Chapter 6:

Learning
Psychology 1
Dr. Jay A. Garcia
Definition of Learning
Defined by Craig as a process through which
ones capacity or disposition is changed as a
result of experience.
Defined by Whittaker as the process by which
behavior originates or is altered through
experience.
Wittig & Hilgard view it as a relatively
permanent change in behavior that occurs as
a result of experience.

Theories of Learning
These are important not only as a
theoretical basis for teaching but as
explanations for day to day learning
events.
Contemporary learning theories are
classified into two:
The association or stimulus-response
theories (SR)
Non-association or cognitive theories.

Association or Stimulus-Response
Theories
Thorndikes Connectionism
He associated sense
impressions & impulses with
action. In proving this, he
experimented with cats to find
out how animals learn to escape.


Classical Conditioning
Classical or Respondent Conditioning of Pavlov
& Watson involves the formation (or
strengthening) of an association between a
conditioned stimulus together with an
unconditioned stimulus.
Four variables involved:
US Unconditioned stimulus
CS Conditioned stimulus
UR Unconditioned response
CR Conditioned response

Classical Conditioning
Before Conditioning:
CS (buzzer) No response
US (food) UR (salivation)
During Conditioning:
CS (buzzer) US (food)
UR (Salivation
After Conditioning:
CS (buzzer) CR (salivation)

Four Basic Laws of Classical
Conditioning
1. Law of excitation applies when a
previously neutral stimulus acquires the
property of eliciting the conditional
response.
2. Law of internal inhibition the
conditioned response will not be elicited
if the conditioned stimulus is not
simultaneously presented with the
unconditioned stimulus.

3. Law of external inhibition excitatory or
inhibitory processes in conditioning can occur
when new & distracting stimuli are presented.
4. Extinction occurs when the conditioned
response is no longer elicited by the
conditioned stimulus because the conditioned
stimulus was constantly presented alone
without the paired stimulus.

Other Concepts Involved in Classical
Conditioning
Stimulus generalization the conditioned
response can be elicited not only by the
original conditioned stimulus but by other
stimuli to the conditioned stimulus.
Spontaneous recovery a conditioned
response which does not appear for the same
time re-occurs without further conditioning.
Higher order conditioning is a process by
which a conditioned stimulus may become an
unconditioned stimulus.


Instrumental/Operant Conditioning
Instrumental conditioning is based on the
concept & idea of Burrhus Frederick Skinner.
Experiment
A hungry rat is placed in a square box. The box
is plain except for a small lever or bar that
projects from the wall. The bar is attached to a
food magazine which will release a food pellet
every time the bar is pressed.

Principle of Operant Conditioning
Some of the phenomena related to operant
conditioning are reinforcement, shaping,
extinction, punishment, & behavior modification.
Reinforcement Anything that increases the
probability that a particular response will
increase in frequency.
Shaping is the process whereby the responses
are successively conditioned gradually in an ever-
increasing fashion to resemble the terminal
behavior.

Extinction is usually employed
to terminate an undesirable
behavior.
Punishment an operant
conditioning to decrease the
frequency of the undesirable
behavior.

Principles of Learning
Principle of Generalization refers to the
tendency of the human organism to attribute
learned bits of information, or a particular
movement or skill to a whole class of similar
information or skill.
Principle of Discriminative Learning allows a
person to learn different responses to be used
in situations that are similar to other
situations already encountered.

Principle of Reinforcement Schedule
refers to the retention of learned skills
without the need for further coaching or
rewards.
Principle of Imitation & Identification
involves learning desired behaviors by
observing others who deliberately or
inadvertently demonstrate the
responses.

Social Learning Theory
Albert Bandura & Richard H. Walter
dispute the role of reinforcement in
learning. They view learning as
occurring in the absence of the
reinforcement & emphasize
observational learning which
includes self-reinforcement.

Cognitive learning
Insight Learning involves a sudden
restructuring or organization of the
organisms perceptual world into a new
pattern.
Sign Learning is defined as an acquired
expectation that one stimulus will be
followed by another in a particular
context.


Transfer of Learning
Learning to Learn is emphasized
in present day schools and is
considered just as an important
as the acquisition of facts.
Mastery of principles it will be
easy to apply them to new
situations.

Memory & Forgetting
Memory is defined as the totality of
past experience that can be
remembered.
Kinds of Memory
Sensory Information Storage
Short-term Memory
Long-term Memory

Explicit & Implicit Memory
Explicit memory refers to intentionally or
conscious recollection of information as in
trying to remember a name or a date.
Implicit memory refers to memories of
which people are not consciously aware, but
which can affect their subsequent
performance as in the case of an event that
cannot be consciously recalled.

Unusual Forms of Memory
Eidetic Imagery or
Photographic Memory

Mnemonist or a professional
Memorizer.

Improving Memory
Chunking grouping items together.
Ex:
Vegetables Fruits Meats
Cabbage Bananas Chicken
Peas Oranges Beef
Tomatoes Papaya Pork
Lettuce Pineapple
Eggplant

Mnemonic Devices memory tricks
to aid memory.
Ex: Acronyms
CBEA College of Business
Education & Administration.
CET College of Engineering &
Technology.



Overlearning can help us retain information
longer.
Organization of text materials it is suggested
that one should first understand the structure
of the material scanning the table of
contents.
Organization of Lecture notes are better
remembered if the main points are jotted
down rather than to note all the details of a
lecture.

Measuring Memory
Recall the person is asked to
describe a past event in his own
words.
Recognition he is given available
choices from which he is to pick one
which he recognizes as the correct
response.

Two Kinds of Recall Situation
Free Recall a retrieval cue is
a tag or locator that helps your
remember something.
Serial Recall Remembering
something but not in order.


Theories of Forgetting
Trace Decay Theory this old theory
of forgetting has a physiological
basis.
Interference Theory It says that
items never fade away, but what is
responsible for forgetting is the
confusion.

Amnesia
Psychological Amnesia The person
suddenly represses almost
everything about self.
Retrograde Amnesia Caused by
traumatic injuries, events
immediately preceding the injury are
forgotten.

Anterograde Amnesia This is
inability to remember new
information for any length of time.
Biochemical Amnesia Amnesia
caused by drugs excessice
consumption of alcohol, marijuana,
etc.

Conditions Affecting Effective Learning
Motivation urge us to approach or
withdraw from a particular goal or
activity.
Mental Set Study must be purposeful &
directed toward a goal.
Emotion can facilitate or block
retention.

Rehearsal Repeating what you have
learned to yourself over & over
again.
Degree of Learning Determines the
amount of interference which can
cause forgetting of items in the LTM
category

Distributed & Massed Practice
When a large amount of information
has to be learned or when the
material is difficult & complex, it is
better to break up the learning time
into several short periods with
intervals between.

Skills for Learning To engage an
independent study or take advanced
courses in order to keep abreast with
the information.
Drugs & Stimulants - that can
increase of decrease memory.

Experiential Background
Learning takes place better
when it occurs in a background
that is familiar & friendlier to
the learner.