Dr.

Meltem İpek Öner

Theories of Learning
What is learning?
 1 2
What is Learning is usually "a relatively
learning? defined as a change in
an individual caused
permanent change in
behavior or
by experience. knowledge"
(Woolfolk, 1993, p.
196).
What is
behavioral
approach?
• The behavioral approach
attempts to explore the
underlying processes in which
we learn and maintain
behaviors.
•Why do we
study?
 As teachers…

• Behavioral approach has been influential in our

conceptualization of learning and in identifying
activities to promote learning in students.
• It provides different kinds of strategies and
techniques that can be used in improving learning.
• As teachers, we need to understand the underlying
principles and strategies offered.
• However, these principles and strategies should not
be taken as valid and useful in every context.
• The teacher, as a professional, should be able to
decide which to use when and how.
 • What is behaviorism all about?
• Behavioral psychology is the
study of external behavior.
• Behavior is objective and
observable, whereas what goes on in
one’s mind can never really be
known or measured (the mind is a
“black box”)
• Behavior is the response of an
organism to stimuli.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-SA-NC
 Behaviourist learning
theorists – timeline:

I. Pavlov (1849-1936) [active 1890’s – 1900’s]

E.L. Thorndike (1874-1949) [active 1900’s – 1930’s]

J. Watson (1878–1958) [active 1910’s – 1920]

B. F. Skinner (1904 –1990) [active 1930’s – 1960’s]

Ivan Petrovich
Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Russian
• Nobel Prize winner 1904 in Physiology
and Medicine for research about
digestion.
• Key concept is conditioned (conditional)
reflex
• He was not specifically concerned with
the study of learning
Classical
Conditioning
The process of learning to respond to a
stimulus, which is not naturally
associated with that response, is called
classical conditioning.

Classical conditioning is the basis for

the behavioral approach to learning,
even if it covers only a limited amount
of human learning (i. e., reflexive
learning) (Shunk, 1991).
Classical Conditioning

Pavlov's famous
experiment on dogs
presents a good example
of reflexive learning in
animals.
Classical Conditioning
• Dogs naturally salivate when they see meat, and the
relationship between these two events is not conditional.
• An event, say the sound of a bell, without any relationship
to meat elicits no salivation from the dog because there is
no natural relationship between these two.
• However, when Pavlov repeatedly paired the sound of a bell
with meat by first ringing the bell and then giving the meat
to the dog, the dog was able to learn to expect meat right
after the sound of the bell.
• Since the dog associated the sound of the bell with meat, it
learned to salivate as soon as it heard the sound of the bell,
even when no meat was provided.
 Ivan Pavlov's Classical Conditioning

Before Conditioning

Unconditioned Unconditioned Response

Stimulus

Neutral Stimulus No Response

 Ivan Pavlov's Classical Conditioning
During Conditioning

Neutral Unconditioned
Unconditioned
Stimulus Response
Stimulus
Ivan Pavlov's Classical Conditioning
After Conditioning

Conditioned Conditioned
Stimulus Response
 Classical Conditioning
An example from a learning environment

Unconditioned stimulus Unconditioned response

Teacher instructs pupils to work quietly. Pupils work quietly on tasks.

Conditioned stimulus with additional stimulus. Unconditioned response

Teacher instructs pupils to work quietly while putting Pupils work quietly on tasks.
her fingers on her lips.

Conditioned stimulus Conditioned response

Teacher puts her fingers on her lips. Pupils work quietly on tasks.

(From Bartlett and Burton, 2012, p.197)

In Pavlov’s view, if the meat was not provided from time
to time, the response would begin to disappear or
extinguish.

Pavlov also pointed out that a dog that learned to salivate

to the sound of a bell would salivate to similar sounds,
such as a ticking of a clock or whistle. Pavlov termed this
tendency, stimulus generalization.

