LEARNING

CHAPTER 6
(PSYCHOLOGY)
READ INTRODUCTION- PAGE
108
NATURE OF LEARNING

Definition:
Any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential
produced by experience (and practice).

What is not considered as learning?

Behavioural changes (temporary changes) that occur due to the use of drugs,
or fatigue.
FEATURES OF LEARNING
FEATURES OF LEARNING
 FEATURES OF LEARNING
1. Learning always involves some kind of experience.

• We learn when we experience an event occurring in a certain sequence on a

number of occasions. If an event happens then it may be followed by
certain other events.
Example: One learns that if the bell rings in the hostel after sunset, then dinner is ready to be
served.

• Sometimes a single experience can lead to learning.

Example: A child strikes a matchstick on the side of a matchbox, and gets her/his fingers burnt.
Such an experience makes the child learn to be careful in handling the matchbox in future.

Note: Repeated experience of satisfaction after doing something in a specified manner leads to the formation
of habit.
• 2. Behavioral changes that occur due to learning are
relatively permanent

Changes in behavior because of fatigue, habituation, and drugs is not

considered as learning as they are temporary.

Examples – pg 109

Habituation - When reflexes become weaker and weaker, and eventually

become undetectable due to continuous exposure to stimuli.
3. Learning involves a sequence of psychological
events

A typical learning experiment (next slide).

AIM: To understanding how a list of words is learned.
Saint Shirt
Split Skirt
Spurt Shaft
Slept
Sport Shout
Start Scout
Scant Stint
Sheet Stilt
Shoot Slant
Sight Smolt
3. Learning involves a sequence of psychological events

A typical learning experiment.

AIM: To understanding how a list of words is learned.
They will go through the following sequence :
(i) do a pre-test to know how much the person knows before learning,
(ii) present the list of words to be remembered for a fixed time,
(iii) during this time the list of words is processed towards acquiring new knowledge,
(iv) after processing is complete, new knowledge is acquired (this is LEARNING),
and
(v) after some time elapses, the processed information is recalled by the person.

By comparing the number of words which a person now knows as

compared to what s/he knew in the pre-test, one infers that learning did
take place.
4. Learning is an inferred
process and is different from
performance.

• Performance is a person’s observed

behaviour or response or action.
• Inference-
You are asked to recite a poem and you
are able to recite it.
The recitation of the poem by you is
your performance.
Based on your performance, the teacher
infers that you have learned the poem.
PARADIGMS OF LEARNING
used in
Conditioni
acquisiti
on of
ng (Simplest
simple
response
kind of
s learning)
Methods
of
Learning
Classical
used in
the Conditionin
acquisiti
on of
g
complex
response
s Instrument
al/ Operant
Conditionin
g
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jd7Jdug5SRc – Watch for Pavlov’s Classical

Conditioning

• This type of learning was first investigated by Ivan P. Pavlov.

• He was primarily interested in the physiology of digestion.
• During his studies he noticed that dogs, on whom he was doing his experiments,
started secreting saliva as soon as they saw the empty plate in which food was served.
• Saliva secretion is a reflexive response to food or something in the mouth.
• Pavlov designed an experiment to understand this process in detail in which dogs were
used once again.
PAVLOV’S EXPERIEMENT
PHASE 1

• A dog was placed in a box and

harnessed.
• The dog was left in the box for
some time.
• This was repeated a number of
times on different days.
• In the meantime, a simple
surgery was conducted, and one
end of a tube was inserted in the
dog’s jaw and the other end of
the tube was put in a measuring
 PAVLOV’S EXPERIEMENT
PHASE 2

• The dog was kept hungry and placed in harness with one end
of the tube ending in the jaw and the other end in the glass
jar.
• A bell was sounded and immediately thereafter food (meat
powder) was served to the dog. The dog was allowed to eat
it.
• For the next few days, everytime the meat powder was
presented, it was preceded by the sound of a bell.
• After a number of such trials, a test trial was introduced in
which everything was the same as the previous trials except
that no food followed the sounding of the bell.
• The dog still salivated to the sound of the bell, expecting
presentation of the meat powder as the sound of bell had
come to be connected with it.
• This association between the bell and food resulted in
acquisition of a new response by the dog, i.e. salivation to
the sound of the bell.
• This has been termed as conditioning.
PAVLOV’S EXPERIEMENT

