Unit – I Learning

Definition, types of learning, transfer of learning, biological factors in learning

We learn in different places and situations. learning can be formal (school) or informal.
We may learn by practicing behaviors or rote memorization. We learn by watching other
people. We learn in from a variety of formats, e.g. multimedia, books, lectures, etc.. Our
learning is influenced by our culture, family, social status, genetic traits, developmental
ability, and age. Thus, learning is unique to each individual.

Definition

Learning occupies a very important role in our life. An individual starts learning immediately
after his or her birth and even earlier in the womb of the mother. The term learning stands for
all those changes and modifications in the behavior of the individual which he or she
undergoes from birth till death.

Learning involves mastering a new skill, academic subject, emotional development, social
interaction, development of personality.

Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a

result of experience.

The definition has three important elements

1. Learning is a change in behavior either it is maladaptive or adaptive

2. It is a change that takes place through practice or experience; changes due to growth
or maturation are not learning
3. The change that occurs must be relatively permanent i.e it must last for long time.

Learning is closely related to a phenomena called as maturation which is a natural process.

Maturation is the growth which takes place within the individual. The maturational changes
are the results of unfolding and ripening of inherited traits and are relatively independent of
activity, practice or experience.

Swimming of tadpoles and flying of birds can be attributed primarily to maturation. But in
most of the activities of human beings, it is difficult to decide whether these activities result
from maturation or learning. The child does not learn to talk until he reaches a certain stage
or age in maturation, but it is also equally true that he does not learn the languages just
because he or she attains that stage. The language is taught to him or her.

Therefore the two processes – maturation and learning – are closely related and different
from each other.

Maturation helps in the process of learning. Learning can only take place if the stage for that
type of learning has been achieved through a process of maturation.

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Types of learning

Conditional learning
There are two kinds of conditioning – classical and operant conditioning.

Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a learning process in which previously neutral stimulus becomes

associated with another stimulus through repeated pairing with that stimulus.

Ivan Pavlov while studying digestion in dog, he noticed that the dog salivate food at the
mere sight of a food dish.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) is a stimulus that automatically produces a response without

prior conditioning. Food is the unconditioned stimuli which produces response that is
unconditioned. The dog does not respond the tone initially.

Before conditioning

UCS UCR

(food) (saliva)

NS no response

(tone)

During conditioning

UCS

UCR

NS

NS + UCS UCR

(tone) (food)

After conditioning

CS CR

(tone) (saliva)

Conditional stimuli conditioned response

Neutral stimulus (NS) is that, which does not naturally elicit a response (salivation). But it
may produce some other response such as dog’s ear may turn up in response to a sound.

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Unconditional response (UCR) is the reflexive behavior (here it denotes salivation).

During conditioning the neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with unconditional stimulus
over a period of time.

Thus after conditioning a previously neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus (CS)
when it is repeatedly paired with an unconditional stimulus and begins to elicit the
conditioned response.

The strength of the conditioned response (the amount of salivation) increased with the
number of pairings of the conditioned stimulus and unconditional stimulus.

Stimulus generalisation, a conditioned response generalizes to stimuli that are similar to the
original conditioned stimulus. In stimulus discrimination, the organism learns to differentiate
its response to related stimuli.

CS

a large black dog

CR

child displays fear

Stimulus generalization Stimulus discrimination

The child fears when a small black dog The child shows no fear of a small brown
appears dog

Generalisation

When a conditioned response to a stimulus has been acquired, other similar stimuli will
evoke the same response. A dog that learns to salivate to the sound of a tuning fork producing
a tone of middle will also salivate to higher or lower without further conditioning.

Discrimination

Generalization is a reaction to similarities and discrimination is a reaction to differences. The

dog will now learn to discriminate the tone and elicits response only to the middle tone.

Generalisation and discrimination occur frequently in everyday life. A child develops a fear
because one dog chased her on one day. Through generalization the child fear for all the dog.

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After a period of time, the child is able to discriminate the dog which fears the child is
different with that of other dogs.

Extinction and Spontaneous Recovery

Repetition of the conditioned stimulus (Bell) without unconditioned stimulus repeatedly

gradually diminishes the response. This is called Extinction. A response that has been
extinguished, does come-up later on its own, this is called spontaneous recovery. At this
stage, if reinforcement (US) is not presented with CS, the response extinguishes permanently.