Supplying meat after the bell is rung, but never after a

whistle is sounded, could eliminate such generalized
responses. When this occurs, discrimination takes place
(Biehler & Snowman, 1997).
Classical Conditioning in the Classroom

Test anxiety can be explained through classical conditioning. Naturally, tests do not cause any anxiety in
human beings. However, in school we learn to be anxious about tests, since failing them is an undesired
consequence.

Once we learn this behavior, which is reflexive or automatic, we are influenced by it for an extended
period of time.

Even in our adulthood life, when we take a test, which may not have any undesirable consequence, we
may still experience anxiety since it becomes an automatic response to the stimulus of test.

Other examples might be anxiety experienced in doing public presentations, difficulty in establishing a
romantic relationship with the other sex, etc. All these feelings can be traced back to a certain undesirable
experience, which caused a conditioned behavior.
 Classical Conditioning
in the Classroom
Classical conditioning can also help us explain some positive
feelings toward school.

For example, a teacher treats a student who feels anxious about a

new school with warmth, caring and encouragement. The student
responds positively to these displays of genuine warmth and
encouragement.

If the teacher is consistently caring and encouraging, the student

will begin to associate school and studying with the teacher’s
encouragement, and then the school will elicit comfortable and
safe feelings in the student (Eggen & Kauchak, 2001).
John Broadus Watson
(1878–1958)
• American Psychologist
• Considered first person to use term ‘Behaviourism’
• Considered the mind as being irrelevant to learning
• Rejected determinism through instinct and heredity as
the major factor in learning – environment is the key
• Some interest in concept of thinking as ‘subvocal
speech’
• Commented on child rearing
Watson writes…..

• “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-

formed, and my own specified world to bring
them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one
at random and train him to become any type
of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer,
artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-
man and thief, regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations,
and race of his ancestors………..”
• (Watson, 1930. p.82)
“Little Albert”

• “Little Albert” experiment: conditioned a

young child to associate fear with a furry
object (rat, rabbit, fur hat, Santa etc)
• “Little Albert” experiment:
•
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucx
OrPQE&feature=related
Burrhus Frederic Skinner
(1904 –1990)

• American Psychologist – originally an

English graduate
• The founder of ‘Radical
Behaviourism’: behaviour is learned
through reinforcement
• Key ideas: ‘Operant Conditioning’ and
‘Reinforcement’
• Invented the ‘Operant Conditioning
Chamber’ (Skinner Box)
Beginning in the 1930’s, Skinner started
his experimentation on the behavior of
animals.

Skinner's quest was to observe the

relationship between observable stimuli
and response.

Essentially, he wanted to know why these

animals behaved the way that they do.

Skinner controlled his experiments by

using “Skinner boxes.”
The Skinner box

• The Skinner box was a contraption that

would automatically dispense food
pellets and electric shocks.
• Skinner believed that the learning he
observed in his Skinner boxes could
apply to human behavior. He called this
learning operant conditioning.
 1. A hungry animal (a cat, a rat, a pigeon) is placed in a laboratory setting (example-
Skinner box)
2. The animal will wander in the box, exploring its environment in a random way.
Skinner Box 3. The animal will press a lever by chance, which enables it to receive food from the food
container.
4. The first time the response occurred, the animal will not learn the connection
between lever pressing and the stimulus (food)
5. As the frequency of lever pressing increases, the animal learns that the receipt of food
is dependent on lever pressing behavior.
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
Operant Conditioning
• Operant conditioning is very much influenced by the
consequences of any behavior. Therefore, controlling the
consequences becomes very important in strengthening
desirable and in reducing undesirable behaviors.
• To strengthen behaviors, positive and negative
reinforcements are used.
• Punishment is used to decrease the frequency of undesired
behaviors (Woolfolk, 2001).
Operant Conditioning

• Skinner hypothesized that human

behaviors were controlled by
rewards and punishment and that
their behaviors can be explained by
principles of operant conditioning.

