Module One

Learning.
Learning is one of the most fundamental concepts in all of psychology. Learning shapes
personal habits, personality traits and emotional responses.
Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior due to experience or
maturation.
Although the effects of learning are diverse, many psychologists believe that learning occurs
in several basic forms: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.
Conditioning: The simplest kind of learning is called conditioning. Conditioning involves
learning associations between events that occur in an organism’s environment.
I) Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke
a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.
Classical conditioning became the subject of careful study in the early twentieth century, when
Ivan Pavlov, a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist from Russia, identified it as an important
behavioral process and it was originally called Pavlovian conditioning in tribute to him.
He was primarily interested in the physiology of digestion. His subjects were dogs restrained
in harnesses in an experimental chamber. Their saliva was collected by means of a surgically
implanted tube in the salivary gland. Pavlov would present meat powder to the dog and then
collect the resulting saliva. As his research progressed, he noticed that dogs accustomed to the
procedure would start salivating before the meat powder was presented.
To investigate further, he paired the presentation of the meat powder with various stimuli that
would stand out in the laboratory situation. For instance, he used a simple auditory stimulus:
the presentation of a tone/bell. After the tone and the meat powder had been presented together
several times, the tone was presented alone. The dogs responded by salivating to the sound of
the tone alone. The key is that the tone had started out as a neutral stimulus; that is, it did not
originally produce the response of salivation. However, Pavlov managed to change that by
pairing the tone with a stimulus (meat powder) that did produce the salivation response.
Through this process, the tone acquired the capacity to trigger the response of salivation. What
Pavlov had demonstrated was how stimulus-response associations—the basic building blocks
of learning—are formed by events in an organism’s environment.
Elements:
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): In classical conditioning, a stimulus that can evoke an
unconditioned response the first time it is presented.
Unconditioned Response (UCR): In classical conditioning, the response evoked by an
unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): In classical conditioning, the stimulus that is repeatedly paired
with an unconditioned stimulus.
Conditioned Response (CR): In classical conditioning, the response to the conditioned stimulus

Principles:
1. Extinction: If the US never again follows the CS, conditioning will extinguish, or fade away.
Classical conditioning can be weakened by removing the connection between the conditioned
and unconditioned stimulus. Thus, the process through which a conditioned stimulus gradually
loses the ability to evoke conditioned responses when it is no longer followed by the
unconditioned stimulus is known as extinction.
2. Spontaneous Recovery: It was also discovered by Pavlov that after extinction, when a
conditioned response is no longer evident, the behavior often reappears spontaneously but at a
reduced intensity. This phenomenon – the reappearance of an apparently extinguished
conditioned response (CR) after an interval in which the pairing of conditioned stimulus (CS)
and unconditioned stimulus (US) has not been repeated – is called spontaneous recovery. The
process of spontaneous recovery shows that somehow, the learning is suppressed rather than
forgotten. As time passes, the suppression may become so strong that there would, ultimately
be no further possibility of spontaneous recovery.
3. Stimulus generalization: Pavlov’s dog provided conditioned response (salivation) not at sight
of the food but to every stimulus like ringing of the bell, appearance of light, sound of the
footsteps of the feeder etc... associated with it being fed. Similarly, Watson’s boy Albert (Little
Albert experiment) showed fear not only of touching a rabbit but also of the mere sight of a
rabbit, a white fur coat and even Santa Claus whiskers. Responding to the stimuli in such a
generalized way was termed as stimulus generalization with reference to a particular stage of
learning behavior in which an individual once conditioned to respond to a specific stimulus is
made to respond in the same way in response to other stimuli of similar nature.
4. Stimulus discrimination: Stimulus discrimination is the opposite of stimulus generalization.
Here in sharp contrast to responding in a usual fashion, the subject learns to react differently in
different situations. For example, the dog may be made to salivate only at the sight of the green
light and not of the red or any other. Going further, the salivation might be elicited at the sight
of a particular intensity or brightness of the green light but not at any other. In this way,
conditioning through the mechanism of stimulus discrimination one learns to react only to a
single specific stimulus out of the multiplicity of stimuli and to distinguish and discriminate
one from others among a variety of stimuli present in our environment.
