to extinction depends on a number
is one which has acquired characteristics of of factors. It has been found that with
the reinforcer because of the organism’s increasing number of reinforced trials
experience with the environment. We resistance to extinction increases and learned
frequently use money, praise, and grades as response reaches its highest level. At this level
reinforcers. They are called secondary performance gets stabilised. After that the
reinforcers. Systematic use of reinforcers can number of trials do not make a difference in

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the response strength. Resistance to extinction For example, suppose a child is conditioned
increases with increasing number of to be afraid of a person with a long moustache
reinforcements during acquisition trials, and wearing black clothes. In subsequent
beyond that any increase in number of situation, when s/he meets another person
reinforcement reduces the resistance to dressed in black clothes with a beard, the child
extinction. Studies have also indicated that shows signs of fear. The child’s fear is
as the amount of reinforcement (number of generalised. S/he meets another stranger who
food pellets) increases during the acquisition is wearing grey clothes and is clean-shaven.
trials, resistance to extinction decreases. The child shows no fear. This is an example of
If the reinforcement is delayed during discrimination. Occurrence of generalisation
acquisition trials, the resistance to extinction means failure of discrimination.
increases. Reinforcement in every acquisition Discriminative response depends on the
trial makes the learned response to be less discrimination capacity or discrimination
resistant to extinction. In contrast, learning of the organism.
intermittent or partial reinforcement during
acquisition trials makes a learned response Spontaneous Recovery
more resistant to extinction.
Spontaneous recovery occurs after a learned
Generalisation and Discrimination response is extinguished. Suppose an
organism has learned to make a response for
The processes of generalisation and
getting reinforcement, then the response is
discrimination occur in all kinds of learning.
extinguished and some time lapses. A question
However, they have been extensively
now may be asked, whether the response is
investigated in the context of conditioning.
completely extinguished, and will not occur if
Suppose an organism is conditioned to elicit a
the CS is presented. It has been demonstrated
CR (saliva secretion or any other reflexive
that after lapse of considerable time, the
response) on presentation of a CS (light or
learned or CR recovers and occurs to the CS.
sound of bell). After conditioning is established,
and another stimulus similar to the CS (e.g., The amount of spontaneous recovery depends
ringing of telephone) is presented, the organism on the duration of the time lapsed after the
makes the conditioned response to it. This extinction session. The longer the duration of
phenomenon of responding similarly to similar time lapsed, the greater is the recovery of
stimuli is known as generalisation. Again, learned response. Such a recovery occurs
suppose a child has learned the location of a spontaneously. Fig.5.3 shows the
jar of a certain size and shape in which sweets phenomenon of spontaneous recovery.
are kept. Even when the child’s mother is not (1) (2) (3)
around, the child finds the jar and obtains the Acquisition Extinction Spontaneous
sweets. This is a learned operant. Now the (CS+US) (CS alone) recovery
sweets are kept in another jar of a different (CS alone)
size and shape and at a different location in
Strength of the CR

the kitchen. In the absence of the mother the

child locates the jar and obtains the sweets.
This is also an example of generalisation. When
a learned response occurs or is elicited by a
new stimulus, it is called generalisation.
Baseline Rest
Another process, which is complimentary
to generalisation, is called discrimination.
Generalisation is due to similarity while Trials
discrimination is a response due to difference. Fig.5.3 : Phenomenon of Spontaneous Recovery

