AHLCON INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
PSYCHOLOGY NOTES
CLASS- XI
CHAPTER 6 - LEARNING
Definition
Learning may be defined as “any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural
potential produced by experience”.
Features of Learning
Learning always involves some kinds of experience. For e.g. A child strikes a matchstick on
the side of a matchbox, and gets her/his fingers burnt. Such an experience makes the child
learn to be careful in handling the matchbox in future.
Behavioural changes that occur due to learning are relatively permanent. Changes in behaviour
due to the effects of fatigue, habituation, and drugs, are temporary & therefore are not
considered learning.
Terms Related to Learning-
Orienting Reflexes- is an organism's immediate response to a change in its environment. For
e.g. there is a marriage in your neighborhood and a lot of noise is being created by them till
late night, your initial response to the noise will be your orienting reflex.
Habituation- When the noise mentioned in the above example continues the orienting reflexes
become weak gradually and we become habituated to it. This behavioral change is called
Habituation.
Performance- is a person’s observed behavior or action. And learning is an inferred process
and is different from performance. For e.g memorizing a poem at home is considered as
learning, which is inferred by your teacher through your recitation in class.
PARADIGMS OF LEARNING
1. Classical Conditioning-
Ivan P. Pavlov During his studies he noticed that dogs, on whom he was doing his experiments, started
secreting saliva as soon as they saw the empty plate in which food was served. Saliva secretion is a
reflexive response to food. Pavlov designed an experiment to understand this process in detail. He
again used dogs. In the first phase, a simple surgery was conducted on the dog , and one end of a tube
was inserted in the dog’s jaw and the other end of the tube was put in a measuring glass.
In the second phase of the experiment, the dog was kept hungry and placed in harness with one end
of the tube ending in the jaw and the other end in the glass jar. A bell was sounded and immediately
thereafter food (meat powder) was served to the dog. The dog was allowed to eat it. For the next few
days, everytime the meat powder was presented, it was preceded by the sound of a bell. After a number
of such trials ,a test trial was introduced in which everything was the same as the previous trials
except that no food followed sounding of the bell. The dog still salivated to the sound of the bell,
expecting presentation of the meat powder as the bell had come to be connected with it . This
association between the bell and food resulted in acquisition of a new response by the dog, i.e.
salivation to the sound of the bell. This has been termed conditioning.
Food is thus an Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) and salivation which follows it, an Unconditioned
Response (UCR). After conditioning, salivation started to occur in the presence of the sound of the
bell. The bell becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) and saliva secretion a Conditioned Response
(CR). This kind of conditioning is called classical conditioning. the learning situation in classical
conditioning is one of S–S learning in which one stimulus (e.g., sound of bell) becomes a signal of
another stimulus (e.g., food).
Neutral Stimulus Bell
Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) Food
Unconditioned Response (UCR) Salivation on Food
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) Bell
Conditioned Response (CR) Salivation on Bell
Determinants of Classical Conditioning
a) Time Relations between Stimuli : The classical conditioning procedures, discussed below,
are basically of four types based on the time relations. The first three are called forward
conditioning procedures, and the fourth one is called backward conditioning procedure.
a) Simultaneous conditioning - When the CS and US are presented together.
b) Delayed Conditioning- the onset of CS precedes the onset of US. The CS ends before the
end of the US.
c) Trace conditioning- the onset and end of the CS precedes the onset of US with some time
gap between the two.
d) Backward conditioning- the US precedes the onset of CS.
Delayed conditioning procedure is the most effective way of acquiring a CR.
b) Type of Unconditioned Stimuli :
Appetitive US- automatically elicits approach responses, such as eating, drinking,
caressing, etc. These responses give satisfaction and pleasure.
Aversive US- such as noise, bitter taste, electric shock, painful injections, etc. are
painful, harmful, and elicit avoidance and escape responses.
Appetitive conditioning is slower and requires greater number of acquisition trials, as
compared to aversive conditioning.
c) Intensity of Conditioned Stimuli- More intense conditioned stimuli are more effective in
learning a conditioned response.
2. Operant Conditioning/Instrumental Conditioning- ( B.F Skinner)
The term operant is used because the organism operates on the environment. Conditioning of operant
behaviour is called operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is a form of learning in which
behaviour is learned, maintained or changed through its consequences.
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 had a lever within, which was connected
to a food container kept on the top. When the lever is pressed, a food pellet drops on the plate placed
close to the lever. While moving around, 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 behaviour
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. In the above situation the response is instrumental in getting the food. That is why, this type
of learning is also called instrumental conditioning.
