UNIT 3

LEARNING

In psychology the term learning refers to any relatively
permanent change in behavior through experience
because of interactions with the environment.

Kimble and Garmezy (1963) defined learning as a

relatively permanent change in behavioral tendency
and is the result of reinforced practice.

According to Myers(1999), learning is a relatively

permanent change in an organisms’ behavior due to
experience.
 Characteristics of learning

It is a universal and continuous process not limited to
any particular age, sex, race and culture etc.

It is a change in behavior which doesnot necessarily

mean that the change must bring about a positive
improvement or development.

It is purposeful and goal oriented.


It does not include the change in behavior on account
of maturation, growth, fatigue, drugs, instincts etc.

It is influenced by the learner, stimulus, and

environmental factors.

It ranges from simple to complex.

It causes the individual to make necessary adjustment

and adaptations to coexist with environment.
 Significance/importance of learning

Learning is essential to all organisms. One who doesn’t

understand his environment will be vulnerable to threat
of survival.

Learning helps us understand basic necessities of life,

and gives us a way of acquiring and mastering them.

Learning helps to adapt to a new environment.


Learning helps respond to dangers and react.

Learning helps in becoming more efficient and helps

attain great positions or to achieve success.
 Theories of learning

Behavioristic perspectives: Classical conditioning and
operant conditioning

Cognitive perspective: social/observational learning

 The key assumptions of behaviorism are:

The environment influences behavior. Behaviorists

believe that people's behaviors are a result of their
interaction with the environment. Specifically, people
become conditioned, or molded, to respond in certain
ways based on responses like feedback, praise and
rewards.

Learning is described through stimuli and responses.

Behaviorists focus on observable events rather than
events that occur inside a person's head, such as
thoughts, feelings and beliefs.

Learning must involve a behavioral change. Theorists believe that
learning has not occurred unless there is an observable change in
behavior.

Learning must result when stimulus and response occur close

together in time. Learners must associate their response with a
stimulus. In order for that to occur, the two must happen in
conjunction with each other, or, in other words, be contiguous.

Animals and humans learn in similar ways. Behaviorists, unlike

many other theorists, performed their experiments using animals
because they believed the study of animals could explain human
learning behavior.
Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning is a process by which a

response becomes more or less likely to occur,
depending on its consequences.

A process through which organisms learn to repeat

behaviors that yield positive outcomes or permit
them to avoid or escape from negative outcomes.

B.F. Skinner (1938) coined the term operant
conditioning; it means roughly changing of behavior
by the use of reinforcement which is given after the
desired response.

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.

Positive reinforcers are favorable events or outcomes
that are presented after the behavior. In situations that
reflect positive reinforcement, a response or behavior is
strengthened by the addition of something, such as
praise or a direct reward. For example, if you do a
good job at work and your manager gives you a bonus.

Negative reinforcers involve the removal of an
unfavorable events or outcomes after the display of a
behavior. In these situations, a response is strengthened by
the removal of something considered unpleasant.

For example, Thomas has wet hands after washing them.

He rubs them in the towel and the water is now removed
from them. He knows that every time he doesn’t want his
hands to remain wet he can use a towel to get rid of the
water. He now uses a towel every time he wants to remove
the water from his hands.

Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as
punishment by application, presents an unfavorable
event or outcome in order to weaken the response it
follows. Spanking for misbehavior is an example of
punishment by application.

Negative punishment, also known as punishment by

removal, occurs when a favorable event or outcome is
removed after a behavior occurs. Taking away a child's
video game following misbehavior is an example of
negative punishment.

In operant conditioning, organisms learn associations
between particular behaviors and the consequences
that follow them.
 Classical Conditioning

The theory of classical conditioning was postulated by

Ivan Pavlov.

Conditioning is the process of learning associations, by

linking of two events that occur together, usually
between a stimulus and a response or between two
stimuli.

Classical conditioning basic form of learning in which
one stimulus comes to serve as a signal for the
occurrence of a second stimulus.

Classical conditioning can also be defined as a type

of learning through which an initially neutral stimulus
comes to elicit a particular response as a
consequence of being repeatedly paired with an
unconditioned stimulus (Colman, 2006)
 Basic elements in classical conditioning

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS/US): a stimulus that can

evoke an unconditioned response the first time it is
presented. It is the stimulus that triggers a response in
the organism automatically. (natural stimulus)

Unconditioned response (UCR/UR): the response

evoked by an unconditioned stimulus.
(natural/spontaneous response)

Neutral stimulus (NS): It is the stimulus that doesnot
produce any response in organism.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): the stimulus that is

repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
(originally the neutral stimulus)

Conditioned Response (CR): the response to the

conditioned stimulus.
There are three basic phases of the process of
classical conditioning:

Phase 1: Before conditioning

During this phase of the processes, the unconditioned

stimulus (UCS) results in an unconditioned response
(UCR).
Phase2: During conditioning

During this phase the previously neutral stimulus is

repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus.

As a result of this pairing, an association between the

previously neutral stimulus and the UCS is formed. At this
point, the once neutral stimulus becomes known as the
conditioned stimulus (CS).

The subject has now been conditioned to respond to this

stimulus.
Phase 3: After conditioning

Once the association has been made between the

UCS and the CS, presenting the conditioned stimulus
alone will come to evoke a response even without the
unconditioned stimulus. The resulting response is known
as the conditioned response (CR).
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning: Basic principles

Acquisition: (The Course of Classical Conditioning)

It is the stage in which the organism is learning new
response or the stimulus-response relationship. The
association between the CS and UCS is the acquisition
stage.