Before/ without conditioning After conditioning, salivation started to

occur in the presence of the sound of
the bell.
1. Unconditioned Stimulus (US) -
Food 3. Conditioned Stimulus (CS)-
2. Unconditioned Response (UR) – Sound of bell
Saliva Secretion (All dogs salivate 4. Conditioned Response (CR)-
when food is presented. It is their Saliva Secretion
natural response)
 PAVLOV’S EXPERIEMENT

• This kind of conditioning is called classical conditioning.

• 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.
 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING IN
EVERYDAY LIFE
1. Imagine you have just finished your lunch and you are feeling
satisfied. Then you see some sweet dish served on the adjoining
table. This signals its taste in your mouth, and triggers the secretion
of saliva. You feel like eating it. This is a conditioned response (CR).

2. In the early stages of childhood, one is naturally afraid of any loud

noise. Suppose a small child catches an inflated balloon which
bursts in her/his hands making a loud noise. The child becomes
afraid. Now the next time s/he is made to hold a balloon, it becomes
a signal or cue for noise and elicits fear response.
Identify the US, CS, UR, CR
DETERMINANTS OF
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
How quickly and strongly acquisition of a response occurs in classical
conditioning depends on several factors.
Factors influencing learning a CR are :

1. Time Relations between Stimuli

2. Type of Unconditioned Stimuli
3. Intensity of Conditioned Stimuli
1. TIME RELATIONS BETWEEN
STIMULI

Four types of classical conditioning procedures

based on the time relations between the onset of
conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned
stimulus (US).

• The first three are called forward conditioning

procedures,
• The fourth one is called backward conditioning
procedure.
1. TIME RELATIONS BETWEEN
STIMULI

The basic experimental arrangements of these procedures

are as follows:

1. In simultaneous conditioning, the CS and US are presented

together
2. In delayed conditioning, the onset of CS precedes the onset
of US. The CS ends before the end of the US.
3. In trace conditioning, the onset and end of the CS precedes
the onset of US with some time gap between the two.
4. In backward conditioning, the US precedes the onset of CS.
1. TIME RELATIONS BETWEEN
STIMULI
• The most effective way of acquiring a CR - delayed
conditioning procedure

• Simultaneous and trace conditioning procedures

do lead to acquisition of a CR, but they require greater
number of acquisition trials in comparison to the delayed
conditioning procedure.

• Acquisition of response under backward conditioning

procedure is very rare.
2. TYPE OF UNCONDITIONED STIMULI :

The unconditioned stimuli used in studies of

classical conditioning are basically of two
types, i.e. appetitive and aversive.

1. Appetitive unconditioned stimuli

• automatically elicits approach responses, such as
eating, drinking, caressing, etc.
• These responses give satisfaction and pleasure.
• Appetitive classical conditioning is slower and
requires greater number of acquisition trials
2. TYPE OF UNCONDITIONED STIMULI :

2. Aversive US
• such as noise, bitter taste, electric shock,
painful injections, etc. are painful and
harmful
• They elicit avoidance and escape
responses.
• Aversive classical conditioning is
established in one, two or three trials
depending on the intensity of the aversive
US.
3. INTENSITY OF CONDITIONED
STIMULI

• Influences the course of both appetitive and aversive

classical conditioning.

• More intense the conditioned stimulus, the fewer are

the number of acquisition trials needed for
conditioning.
OPERANT/ INSTRUMENTAL
CONDITIONING
• First investigated by B.F. Skinner.
• Skinner studied operants.