Determinants of Operant Conditioning
A reinforcer is defined as any stimulus or event, which increases the probability of the occurrence
of a (desired) response.
a. Types of Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement involves stimuli that have pleasant consequences. Positive reinforcers
satisfy needs, which include food, water, medals, praise, money, status, information, etc.
Negative reinforcers involve unpleasant and painful stimuli. Thus, negative reinforcement leads
to learning of avoidance and escape responses. For instance, one learns to put on woollen clothes, to
avoid the unpleasant cold weather.
b. Number of Reinforcement and other Features
As the number, amount, and quality of reinforcement increases, the learning/acquiring of the response
becomes faster or more effective.
c. Schedules of Reinforcement- There are two types of reinforcement schedules:-
Continuous Reinforcement- When a desired response is reinforced every time it occurs.
Partial Reinforcement- some responses are reinforced and some are not reinforced. It is more
effective and highly resistant to extinction.
d. Delayed Reinforcement-
Delay in the delivery of reinforcement leads to poorer level of performance.
Difference between Classical & Operant Conditioning-
Classical Conditioning Operant Conditioning
1. The responses are under the control of Responses are under the control of the
some stimulus because they are reflexes. organism and are voluntary responses.
2. The CS and US are well-defined. CS is not defined.
3. The experimenter controls the occurrence The occurrence of the reinforcer is under the
of US. control of the organism
4. Food is called the UCS. Food is the reinforce.
Key Learning processes-
1. Reinforcement-Reinforcers are stimuli that increase the rate or probability of the responses that
precede. They are of two types:-
A primary Reinforcer- is biologically important since it determines the organism’s survival
(e.g., food for a hungry organism).
Secondary Reinforcer- The one which has acquired characteristics of the reinforcer because
of the organism’s experience with the environment, for [Link], praise, and grades.
2. Extinction-
Extinction means disappearance of a learned response due to removal of reinforcement from
the situation in which the response used to occur.
Learning shows resistance to extinction. It means that even though the learned response is
now not reinforced, it would continue to occur for sometime. However after few trials the
response strength gradually diminishes and ultimately it stops occurring.
As the amount of reinforcement (number of food pellets) increases, resistance to extinction
decreases.
If reinforcement is delayed during acquisition trials, the resistance to extinction increases.
Partial reinforcement makes a learned response more resistant to extinction.
Generalisation and Discrimination
Responding similarly to similar stimuli is known as generalisation. When a learned response
occurs or is elicited by a new stimulus, it is called generalisation. Another process, which is
complimentary to generalisation, is called discrimination. Generalisation is due to similarity while
discrimination is a response due to difference.
For example, suppose a child is conditioned to be afraid of a person with a long moustache and
wearing black clothes. In subsequent situation, when s/he meets another person dressed in black
clothes with a beard, the child shows signs of fear. The child’s fear is generalised. S/he meets another
stranger who is wearing grey clothes and is clean-shaven. The child shows no fear. This is an example
of discrimination.
Spontaneous Recovery
Spontaneous recovery occurs after a learned response is extinguished. After lapse of considerable
time, the learned or CR recovers and occurs to the CS. The amount of spontaneous recovery
depends on the duration of the time lapsed after the extinction session. The longer the duration of
time lapsed, the greater is the recovery of learned response.
Diagram to be done from the Book.
Observational Learning/Imitation
Bandura did a lot of experiments on such type of learning, and found out human beings learn social
behaviours, therefore, it is sometimes called social learning. In many situations individuals do not
know how to behave. They observe others and emulate their behaviour. This form of learning is called
modeling.
In one of his well-known experimental study, Bandura showed a film to the children wherein a boy
was behaving aggressively with the Bobo Dolls (Toys). This film has three versions.
In one version a group of children see the boy (model) being rewarded and praised by an adult
for being aggressive to the doll.
In the second version another group of children see the boy being punished for his aggressive
behaviour.
In the third version the third group of children are not shown the boy being either rewarded
or punished.
It was found that those children who saw aggressive behaviour being rewarded were most aggressive;
children who had seen the aggressive model being punished were least aggressive. Thus, in
observational learning observers acquire knowledge by observing the model’s behaviour, but
performance is influenced by model’s behaviour being rewarded or punished.
COGNITIVE LEARNING
1. Insight Learning – is the process by which the solution to a problem suddenly becomes
clear. Often during a problem situation there is no progress for some time, and suddenly after
sometime the solution emerges. This is also known as Aha! Effect.
In a well-known experiment Kohler placed chimpanzees in an enclosed play area where food
was kept out of their reach. Tools such as poles and boxes were placed in the enclosure. The
chimpanzees rapidly learned how to use a box to stand on or a pole to move the food in their
direction. In this experiment, learning did not occur as a result of trial and error and
reinforcement but came about in sudden flashes of insight.
