Learning

TANU SHUKLA
BITS Pilani TANU SHUKLA
Pilani Campus
Learning

• Any relative permanent change in behavior resulting from experience

• An enduring change in behavior, or in the capacity to behave in a given

fashion, which results from practice or other forms of experience
• “a persisting change in human performance or performance potential . . .
(brought) about as a result of the learner’s interaction with the
environment”
• ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Change, Long lasting, Practice, Interaction with Environment

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 Behaviorism
• Learning is defined by the outward expression
of new behaviors
• Focuses solely on observable behaviors
• A biological basis for learning
• Learning is context-independent
• Classical & Operant Conditioning
– Reflexes (Pavlov’s Dogs)
– Feedback/Reinforcement (Skinner’s Pigeon Box)
Behaviorism
Confined to observable and measurable behavior

 Classical Conditioning - Pavlov..

(also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is learning through association
and was discovered by Pavlov, a Russian physiologist. In simple terms, two stimuli are
linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal.

 Operant Conditioning - Skinner..

(also known as instrumental conditioning) is a method of learning normally

attributed to B.F. Skinner, where the consequences of a response determine
the probability of it being repeated.

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 Behaviorism
 When you learn through classical conditioning, an automatic
conditioned response is paired with a specific stimulus.
This creates a behavior.
 Classical Conditioning - Pavlov

A stimulus is presented
in order to get a response:

S R
Classical Conditioning (CC)

• Classical conditioning deals with reflexes, or responses that are

evoked from a specific stimulus
• People can be trained to perform a certain task or response by
providing some sort of trigger, which may be a sound, a picture, or a
phrase, etc.,

• When you see this:

• What do you think of it?

• You have been conditioned to think of McDonald’s after seeing this

picture! (Are you Salivating? )

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Classical Conditioning (CC)

• Conditioning is beneficial in an evolutionary sense

• It helped us create expectations to prepare for future
events.
• For instance, getting ill from a certain food helps us
associate that food with sickness. In turn, that helps
prevent us from getting sick in the future.
• We’re all exposed to classical conditioning in one way or
another throughout our lives.
• In our day to day, advertisers often use it to push their
products.
• For example, beauty commercials use actors with clear,
smooth skin to lead consumers to associate their product
with healthy skin.
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 Principles of CC
Unconditioned stimulus. This is the thing that triggers an automatic
response. Food is the unconditioned stimulus in Pavlov’s dog
experiment.

Unconditioned response. This is what response naturally occurs when

you experience the unconditioned stimulus, such as salivating from
the food.

Conditioned stimulus. is considered a neutral stimulus. When you’re

presented with it over over before the unconditioned stimulus (eg,
food), it will start to evoke the same response. The bell before the
food is the conditioned stimulus.
Conditioned response. This is the acquired response to the conditioned
stimulus (the bell), which is often the same response as the
unconditioned response. So, the dogs salivated for the bell the
same way they salivated for the food in front of them.
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 Principles of CC

Extinction. This term is used when you start presenting the

conditioned stimulus (the bell) over and over but without
the unconditioned stimulus (the food). Over time, the dogs
would unlearn their conditioning that the bell means food
is coming.
Generalization. This refers to when you can generalize
similar things and respond the same way. Dogs began
salivating at sounds similar to bells because they were
generalizing what they learned.
Discrimination. The opposite of generalization, this is our
ability to tell the difference when something is similar but
not identical, so it won’t produce the same response. A
horn sound, for instance, wouldn’t make the dogs salivate.
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 Behaviorism
 Classical Conditioning - Pavlov

S US
UR

CS US

CR
 Classical Conditioning
What
Whatwere
weredogs
dogsthinking
thinking
or
orfeeling?
feeling?
Pointless!
Pointless!

Examine
Examinethe
thephenomenon
phenomenonmore
more
objectively
objectivelyusing
usingExperiments!
Experiments!