• Operants are those behaviours or

responses, which are emitted by
animals and human beings
voluntarily and are under their
control.
• The term operant is used because the
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ne6o-u
organism operates on the
environment.
• Conditioning of operant
 SKINNER’S
EXPERIMENT
• Skinner conducted his studies on rats and
pigeons in specially made boxes, called the
Skinner Box.
• A hungry rat (one at a time) is placed in the
chamber, which was so built that the rat could
move inside but could not come out.
• In the chamber there was a lever, which was
connected to a food container kept on the top
of the chamber
• When the lever is pressed, a food pellet drops
on the plate placed close to the lever.
• While moving around and pawing the walls
(exploratory behaviour), the hungry rat
accidentally presses the lever and a food pellet
SKINNER’S
•EXPERIMENT
In the next trial, after a while the
exploratory behaviour again starts. As
the number of trials increases, the rat
takes lesser and lesser time to press
the lever for food.
• Conditioning is complete when the rat
presses the lever immediately after it
is placed in the chamber.
• It is obvious that lever pressing is an
operant response and getting food is
its consequence.
• In the above situation the response is
instrumental in getting the food. That
INSTRUMENTAL
CONDITIONING IN EVERYDAY
LIFE
• Children who want to have some sweets in the absence of their
mother learn to locate the jar in which mother hides the sweets
for safekeeping and eat it.
• Children learn to be polite and say ‘please’ to get favours from
their parents and others.
• One learns to operate mechanical gadgets such as radio,
camera, T.V., etc. based on the principle of instrumental
conditioning.
• Human beings learn short cuts to attain desired goals or ends
through instrumental conditioning.
 CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING

VS

OPERANT
CONDITIONING
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE? BOX 6.2
DETERMINANTS OF
OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Operant or instrumental conditioning - A form of
learning in which behaviour is learned, maintained or
changed through its consequences.
• Such consequences are called reinforcers.
• Reinforcer - Any stimulus or event, which increases
the probability of the occurrence of a (desired)
response.
DETERMINANTS OF
OPERANT CONDITIONING
• Features of a reinforcer affect the course and strength of a response. They include
its
1. types – positive or negative,
2. number or frequency,
3. quality – superior or inferior, and
4. schedule – continuous or intermittent (partial).
• 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
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

– Positive
– Negative

Positive reinforcement –
– Involves stimuli that have pleasant consequences.
– They strengthen and maintain the responses that have caused them to occur.
– Positive reinforcers satisfy needs, which include food, water, medals, praise, money,
status, information, etc.
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT

Negative reinforcement –
– Negative reinforcers involve unpleasant and painful stimuli.
– Responses that lead organisms to get rid of painful stimuli or avoid and
escape from them provide negative reinforcement.
– Thus, negative reinforcement leads to learning of avoidance and escape
responses.
– For instance, one learns to put on woollen clothes, burn firewood or use
electric heaters to avoid the unpleasant cold weather.
– Negative reinforcement is not punishment.
PUNISHMENTS (TYPES OF
REINFORCEMENTS)
Difference between punishment and negative
reinforcement
• Use of punishment reduces or suppresses the response
• Negative reinforcer increases the probability of avoidance or
escape response.
• For instance, drivers and co-drivers wear their seat belts to avoid
getting injured in case of an accident or to avoid being fined by
the traffic police (negative reinforcement).
• A student is made to stand outside the class for not paying
attention in class
PUNISHMENTS (TYPES OF
REINFORCEMENTS)
• No punishment suppresses a response permanently.
• Mild and delayed punishment has no effect.
• The stronger the punishment, the more lasting is the suppression effect but
it is not permanent.
• Sometimes punishment has no effect irrespective of its intensity. On the
contrary, the punished person may develop dislike and hatred for the
punishing agent or the person who administers the punishment.
NUMBER OF
REINFORCEMENTS AND
OTHER FEATURES
• Number of reinforcement- It refers to the number of trials on which an organism
has been reinforced or rewarded.
• Amount of reinforcement means how much of reinforcing stimulus (food or water
or intensity of pain causing agent) one receives on each trial.
• Quality of reinforcement refers to the kind of reinforcer – superior vs inferi.
– Chickpeas or pieces of bread are of inferior quality as compared with raisins or pieces of
cake as reinforcer.

The course of operant conditioning is usually accelerated to an extent as the

number, amount, and quality of reinforcement increases.
SCHEDULES OF
REINFORCEMENT- 2
TYPES
It is the arrangement of the delivery of reinforcement during conditioning
trials.