• e.g. studying hard to get a good grade on

the exam is a goal directed action
intended to result in a personally
satisfying, desirable end.
Operant Conditioning (Skinner)
This involves conditioning voluntary, controllable behaviors, not the automatic
physiological responses in Classical Conditioning
With Operant Conditioning the Response comes before the Stimulus (the opposite
of CC)

R S
 Operant Conditioning

• Operant means goal directed, and operant

conditioning is a process in which individuals try
to control the consequences of their behaviors.
• Consequences influence human effort toward that
behavior, and it determines whether that behavior
will be repeated or not. So, human beings
operate on their environment to produce desired
consequences for themselves (Woolfolk, 2001).
 Reinforcement
• Reinforcement is essentially a
positive or negative
consequence following a
behaviour that will increase the
future likelihood of that
behaviour occurring again.

• When you reinforce your child’s

behaviour you do it by adding or
removing something after your
child’s behavior to increase the
likelihood of them doing that
exact behavior again.
Negative Reinforcement is Not a Bad Thing!

• Take note that negative reinforcement is not a bad thing, in fact it's a
good thing
Negative reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement aims to

strengthen behavior through the
avoidance of an undesired
consequence.
• For example, if the classroom rules
indicate that not handing in homework
on time results in a student getting low
grade, the student's handing in the
homework on time serves to avoid that
consequence.
• In this way, negative reinforcement is
used to strengthen the behavior.
Negative reinforcement
• Mary’s husband Mike sometimes snores during the night, and she
can’t sleep through it when he does. When Mary is woken by Mike’s
snoring, she has learned that putting in earplugs blocks out the noise
and she can no longer hear his snoring.
• Every time he now snores, she puts in the earplugs – thus there is an
increase in this behavior of putting in earplugs.
• Positive reinforcement is simply
providing something positive to
increase the frequency of a desirable
behavior.
• Positive reinforcements in education
are mostly grades, praise,
certificates, etc.
• In positive reinforcement, the
positive stimulus is presented after
a desired behavior is observed, and
as a result, that behavior is
strengthened.
Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

Positive Presence of Pleasant

Reinforcement Stimulus Behavior
Increases
Negative Absence of Unpleasant
Reinforcement Stimulus

Presence of Behavior
Punishment Unpleasant Stimulus Decreases
Schedules of Reinforcement

• One of the easiest ways to increase the frequency of or strength of a

desirable response is to reinforce it each time it is performed. This is
called a continuous reinforcement schedule; that is, the response is
reinforced continuously.

• There are also many situations where responses are only periodically
reinforced. This is called an intermittent reinforcement schedule.
 Reinforcement
Schedules

Continuous
Intermittent

Ratio Interval

Fixed Fixed Variable

Variable
Schedules of Reinforcement

• There are two types of intermittent reinforcement schedules:

interval and ratio.

• If reinforcement is based on passage of time, it is called an interval

schedule of reinforcement.

• If reinforcement is based on the number of responses, it is called a ratio

schedule of reinforcement (Henson & Eller, 1999).
Interval Schedules

• Interval schedules may be either fixed

or variable.
Interval Schedules
• On a fixed interval schedule, the first response, after a
prescribed period of time has elapsed, is reinforced.
• The prescribed period of time may be minutes, hours,
days or weeks. The frequency of responses that are made
during the interval is not reinforced.
• In a fixed interval schedule, the response rate
increases as time for the reinforcement approaches,
then drops after reinforcement.
Interval Schedules
• Fixed interval schedules of reinforcement occur in
educational settings when teachers schedule exams at
regular intervals.
• For example, if students are given a quiz every Tuesday,
they are likely to study the most on Sunday and Monday
(i. e., in preparation for the Tuesday exam).
• The score is considered to be a reinforcer.
Interval Schedules

A variable interval schedule varies the amount of time between

reinforcers in an unpredictable way.