Thus much of our behavior in the shape of interests, attitudes, habits, sense of application or
criticism, moods and temperaments etc is fashioned through conditioning. The process of
conditioning not only helps us in learning what is desirable but also helps in eliminating,
avoiding, or unlearning of so many undesirable habits, unhealthy attitudes, superstitious, fear
and phobias through de-conditioning. An individual who hates a particular person

Operant or instrumental conditioning

Another core theory of learning is Operant Conditioning, posited by B. F. Skinner. Skinner
found that he could train pigeons and other animals to do particular behaviors in exchange for
a reward, namely food. His experiments consisted of placing a pigeon in a cage with a lever.
When by chance the pigeon pecked at the lever, it was rewarded with a pellet of food.
Consequently the pigeon continued to peck at the lever to get more pellets of food. B.F.
Skinnner developed more formal model based on responses and its consequences.

The skinner box is a cage that contains a food release mechanism that the animal activates
when it responds in a particular way. Ex. By pressing a lever or pushing a button. A pigeon
would be deprived of food and placed in a cage. Whenever the pigeon pressed a button at the
side of the cage, a food pellet would drop into its food tray.

Reinforcement refers to the process whereby the delivery of pleasant stimulus or removal
of unpleasant stimulus increases the probability of behavior.

Positive reinforcement – a response is strengthened by the introduction of a stimulus after the

response occurs. eg. Praising a child for good behaivior. Negative reinforcement – a response
is strengthened when it leads to the removal of an “aversive “ stimulus eg. Brushing teeth to
avoid drilling

Nature of Reinforcers: Whether something is positively reinforcing or punishing depends on

the effect it has on behaviour. What may be positively reinforcing to one child may not be so
for another. For example, usually food will be positively reinforcing but to an anorexic girl
who hates the sight of food it may be punishing. Pain is usually punishing, but to a child
preoccupied guilt with masochistic tendencies it will be positively reinforcing or rewarding.

Further, the strength and direction of reinforcement will depend to some degree on the child’s
relationship with the person administering or involved in it. A game of football is likely to be
more positively reinforcing for a boy if it involves his father than his mother. A star chart for

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bed wetting worked out in co-operation with a mother with whom a 6 year old has a good
relationship is likely to be more effective than if the mother and child are in serious conflict.
Primary reinforcers are intrinsic reward because they satisfy basic biological needs or drives.
Ex. Food, water, sleep, sexual stimulation.

Secondary reinforcers acquire their reinforcement value through a learning process by which
they become associated with primary reinforcers. Ex. Money, good grades, award, praise.

Punishment refers to the introduction of an aversive stimulus or the removal of a

reinforcing stimulus after a response, leads to the weakening or suppression of the
response.

If the unpleasant stimulus is produced and the responding decreases then the procedure is
positive reinforcement eg. Overcorrection.

If the pleasant stimulus is removed and the responding decreases then the procedure is
negative punishment eg. Timeout – making the child sit alone since he or she disturbed the
class.

Schedule of Reinforcement: According to Skinner, at the beginning of training you should

reward each and every move the child makes toward the goal. However, once the child has
mastered a given response in the chain, you may begin slowly fading out the reward by
reinforcing the response intermittently. Continuous reinforcement is necessary at first, both to
keep the individual eager to perform and to let him know that he is doing something right.
However, once the child learns what that something” is, you may begin reinforcing the
response every second time, then every third or fourth time, then perhaps every tenth time. If
you fade out the reward very gradually, you can get a child to make a simple response several
times for each reinforcement.

During the fading process, the exact scheduling of the reward is crucial. If you reinforce
exactly every tenth response, the, child will soon learn to anticipate which response will gain
him reward. Skinner calls this fixed ratio reinforcement, because the ratio between the
number of responses required and the rewards given is fixed and never varies. Instead of
reinforcing exactly the tenth response, we can vary the schedule so that sometimes the third
response yields reward, sometimes the twentieth or any response in between. A hundred
responses will yield about 10 rewards, but the child will never know when the next reward is
coming. When trained on variable ratio schedules, individuals response at a fairly constant
pace.