Continuous Reinforcement
• When a desired response is reinforced every time it occurs.
Partial/ Intermittent Reinforcement
• When a desired response is reinforced sometimes and sometimes not.
• Found to produce greater resistance to extinction – than is found with
continuous reinforcement.
DELAYED REINFORCEMENT
(REFER TEXTBOOK)
 KEY LEARNING PROCESSES

Both classical and operant conditioning involves the occurrence of certain processes.

1. Reinforcement
2. Extinction or non-occurrence of learned response
3. Generalisation of learning to other stimuli under some specifiable conditions
4. Discrimination between reinforcing and non-reinforcing stimuli
5. Spontaneous recovery.
1. REINFORCEMENT
• Reinforcement- The operation of administering a
reinforcer by the experimenter.
• Reinforcers- Stimuli that increase the rate or
probability of the responses that precede.

– Reinforced responses increase in rate, while non-

reinforced responses decrease in rate.
Behaviour A  Reinforced  Increase in rate of A
Behaviour B  Not reinforced  Decrease in rate of B

• Systematic use of reinforcers can lead to the desired

response.
 1.
REINFORCEMENT
• Positive vs Negative Reinforcers
1. A positive reinforcer increases the rate of
response that precedes its presentation.
2. Negative reinforcers increase the rate of the
response that precedes their removal or
termination.
• The reinforcers may be primary or secondary.
1. A primary reinforcer is biologically
important since it determines the organism’s
survival (e.g., food for a hungry organism).
2. A secondary reinforcer is one which has
acquired characteristics of the reinforcer
because of the organism’s experience with the
environment.
Example: money, praise, and grades
2. EXTINCTION
• Disappearance of a learned response
due to removal of reinforcement from
the situation in which the response used
to occur.
– If the occurrence of CS-CR is not followed
by the US in classical conditioning, or
lever pressing is no more followed by food
pellets in the Skinner box, the learned
behaviour will gradually be weakened and
ultimately disappear.

• Learning shows resistance to extinction.

– It means that even though the learned
response is now not reinforced, it would
 2. EXTINCTION
Factors affecting extinction of learned response

1. NUMBER OF TRIALS WITH/WITHOUT REINFORCEMENT

• Increasing number of trials without reinforcement, the response strength gradually diminishes, and extinction occurs
• Increasing number of trials with reinforcement- Resistance to extinction increases.

2. NUMBER OF REINFORCEMENTS DURING ACQUISITION TRIALS

• Increase in number of reinforcements during acquisition trials- resistance to extinction increases
• Beyond that any increase in number of reinforcement reduces the resistance to extinction.
• Studies have also indicated that as the amount of reinforcement (number of food pellets) increases during the
acquisition trials, resistance to extinction decreases.

3. DELAYED REINFORCEMENT DURING ACQUISITION TRIALS

• If the reinforcement is delayed during acquisition trials, the resistance to extinction increases.
• Intermittent or partial reinforcement during acquisition trials makes a learned response more resistant to extinction.
3. GENERALISATION AND
DISCRIMINATION
• Generalisation- The phenomenon of responding similarly to similar stimuli OR
when a learned response occurs or is elicited by a new stimulus
• Example 1: Suppose an organism is conditioned to elicit a CR (saliva secretion or
any other reflexive response) on presentation of a CS (light or sound of bell). After
conditioning is established, and another stimulus similar to the CS (e.g., ringing of
telephone) is presented, the organism makes the conditioned response to it.
• Example 2: Suppose a child has learned the location of a jar of a certain size and
shape in which sweets are kept. Even when the child’s mother is not around, the
child finds the jar and obtains the sweets. This is a learned operant. Now the sweets
are kept in another jar of a different size and shape and at a different location in the
kitchen. In the absence of the mother the child locates the jar and obtains the
sweets. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMnhyGozLyE
3. GENERALISATION AND
DISCRIMINATION
Generalisation is due to similarity while discrimination is a response due to
difference.
• For example, suppose a child is conditioned to be afraid of a person with a long
moustache and wearing black clothes. In subsequent situation, when s/he meets
another person dressed in black clothes with a beard, the child shows signs of fear. The
child’s fear is generalised. S/he meets another stranger who is wearing grey clothes and
is clean-shaven. The child shows no fear. This is an example of discrimination.

Occurrence of generalisation means failure of discrimination.

