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Learning Theory is rooted in the work of Ivan Pavlov, the famous scientist who discovered and documented the principles governing how animals (humans included) learn. Two basic kinds of learning or conditioning occur:

How Do We Define the Learning Process? The 4 Factors That Form The Definition of Learning: 1) learning is inferred from a change in behavior/performance* 2) learning results in an inferred change in memory 3) learning is the result of experience 4) learning is relatively permanent It is the combination of these 4 factors that make our definition of learning. Or, you can go with a slightly less comprehensive definition that is offered in many text books: Learning is a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience. What is Behavior Potential? This means that behavior changes that are temporary or due to things like drugs, alcohol, etc., are not "learned". * Behavior Potential - once something is learned, an organism can exhibit a behavior that indicates learning as occurred. Thus, once a behavior has been "learned", it can be exhibited by "performance" of a corresponding behavior. It is the combination of these 4 factors that make our definition of learning. Or, you can go with a slightly less comprehensive definition that is offered in many text books: Learning is a relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that is due to experience. We are going to discuss the two main types of learning examined by researchers, classical conditioning and operant conditioning. I.

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Conditioning and Learning I. Some broad issues in learning

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A. A simple definition: Learning is a change in behavior resulting from experience; in evolutionary terms, learning is an adaptive change in behavior that results from experience B. The difference between maturation and learning: Some behavior change (walking, talking, adult sexual behavior) requires biological development as well as experience C. Simple vs. complex kinds of learning
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1. Relatively simple forms of learning: habituation, classical conditioning, operant conditioning 2. More complex kinds of learning: learning to talk, learning calculus, learning the history of the Civil War

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Classical conditioning III.

Language and Thought

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I. Communication in infra-human species and characteristics of human language A.A.Some examples of communication in lower animals
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1. the dance of the honeybee 2. communication in jackdaws (a European blackbird) 3. communication in apes and attempts to teach chimps and gorillas to talk

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D. Some characteristics of human language 1. 1. Natural human languages are based on relatively small sets of speech sounds called phonemes 2. 2. Syntax or grammar: All human languages have complex structural rules; Note, grammar here does not
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3.

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refer to the good grammar you learn in school 3. Use of arbitrary, nonrepresentative meaningful symbols: words and morphemes 4. Generativity: All human languages can generate an infinite number of meaningful statements or sentences 5. Learning: All human languages are learned; however, the human capacity for language and language learning may have a strong biological basis 6. Cultural transmission of information: Human languages permit the storage and transmission of complex cultural information from generation to generation

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E. Language and thought

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1. Does thought require language? -the case of Helen Keller 2. The Whorfian hypothesis (also known as the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis or the linguistic relativity hypothesis):
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the language that people speak influences the way they think a. a. Strong vs. weak form b. b. Lexical vs. grammatical form 2. 3. Some psychological research relevant to the linguistic relatively hypothesis a. a. color labels and color perception in various cultures b. b. linguistic labels and their effects on memory

Intelligence
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Early attempts to study intelligence A. Galton (a cousin of Charles Darwin) and his book, Hereditary Genius; tried to use simple measures (like grip strength, pain sensitivity, memory for dictated consonants) to assess intelligence B. In the United States, Cattell (1901) conducted a study which suggested little relationship between simple sensory

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measures and Columbia college students test scores

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C. Modern research has returned, using more sophisticate methods, to the question of reaction time and intelligence. Note, common sense views relate speed of thinking and intelligence, as is illustrated by phrases such as quick witted and slow minded Binets seminal work on intelligence A. A practical problem: The Paris school system sought Binets help in objectively indentifying dull school children B. Binet was pragmatic and he tried many different methods to measure intelligence, including digit recall, measuring size of cranium, assessing moral judgments, graphology, and even palmistry C. Defining intelligence: Binet eventually came to see intelligence as involving many processes related to 1) the tendency to take and maintain a definite direction in thought, 2) the capacity to make adaptations, and 3) the power of autocriticism; In simple terms, according to
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II.

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B.

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Binet, intelligence involves purposeful, directed thought, which successfully achieves goals and which is self-critical and self-correcting; according to Binet and Simon (1916), the core of intelligence is: judgment, otherwise called good sense, practical sense, initiative, the faculty of adapting ones self to circumstances. to judge well, to comprehend well, to reason well. D. Modern conceptions of intelligence hold on to Binets notions; for example, Sternbergs triarchic (three-part) model of intelligence describes three aspects: 1) analytic intelligence (school smarts; the ability to analyze and solve academic problems), 2) practical intelligence (street smarts; the ability to apply knowledge and solve problems and achieve success in everyday life), and 3) creativity (the ability to invent, to come up with new solutions and views; divergent thought). E. The first intelligence tests: Binet-Simon scale was published in 1905; revisions were published in 1908 and 1911; difficulty or level of questions (items) was determined by age-related changes in performance
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F.