Ivan Pavlov
 Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov Will the dog learn to associate

the arrival of food with a neutral
stimulus (e.g., a bell)?
Classical Conditioning
Terms
Unconditioned Response
Unconditioned Stimulus
Conditioned Response
Conditioned Stimulus

UCR
UCR--drooldroolininresponse
responseto tofood
food(not
(notlearned)
learned)

UCS
UCS--foodfood(triggers
(triggersdrool
droolreflex)
reflex)

CR
CR--drool
droolininresponse
responseto tosound
soundofofbell
bell(learned)
(learned)

CS
CS--sound
soundofofbell
bell(triggers
(triggersdrool
droolreflex)
reflex)
..
...
..
..
…
Example
Classical
Classical Operant
Operant
Process
Processofofassociating
associating Process
Processofofassociating
associating
two
twostimuli
stimuli aaresponse
response&&itsits
consequence
consequence

Lightening

Pulling candy machine

lever

Thunder

Delivery of candy bar

Operant Conditioning
Operant Conditioning - associating your
behavior with its’ consequences
(e.g., teaching a child to say “Please”)

Using Operant Conditioning, individuals

are more likely to repeat rewarded
behaviors
 Operant Conditioning

A Skinner box, also known as an operant conditioning chamber, is a device used

to objectively record an animal's behavior in a compressed time frame.
An animal can be rewarded or punished for engaging in certain behaviors, such
as lever pressing (for rats) or key pecking (for pigeons).

Skinner identified three types of responses, or operant, that can follow behavior.
•Neutral operants: responses from the environment that neither increase nor
decrease the probability of a behavior being repeated.

• Reinforcers: Responses from the environment that increase the probability of

a behavior being repeated. Reinforcers can be either positive or negative.

• Punishers: Responses from the environment that decrease the likelihood of a

behavior being repeated. Punishment weakens behavior.

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 Operant Conditioning

Primary Reinforcers:
These are stimuli which are naturally reinforcing because they directly
satisfy a need. E.g., food, water.

Secondary Reinforcers:
These are stimuli, which are reinforcing through their association with
a primary reinforcer. i.e., they do not directly satisfy a need but may be
the means to do so.
E.g., Money! You cannot eat it or drink it, but if you have it, you can
buy whatever you want. So a secondary reinforcer can be just as
powerful a motivator as a primary reinforcer.

Shaping
In shaping, the form of an existing response is gradually changed across
successive trials towards a desired target behavior by rewarding exact
segments of behavior.
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 Operant Conditioning

Negative Reinforcement

Termination of an unpleasant state following a response. This is known as

negative reinforcement because it is the removal of an adverse stimulus which
is ‘rewarding’ to the animal or person.
Negative reinforcement strengthens behavior because it stops or removes an
unpleasant experience.

For example, if you do not complete your homework, you give your teacher £5.
You will complete your homework to avoid paying £5, thus strengthening the
behavior of completing your homework.

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 Operant Conditioning

Punishment is defined as the opposite of reinforcement since it is designed to

weaken or eliminate a response rather than increase it. It is an aversive event that
decreases the behavior that it follows.

Problems with using punishment, such as:

• Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's suppressed - behavior returns when
punishment is no longer present.
• Causes increased aggression - shows that aggression is a way to cope with
problems.
• Creates fear that can generalize to undesirable behaviors, e.g., fear of school.
• Does not necessarily guide you toward desired behavior - reinforcement tells
you what to do, and punishment only tells you what not to do.