Discriminative response depends on the discrimination capacity or discrimination learning
of the organism.
 4. SPONTAENOUS RECOVERY
• Spontaneous recovery occurs after a
learned response is extinguished.
• Suppose an organism has learned to make a
response for getting reinforcement, then the
response is extinguished and some time
lapses. A question now may be asked, whether
the response is completely extinguished, and
will not occur if the CS is presented.
• It has been demonstrated that after lapse of
considerable time, the learned or CR recovers
and occurs to the CS.
• The amount of spontaneous recovery depends
on the duration of the time lapsed after the
extinction session.
• The longer the duration of time lapsed,
OBSERVATIONAL
LEARNING/ IMITATION

• Learning takes place by observing others.

• Studies by Bandura and his colleagues
• It is also called
– Social learning- In this kind of learning,
human beings learn social behaviours.
– Modeling- In many situations individuals
do not know how to behave. They
observe others and emulate their
behaviour.
 EXAMPLES OF
OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING
• Fashion designers employ tall, pretty, and
gracious young girls and tall, smart, and well-
built young boys for popularising clothes of
different designs and fabrics. People observe
them on televised fashion shows and
advertisements in magazines and
newspapers. They imitate these models.

• Observing superiors and likeable persons and

then emulating their behaviour in a novel
social situation is a common experience.
NATURE OF OBSERVATION
LEARNING – BANDURA’S STUDY
• Bandura showed a film of five minutes
duration to children.
• The film shows that in a large room there
are numerous toys including a large sized
‘Bobo’ doll. Now a grown-up boy enters the
room and looks around. The boy starts
showing aggressive behaviour towards the
toys in general and the bobo doll in
particular. He hits the doll, throws it on the
floor, kicking it and sitting on it.
NATURE OF OBSERVATION
LEARNING – BANDURA’S STUDY
Version 1- A group of children see the boy (model)
being rewarded and praised by an adult for being
aggressive to the doll.
Version 2- Another group of children see the boy being
punished for his aggressive behaviour.

Version 3- The third group of children are not shown the

boy being either rewarded or punished.
BANDURA’S
STUDY
• After viewing a specific version of the film all the three groups of children were
placed in an experimental room in which similar toys were placed around.
• The children were allowed to play with the toys.
• These groups were secretly observed and their behaviours noted.
1. Children who saw aggressive behaviour being rewarded were most
aggressive
2. Children who had seen the aggressive model being punished were least
aggressive.
• In observational learning observers acquire knowledge by observing
the model’s behavior, but performance is influenced by model’s
behaviour being rewarded or punished.
CHILDREN AND OBSERVATIONAL
LEARNING
• Children enact adults in their plays and games.
For instance, young children play games of marriage ceremonies, birthday
parties, thief and policeman, house keeping, etc. Actually, they enact in
their games what they observe in society, on television, and read in
books.
• Children learn most of the social behaviours by observing and
emulating adults.
The way to put on clothes, dress one’s hair, and conduct oneself in society
are learned through observing others.
• Children learn and develop various personality characteristics
through observational learning.
Aggressiveness, pro- social behaviour, courtesy, politeness, diligence, and
indolence are acquired by this method of learning.
COGNITIVE LEARNING

• Some psychologists view learning in terms of cognitive

processes that underlie it.
• In cognitive learning, there is a change in what the
learner knows rather than what s/he does.

• Two types
1. Insight Learning - Kohler
2. Latent Learning - Tolman
1. INSIGHT
LEARNING
• Insight learning – the process by which the
solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear.

• Kohler demonstrated a model of learning which could

not be readily explained by conditioning.
• He performed a series of experiments with
chimpanzees that involved solving complex
problems.
• Kohler placed chimpanzees in an enclosed play area
where food was kept out of their reach.
• Tools such as poles and boxes were placed in the
enclosure.
1. INSIGHT LEARNING
• The chimpanzees rapidly learned how
to use a box to stand on or a pole to
move the food in their direction.
• In this experiment, learning did not
occur as a result of trial and error and
reinforcement, but came about in
sudden flashes of insight.
• The chimpanzees 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 normal reach above the enclosure.
• The chimpanzee exhibited what Kohler
 1. INSIGHT LEARNING
• In a normal experiment on insight learning,
a problem is presented  a period of time when no
apparent progress is made  finally a solution suddenly
emerges.

