INTRODUCTION

NATURE AND SCOPE OF LEARNING

Learning is a key process in human behaviour. All living is learning. If we compare the simple, crude ways
in which a child feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behaviour, his skills, habits,
thought, sentiments, and the like- we will know what difference learning has made to the individual.
The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the environment. This experience makes
him to change or modify his behaviour in order to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is a change
in behaviour, influenced by previous behaviour. As stated above the skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes,
interests and other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.
Learning is not something that takes place within the boundaries of a classroom; rather it takes place
anywhere, anytime and from anyone. Traditional Indian Literature has examples where people learnt
from trees, mountains, rivers, insects, etc. It means learning is something which is possible anywhere.
In order to understand the concept of learning, let us begin with few definitions of learning which many
psychologists and educationists have proposed. Generally, learning is defined as a process of behaviour
modification through experiences, exercise and efforts.
Before discussing further, let us have a look at the definitions of learning given by various
psychologists/educationists:

Hurlock (1942) : Learning is development that comes from exercise and effort. Through learning,
children acquire competence in using their hereditary resources.

Hilgard, Atkinson and Atkinson (1979): Learning may be defined as a relatively permanent change in
behaviour that occurs as the result of prior experience.
Murphy (1968) : The term learning covers every modification in
behaviour to meet environmental requirements.
Woodworth (1945) : Any activity can be called learning so far as it develops
the individual (in any respect, good or bad) and makes
him alter behaviour and experiences different from what
they would otherwise have been.
If you examine these definitions carefully, particularly focusing on the underlined portion of the
definitions, you may conclude that:

Every creature, including human beings, is born with certain capabilities. e.g.: a human baby can suck
milk from its mother’s breast as soon as it is born. These capabilities are known as instinctive behaviour.
As an individual grows s/he has to make certain adjustments in various situations of life. Therefore, s/he
has to acquire various habits, knowledge, attitudes and skills, etc. The acquisition of all these things is
called ‘learning’. It means that:

• Learning is not acquired by birth, but it is the process of acquiring competence by using hereditary
resources.

• Temporary change in behaviour is not learning.

• Not only the modification of behaviour by acquiring good things as per the social norms is learning
but even behaviour modification by acquiring bad things comes under‘learning’. In other words,
learning leads to change in behaviour but this does not necessarily mean that these changes always
bring about improvement or positive development.
According to Smith (1962),‘learning is the acquisition of new behaviour or the strengthening or
weakening of old behaviour as the result of experience’. It means, instead of change in existing
behaviour or acquisition of new behaviour, learning may also result in discontinuance or abandonment
of existing behaviour. This ‘unlearning’ is also learning in itself.
According to Fagin (1958), learning is a sequence of mental events or conditions leading to changes in
learner.

Fig. 1.1: The Learning Process

It can be concluded that learning is a process by which an individual, as a result of interactions in a

situation, modifies his/her behaviour. It helps in bringing desirable changes in behaviour attaining
proper adjustment, and attaining proper growth and development.

This discussion and the definitions given in the first section‘What is learning?’ reveals the nature
of learning as follows:

• Learning is a process and not a product: Learning is a fundamental and life-long process.
Attitudes, fears, gestures, motor skills, language skills, etc. are the products of learning. They
are not learning themselves.
In a classroom, when learning is viewed as a product then it is viewed as something external.
Something like shopping– people go out and buy knowledge and then it becomes their
possession. Paulo Freire in his book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed’ criticizes this and says that
education thus becomes an act of depositing, in which the students are the depositories and the
teacher is the depositor. In this ‘banking’concept of education, the teacher is the subject of the
learning process, while the pupils are mere objects.
Whereas, when learning is viewed as a process, it is viewed as something internal or personal.
It is something that a child does in order to understand the real world and uses it as a tool for
survival.

• Learning is purposive or goal directed: Learning is not an aimless activity. All true
learning is based on purpose. We do not learn anything and everything that comes in our way
in a haphazard manner. However, some experts argue that sometimes learning is unintended.

• Learning generally involves some degree of permanence:Activities bringing temporary

change in behaviour and not lasting do not come under learning. For example, cramming the
content matter by a learner for examination and forgetting it after sometime does not bring any
change (to some extent to permanence) in the total behaviour pattern of the learner and thus
this type of learning cannot be said as true learning.

• Learning is universal and continuous: Every creature till it lives, learns. In human beings
it is not restricted to any particular age, sex, race or culture. It is a continuous never-ending
process which starts from birth and continues till death.