Higher order conditioning
Higher order conditioning or second-order conditioning is a form of learning in which a
stimulus is first made meaningful or consequential for an organism through an initial step of
learning, and then that stimulus is used as a basis for learning about some new stimuli. Higher-
order conditioning involves a two-phase process. In the first phase, a neutral stimulus (such as
a tone) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (such as meat powder) until it becomes a
conditioned stimulus that elicits the response originally evoked by the US (such as salivation).
In the second phase, another neutral stimulus (such as a red light) is paired with the previously
established CS (the tone), so that it also acquires the capacity to elicit the response originally
evoked by the US.
Example: First, you condition a dog to salivate in response to the sound of a tone by pairing
the tone with meat powder. Once the tone is firmly established as a CS, you pair the tone with
a new stimulus (few trials). You then present the red light alone, without the tone. Even though
the red light has never been paired with the meat powder, it will acquire the capacity to elicit
salivation by virtue of being paired with the tone.
II) Operant conditioning
In the 1930s, another kind of learning, was named operant conditioning by B. F. Skinner. The
term was derived from his belief that in this type of responding, an organism “operates” on the
environment instead of simply reacting to stimuli. Thus, operant conditioning is a form of
learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences. In operant
conditioning, the learner actively “operates on” the environment. Thus, operant conditioning
refers mainly to learning voluntary responses.
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
behavior), the hungry rat accidentally presses the lever and a food pellet drops on the plate.
The hungry rat eats it. In the next trial, after a while the exploratory behavior 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 is
why, this type of learning is also called instrumental conditioning. It is otherwise called S-R
learning.
The basic principle is simple: Acts that are reinforced tend to be repeated. Pioneer learning
theorist Edward L. Thorndike called this the law of effect: The probability of a response is
altered by the effect it has. Learning is strengthened each time a response is followed by a
satisfying state of affairs. In other words, a response is strengthened because it leads to
rewarding consequences. This fundamental principle is embodied in Skinner’s concept of
reinforcement. Reinforcement occurs when an event following a response increases an
organism’s tendency to make that response.
A reinforcer can be defined as any stimulus or event which increases the probability of the
occurrence of a response.
Reinforcement is of two types: 1) Positive 2) Negative
1) Positive reinforcement: It 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.
2) Negative reinforcement: It involves 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. It may be noted that negative reinforcement is not punishment. Use of punishment
reduces or suppresses the response while a negative reinforcer increases the probability of
avoidance or escape response.
Punishment: In contrast to a reinforcer, a punishment decreases the probability of a response.
A punishment can be either the presentation of something (e.g., pain) or the removal of
something (e.g., withholding food). Punishment is most effective when it is quick and
predictable. As with reinforcement, there are two types of punishment: positive punishment
and negative punishment.
In positive punishment, behaviors are followed by aversive stimulus events termed punishers.
In such instances, we learn not to perform these actions because aversive consequences will
follow.
In negative punishment, the rate of a behavior is weakened or decreased because the behavior
is linked to the loss of potential reinforcements.
Shaping: A technique in which close and closer approximations to desired behavior are
required for the delivery of positive reinforcement.
There are situations, especially in case of the acquisition of complex behavior and learning of
difficult skills, in which there may be a very remote chance of random occurrence of the
responses in a specific or natural way. In such cases, waiting for an organism to behave in a
specific way at random (the natural occurrence) may take a lifetime. For e.g., the chances of a
pigeon to dance in a particular manner are extremely remote. The same holds true for a child
learning a foreign language or even table manners. In these situations where the desired
responses do not occur at random (or naturally) efforts are directed at eliciting the appropriate
responses. This is done by building a chain of responses through a step-by-step process called
shaping. Shaping in this way, may be used as a successful technique for training individuals to
learn difficult and complex behavior and for introducing desirable modifications in their
behavior. Behavior modification techniques and aversive therapy used in treating problem
behaviors and abnormality, have come into existence through the shaping of the behavior
mechanism.