2. Latent Learning - a new behaviour is learned but not demonstrated until reinforcement
is provided for displaying it.
In a well known 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 efficiently as the rewarded group.
Tolman also gave the concept of cognitive map, i.e. a mental representation of the spatial
locations and directions, which they needed to reach their goal.
Methods used in Studying Verbal Learning-
1. Paired-Associates Learning : It is used in learning some foreign language. First, a list of
paired-associates is prepared. The first members of the pairs (stimulus term) are nonsense
syllables (consonantvowel-consonant), and the second are English nouns (response term). The
learner is first shown both the stimulus-response pairs together, and is instructed to remember
and recall the response after the presentation of each stimulus term. Trials continue until the
participant gives all the response words without a single error. The total number of trials taken
to reach the criterion becomes the measure of paired-associates learning.
2. Serial Learning : This method is used to find out how participants learn the lists of verbal
items.
The participant is presented a list words and is required to produce the items in the same serial
order as in the list. In the first trial, the first item of the list is shownand the participant has to
produce the second item. If s/he fails to do so within the prescribed time, the experimenter
presents the second item. Now this item becomes the stimulus and the participant has to
produce the third item that is the response word. This procedure is called serial anticipation
method.
3. Free Recall : In this method, participants are presented a list of words, which they read and
speak out. Each word is shown at a fixed rate of exposure duration. Immediately after the
presentation of the list, the participants are required to recall the words in any order they can,
until they recall the entire list.
Determinants of Verbal Learning
The most important determinants are the different features of the verbal material to be learned.
They include length of the list to be learned and meaningfulness of the material.
Meaningfulness of material is measured in several ways. The number of associations elicited
in a fixed time, familiarity of the material and frequency of usage, relations among the words
in the list, and sequential dependence of each word of the list on the preceding words, are used
for assessing meaningfulness.
Learning time increases with increase in length of the list, occurrence of words with low
association values or lack of relations among the items in the list.
Total time principle states that a fixed amount of time is necessary to learn a fixed amount of
material, regardless of the number of trials into which that time is divided. The more time it
takes to learn, the stronger becomes the learning.
According to category clustering, It is worth noting that, even though, the words were
presented randomly, the participants organised them category-wise in recall. Subjective
organisation shows that the participants organise words or items in their individual ways and
recall accordingly.
Concept Learning-
A concept is defined as ‘a set of features or attributes connected by some rule’. Instances of a
concept are those objects or events or behaviours, which have common features.
Types of Concepts-
1. Conjunctive Concept/ And Concepts- refers to a class of objects having more than one
feature in common. To belong to a category, an item must have this feature & that feature.
2. Disjunctive Concept/ Either-or Concept- refer to objects that have atleast one of the
several possible features. To belong to that category the object should have this feature or that
feature.
3. Relational Concept- classify objects on the basis of their relationship with something else.
For eg. Larger, above, left, sister etc.
4. Artificial concepts- are those that are well defined and rules connecting the features are
precise and rigid. Every object must have all the features in order to become an instance of the
concept.
5. Natural concepts or categories are usually ill-defined. Numerous features are found in the
instances of a natural category. Such concepts include biological objects, real world products
such as tools, clothes, houses, etc.
SKILL LEARNING
A skill is defined as the ability to perform some complex task smoothly and efficiently.
Phases of Skill Acquisition
Skill learning passes through three phases:-
Cognitive phase- of skill learning, the learner has to understand and memorise the
instructions, and also understand how the task has to be performed.
Associative Phase- In this phase, different sensory inputs or stimuli are linked with
appropriate responses. As the practice increases, errors decrease, performance improves and
time taken is also reduced.
Autonomous phase- In this phase,the attentional demands of the associative phase decrease,
and interference created by external factors reduces. Finally, skilled performance attains
automaticity with minimal demands on conscious effort.
TRANSFER OF LEARNING
It refers to the effects of prior learning on new learning. It can be of 3 types:-
Positive if the earlier learning facilitates current learning.
Negative transfer if new learning is retarded.
Absence of facilitative or retarding effect means zero transfer.
General (Generic) Transfer
Prior learning predisposes one to learn another task in a better manner. The learning of one
task warms-up the learner to learn the next task more conveniently. For e.g. When you write
answers while appearing at the examination, your writing is slow initially. However, you get
warmed up after having written two or three pages.
Specific Transfer-
The effect of learning of task A on learning of task B. The learning of task A may make the
learning of task B easier or more difficult or have no such effect. On the basis of a long series
of experimental studies, the following conclusions have been drawn about specific transfer:-
1. The initial and transfer tasks are very different both in stimuli as well as in responses. Hence
no specific transfer is expected. Some General Transfer may happen.