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 an experimental room in which similar toys
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
were placed around. The children were allowed
The next form of learning takes place by to play with the toys. These groups were
observing others. Earlier this form of learning secretly observed and their behaviours noted.
was called imitation. Bandura and his It was found that those children who saw
colleagues in a series of experimental studies aggressive behaviour being rewarded were
investigated observational learning in detail. most aggressive; children who had seen the
In this kind of learning, human beings learn aggressive model being punished were least
social behaviours, therefore, it is sometimes aggressive. Thus, in observational learning
called social learning. In many situations observers acquire knowledge by observing the
individuals do not know how to behave. They model’s behaviour, but per formance is
observe others and emulate their behaviour. influenced by model’s behaviour being
This form of learning is called modeling. rewarded or punished.
Examples of observational lear ning You must have noticed that children
abound in our social life. Fashion designers observe adults’ behaviours, at home and
employ tall, pretty, and gracious young girls during social ceremonies and functions. They
enact adults in their plays and games. For
and tall, smart, and well-built young boys for
instance, young children play games of
popularising clothes of different designs and
marriage ceremonies, birthday parties, thief
fabrics. People observe them on televised
and policeman, house keeping, etc. Actually
fashion shows and advertisements in
they enact in their games what they
magazines and newspapers. They imitate these
observe in society, on television, and read in
models. Observing superiors and likeable
books.
persons and then emulating their behaviour
Children lear n most of the social
in a novel social situation is a common
behaviours by observing and emulating adults.
experience.
The way to put on clothes, dress one’s hair,
In order to understand the nature of
and conduct oneself in society are learned
observational learning we may refer to the
through observing others. It has also been
studies conducted by Bandura. In one of his shown that children learn and develop various
well-known experimental study, Bandura personality characteristics through
showed a film of five minutes duration to observational learning. Aggressiveness, pro-
children. The film shows that in a large room social behaviour, courtesy, politeness,
there are numerous toys including a large diligence, and indolence are acquired by this
sized ‘Bobo’ doll. Now a grown-up boy enters method of learning.
the room and looks around. The boy starts
showing aggressive behaviour towards the toys
in general and the bobo doll in particular. He Activity 5.2
hits the doll, throws it on the floor, kicking it
and sitting on it. This film has three versions. You can have first-hand experience of observational
In one version a group of children see the boy learning by doing the following exercise.
(model) being rewarded and praised by an Collect four or five school going children and
demonstrate how to make a boat out of a sheet of
adult for being aggressive to the doll. In the
paper. Do it two or three times and ask the children
second version another group of children see to observe carefully. After having shown how to
the boy being punished for his aggressive fold the paper in different ways for a number of
behaviour. In the third version the third group times, give them sheets of paper and ask them to
of children are not shown the boy being either make a toy boat.
rewarded or punished. Most children will be able to do it somewhat
After viewing a specific version of the film successfully.
all the three groups of children were placed in

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 learning can be generalised to other similar
COGNITIVE LEARNING
problem situations.
Some psychologists view learning in terms of
cognitive processes that underlie it. They have Latent Learning
developed approaches that focus on such Another type of cognitive learning is known as
processes that occur during learning rather latent learning. In latent learning, a new
than concentrating solely on S-R and S-S behaviour is learned but not demonstrated
connections, as we have seen in the case of until reinforcement is provided for displaying
classical and operant conditioning. Thus, in it. Tolman made an early contribution to the
cognitive learning, there is a change in what concept of latent learning. To have an idea of
the learner knows rather than what s/he does. latent learning, we may briefly understand his
This form of learning shows up in insight experiment. Tolman put two groups of rats in
learning and latent learning. a maze and gave them an opportunity to
explore. In one group, rats found food at the
Insight Learning end of the maze and soon learned to make
their way rapidly through the maze. On the
Kohler demonstrated a model of learning
other hand, rats in the second group were not
which could not be readily explained by
rewarded and showed no apparent signs of
conditioning. He perfor med a series of
learning. But later, when these rats were
experiments with chimpanzees that involved
reinforced, they ran through the maze as
solving complex problems. Kohler placed efficiently as the rewarded group.
chimpanzees in an enclosed play area where Tolman contended that the unrewarded
food was kept out of their reach. Tools such rats had learned the layout of the maze early
as poles and boxes were placed in the in their explorations. They just never displayed
enclosure. The chimpanzees rapidly learned their latent learning until the reinforcement
how to use a box to stand on or a pole to move was provided. Instead, the rats developed a
the food in their direction. In this experiment, cognitive map of the maze, i.e. a mental
learning did not occur as a result of trial and representation of the spatial locations and
error and reinforcement, but came about in directions, which they needed to reach their
sudden flashes of insight. The chimpanzees goal.
would roam about the enclosure for some time
and then suddenly would stand on a box, grab
a pole and strike a banana, which was out of
VERBAL LEARNING
normal reach above the enclosure. The Verbal learning is different from conditioning
chimpanzee exhibited what Kohler called and is limited to human beings. Human
insight learning – the process by which the beings, as you must have observed, acquire
solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear. knowledge about objects, events, and their
In a nor mal experiment on insight features largely in terms of words. Words then
learning, a problem is presented, followed by come to be associated with one another.
a period of time when no apparent progress is Psychologists have developed a number of
made and finally a solution suddenly emerges. methods to study this kind of learning in a
In insight learning, sudden solution is the rule. laboratory setting. Each method is used to
Once the solution has appeared, it can be investigate specific questions about learning
repeated immediately the next time the of some kind of verbal material. In the study
problem is confronted. Thus, it is clear that of verbal learning, psychologists use a variety
what is learned is not a specific set of of materials including nonsense syllables,
conditioned associations between stimuli and familiar words, unfamiliar words (see Table
responses but a cognitive relationship between 5.2 for sample items), sentences, and
a means and an end. As a result, insight paragraphs.