• In insight learning, sudden solution is the

rule.
• Once the solution has appeared, it can be
repeated immediately the next time the problem
is confronted.
• As a result, insight learning can be generalised to
other similar problem situations.
2. LATENT
LEARNING
• In latent learning, a new
behaviour is learned but
not demonstrated until
reinforcement is provided
for displaying it.
• Tolman made an early
contribution to the concept of
latent learning.
2. LATENT LEARNING-
TOLMAN
• Tolman put two groups of rats in a maze and gave them an opportunity to
explore.
1. GROUP 1- Rats found food at the end of the maze and soon learned to make
their way rapidly through the maze.
2. GROUP 2- Rats were not rewarded and showed no apparent signs of learning. But
later, when these rats were reinforced, they ran through the maze as efficiently as
the rewarded group.

• Tolman contended that the unrewarded rats had learned the layout of the maze early
in their explorations. They just never displayed their latent learning until the
reinforcement was provided.
• Instead, the rats developed a cognitive map of the maze, i.e. a mental representation
of the spatial locations and directions, which they needed to reach their goal.
VERBAL LEARNING
Verbal learning is different from conditioning and is limited to human beings.

Human beings, acquire knowledge about objects, events, and their features
largely in terms of words. Words then come to be associated with one
another.

In the study of verbal learning, psychologists use a variety of materials including

1. nonsense syllables
2. familiar words
3. unfamiliar words
4. Sentences
5. Paragraphs
METHODS USED IN STUDYING
VERBAL LEARNING

1. Paired-Associates Learning
2. Serial Learning
3. Free Recall
1. PAIRED-ASSOCIATES LEARNING
• This method is similar to S-S conditioning and S-R learning.
• It is used in learning some foreign language equivalents of mother
tongue words.
– First, a list of paired-associates is prepared.
– The first word of the pair is used as the stimulus, and the second word as
the response.
– Members of each pair may be from the same language or two different
languages.
– Here, the first members of the pairs (stimulus term) are nonsense syllables
(consonant- vowel-consonant), and the second are English nouns (response
term).
– The learner is first shown both the stimulus-response pairs together, and
is instructed to remember and recall the response after the presentation
of each stimulus term.
– After that a learning trial begins. One by one the stimulus words are
presented and the participant tries to give the correct response term.
– In case of failure, s/he is shown the response word. In one trial all the
stimulus terms are shown.
– Trials continue until the participant gives all the response words without
a single error. The total number of trials taken to reach the criterion
becomes the measure of paired-associates learning.
2. SERIAL LEARNING / SERIAL ANTICIPATION
METHOD
Used to find out how participants learn the lists of verbal items, and what
processes are involved in it.
• First, lists of verbal items, i.e. nonsense syllables, most familiar or least familiar
words, interrelated words, etc. are prepared.
• The participant is presented the entire list and is required to produce the items in
the same serial order as in the list.
• In the first trial, the first item of the list is shown, and the participant has to produce
the second item. If s/he fails to do so within the prescribed time, the experimenter
presents the second item. Now this item becomes the stimulus and the participant
has to produce the third item that is the response word. If s/he fails, the
experimenter gives the correct item, which becomes the stimulus item for the fourth
word.
• This procedure is called serial anticipation method. Learning trials continue until
the participant correctly anticipates all the items in the given order.
 3. FREE RECALL
• Participants are presented a list of words, which they read and speak out.
• Each word is shown at a fixed rate of exposure duration.
• Immediately after the presentation of the list, the participants are required to
recall the words in any order they can.
• Words in the list may be interrelated or unrelated.
• More than ten words are included in the list. The presentation order of words varies
from trial to trial.

This method is used to study how participants organise words for storage in
memory.
Studies indicate that the items placed in the beginning or end of the lists are
easier to recall than those placed in the middle, which are more difficult to
recall.
 DETERMINANTS OF
• VERBAL LEARNING
The most important determinants are the different features of the
verbal material to be learned.
1. length of the list to be learned
2. meaningfulness of the material.