Extinction generally occurs most rapidly following withdrawal of things that are positive
reinforcers. Thus the withdrawal of love from people of whom the child is fond is often the
most effective way of achieving extinction of the undesirable behaviour. In other children,
the withdrawal of material goods, such pocket money, special food or think, and opportunity
to watch television is more important.

Shaping refers to the gradual forming of the behaviour. It is a step by step method to teach
complex behaviour. It is commonly used in teaching skills to mentally retardates.
Comparison between classical and operant conditioning

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Difference between Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning
Sl.No Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning

1 UCS is given irrespective of the Organism’s own behaviour determines

organism’s behaviour whether or not the UCS will be presented.

2 Time interval between the CS and the Time interval depends on the organism’s own
UCS is rigidly fixed. behaviour

3 Responses involuntarily mediated by Responses under voluntary control,

autonomic nervous system like eye blink mediated by the central nervous system.

4 The unconditioned stimulus (UCS) The reward is contingent upon the

occurs without regard to the subject occurrence of response.
behaviour.
5 Association between stimulus response Association between stimulus responses (S-R)
(S-R) is on the basis of law contiguity (S-R) is on the basis of law of effect (effect of
(things occurring closer in time and time and space get associated)
space get associated)
6 There is a pairing of UCS and CS No pairing of UCS and CS but pairing of a
response and the reinforcing stimulus which
follows
7 Reinforcement comes first as food is Reinforcement is provided after the response is
presented first to elicit the response made by the organism

8 We present the (UCS) unconditioned We present the stimulus only if the organism
stimulus regardless of whether the (CR) makes the desired response.
conditioned response occurs
9 Stress is laid on time control Place of motivation and reward is stressed

10 The essence of learning is stimulus The essence of learning is response

substitution modification

11 Stimulus oriented Is response oriented

12 Response is correlated with and There is no antecedent behavior and is

controlled by an antecedent event, an controlled by its consequences
eliciting stimulus which is initially the
UCS and subsequently the CS

Cognitive learning

Cognitive learning involves mental processes that cannot be directly observed – processes
like thinking, information processing, problem solving and mental imaging.

Humans and other animals are capable of new behaviors without actually having had the
chance to perform them or being reinforced for them.

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- Insight is defined as sudden perception of relationship between the elements of a
situation and goal which suddenly comes and goes on with out any break till one reaches
the goal.
Insight learning is the process of mentally working through a problem until the sudden
realization of a solution occurs.
In one experiment, Kohler put the Chimpanzee inside a cage and a banana was hung
from the roof of the cage. A box was placed inside the cage. The chimpanzee tried to
reach at the banana by jumping but could not succeed. Suddenly he got an idea and used
the box as a jumping platform by placing it just below the hanging banana.
The experiment demonstrated the role of intelligence and cognitive abilities in higher
learning such as problem-solving.
Insight learning may arise from a mental process of trial and error – the working out in
mind of possible solutions to a problem based on responses that were reinforced in the
past.
Insight theory of learning is based on cognitive principles. This theory has been built up
on the facts gathered in course of works done on perpetual learning, a phenomenon that
involves the formation of S – S (stimulus – stimulus) as instead of S – R association.
Solution come to mind suddenly. Most often there would be no apparent progress,
followed by sudden visualization of the solution which is called insight.

Latent learning is a kind of learning which is “hidden”, that occurs without apparent
reinforcement and that is not revealed in performance at the time it occurs. Latent learning
refers to any learning that is not evidenced by behaviour at the time of the learning. It occurs
without any reinforcement for particular responses and seems to involve changes in the way
in which information is processed. You can get ample examples of latent learning from your
own experiences, when you have not consciously put an effort to learn, but later you can
perform that particular skill or responses.

Social Learning
Observational learning or modeling or vicarious learning. Individuals acquire new behaviors
by imitating behaviors we observe in others. The person whose behavior is observed in called
a model. There are many forms of learning which cannot be explained through conditioning.
We also learn through observation. Social learning theorist stress upon observational learning
or modeling in which a person acquires a response to a specific situation by watching others
make a response (Bandura, 1969). Imitation is one of the important method based on this
theory, which could be applied in learning of many skills. For example many of your skills
like giving an injection, making bed or dressing of a wound are learned by you simply by
observing your seniors perform those skills. Even maladaptive behaviours like aggression are
learnt through imitation. The learner acquires and stores internal (representations) response
through images and verbal coding, which may be expressed later.