• Learning prepares for adjustment: Learning helps the individual to adjust

herself/himself adequately and adapt to the changes that may be necessary to the new
situations. We meet with new situations which demand solutions. Repeated efforts are required
react to them effectively. These experiences leave behind some effects in the mental structure
and modify our behaviour.

• Learning is comprehensive:The scope of learning is spread over each and every

dimension of life. It is a very comprehensive process which covers all domains – Cognitive,
Affective and Psychomotor- of human behaviour.

• Learning is change in response or behaviour may be favourable or unfavourable:

Learning leads to changes in behavior but this does not necessarily mean that these changes
always bring about improvement or positive development. There are chances to drift to the
negative side too.

• Learning is organizing experience:Learning involves all those experience and training of

an individual (right from birth) which help her/him to produce changes in behaviour. It is not
mere addition to knowledge or mere acquisition of facts. It is the reorganization of experience
which may also include unlearning.
• Instincts and reflexes are not learning: Changes in behaviour on the basis of native
response tendencies like instincts and reflexes (e.g. infant’s sucking behaviour, blinking at
bright lights)cannot be attributed to learning.

• Learning does not include changes in behaviour on account of maturation, fatigue,

illness, or drug etc.
Types of Learning

1. Motor learning:

Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The individual has to learn them in
order to maintain his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these
activities involve the muscular coordination.

2. Verbal learning:

This type of learning involves the language we speak, the communication devices we use. Signs, pictures,
symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use words for
communication.

3. Concept learning:

It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking, reasoning,
intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and
attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning
involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalisation. This learning is very useful in recognising,
identifying things.

4. Discrimination learning:

Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is called
discrimination learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc.

5. Learning of principles:

Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage
their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between two or more concepts.
Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

6. Problem solving:

This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as
thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome
difficult problems encountered by the people.

THEORIES OF LEARNING

In this section, we will discuss various theories explaining the psychological processes involved in
learning. Broadly, theories of learning can be categorized based on the following:

1) Learning by association: Known as classical conditioning

2) Learning by consequence: Known as operant or instrumental conditioning

3) Learning by watching others: Known as observational learning

 4) Learning by higher mental processes: Known as cognitive learning.
1. Classical Conditioning: Learning by Association

Theory of classical conditioning was proposed by Ivan Pavlov. According to classical conditioning, we
learn by making associations and relationships among various stimuli. Baron (2001), have described
classical conditioning as “A basic form of learning in which one stimulus comes to serve as a signal for
the occurrence of a second stimulus. During classical conditioning, organisms acquire information about
the relations between various stimuli, not simple associations between them.” The subjects of learning
in this theory are always some kind of automatic, involuntary or reflexive responses such as heart rate,
salivation, vomiting, pupil dilatation etc.

Before moving further first we should know the famous experiment done by Ivan Pavlov. His experiment
on dog laid the foundation of Classical conditioning. Pavlov, a physiologist by profession, was working on
the process of digestion on dogs around 1889. While measuring the salivation rate of dogs, he observed
that his dogs often began to salivate when they smell the food or even at the sight of their empty food
pan. That is, they start salivating before they actually tasted the food. To understand this interesting
observation he conducted a study. He conducted his study in two trials. He called his first trail as
conditioning trial. During this trial, he presented a neutral stimulus-a bell-that had no effect on dog’s
salivation. The ringing of a bell was immediately followed by an unconditioned stimulus (UCS)-food-that
can produce dog’s salivation. The response that the dog gave after getting food (unconditional stimulus)
in the form of salivation was termed as an unconditioned response (UCR), because it did not depend on
previous learning. This pairing of the ringing of a bell followed by food was done for a number of times.
After this repetitive pairing, neutral stimulus i.e., bell acquired the characteristics of UCS i.e., food.
Finally, Pavlov’s dog started giving a conditioned response (CR), i.e., it started salivating in the response
to the sound of the bell only. The neutral stimulus used by Pavlov in his experiment, i.e., the bell was
termed by him as a conditioned stimulus (CS), because initially, the bell had no characteristics of
producing salivation in the dog but later under certain condition it acquired the ability to produce
salivation in the dog.
Fig.- Experiment of classical conditioning

Source: [Link] Now let us have a quick review of important terms:

Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that can produce response unconditionally and naturally,
whenever it is presented. For example, cutting up an onion can make you cry or pollen from flower can
make you sneeze. Here, onion and pollen are two examples of UCS.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A stimulus that was initially neutral in nature i.e., was not capable of
producing any response. Later, with repeated pairing with UCS, it becomes able of predicting a UCS and
thus could elicit the response originally meant for UCS only.