1. Meaningfulness of material is measured in several ways.

– The number of associations elicited in a fixed time (APPLE- fruit, red,
healthy etc)
– Familiarity of the material and frequency of usage (house vs
Anachronism)
– Relations among the words in the list (apple, orange, banana vs apple,
sky, time)
– Sequential dependence of each word of the list on the preceding words.
(apple, fruit, healthy…)
• Learning time increases with
1. increase in length of the list
2. occurrence of words with low association
values
3. occurrence of words with lack of relations
among the items in the list.

• The more time it takes to learn the list,

stronger will be the learning.

• Total Time Principle - This principle states

that a fixed amount of time is necessary to
learn a fixed amount of material, regardless of
the number of trials into which that time is
divided. The more time it takes to learn, the
stronger becomes the learning.
CATEGORY CLUSTERING

Bousfield first demonstrated this experimentally.

LIST OF 60 WORDS NAMES ANIMALS

IN RANDOM
ORDERS

INCLUDED NAMES,
ANIMALS, PROFESSIONS VEGETABLES
PROFESSIONS AND
VEGETABLES

• The participants were required to make free recall of the words.

• However, they recalled the words of each category together. He called it category
clustering.
CATEGORY CLUSTERING

Bousfield first demonstrated this experimentally.

• He made a list of 60 words that consisted of 15 words drawn from each of the four
semantic categories, i.e. names, animals, professions, and vegetables.
• These words were presented to participants one by one in random order.
• The participants were required to make free recall of the words.
• However, they recalled the words of each category together. He called it category
clustering.
• It is worth noting that, though, the words were presented randomly the
participants organised them category-wise in recall.
• Here category clustering occurred because of the nature of the list.
• It has also been demonstrated that free recall is always organised
subjectively.
• Subjective organisation shows that the participants organise words or items in
CATEGORY CLUSTERING

If participants are not restricted to the serial learning

method and are allowed to give free recall, verbal
learning becomes organisational.
• It implies that in free recall participants recall the words not in
their order of presentation, but in a new order or sequence.
VERBAL LEARNING –
INTENTIONAL AND
UNINTENTIONAL
• Verbal learning is usually intentional but a person may learn
some features of the words unintentionally or incidentally.
• In this kind of learning, participants notice features such as
whether two or more words rhyme, start with identical letters,
have same vowels, etc. Thus, verbal learning is both
intentional as well as incidental.
SKILL LEARNING

Nature of Skills

• A skill is defined as the ability to perform some

complex task smoothly and efficiently.
• Car driving, airplane piloting, ship navigating,
shorthand writing, and writing and reading are
examples of skills.
• Such skills are learned by practice and exercise.
• A skill consists of a chain of perceptual motor
responses or as a sequence of S-R
associations.
PHASES OF SKILL ACQUISITION

• With each successive attempt at learning a skill, one’s performance becomes

smoother and less effort demanding.
• It has also been shown that in each phase the performance improves.
• In transition from one phase to the next, when the level of performance stands still,
it is called performance plateau.
• Once the next phase begins, performance starts improving and its level starts going
up.
FITTS’ PHASES OF SKILL
ACQUISITION
According to him, skill learning passes through three phases
1. Cognitive
2. Associative
3. Autonomous

Each phase or stage of skill learning involves different types of mental processes.
1. COGNITIVE
PHASE
– The learner has to understand and
memorise the instructions
– Understand how the task has to be
performed.
– Every outside cue, instructional
demand, and one’s response
outcome have to be kept alive in
consciousness.
– Different sensory inputs or stimuli are linked
with appropriate responses.
– As the practice increases, errors decrease,
performance improves and time taken is also
reduced.
– With continued practice, errorless performance
begins, though, the learner has to be attentive
to all the sensory inputs and maintain
concentration on the task.

2. ASSOCIATIVE
PHASE
3. AUTONOMOUS
PHASE
Two important changes take place
in performance:
1. the attentional demands of
the associative phase decrease
2. interference created by external
factors reduces.

Finally, skilled performance attains

automaticity with minimal demands
on conscious effort.
• Transitions from one phase to the other clearly show that practice is
the only means of skill learning.

• As the practice increases,

– improvement rate gradually increases
– automaticity of errorless performance becomes the hallmark of skill.