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Trial and error

Edward Thorndike constructed a device called a “puzzle box”, a cage in which the animal
(usually a cat) had to perform a simple activity (such as pulling a looped string or pushing a
pedal) in order to make its escape and reach a food placed within its view outside the cage.

Initially the cat tries to reach the food by extending its paws through the bars. When this fails,
the cat moves about the cage, engaging in a variety of activities.

Thorndike named the learning of his experimental cat as “trial and error”. He maintained that
the learning is nothing but the stamping in of the correct responses and stamping out of the
incorrect responses through trial and error. In trying for the correct solution the cat made so
many vain attempts. It committed error after error before gaining success. On subsequent
trials, it tried to avoid the erroneous ways and repeat the correct ways of manipulating the
latch.

Thorndike argues that the animals did not employ reasoning, insight, or any other form of
higher intelligence to find their way to the exit. Rather it was through a random process of
trial and error.

Trial and error is the gradual elimination of useless responses and then finding out the
successful behavior which is purely by chance.

Trial and error or stimulus-response theory was propounded by E.L.Thorndike. according to

him, learning behavior arises when the organism faces a new and difficult situation. In order
to solve the problem, the organism tries all sorts of movement one by one in a random
manner. During the process of solving, the organism will make all possible movement, till the
correct movement is made. Thus the correct response gradually gets bonded with the learning
situation which is termed as S – R bond.

The two most popular experiments which formed for trial and error are puzzle box and maze
experiment.

Puzzle box experiment: Thorndike put a hungry cat in a puzzle box and presented fried fish in
a tray outside the cage which the cat could view from inside the cage. Inside the box, a loop
of string hanged which if pulled, could open the cage. The cat struggled energetically by
trying to squeeze between the slate, scratching the box, which did not have effect. But in
course of these random act, the cat pulled the string and the door opened.

 Trial and error is the gradual elimination of useless response by stamping in correct
and stamping out the incorrect response.
 Maze experiment: Thorndike performed another experiments on rats using maze as a
problem. A hungry rat was placed in maze box with food in its goal. The rat explored
the maze after putting in some efforts. It tried to reach the goal with each and every
blind paths. When the food is reached, the trial ends.

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Laws of learning

1. Law of effect : This is the most important law of learning. The satisfying activities are
stamped in and the unsatisfied activities ones are stamped out. Thorndike is supposed
to be the first psychologist to recognize the significance of motivation in learning
which led to the formation of law of effect.
2. Law of exercise : the law of exercise is another important law. The strength of
responses are based on the frequency of occurrence of the response. This law
of exercise is also referred as law of frequency.
a. The law of use explains the establishment of correct response
b. The law of disuse explains why incorrect response are eliminated
3. Law of readiness : it refers to the state of the organism which makes him ready to
respond. The organism experience satisfaction in responding to the situation. But
when he is not ready to set to respond it causes annoyance. This law is important in
inducing a tendency to learn and hence, applies to every learning situation.

Law of learning

Law of effect Law of exercise Law of readiness

Law of use Law of disuse

Transfer of Learning

If eyerything we learned was specific to the situation in which it was learned, the amount of
learning that would have to be crammed in a lifetime would be phenomenal. But
most learning is readily transferable, to other situations with some modification. The
influence that learning one task may have on the subsequent learning of another is called
transfer of learning. Sometimes transfer of learning could be positive or negative. Positive
transfer of learning is when learning on task does facilitate learning another. When one
learning interferes with others, it is called negative transfer of training. There are numerous
examples of negative transfer in everyday life.

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  Positive transfer: When learning in one situation facilitates learning in another
situation, it is known as positive transfer. For example, skills in playing violin
facilitate learning to play piano. Knowledge of mathematics facilitates to learn
physics in a better way. Driving a scooter facilitates driving a motorbike.

 Negative transfer: When learning of one task makes the learning of another task
harder- it is known as negative transfer. For example, speaking Telugu hindering the
learning of Malayalam. Left hand drive vehicles hindering the learning of right hand
drive.

