Learning

What is Learning
• The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the
environment. This experience makes him to change or modify his
behavior in order to deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is a
change in behavior, influenced by previous behavior.
• Skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes, interests and other personality
characteristics are all the result of learning.
• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior brought through
by experience.
• Learning is a change in behavior—better or worse.
• It is a change that takes place through practice or experience.
• This change in behavior must be relatively permanent, and it must last
a fairly long time.
Process of development and growth.
Produces change in behavior.
Automatic process
Develop knowledge
Creates curiosity
Problem solving
Characteristics
• Continuous change in behavior
• Life long process
• Physically, Cognitively and mentally attached with whole person
Laws of Learning
• Law of readiness:
• By readiness means the organism is ready to respond or act. This is more essential
prerequisite for learning.
• This indicates that the animal or human being is motivated to learn. 

• Law of exercise:
• This law is also known as law of frequency. Frequency refers to number of repetitions of
learning. Thorndike believed that repeated exercising of a response strengthens its
connection with stimulus.
• This aspect refers to law of use and disuse, which explains that, anything not in use will
die. So also if the response is not repeated, its bond with stimulus gets weakened. This is
also according to the statement that ‘practice makes man perfect’.
• Law of effect:
• This law states that when a connection is accomplished by satisfying
effect- its strength is increased. By this, Thorndike meant that the
probability of its occurrence is greater. In his experiment if the hungry
cat succeeded in opening the door, would get its favorable dish to eat.
• This had a positive effect on its response. Rewards always strengthen
connections between stimuli and responses, and on the other hand,
punishment weakens connections.
Types of Learning
• Trial and Error: American psychologist EL Thorndike
• He argued that learning takes place through trial and error method.
According to him learning is a gradual process where the individual
will make many attempts to learn. The essence of this theory is-as the
trials increase, the errors decrease.
• In one of the experiments a hungry cat was placed in the box and the door was closed which
could be opened by pressing a Latch. A fish was placed outside the box in a plate.
• The cat could see this fish. The cat was given many trials, ten in the morning and ten in each
afternoon for five days. The cat was fed at the end of each experimental period and then was
given nothing more to eat until after the next session. If, succeeded in opening the door in any
trial by chance, he went to eat food (fish). A complete record was made of the cat’s behavior
during each trial.
• In the beginning the cat made a number of random movements like biting, clawing, dashing,
etc. gradually in subsequent trials the cat reduced the incorrect responses (errors), as it was in
a position to manipulate the latch as soon as it was put in the box.
• This experiment revealed that the random movements were decreased gradually, that is-as
the trials increased the errors decreased. As the trials increased the solution to open the door
(pressing the latch) was discovered and at the end, the cat could open the door with zero error.
The time taken in each trial was eventually reduced.
• Thorndike conducted many experiments with maze and puzzle box
learning in which cats and rats were used. He demonstrated that
through numerous trials the animal learns much and gradually
improves his effort.
• We all learn many skills like swimming, cycling, riding, etc., through
this method. Children learn to sit, stand, walk, and run by this method
only.
Learning by Insight
• This theory was developed by a psychologist known as Wolf gang
Kohler, who belonged to Gestalt school of psychology.
• Learning by perceiving the relationship in the scene and
understanding the situation is insightful learning. 
• In this type, learning happens all of sudden through understanding
the relationships, various parts of problems rather than the trial and
error.
• This type of learning uses Reason, to form Conclusions, inferences, or
judgement to solve problems.
• Kohler conducted his most famous experiments on chimpanzee- called Sultan. In
the experiment, Sultan was put in a cage and a banana was placed at some
distance outside the cage. Then the chimpanzee was given two sticks, so
constructed that one stick could be fitted into another and make the stick longer.
• The hungry Sultan first attempted with its hands to get the banana. Then he took
one of the sticks and tried to pull the banana nearer, then tried with other stick,
but failed to reach it. By this effort, the chimpanzee became tired and left the
attempts to reach banana and started playing with sticks.
• While playing so, one of the sticks got fitted into the other and the stick became
lengthier. Immediately Sultan became elated and pulled the banana with this
long stick and ate it. This ‘sudden flash of idea’ to reach food with longer stick
was called as ‘Insight’, by Kohler.
Learning by Observation and Imitation
• It is the simplest method of learning. Many of our day-to-day’s activities are learnt by
imitating others. For example, the way we eat, drink, walk, talk, dress, etc, are all
learnt by imitating others. We observe and watch what and how other people do
certain activities and imitate them.
• We observe the demonstrations given by an expert, imitate his movements and learn
them. By copying the behavior of others, people avoid waste of time and effort of
trial and error method of learning. For example, a boy observes the way of holding a
cricket bat, the movements of an expert player, imitates the same and learns.
• Psychologists like Millar and Dollard have tried to show that the tendency to imitate
is itself a learned response and if reinforced, the individual will be more likely to
continue to imitate.
•.
Learning by Conditioning
• conditioning means ‘getting used’ to, or ‘adjusted ‘to a new situation,
or a stimulus. It is a process of substituting the original stimulus by a
new one and connecting the response with it. 