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 Table 5.2 Sample Lists of Items used in Verbal Learning Experiments
Verbal
Nonsense syllables Unfamiliar words Familiar words
YOL ZILCH BOAT
RUV PLUMB NOSE
TOJ VERVE KNOW
LIN BLOUT GOAL
LUF THILL BOWL
GOW SCOFF LOAD
NOK TENOR FEET
RIC WRACK MEET
NEZ BOUGH TENT
TAM MALVE FOAM
SUK PATTER TALE
KOZ MANSE JOKE
GUD KYDRA MALE
MUP BORGE BALM
KUG DEVEN SOLE

Methods used in Studying Verbal each stimulus term. After that a learning trial
Learning begins. One by one the stimulus words are
presented and the participant tries to give the
1. Paired-Associates Learning : This method
correct response term. In case of failure, s/he
is similar to S-S conditioning and S-R learning.
is shown the response word. In one trial all
It is used in learning some foreign language
the stimulus terms are shown. Trials continue
equivalents of mother tongue words. First, a
until the participant gives all the response
list of paired-associates is prepared. The first
words without a single error. The total number
word of the pair is used as the stimulus, and
of trials taken to reach the criterion becomes
the second word as the response. Members of
the measure of paired-associates learning.
each pair may be from the same language or
two different languages. A list of such words 2. Serial Learning : This method of verbal
is given in Table 5.3. learning is used to find out how participants
The first members of the pairs (stimulus learn the lists of verbal items, and what
term) are nonsense syllables (consonant- processes are involved in it. First, lists of verbal
vowel-consonant), and the second are English items, i.e. nonsense syllables, most familiar or
nouns (response term). The learner is first least familiar words, interrelated words, etc. are
shown both the stimulus-response pairs prepared. The participant is presented the entire
together, and is instructed to remember and list and is required to produce the items in the
recall the response after the presentation of same serial order as in the list. In the first trial,

Table 5.3 Examples of Stimulus – Response PPairs

airs used in PPaired-Associates
aired-Associates Learning
Stimulus - Response Stimulus - Response
GEN – LOOT LUR – ROOF
BEM – TIME RUL – GOLD
DIV – LAMP VAK – HILL
WUF – DEER KER – NAME
JIT – LION HOZ – GOAT
DAX – COAL MUW – BULL

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the first item of the list is shown, and the a list containing the same association value.
participant has to produce the second item. If On the basis of research findings, the following
s/he fails to do so within the prescribed time, generalisations have been made.
the experimenter presents the second item. Learning time increases with increase in
Now this item becomes the stimulus and the length of the list, occurrence of words with low
participant has to produce the third item that association values or lack of relations among
is the response word. If s/he fails, the the items in the list. The more time it takes to
experimenter gives the correct item, which learn the list, stronger will be the learning. In
becomes the stimulus item for the fourth word. this respect psychologists have found that the
This procedure is called serial anticipation total time principle operates. This principle
method. Learning trials continue until the states that a fixed amount of time is necessary
participant correctly anticipates all the items to learn a fixed amount of material, regardless
in the given order. of the number of trials into which that time is
divided. The more time it takes to learn, the
3. Free Recall : In this method, participants are
stronger becomes the learning.
presented a list of words, which they read and
If participants are not restricted to the
speak out. Each word is shown at a fixed rate of
serial learning method and are allowed to give
exposure duration. Immediately after the
free recall, verbal lear ning becomes
presentation of the list, the participants are
organisational. It implies that in free recall
required to recall the words in any order they
participants recall the words not in their order
can. Words in the list may be interrelated or
of presentation, but in a new order or
unrelated. More than ten words are included in
sequence. Bousfield first demonstrated this
the list. The presentation order of words varies
experimentally. He made a list of 60 words
from trial to trial. This method is used to study
that consisted of 15 words drawn from each
how participants organise words for storage in
of the four semantic categories, i.e. names,
memory. Studies indicate that the items placed
animals, professions, and vegetables. These
in the beginning or end of the lists are easier to
words were presented to participants one by
recall than those placed in the middle, which
one in random order. The participants were
are more difficult to recall.
required to make free recall of the words.
However, they recalled the words of each
Determinants of Verbal Learning
category together. He called it category
Verbal learning has been subjected to the most clustering. It is worth noting that, though,
extensive experimental investigations. These the words were presented randomly the
studies have indicated that the course of verbal participants organised them category-wise in
learning is influenced by a number of factors. recall. Here category clustering occurred
The most important determinants are the because of the nature of the list. It has also
different features of the verbal material to be been demonstrated that free recall is always
learned. They include length of the list to be organised subjectively. Subjective organisation
learned and meaningfulness of the material. shows that the participants organise words
Meaningfulness of material is measured in or items in their individual ways and recall
several ways. The number of associations accordingly.
elicited in a fixed time, familiarity of the Verbal learning is usually intentional but
material and frequency of usage, relations a person may learn some features of the words
among the words in the list, and sequential unintentionally or incidentally. In this kind of
dependence of each word of the list on the learning, participants notice features such as
preceding words, are used for assessing whether two or more words rhyme, start with
meaningfulness. Lists of nonsense syllables are identical letters, have same vowels, etc. Thus,
available with different levels of associations. verbal learning is both intentional as well as
The nonsense syllables should be selected from incidental.