Unconditioned Response (UCR): Response for which we do not need any previous learning i.e., which
occurs automatically without any condition. As discussed already, ‘crying’ while cutting an onion and
‘sneezing’ are the examples of UCR.

Conditioned Response (CR): The response we give to a conditioned stimulus because of some experience
is known as CR.

Some Principles of Classical Conditioning

Extinction: Once Conditioned, Always Conditioned?

Pavlov after coming up with the principle of learning tried to understand the conditions under which one
can unlearn the acquired conditioning. So, how can we get rid of conditioning? Stop giving UCS. When
the conditioned stimulus is presented for a number of times in the absence of UCS, it will eventually lead
to the disappearance of the conditioned response; this phenomenon has been termed by Pavlov as
extinction. In the context of Pavlov’s dog, if the bell was not followed by any food for many
presentations, then after some time, the dog will stop salivating in response to the bell. But, when US
(bell) is again followed by UCS (food) after extinction has taken place, conditioned response (salivation)
will return very quickly-a process known as reconditioning. The reappearance of the conditioned
response after a time interval due to UCS-CS pairing is known as spontaneous recovery.

Generalization and Discrimination: Responding to Similarities and Discrimination

Suppose that Pavlov’s dog also salivates in response to the doorbell, metronome sound as well as the
bell of his wall clock, then this phenomenon will be called as stimulus generalization-the tendency to
make same response to stimuli similar to a conditioned stimulus. On the contrary, if Pavlov’s dog
responds to the bell used in the experiment only and ignores other similar sounded bell then this
phenomenon will be called as stimulus discrimination-tendency to make a response to certain stimulus
and ignore others.

The Little Albert Experiment

Can we apply the principle of Classical Conditioning to human learning also? To answer this, John B.
Watson conducted an experiment on a nine-month child named “Albert B”, also famously known as
Little Albert. Watson hypothesized that a children’s fearful response to loud noise is an unconditioned
response. He further proposed that using the principles of classical conditioning a child can be made
fearful to any neutral stimulus. During the baseline condition of the experiment, Watson and his
assistants exposed little Albert to a number of stimuli such as a white rat, a rabbit, mask etc. As
expected, the little Albert did not show any fearful response to these objects. In the control condition,
when Albert was exposed to the rat, Albert made a loud noise. This made Albert fearful and he started
crying. After a repeated presentation of a white rat with a loud noise, he began to cry just after seeing
the rat. Later, it was observed that Albert has started to generalize his fear of similar looking white and
furry objects. Here,

Neutral Stimulus: White rat

Unconditioned Stimulus: Loud noise

Unconditioned Response: Crying and fearful emotional response

Conditioned Stimulus: White rat

Conditioned Response: Crying and fearful emotional response

Fig.- Rat or rabbit, I don’t like it

Source: Retrieved from [Link]

Fig.- Learned Helplessness

Fig.- Seligman’s learned helplessness experiments with dogs used an apparatus that measured when
the animals would move from a floor delivering shocks to one without.

Source: [Link]

The phenomenon of learned helplessness was given by Martin Seligman in the late 1960s while working
on classical conditioning with dogs. He noticed that those dogs who received an unavoidable electric
shock for a number of times did not act to rescue themselves when they had an opportunity for it in the
subsequent situations. Whereas, those dogs who received no inescapable shock, took action to save
themselves from the electric shock. He termed the behaviour of the first group as learned
helplessnessone’s learned response to not to take any appropriate action to avoid aversive stimuli. In
other words, one’s tendency to avoid taking any action for a successful escape from an aversive or
painful situation due to the history of failed attempts. The theory of learned helplessness has also been
successfully applied to understand the problem of depression in human beings.

[Link] Conditioning: Consequence Based Learning

Suppose you want to use principles of classical conditioning to teach a child to write. For this, first, you
need to identify an unconditional stimulus that will make the child write. But since, writing is not a reflex
or any emotional behaviour; therefore, we cannot use classical conditioning to make someone learn
writing. In this situation, we should explore another form of conditioning called operant conditioning. In
operant conditioning, the end result or consequence of behaviour determine if it will be repeated in the
future or not. Operant conditioning can be defined as a principle of learning in which behaviour is
maintained or changed through its positive or negative consequences. According to the principles of
operant conditioning, positive consequences lead to the repetition of behaviour, whereas, negative
consequences will lead to avoidance of behaviour. Factors that increase the probability of repetition of
behaviour have been termed as reinforcement. Whereas, factors that weaken or suppresses the
targeted behaviour has been termed as punishment.