Chaining
Chaining refers to a process in the shaping of behavior and the learning of a task where the
required behavior or task is broken down into small steps for its effective learning and
subsequent reinforcement. It is a sort of chain reaction where one object sparks the other object
in its proximity and that in turn causes sparking in the next object in the chain and so on. In
behavioral terms, chaining starts when one response brings the organism into contact with
stimuli that both rewards the last response and cause the next response. That response in turn
causes the organism to experience stimuli that both, reward the response and cause the next
response and so on. The starting of conversation between people is an example of chain
behavior. When we see a friend, it is an effective stimulus for starting chain responses. We
greet them, and they greet in response. Their response to our greeting acts not only as a reward
for our greeting but also a stimulus for generating further response, e.g., shaking hands or
receiving with outstretched arms, and in this way one generated response gives birth to another
response and so on, i.e., behavior which consists of a chain of responses.
Schedules of Reinforcement.
Under natural conditions reinforcement is often an uncertain event. Sometimes a given
response yields a reward every time it occurs, but sometimes it does not. A schedule of
reinforcement is a specific pattern of presentation of reinforcers over time. The simplest
pattern is continuous reinforcement. Continuous reinforcement occurs when every instance of
a designated response is reinforced. In the laboratory, experimenters often use continuous
reinforcement to shape and establish a new response before moving on to more realistic
schedules involving intermittent, or partial, reinforcement. Intermittent reinforcement occurs
when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time.
Studies show that, given an equal number of reinforcements, intermittent reinforcement makes
a response more resistant to extinction than continuous reinforcement does. Reinforcement
schedules come in many varieties, but four types of intermittent schedules have attracted the
most interest.
Ratio schedules require the organism to make the designated response a certain number of
times to gain each reinforcer.
a) Fixed-Ratio Schedule: A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement occurs only
after a fixed number of responses have been emitted. Examples: (1) A rat is reinforced
for every tenth lever press. (2) A salesperson receives a bonus for every fourth gym
membership sold.
b) Variable-Ratio Schedule: A schedule of reinforcement in which reinforcement is
delivered after a variable number of responses have been performed. Examples: (1) A
rat is reinforced for every tenth lever press on the average. The exact number of
responses required for reinforcement varies from one time to the next. (2) A slot
machine in a casino pays off once every six tries on the average.
Interval schedules require a time period to pass between the presentation of reinforcers.
 c) Fixed-Interval Schedule (FI): A schedule of reinforcement in which a specific interval
of time must elapse before a response will yield reinforcement. Examples: (1) A rat is
reinforced for the first lever press after a 2-minute interval has elapsed and then must
wait 2 minutes before being able to earn the next reinforcement. (2) You can get clean
clothes out of your washing machine every 35 minutes.
d) Variable-Interval Schedule (VI): A schedule of reinforcement in which a variable
amount of time must elapse before a response will yield reinforcement. Examples: (1)
A rat is reinforced for the first lever press after a 1-minute interval has elapsed, but
the following intervals are 3 minutes, 2 minutes, 4 minutes, and so on—with an
average length of 2 minutes. (2) A person repeatedly dials a busy phone number
(getting through is the reinforcer).
Observational learning (social learning / modelling)
Learning through observation accounts for a great deal of learning in both animals and humans.
According to the social-learning approach (Bandura, 1977, 1986), we learn about many
behaviors by observing the behaviors of others. Observational learning occurs when an
organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models. This
process has been investigated extensively by Albert Bandura (1977, 1986).
By observing a model (someone who serves as an example), a person may
(1) learn new responses,
(2) learn to carry out or avoid previously learned responses 9depending on what happens to the
model for doing the same thing), or
(3) learn a general rule that can be applied to various situations.
Bandura identified four key processes that are crucial in observational learning. The first two—
attention and retention—highlight the importance of cognition in this type of learning:
•Attention: To learn through observation, you must pay attention to another person’s behavior
and its consequences.
•Retention: You may not have occasion to use an observed response for weeks, months, or
even years. Thus, you must store a mental representation of what you have witnessed in your
memory.
•Reproduction: Enacting a modeled response depends on your ability to reproduce the response
by converting your stored mental images into overt behavior.
•Motivation: Finally, you are unlikely to reproduce an observed response unless you are
motivated to do so. Your motivation depends on whether you encounter a situation in which
you believe the response is likely to pay off for you.
Televised Aggression: Studies show conclusively that if children watch a great deal of
televised violence, they will be more prone to behave aggressively. In other words, not all
children will become more aggressive, but many will. Media violence can make aggression
more likely, but it does not invariably “cause” it to occur for any given child (Kirsh, 2005).
Many other factors affect the chances that hostile thoughts will be turned into actions.