Extinction: It is the gradual disappearance of
conditioned response to conditioned response. This
happens because conditioned stimulus is repeatedly
presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery: It is the reappearance of an

extinguished conditioned response after the passage
of time. It explains reconditioning is possible with
relatively faster rate than the original conditioning

Stimulus generalization: It is the tendency to respond
to stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus.

Stimulus discrimination: It is the capacity of organism

to differentiate between conditioned stimulus and
stimuli similar to conditioned stimulus. It is the process by
which organisms learn to respond to certain stimuli but
not to others.

Spontaneous Recovery: It is the reappearance of
an extinguished conditioned response after the
passage of time. It explains reconditioning is
possible with relatively faster rate than the original
conditioning.
 Operant Conditioning: Some
Basic Principles
Shaping and Chaining:

shaping is based on the principle that a little can
eventually go a long way.

Participants receive a reward for each small step
toward a final goal—the target response—rather than
only for the final response.

At first, actions even remotely resembling the target
behavior—termed successive approximations—are
followed by a reward.

Gradually, closer and closer approximations of the
final target behavior are required before the reward
is given.

Shaping, then, helps organisms acquire, or construct,

new and more complex forms of behavior from simpler
behavior.

What about even more complex sequences of behavior,
such as the exciting water routines performed by
dolphins?

These behaviors can be cultivated by a procedure called

chaining, in which trainers establish a sequence, or
chain, of responses, the last of which leads to a reward.

Trainers usually begin chaining by first shaping the final

response.

When this response is well established, the trainer shapes
responses earlier in the chain, then reinforces them by
giving the animal the opportunity to perform responses
later in the chain, the last of which produces the
reinforcer.
Schedules of Reinforcement
1. continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedule, in which
every occurrence of a particular behavior is
reinforced. Continuous reinforcement is useful for
establishing or strengthening new behaviors.

2. partial or intermittent reinforcement: interval

schedules and ratio schedules

Interval schedules involves a passage of time. In
interval schedule, the responses are rewarded only
after a certain interval of time has passed.

In ratio schedules, the number of reinforcement

given is related to the number of responses emitted.

Fixed-Interval Schedule: A schedule of reinforcement
in which a specific interval of time
must elapse before a response will yield
reinforcement.

Variable-Interval Schedule: A schedule of

reinforcement in which a variable amount of time must
elapse before a response will yield reinforcement.

Fixed-Ratio Schedule: A schedule of reinforcement in
which reinforcement occurs only after a fixed number
of responses have been emitted.

Variable-Ratio Schedule: A schedule of reinforcement

in which reinforcement is delivered after a variable
number of responses have been emitted.
*Ratio schedule produces faster response rates than
do interval schedule and variable schedules produce
steadier response rates than do fixed schedules.
Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement and the Matching Law:

Concurrent Schedules of Reinforcement is a situation in

which a person’s behavior is free to alternate continuously

between two or more responses, each having its own
schedule of reinforcement (Catania, 1992).

The organism will distribute its behavior between

alternatives in such a way that maximizes the reinforcement
it receives for its efforts. This phenomenon has been termed
the matching law (Herrnstein, 1961).
Stimulus Control of Behavior: Signals about the Usefulness
(or Uselessness) of Responses

Discriminative Stimulus is the stimulus that signals the

availability of reinforcement if a specific response is
made.

Stimulus Control: Consistent occurrence of a behavior

in the presence of a discriminative stimulus.
 Cognitive perspective of learning

The cognitive perspective focuses on the role

perception and understanding play in a more
complex form of learning.

They argue S-R associations can only explain simple

forms and not the complex forms of learning.
 Social/Observational learning

This theory was developed by Stanford University
psychologist Albert Bandura.

According to Bandura, conditioning methods are too

limited to account for important aspect of real human
behavior.

In reality, there are several situations where we learn

from watching others through observation without
getting any direct rewards and punishment.

This form of learning is known as the
social/observational/imitational learning.

Observational learning generally takes place in a

social situation involving a model and an imitator.
 Observational Learning: Some
Basic Principles
Attention

First, in order to learn through observation you must
direct your attention to appropriate models that is, to
other persons performing an activity.

You don’t choose such models at random but focus

most attention on people who are attractive to you; on
people who possess signs of knowing what they’re
doing, such as status or success; and on people whose
behavior seems relevant to your own needs and goals
Retention

The second essential factor is retention, or memory, of
what the persons have said or done.

Only if you can retain some representation of their

actions in memory can you perform similar actions at
later times or acquire useful information from your
models.
Motor reproduction process

Third, you need to be able to convert these memory

representations into appropriate actions. Bandura terms

this aspect of observational learning production processes.

Production processes depend on (1) your own physical

abilities— if you can’t perform the behavior in question,
having a clear representation of it in memory is of little
use; and (2) your capacity to monitor your own
performance and adjust it until it matches that of the
model.
Motivation

Finally, motivation plays a role. We often acquire

information through observational learning but do not
put it into immediate use in our own behavior.

Only if the information or behaviors acquired are

useful will observers put them to actual use.

Social learning emphasizes that people are not only
influenced by the experiences produced by their own
action, but also influenced by the observed
consequences called vicarious.

Vicarious means learning from the observed successes

and failures of others in regulating our behavior
(Vicarious reinforcement and vicarious punishment)
 Cognitive perspective of classical
conditioning

Expectation

Consistent pairing of CS-UCS

Blocking

Mental imagery
Cognitive perspective of operant
conditioning

Learned helplessness

The contrast effect

Tolman’s cognitive map