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 skill learning, the learner has to understand
Activity 5.3 and memorise the instructions, and also
understand how the task has to be performed.
Take the following words and write them on
separate cards, and ask the participants to read
In this phase, every outside cue, instructional
them aloud one by one. After completion of two demand, and one’s response outcome have to
readings, ask them to write down the words in be kept alive in consciousness.
any order : book, law, bread, shirt, coat, paper, The second phase is associative. In this
pencil, biscuit, pen, life, history, rice, curd, shoes, phase, different sensory inputs or stimuli are
sociology, sweet, pond, potato, ice-cream, muffler, linked with appropriate responses. As the
and prose. After the presentation, ask them to
write down the words they read, without bothering
practice increases, errors decrease,
about the order of presentation. performance improves and time taken is also
Analyse your data to see whether recalled reduced. With continued practice, errorless
words show any organisation. performance begins, though, the learner has
to be attentive to all the sensory inputs and
maintain concentration on the task. Then the
third phase, i.e. autonomous phase, begins.
SKILL LEARNING In this phase, two important changes take
place in performance: the attentional
Nature of Skills demands of the associative phase decrease,
A skill is defined as the ability to perform some and interference created by external factors
complex task smoothly and efficiently. Car reduces. Finally, skilled performance attains
driving, airplane piloting, ship navigating, automaticity with minimal demands on
shorthand writing, and writing and reading are conscious effort.
examples of skills. Such skills are learned by Transitions from one phase to the other
practice and exercise. A skill consists of a clearly show that practice is the only means of
chain of perceptual motor responses or as a skill learning. One has to keep on exercising
sequence of S-R associations. and practicing. As the practice increases,
improvement rate gradually increases; and
Phases of Skill Acquisition automaticity of errorless performance becomes
the hallmark of skill. That is why it is said that
Skill lear ning passes through several
‘practice makes a man perfect’.
qualitatively different phases. With each
successive attempt at learning a skill, one’s
performance becomes smoother and less effort FACTORS FACILITATING LEARNING
demanding. In other words, it becomes more
spontaneous or automatic. It has also been In the preceding section we examined the
shown that in each phase the performance specific determinants of learning, such as
improves. In transition from one phase to the contiguous presentation of CS and US in
next, when the level of performance stands classical conditioning; number, amount, and
still, it is called performance plateau. Once delay of reinforcement in operant conditioning;
the next phase begins, performance starts status and attractiveness of models in
improving and its level starts going up. observational learning; procedure in verbal
One of the most influential accounts of the learning; and the nature of rules and
phases of skill acquisition is presented by perceptual features of objects and events in
Fitts. According to him, skill learning passes concept learning. Now, we shall discuss some
through three phases, viz. cognitive, general determinants of learning. This
associative and autonomous. Each phase or discussion is not exhaustive. Rather it deals
stage of skill learning involves different types with some salient factors only which are found
of mental processes. In the cognitive phase of very important.