Youngsters who believe that aggression is an acceptable way to solve problems, who believe
that TV violence is realistic, and who identify with TV characters are most likely to copy
televised aggression. Younger children, are more likely to be influenced because they don’t
fully recognize that media characters and stories are fantasies.
Cognitive Learning
Much learning can be explained by classical and operant conditioning. But even basic
conditioning has “mental” elements. As a human, you can anticipate future reward or
punishment and react accordingly. There is no doubt that human learning includes a large
cognitive, or mental, dimension. As humans, we are greatly affected by information,
expectations, perceptions, mental images, and the like. Cognitive learning refers to
understanding, knowing, anticipating, or otherwise making use of information-rich higher
mental processes. Cognitive learning extends beyond basic conditioning into the realms of
memory, thinking, problem solving, and language. Some psychologists view learning in
terms of cognitive processes that underlie it. They have developed approaches that focus on
such processes that occur during learning rather than concentrating solely on S-R and S-S
connections, as we have seen in the case of classical and operant conditioning. Thus, in
cognitive learning, there is a change in what the learner knows rather than what she/he does.
This form of learning shows up in insight learning and latent learning.
Insight learning.
The theory of insight learning was first proposed by German-American psychologist, one of
the founders of Gestalt psychology, Wolfgang Kohler. Insight learning is among various
methods of behavioral learning process, which is a fundamental aspect of Behavioral
Psychology. Insight learning refers to the sudden realization of the solution of any problem
without repeated trials or continuous practices.
To further elaborate on its definition, insight learning is the type of learning, in which one
draws on previous experience and seems to involve a new way of perceiving logical and
cause and effect relationship. Insight is an awareness of key relationships between cause and
effect, which comes after assembling the relevant information and ether overt or covert
testing of possibilities. Learning through such insight is called insight learning.
Köhler’s work seems to demonstrate that insight requires a sudden “coming together” of all
the elements of a problem in a kind of “aha” moment that is not predicted by traditional
animal learning studies.
Some other characteristics of insight learning as follows:
• Insight leads to change in perception.
• Insight is sudden
• With insight, the organism tends to perceive a pattern or organization (that helps in
learning).
• Understanding plays important role in insight learning
• Age influences insight learning. Adults are better learner than children.
• Some psychologists also relate insight learning with associative learning.
Experiment: Kohler placed a chimpanzee named Sultan inside a cage. Sultan grew hungry
and a bunch of bananas were placed just outside the cage. Sultan was provided with one long
and another short bamboo stick. Neither of the sticks could reach the banana alone and the
only possible way to reach the banana was to join the two sticks. Initially, Sultan showed all
customary reactions that a chimpanzee shows inside a cage, and gradually tried to draw the
banana towards him with the sticks. After countless fruitless efforts, sultan nearly gave up,
but as he was playing with the sticks, he managed to touch the banana by pushing a stick with
another stick. Sultan accidentally managed to join the two sticks and with its help, it pulled
the banana inside the cage. Sultan immediately grabbed the banana when faced with the same
problem next day.
Latent learning.
Latent learning occurs without obvious reinforcement and remains hidden until reinforcement
is provided. Tolman made an early contribution to the concept of latent learning. To have an
idea of latent learning, we may briefly understand his experiment. Tolman put two groups of
rats in a maze and gave them an opportunity to explore. In one group, rats found food at the
end of the maze and soon learned to make their way rapidly through the maze. On the other
hand, rats in the second group were not rewarded and showed no apparent signs of learning.
But later, when these rats were reinforced, they ran through the maze as efficient.
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.
Experiment: An example from a classic animal study: Two groups of rats were allowed to
explore a maze. The animals in one group found food at the far end of the maze. Soon, they
learned to rapidly make their way through the maze when released. Rats in the second group
were unrewarded and showed no signs of learning. But later, when the “uneducated” rats
were given food, they ran the maze as quickly as the rewarded group.
Cognitive map.
The term cognitive map is coined by Edward Tolman. A cognitive map is an internal
representation of an area, such as a maze, city, or campus. For example, when a friend asks
you for directions to your house, you are able to create an image in your mind of the roads,
along the way to your house from your friend’s starting point. This representation is called a
cognitive map. Cognitive mapping is a median by which people process their environment,
solve problems and use memory.