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F. The notion of general intelligence: Binet observed that childrens performance on various questions tended to be positively correlated; that is, children who tended to do well on one set of items also tended to do well on other items, whereas children who tend to do poorly on one set, tended also to do poorly on other items G. Stanford-Binet: American version of the Binet test; these are individual, not group tests H. Modern group IQ tests, such as the Wechsler

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III. Characteristics of good IQ tests A. A. Reliability: Is the test measuring something consistently; There are various kinds of reliability: test-retest reliability and internal consistency are two important kinds 1. In general, IQ tests are quite reliable; for example, test-retest reliabilities are on the order of .9 B. B. Validity: Is the test measuring what its supposed to measure? Do test scores predict what you would expect them to predict? In the case of IQ scores, you might expect that they would predict school grades, job
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success, and intellectual accomplishments (e.g., scientific discoveries, patents, creative accomplishments such as publishing books) 1. 1. Coxs estimates of the IQs of famous people like Mozart, Goethe, and Mill 2. 2. Termans gifted children study 3. 3. Research on IQ and school grades 4. 4. Research on IQ and job success
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IV. Nature, nurture, and intelligence A. A. The concept of heritability: Heritability is the computed proportion of population variability in a trait (e.g., variability in height or in intelligence) that is due to genetic factors; Note, heritability only applies to populations, not to individuals B. B. Ways of assessing heritability: Behavior genetic studies look at patterns of trait correlations in identical and fraternal twins and in families with adopted children. Two clear examples: Trait correlations between identical twins reared apart, and trait correlations between adopted children and members of their genetically unrelated adopted family
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C.

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C. Behavior genetic studies often investigate two kinds of environmental influences: 1) Common environmental influences, which affect all children in a family the same way, and 2) Unique environmental influences, which affect various children in a family differently. In common-sense terms, common environmental influences tend to make siblings more similar to one another, and unique environmental influences tend to make sibling different D. Behavior genetic evidence on intelligence: 1. 1. Heritability of IQ tend to be the range of .5 to .80 (i.e., 50% to 80% of the variation in adults IQ scores is due to genetic factors); heritability is lower for children and higher for adults 2. 2. Common environmental effects in children account for about 20-25% of the variability of childrens IQ scores, but 0% of adults 3. 3. Thus, in adults most of the nongenetic variability in IQ seems to be due to unique environmental effects
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E. Behavior genetic statistics on IQ do not give us useful information about group differences in IQ

vast amount of time and effort is spent on the business of learning, and any teacher or student will agree that learning is not always a simple matter. If a teacher tells a child to stay away from kids on the swings, the child may not always remember and obeyuntil a few collisions teach him his lesson. A kindergartener may need to watch her father tie his shoes dozens of times before she understands how to do it herself. Psychologists define learning as a change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience.

Three kinds of learning are of particular importance to psychologists.

Next Section > Biological Influences

Biological Influences

Biological factors can limit conditioning. Aversion to a particular taste can be conditioned only by pairing the taste with nausea. Instinctive drift is the tendency for conditioning to be hindered by natural instincts.

Cognitive Influences

Conditioning involves higher mental processes, as it depends on the predictive power of the conditioned stimulus rather than mere association of stimuli.

Observational Learning

Observational learning is the process of learning to respond in a particular way by watching others, or models. Albert Bandura conducted experiments showing that children who watched adults behaving aggressively were more likely to behave aggressively themselves.

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Learning Theory and Learning Theory

"Learning Theory" is a discipline of psychology that attempts to explain how an organism learns. It consists of many different theories of learning, including instincts, social facilitation, observation, formal teaching, memory, mimicry, and classical and operant conditioning. It is these last two that are of most interest to animal trainers.

Why should animal trainers be bothered with learning the theory behind how their animals learn? Many excellent trainers have no formal schooling or organized understanding of how their training is effective or how their charges work. But training is both an art and a science. More and more trainers - pet owners, show competitors, horseback riders, show-business trainers, zookeepers, aquarium trainers and more - are finding that an understanding of learning theory helps them understand their animals' behaviors better, and plan their training accordingly. So trainers are learning the theory of learning theory!

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