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Continuous vs Partial Reinforcement fulfilling the current need. In other words,
In experiments on learning the experimenter motivation energises an organism to act
can arrange to deliver reinforcement according vigorously for attaining some goal. Such acts
to a specific schedule. In the context of persist until the goal is attained and the need
learning, two kinds of schedules namely is satisfied. Motivation is a prerequisite for
continuous and partial have been found very learning. Why does a child forage in the kitchen
important. In continuous reinforcement the when the mother is not in the house? S/he does
participant is given reinforcement after each so because s/he needs sweets to eat for which
target response. This kind of schedule of s/he is trying to locate the jar in which sweets
reinforcement produces a high rate of are kept. During the course of foraging the child
responding. However, once the reinforcement learns the location of the jar. A hungry rat is
is withheld, response rates decrease very placed in a box. The animal forages in the box
quickly, and the responses acquired under this for food. Incidentally it presses a lever and food
schedule tend to extinguish. Since organism drops in the box. With repeated experience of
is getting reinforcement on each trial, the such activity, the animal learns to press the
effectiveness of that reinforcer is reduced. In lever immediately after the animal is placed
such schedules where reinforcement is not there.
continuous, some responses are not Have you ever asked yourself why you are
reinforced. Hence, they are called partial or studying psychology and other subjects in
intermittent reinforcement. There are several Class XI? You are doing so to pass with good
ways in which one might reinforce responses marks or grades in your final examination.
according to an intermittent schedule. It has The more motivated you are, the more hard
been found that partial reinforcement work you do for learning. Your motivation for
schedules often produce very high rates of learning something arises from two sources.
responding, particularly when responses are You learn many things because you enjoy
reinforced according to ratio. In this kind of them (intrinsic motivation) or they provide you
schedule, an organism often makes several the means for attaining some other goal
responses that are not reinforced. Therefore, it (extrinsic motivation).
becomes difficult to tell when a reinforcement
has been discontinued completely and when Preparedness for Learning
it has merely been delayed. When The members of different species are very
reinforcement is continuous it is easier to tell different from one another in their sensory
when it has been discontinued. This kind of capacities and response abilities. The
difference has been found crucial for extinction. mechanisms necessary for establishing
It has been found that extinction of a response associations, such as S-S or S-R, also vary from
is more difficult following partial species to species. It can be said that species
reinforcement than following continuous have biological constraints on their learning
reinforcement. The fact that the responses capacities. The kinds of S-S or S-R learning an
acquired under partial reinforcement are organism can easily acquire depends on the
highly resistant to extinction is called partial associative mechanism it is genetically
reinforcement effect. endowed with or prepared for. A particular
kind of associative learning is easy for apes or
Motivation
human beings but may be extremely difficult
All living organisms have survival needs and and sometimes impossible for cats and rats. It
human beings, in addition, have growth needs. implies that one can learn only those
Motivation is a mental as well as a physiological associations for which one is genetically
state, which arouses an organism to act for prepared.

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 The concept of preparedness may be best intelligence, adequate sensory motor systems,
understood as a continuum or dimension, on and adequate learning opportunities. If it is not
one end of which are those learning tasks or remedied, it may continue throughout life and
associations which are easy for the members affect self-esteem, vocation, social relations,
of some species, and on the other end are those and daily living activities.
learning tasks for which those members are
not prepared at all and cannot learn them. In Symptoms of Learning Disabilities
the middle of the continuum fall those tasks There are many symptoms of learning
and associations for which the members are disabilities. They become manifest in different
neither prepared nor unprepared. They can combinations in children who suffer from this
learn such tasks, but only with great difficulty disorder irrespective of their intelligence,
and persistence. motivation, and hard work for learning.
1. Difficulties in writing letters, words and
LEARNING DISABILITIES phrases, reading out text, and speaking
appear quite frequently. Quite often they
You must have heard, observed or read that have listening problems, although they
thousands of children get enrolled for may not have auditory defects. Such
education in schools. Some of them, however, children are very different from others in
find the demands of educational process too developing learning strategies and plans.
difficult to meet, and they drop out. Such 2. Learning-disabled children have disorders
students are called “drop-outs”. The reasons of attention. They get easily distracted and
for this are numerous, such as sensory cannot sustain attention on one point for
impairment, intellectual disability, social and long. More often than not, attentional
emotional disturbance, poor economic deficiency leads to hyperactivity, i.e. they
conditions of the family, cultural beliefs and are always moving, doing different things,
norms or other environmental influences. trying to manipulate things incessantly.
Apart from these conditions, there is another 3. Poor space orientation and inadequate
source of obstacle in the continuance of sense of time are common symptoms.
education that is called learning disabilities. Such children do not get easily oriented to
It makes school learning, i.e. acquisition of new surroundings and get lost. They lack
knowledge and skills too difficult to grapple a sense of time and are late or sometimes
with. Such children also fail to move forward too early in their routine work. They also
in their learning activities. show confusion in direction and misjudge
Learning disability is a general term. It right, left, up and down.
refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders 4. Learning-disabled children have poor
manifested in terms of difficulty in the motor coordination and poor manual
acquisition of learning, reading, writing, dexterity. This is evident in their lack of
speaking, reasoning, and mathematical balance, inability to sharpen pencil, handle
activities. The sources of such disorders are doorknobs, difficulty in learning to ride a
inherent in the child. It is presumed that these bicycle, etc.
difficulties originate from problems with the 5. These children fail to understand and
functioning of the central nervous system. It follow oral directions for doing things.
may occur in conjunction with physical 6. They misjudge relationships as to which
handicaps, sensory impairment, intellectual classmates are friendly and which ones are
disability or without them. indif ferent. They fail to lear n and
It must be noted that learning disabilities understand body language.
may be observed as a distinct handicapping 7. Learning-disabled children usually show
condition in children of average to superior perceptual disorders. These may include