• Classical Conditioning
• Operant Conditioning
Classical Conditioning
• Classical conditioning is a form of learning in which people (or any
organism) learns to associate two stimuli that occur in sequence.
• Classical conditioning occurs when a person forms a mental
association between two stimuli, so that encountering one stimulus
means the person thinks of the other.
• Classical conditioning was discovered by Ivan Pavlov.
• Neutral Stimulus: a stimulus that, before conditioning, has no effect on the
desired response.
• Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): a stimulus that brings about a response without
having been learned.
• Unconditioned response (UCR): a response that is natural and needs no training.
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS): Once-neutral stimulus that has been paired with an
unconditioned stimulus to bring about a response formerly caused only by the
unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned response (CR): a response that, after conditioning, follows a
previously neutral stimulus.
• Pavlov designed an apparatus to measure the quantity of saliva
produced in response to food (meat power). At the beginning of his
experiment Pavlov noted that no saliva flowed when he rang the bell.
He then trained the dog by sounding the bell, and shortly afterwards
presenting food.
• After the sound of the bell had been paired with food a few times, he
tested the effects of the training by measuring the amount of saliva
that flowed when he rang the bell and did not present food. He found
that some saliva was produced in response to the sound of the bell
alone. He then resumed the training-paired presentation of bell and
food a few times and then tested again with the bell alone.
• As the training continued, the amount of saliva on tests with the bell alone increased.
Thus, after training the dog’s mouth watered-salivated- whenever the bell was sounded.
This is what was learned; it is the conditioned response.
• This theory states that CS (bell) becomes a substitute after pairing with UCS (food) and
acquires the capacity to elicit a response. It is because the association (conditioning) is
formed between CS and UCS. This may be symbolically presented as follows:
• UCS<———————————à UCR
• (Food) (Saliva)
• ↓ (Conditioning)
• CS<————————————-à CR
• (Bell) (Saliva)
• Before Conditioning
1. Food-----------------Salivation
(UCS) (UCR)

2. Bell------------------No response
• During Conditioning

Bell+Food----------------------- Salivation
(UCS) (UCR)