B.F. Skinner was the main proponent of operant conditioning. He studied the learning mechanism
involved in voluntary behaviour. Since voluntary behaviour occurred when an organism ‘operates on the
environment’, he termed such voluntary behaviour as operant. Thus, conditioning of operant behaviour
is known as operant conditioning. Skinner’s work was inspired by Thorndike’s principle of the law of
effect, which states that behaviour followed by pleasant outcomes

Fig.- A Skinner’s rat

Source: Retrieved from [Link]

are likely to be repeated, and behaviour followed by unpleasant are outcomes likely to be stopped. Now
let’s talk about the experiment done by Skinner. In his experiment, Skinner kept a hungry rat inside a
closed chamber. The chamber has a lever, which was connected to a food container kept outside. During
exploratory behaviour, initially, rat pressed the lever accidentally, leading to dropping off a food pellet.
After a number of such accidental trials, rat learned the behaviour of pressing the lever for a food pellet.
Conditioning was complete, when the rat presses the lever immediately after it food was placed in the
chamber. Here, lever pressing is an operant behaviour and getting food is its consequence. Since in this
experiment, the behaviour of pressing the lever was a medium or instrument of obtaining food, this type
of learning is also known as instrumental learning.

An Overview of Reinforcement and Punishment Table : Overview of the type of reinforcement

and punishment

Procedure Stimulus Event Effects Behavioural Outcomes

Positive Application of a Strengthens Organisms learn to

reinforcement desirable stimulus responses that perform responses that
(e.g., food, sexual precede the produce positive
pleasure, praise) occurrence of the reinforces
stimulus

Negative Application of an Strengthens Organisms learn to

reinforcement undesirable responses that perform responses that
permit escape permit them to avoid or
(aversive) stimulus
from or escape from negative
(e.g., heat, cold,
avoidance of reinforces
harsh criticism)
stimulus

Positive Application of an Weakens the Organisms learn to

punishment undesirable responses that suppress responses that
precede the lead to unpleasant
(aversive) stimulus
occurrence of a consequences
stimulus

Negative Lose or Weakens Organisms learn to

punishment postponement of a suppress responses that
responses that
desirable stimulus
lead to a loss or lead to loss or
postponement of postponement of the
stimulus desired stimulus

Source: Baron (2001)

Schedules of Reinforcement

In real life, it is not necessary that you will be reinforced every time. Sometimes, your teacher praises
you, sometimes she just acknowledges you, while on the other occasions she prefers to ignore your hard
work. This suggests that there is no fixed rule of giving reinforcement. Psychologists have also suggested
that there can be many ways of giving reinforcement and how reinforcement has been received also
affects behaviour. Here, we will talk about the schedule of reinforcement-”rules determining when and
how reinforcement will be delivered” (Baron 2001).

Table 6.2: Schedule of Reinforcement

Explanation Real-world example
Reinforcement

Schedule

Fixed-ratio Behaviour is reinforced after a

specific number of responses Factory workers who are
paid according to the number
of products they produce

Variable-ratio Payoffs from slot machines

Behaviour is reinforced after an
and other games of chance
average, but unpredictable,
number of responses

Fixed-interval
Behaviour is reinforced for the
People who earn a monthly
first response after a specific
salary
amount of time has passed

Variable-interval A person who checks voice

Behaviour is reinforced for the
mail for messages
first response after an average,
but unpredictable, amount of
time has passed
Retrieved from [Link]
behaviorthroughreinforcement-and-punishment-operant-conditioning/

The Principle of Shaping and Chaining

Have you seen a circus? Or have you watched animal performing some tricks or stunts in a movie? How
can they perform such a complicated behaviour?
Fig.6.6: A dog doing a trick

Source: Retrieved from [Link]

The answer to this question lies in two principles of operant conditioning called as shaping and chaining.
Shaping is a process of learning a new behaviour in which successively closer approximation of the
desired behaviour is reinforced, that is the organism will be rewarded for each small step towards
targeted behaviour.

Any complex behaviour or skill is the chain of many steps. The process of chaining involves breaking a
task into small steps and then teaching these steps in sequence or chain. In chaining, only the targeted
behaviour is rewarded, i.e., once the trainee accomplishes the last step he will be rewarded. For
example, if you want to teach a child to use the spoon to feed himself then the chaining principle can be
used.

Premack Principle

Given by David Premack, according to this principle, a more preferred behaviour can be used as
reinforcement for a less preferred behaviour. One of the example of the usage of Premack principle can
be best explained in a circumstance where, in order to develop a habit of reading in the child, the
mother promises her child to allow him/her to play outside provided the child reads for a time period of
20 minutes.