 Neutral transfer: When learning of one activity neither facilitates nor hinders the
learning of another task, it is a case of neutral transfer. It is also called as zero
transfer. For example, knowledge of history in no way affects learning of driving a car
or a scooter.

One special kind of transfer is called bilateral transfer for example learning to do a thing with
one hand facilitates (transferred) learning with the other hand. The problem of transfer of
learning has been of great concern to educators. For them it constitutes the very important
practical question of how the school/college curriculum should be arranged to ensure
maximum positive transfer. If learning of psychology would help in the learning of mental
health which subject should be taught first to ensure maximum transfer to other subjects.
Doctrine of formal discipline, maintained that the mind was composed of faculties that could
be strengthened through exercises, much as individual muscles can be strengthened. But this
doctrine has been discredited by experiments.

Biological Factors in Learning

There are number of factors affect the learning in an individual. All the factors can be
categorized into two major factors viz., environmental factors, and personal factors.

L = f (EF × PF)

L = Learning; f = Function; EF = Environmental Factors; PF = Personal Factors.

Personal factors include biological factors(Maturation, Taste aversion, instinctive drive),

psychological factors (intelligence, motivation, emotions, interests, attitudes, self-concept,
learning styles, physical health),

In other words, the learner should be mature enough to learn a particular skill or task. This
means that there is an optimal or most appropriate time for each individual to learn a specific
skill or a concept with ease and efficiency. This appropriate time comes when one’s physical,
neural and intellectual aspects of development have advanced enough to enable one to
perceive the problem and solve it with relative ease and comfort. For instance, four month old
child cannot walk since it lacks the physical maturation or level of development required of
walking. Similarly, it is impossible for five years old to comment on democracy or socialism

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as he/she is not ‘ready’ or cognitively adept at understanding these concepts. Maturation can
best be interpreted as relatively permanent change in an individual – be it cognitive,
emotional or physical, that occurs as a result of biological ageing, regardless of personal
experience. Maturation is pre-programmed and occurs regardless of interactions a child has
with the environment. Maturation has to be thus understood as a natural process of unfolding
of the development stages, resulting in functionally preparing an individual to acquire
mastery over his/her environment.

Taste Aversion

Psychologist John Garcia and his colleagues found that aversion to a particular taste is
conditioned only by pairing the taste (a conditioned stimulus) with nausea (an unconditioned
stimulus). If taste is paired with other unconditioned stimuli, conditioning doesn’t occur.
Similarly, nausea paired with most other conditioned stimuli doesn’t produce aversion to
those stimuli. Pairing taste and nausea, on the other hand, produces conditioning very
quickly, even with a delay of several hours between the conditioned stimulus of the taste and
the unconditioned stimulus of nausea. This phenomenon is unusual, since normally classical
conditioning occurs only when the unconditioned stimulus immediately follows the
conditioned stimulus

Example: Joe eats pepperoni pizza while watching a movie with his roommate, and three
hours later, he becomes nauseated. He may develop an aversion to pepperoni pizza, but he
won’t develop an aversion to the movie he was watching or to his roommate, even though
they were also present at the same time as the pizza. Joe’s roommate and the movie won’t
become conditioned stimuli, but the pizza will. If, right after eating the pizza, Joe gets a sharp
pain in his elbow instead of nausea, it’s unlikely that he will develop an aversion to pizza as a
result. Unlike nausea, the pain won’t act as an unconditioned stimulus.

An Evolutionary Adaptation- The combination of taste and nausea seems to be a special case.
Researchers think that learning to quickly associate taste and nausea is an evolutionary
adaptation, since this association helps people to know what foods to avoid in order to
survive.

Instinctive drift is the tendency for conditioning to be hindered by natural instincts. Two
psychologists, Keller and Marian Breland, were the first to describe instinctive drift. The
Brelands found that through operant conditioning, they could teach raccoons to put a coin in a
box by using food as a reinforcer. However, they couldn’t teach raccoons to put two coins in
a box. If given two coins, raccoons just held on to the coins and rubbed them together. Giving
the raccoons two coins brought out their instinctive food-washing behavior: raccoons
instinctively rub edible things together to clean them before eating them. Once the coins
became associated with food, it became impossible to train them to drop the coins into the
box.

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