2. The stimuli of the two tasks are the same and responses are highly similar. Therefore,
maximum transfer may occur.
3. T he stimuli are same but responses are different. In such conditions also some positive
transfer occurs.
4. The stimuli are different, but responses are the same. Therefore new associations with
responses are to be learned.
5. Stimuli and responses are the same, but associations are altered. Because of this, alteration
negative transfer occurs in the learning of the second task.
FACTORS FACILITATING LEARNING
1. Continuous V/s Partial Reinforcement-It has been found that extinction of a response is more
difficult following partial reinforcement than following continuous reinforcement. Hence partial
reinforcement is more effective.
2. Motivation- Motivation is a mental as well as a physiological state, which arouses an
organism to act for fulfilling the current need. The more motivated you are, the more hard
work you do for learning. Your motivation for learning something arises from two sources.
You learn many things because you enjoy them (intrinsic motivation) or they provide you the
means for attaining some other goal (extrinsic motivation).
3. Preparedness for Learning- It can be said that some species have biological constraints on
their learning capacities. A particular kind of associative learning is easy for apes or human
beings but may be extremely difficult and sometimes impossible for cats and rats. It implies
that one can learn only those associations for which one is genetically prepared.
THE LEARNER : LEARNING STYLES
Learning style may be defined as ‘a learner’s consistent way of responding to and using stimuli
in the context of learning’. Learning styles are mainly derived from the following:-
1. Perceptual Modality are biologically-based reactions to the physical environment. It refers
to the preferences of persons through which they take in information such as auditory, visual,
smell, kinesthetic, and tactile.
2. Information Processing distinguishes between the way we are structured to think, solve
problems, and remember information. This may be thought of as the way we process
information. For example, active/reflective, sensing/intuitive, sequential/global,
serial/simultaneous, etc.
3. Personality Patterns- This approach focuses on understanding how personality affects the
way people interact with the environment, and how this affects the way individuals respond to
each other within the learning environment.
LEARNING DISABILITIES
Learning disability is a general term. It refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested in
terms of difficulty in the acquisition of learning, reading, writing, speaking, reasoning, and
mathematical activities.
Symptoms of Learning Disabilities-
1. Difficulties in writing letters, words and phrases, reading out text, and speaking appear quite
frequently. Quite often they have listening problems, although they may not have auditory defects.
2. Learning-disabled children have disorders of attention. They get easily distracted and cannot sustain
attention on one point for long.
3. Poor space orientation and inadequate sense of time are common symptoms. Such children do not
get easily oriented to new surroundings and get lost. They lack a sense of time and are late or
sometimes too early in their routine work. They also show confusion in direction and misjudge right,
left, up and down.
4. Learning-disabled children have poor motor coordination and poor manual dexterity. This is evident
in their lack of balance, inability to sharpen pencil, handle doorknobs, difficulty in learning to ride a
bicycle, etc.
5. These children fail to understand and follow oral directions for doing things.
6. They misjudge relationships as to which classmates are friendly and which ones are indifferent.
They fail to learn and understand body language.
7. Learning-disabled children usually show perceptual disorders. These may include visual, auditory,
tactual, and kinesthetic misperception. They fail to differentiate a call-bell from the ring of the
telephone
8. Fairly large number of learning-disabled children have dyslexia. They quite often fail to copy letters
and words; for example, they fail to distinguish between b and d, p and q etc.
APPLICATIONS OF LEARNING PRINCIPLES
1. Implosive therapy- starts with the person imagining their most feared form of contact with the
feared object, accompanied by vivid verbal descriptions by the therapist.
2. Flooding is exposure that takes place in vivo (e.g., with an actual feared object) and is considered
to be the most effective of all treatments for fear.
3. Systematic desensitization- is a form of behaviour therapy used to reduce phobic patients’ anxiety
responses through counterconditioning, i.e. an attempt to reverse the process of classical conditioning
by associating the crucial stimulus with a new conditioned response.
[Link] Therapy- to eliminate undesirable habits. The therapist arranges things in such a way
that occurrence of maladjustive habits generates painful experiences and to avoid them clients learn
to give them up. For example, alcohol is paired with an emetic drug (which induces severe nausea and
vomiting).
5. Assertive learning- is basically for suffering from excessive shyness and having difficulties in
interpersonal interactions. They are taught to speak up for themselves and their rights but in a very
polite manner.
6. Biofeedback- In biofeedback, a bodily function (such as heart rate or blood pressure) is monitored
and information about the function is fed back to the person to facilitate improved control of the
physiological process.