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 Critiques of Behaviorism
• Does not account for processes taking place in the
mind that cannot be observed
• Advocates for passive student learning in a
teacher-centric environment
• One size fits all
• Knowledge itself is given and absolute
• Programmed instruction & teacher-proofing
 Cognitivism

• Grew in response to Behaviorism

• Knowledge is stored cognitively as symbols
• Learning is the process of connecting symbols
in a meaningful & memorable way
• Studies focused on the mental processes that
facilitate symbol connection
 Critiques of Cognitivism
• Like Behaviorism, knowledge itself is given and
absolute
• Input – Process – Output model is mechanistic
and deterministic
• Does not account enough for individuality
• Little emphasis on affective characteristics
 Piaget’s Theory
• Jean Piaget, a Swiss psychologist who
believed that cognitive growth occurred in
stages.
• Piaget studied children through to their teens
in an effort to determine how they developed
logical thinking.
• He attempted to document the stages of
cognitive development by observing the
memory processes of children.
 Piaget’s Theory
• Humans create their own understanding of the world. In theological
terms,

• He was a psychological constructivist, believing that learning is caused

by the blend of two processes: assimilation and accommodation.

• Children first reflect on their prior experiences to understand a new

concept and then adjust their expectations to include the new
experience.

• This means that children are continuously constructing knowledge

based on the newly presented ideas, which lead to long-term changes.
Piaget was more focused on the cognitive developments presented
over time.
 Piaget theory
• Piaget declared that cognitive development
occurred in four stages throughout one’s childhood:
• Stages occur in order.
• Children did not skip stages but pass through each
one.
• There are visible changes from one stage to the
next.
• The stages occur as building blocks, each one using
pieces from the last stage.
Cognitive Development- Piaget
 Social Learning Theory (SLT)
• Grew out of Cognitivism
• A. Bandura (1973)
• Learning takes place through observation and
sensorial experiences
• Imitation is the sincerest form of observational
learning
• SLT is the basis of the movement against
violence in media & video games
 Social Learning Theory
Four interrelated processes establish and strengthen
identification with the model:

1. Children want to be like the model

2. Children believe they are like the model
3. Children experience emotions like those the
model is feeling.
4. Children act like the model.

Attention, Retention, Production Processes,

Motivation ---- LEARNING
 Social Learning Theory

• Through identification, children come to believe

they have the same characteristics as the
model.
• When they identify with a competent model,
children feel pleased and proud.
• When they identify with an inadequate model,
children feel unhappy and insecure.
Critiques of Social Learning Theory
• Does not take into account individuality,
context, and experience as mediating factors
• Suggests students learn best as passive
receivers of sensory stimuli, as opposed to
being active learners
• Emotions and motivation not considered
important or connected to learning
 Social Constructivism
• Grew out of and in response to Cognitivism, framed
around meta-cognition
• Knowledge is actively constructed
• Learning is…
– A search for meaning by the learner
– Contextualized
– An inherently social activity
– Dialogic
– The responsibility of the learner
• Lev Vygotsky
– Social Learning
• Zone of Proximal Development
..

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 Vygotsky - ZPD
• Vygotsky dismissed the idea that there was no ideal age for
learning and instead introduced ideal stages for learning, a
similar opinion to Piaget.
• He explained that cognitive growth increased less for students
with a higher intelligence than a lower intelligence when they
entered school. He coined the term relative achievement, a
method that highlights the departure point of student
learning and not just the end result.
• This led Vygotsky into the idea of the ‘Zone of Proximal
Development,’ as it assessed the change in cognitive
development of students and not just the final outcome.
• Students benefit directly from the social interactions in class,
and ideally, reach their learning potential with the help of
their teacher.
• Vygotsky’s views on cognitive development can be
grouped into four main points, outlined as follows:
– the relationship between the student and the teacher is central
to learning
– society and culture influence the attitudes and beliefs of a
student towards learning and education
– language is the primary tool used in the development of
learning in children, including the transfer of sociocultural
influences
– students benefit greatly in programs that are student-led, as
they can use the social interaction to grow towards their
potential level of development
.
Kohlberg’s Theory
 Critiques of Social Constructivism
• Suggests that knowledge is neither given nor
absolute
• Often seen as less rigorous than traditional
approaches to instruction
• Does not fit well with traditional age grouping
and rigid terms/semesters