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 visual, auditory, tactual, and kinesthetic appropriate techniques for correcting most
misperception. They fail to differentiate a of the symptoms related to learning
call-bell from the ring of the telephone. It disabilities.
is not that they do not have sensory acuity.
They simply fail to use it in performance. Key Terms
8. Fairly large number of learning-disabled
children have dyslexia. They quite often Associative learning, Biofeedback, Cognitive
fail to copy letters and words; for example, map, Conditioned response, Conditioned
they fail to distinguish between b and d, stimulus, Conditioning, Discrimination,
p and q, P and 9, was and saw, unclear Dyslexia, Extinction, Free recall,
and nuclear, etc. They fail to organise verbal Generalisation, Insight, Learning disabilities,
Mental set, Modeling, Negative reinforcement,
materials.
Operant or instrumental conditioning,
It must be noted that learning Positive reinforcement, Punishment,
disabilities are not incurable. Remedial Reinforcement, Serial learning, Spontaneous
teaching methods go a long way in helping recovery, Unconditioned response,
them to learn and become like other students. Unconditioned stimulus, Verbal learning
Educational psychologists have developed

Summary
• Learning is any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced
by experience or practice. It is an inferred process and differs from performance which is the
observed behaviour/response/action.
• The main types of learning are: classical and operant conditioning, observational learning,
cognitive learning, verbal learning, and skill learning.
• Pavlov first investigated classical conditioning in the course of studies on digestion in dogs.
In this kind of learning an organism comes to associate stimuli. A neutral stimulus (CS) that
signals an unconditioned stimulus (US) begins to produce a response (CR) that anticipates
and prepares the organism for US.
• Skinner first investigated operant or instrumental conditioning (OC). An operant is any
response voluntarily emitted by an organism. OC is a type of learning in which response is
strengthened if followed by reinforcement. A reinforcer can be any event that increases the
frequency of preceding response. Thus, the consequence of a response is crucial. The rate of
OC is influenced by the type, number, schedule, and delay of reinforcement.
• Observational learning is also known as imitation, modeling and social learning. We acquire
knowledge by observing a model’s behaviour. The performance depends on whether the
model’s behaviour is rewarded or punished.
• In verbal learning words get associated with one another on the basis of structural, phonetic,
and semantic similarity and contrast. They are often organised in clusters. In experimental
studies, paired-associates learning, serial learning, and free recall methods are used.
Meaningfulness of material, and subjective organisation influence learning. It may be
incidental also.
• Skill refers to the ability to carry out complex tasks smoothly and efficiently. They are
learned by practice and exercise. The skilled performance is the organisation of S-R chain
into large response patterns. It passes through cognitive, associative, and autonomous
phases.
• Factors facilitating learning include motivation and preparedness of the organism.
• Learning disabilities (e.g., reading, writing) restrict learning in people. They are hyperactive,
lack sense of time, and eye-hand coordination, etc.

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 Review Questions
1. What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?
2. How does classical conditioning demonstrate learning by association?
3. Define operant conditioning. Discuss the factors that influence the course of operant
conditioning.
4. A good role model is very important for a growing up child. Discuss the kind of learning
that supports it.
5. Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.
6. What is a skill? What are the stages through which skill learning develops?
7. How can you distinguish between generalisation and discrimination?
8. Why is motivation a prerequisite for learning?
9. What does the notion of preparedness for learning mean?
10. Explain the different forms of cognitive learning?
11. How can we identify students with learning disabilities?

Project Ideas
How do your parents reinforce you for behaving in the ways they think are good for you?
Select five different instances. Compare these with the reinforcement employed by teachers
in the classroom and relate them to the concepts taught in the class.

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