That is why it is said that ‘practice makes a man perfect’

FACTORS FACILITATING
LEARNING
1. Continuous vs Partial Reinforcement
2. Motivation
3. Preparedness for Learning
1. CONTINUOUS VS PARTIAL
REINFORCEMENT
Continuous Reinforcement
• The participant is given reinforcement after
each target response.
• Produces a high rate of responding.
• However, once the reinforcement is
withheld, response rates decrease very
quickly, and the responses acquired under
this schedule tend to extinguish.
• Since organism is getting reinforcement on
each trial, the effectiveness of that
reinforcer is reduced.
Partial or Intermittent 1. CONTINUOUS VS
Reinforcement PARTIAL
• Reinforcement is not continuous; some
responses are not reinforced.
REINFORCEMENT
• Produce very high rates of responding,
particularly when responses are reinforced
according to ratio.
• Extinction of a response is more difficult
following partial reinforcement than following
continuous reinforcement.
– In this kind of schedule, an organism often
makes several responses that are not
reinforced. Therefore, it becomes difficult to
tell when a reinforcement has been
discontinued completely and when it has
merely been delayed. When reinforcement is
continuous it is easier to tell when it has been
discontinued. This kind of difference has been
found crucial for extinction.
YOUR THOUGHTS ON:

• GAMES AND REINFORCEMENT

2. MOTIVATION
• Motivation energizes an organism to act vigorously for attaining some goal.
• Such acts persist until the goal is attained and the need is satisfied.
• Motivation is a prerequisite for learning.
Example 1: Why does a child forage in the kitchen when the mother is not in the house? S/he
does so because s/he needs sweets to eat for which s/he is trying to locate the jar in which
sweets are kept. During the course of foraging the child learns the location of the jar.
Example 2: A hungry rat is placed in a box. The animal forages in the box for food.
Incidentally it presses a lever and food drops in the box. With repeated experience of such
activity, the animal learns to press the lever immediately after the animal is placed there.
• Your motivation for learning something arises from two sources.
– Intrinsic Motivation- You learn many things because you enjoy them
– Extrinsic Motivation- they provide you the means for attaining some other goal
3. PREPAREDNESS FOR
LEARNING
Species have biological constraints on their learning capacities.
– The kinds of S-S or S-R learning an organism can easily acquire depends on the associative
mechanism it is genetically endowed with or prepared for.
– A particular kind of associative learning is easy for apes or human beings but may be
extremely difficult and sometimes impossible for cats and rats.
– It implies that one can learn only those associations for which one is genetically prepared.
• The concept of preparedness may be best understood as a continuum or
dimension,

those tasks and

learning tasks learning tasks
associations for which
or associations for which those
the members are
which are easy members are
neither prepared nor
for the not prepared at
unprepared. They can
members of all and cannot
learn such tasks, but
some species learn them.
only with great
difficulty and
• Definition
– It refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders
manifested in terms of difficulty in the
LEARNING
acquisition of learning, reading, writing,
speaking, reasoning, and mathematical
activities.
DISABILITIES
• Source- inherent in the child.
– It is presumed that these difficulties originate
from problems with the functioning of the
central nervous system.
– It may occur in conjunction with physical
handicaps, sensory impairment, intellectual
disability or without them.
– Learning disabilities may be observed as a
distinct handicapping condition in children of
average to superior intelligence, adequate
sensory motor systems, and adequate learning
opportunities.

• Consequence if not remedied

SYMPTOMS OF LEARNING DISABILITIES
(REFER TO TEXTBOOK PG 126,127)

They become manifest in different combinations in children who

suffer from this disorder

1. Writing, reading, speaking, listening

2. Disorders of attention, hyperactivity
3. Poor space orientation and inadequate sense of time
4. Poor motor coordination and poor manual dexterity
5. Fail to understand and follow oral directions
6. Misjudge relationships, fail to learn body languages
7. Perceptual disorders
8. Dyslexia
LEARNING DISABILITIES

• Learning disabilities are not incurable.

– Remedial teaching methods go a long way in
helping them to learn and become like other
students.
– Educational psychologists have developed
appropriate techniques for correcting most of
the symptoms related to learning disabilities.
THE END.