After Conditioning

Bell----------------------Salivation
(CS) (CR)
Principles of Classical Conditioning
• Extinction A basic phenomenon of learning that occurs when
previously conditioned response decreases in frequency and
eventually disappears.
• Spontaneous Recovery The reemergence of an extinguished
conditioned response after a period of rest and with no further
conditioning.
• Generalization Tendency to respond to a stimulus that is similar to
but different from a conditioned stimulus.
• Discrimination The ability to differentiate between stimuli.
• Acquisition the dog learning to salivate at the sound of the bell. : the act of acquiring something
• Extinction is used to describe the elimination of the conditioned response by repeatedly presenting the
conditioned stimulus without the unconditioned stimulus.• If a dog has learned to salivate at the sound of a bell,
an experimenter can gradually extinguish the dog’s response by repeatedly ringing the bell without presenting
food afterward.
• Spontaneous Recovery. Extinction does not mean, however, that the dog has simply unlearned or forgotten the
association between the bell and the food.• After extinction, if the experimenter lets a few hours pass and then
rings the bell again, the dog will usually salivate at the sound of the bell once again.• The reappearance of an
extinguished response after some time has passed is called spontaneous recovery.
• Generalization After an animal has learned a conditioned response to one stimulus, it may also respond to similar
stimuli without further training.• If a child is bitten by a large black dog, the child may fear not only that dog, but
other large dogs.• This phenomenon is called generalization.• Less similar stimuli will usually produce less
generalization.• For example, the child may show little fear of smaller dogs.
• Discrimination The opposite of generalization is discrimination, in which an individual learns to produce a
conditioned response to one stimulus but not to another stimulus that is similar.• For example, a child may show a
fear response to freely roaming dogs, but may show no fear when a dog is on a leash or confined to a pen.
Operant Conditioning
• Learning in which voluntary response is strengthened and weakened,
depending on its favorable and unfavorable consequences.

• Between Behavior and Consequences of that behavior.

the cause of human behavior is something in a person’s environment.
the consequences of a behavior determine the possibility of it being
repeated. 
• Skinner box
• Puzzle box
• Thorndike: operate outside the box
• Skinner: operate inside the box.
• Reinforcement: process which increases the probability of desired
behavior.
• Food----Reinforcement for dog

• Primary Reinforcement: known without being learned. Biological

needs (food water).
• Secondary Reinforcement: learned values. Conditioned reinforcement
(money, praise).
• Positive Reinforcement • Negative Reinforcement

• Response is strengthened by the removal

• Pleasant stimulus is added in the (stopping, removing or avoiding) of
environment that brings an something considered unpleasant.
increase in response. If food, • (headache– by taking aspirin headache is
water, money is presented after gone).
a response it is more likely that • Unpleasant stimulus removal leads to
response will occur again. increase in response.
• termination of an unpleasant state
• Pay checks at the end of week. following a response
• A child learns to clean his/her • A child will clean his/her room in
room after being rewarded with order to avoid being nagged by
extra TV time, every time he/she his/her mother (where the nagging
cleans it. is the negative stimulus), and will
end up having a clean room.
• if you do not complete your
homework, you give your teacher
£5. You will complete your
homework to avoid paying £5,
thus strengthening the behavior of
completing your homework. 
Examples of Positive reinforcement
• Clapping
• Cheering
• Giving a hug or pat on the back
• Give a thumbs-up
• Offering a special activity, like playing a game or reading a book together
• Telling another adult how proud you are of your child’s behavior while
your child is listening
• Praising them
• Giving a high five
• When thinking about reinforcement, always remember that the end
result is to try to increase the behavior, whereas punishment
procedures are used to decrease behavior.
• For positive reinforcement, think of it as adding something positive in
order to increase a response.
• For negative reinforcement, think of it as taking something negative
away in order to increase a response.
• Punishment: stimulus that decreases the probability of behavior.
• Process by which a consequence immediately follows a behavior which decreases the
future frequency of that behavior

• Positive punishment: Positive punishment is adding an aversive stimulus to deter a

behavior
• In this concept, a particular behavior pattern decreases so as to avoid dealing with
something unpleasant later.
• Spanking a child for misbehaving
• After hitting a classmate, the child is made to sit separately and no one is allowed to talk to
him/her. This will ensure that the child never ever hits any of his/her classmates again.
• Jon was assigned extra homework because he was late to school
• Negative punishment:
• Removing pleasant stimulus to decrease the unpleasant response.

• Cutting pay.
• taking away PlayStation from children for poor grades
• A child is stopped from watching his/her favorite cartoon show because
he/she gets into a fight with his/her sibling (where the cartoon show is the
positive stimuli), and he/she learns to avoid getting into a fight henceforth. 
• Mary’s tv time was cut by 20 minutes because she did not listen to her
Mom.