The most important feature of variable interval schedules is that they

are highly resistant to extinction. We can see greater stability and a
slower decline in the response rate.

Pop-quizzes, which are given without warning, are considered to be a

good example of a variable interval schedule.
Ratio schedules may also be fixed or
variable.

Ratio
Schedules
Ratio Schedules

• In fixed ratio schedules, the response is

reinforced according to the fixed number of
responses.

• Piecework, in a factory, where the employee

is paid according to the number of units that
he produces is an example of a fixed ratio
schedule.
Ratio Schedules

• In variable ratio schedules responses are

reinforced randomly around some average ratio
(Henson & Eller, 1999). Since the
reinforcement is dependent upon the number of
responses, the rate of responding is usually
very high.
• The faster one responds the faster one is
reinforced.
• The best example of a variable ratio schedule is
a slot machine, which pays off after a
varying number of responses. In some cases,
one can go 100 plays before a pay off; in other
cases 2 successive plays pay off.
Punishment

The purpose of punishment is to

decrease undesirable behavior.
Sending a student to the principal's
office for a penalty because of
cheating in an exam is a punishment
aimed at decreasing that behavior.
Punishment
There are two kinds of
punishment.
Presentation punishment (or
Type I punishment) involves
reducing behaviors through
presentation of an undesired
consequence.
For example, if the student
does not study for the exam,
getting a low grade might be a
presentation punishment.
Punishment
• The second type of punishment is
called removal punishment (or Type II
punishment), which involves
removing something desired so
that an undesired behavior is
suppressed.

• For example, taking away privileges

like having a vacation, spending time
with friends, watching TV to reduce a
behavior undesired is removal
punishment.
C O G N I T I V
E
L E A R N I N G
T H E O RY

" A N A C T I V E M E N TA L
PROCESS OF
ACQUIRING,
REMEMBERING AND
USING KNOWLEDGE"
(WOOLFOLK,2007).
 What is
learning?
 C O G N I T I V E
L E A R N I N G
T H E O R Y

Learning involves more than just

responding to reinforcement and
punishment.

Learning planning, using, and

organizing knowledge involves in
certain ways, which influence our
way of thinking and behaving.
C O G N I T I V E
L E A R N I N G
T H E O R Y

• Knowledge is learned, organized in

memory, and used in certain ways;
however, it is not always reflected in
our behaviors.
 C O G N I T I V E
L E A R N I N G
T H E O R Y

The cognitive approach focuses on that

active process of
receiving
storing
using knowledge

rather than external behaviors only.

COGNITIVE LEARNING
THEORY

· How is knowledge · How is the existing

received, organized, and knowledge related to new
remembered? forms of knowledge?

· How is knowledge · What might help best in

formed? learning effectively?
 They seek out
The cognitive approach
information, pay attention
sees human beings as
to certain information,
active processors of
organize it, practice it,
information.
etc.

C O G N I T I V E
L E A R N I N G
T H E O R Y When human beings
In this way, learning is learn something, it
not perceived as simple becomes their own
acquisition of knowledge, knowledge. That
rather it is seen as the knowledge provides a
construction of structure for
knowledge (Woolfolk, understanding and
2001). organizing incoming new
knowledge.
How do humans
process information
in their minds?

Information Processing Model (IPM)

Information
Processing Model
• Information Processing is
how we all learn.
• Information procession
“involves gathering
information and organizing
it in relation to what you
already know” (Wollfolk,
2007).
Information
Processing Model
• Information processing is a cognitive
view of learning that compares human
thinking to the way computers process
information.

• Information stores—sensory memory,

working memory, and long-term
memory—hold information; cognitive
processes, such as attention,
perception, rehearsal, encoding, and
retrieval, move the information from
one store to another.
Sensory Memory/ Register

• Information first enters the information-processing model in the form

of sensation from our various sense organs (i.e., eyes, ears, nose, and
so forth).

•
 • The sensory register allows human
beings to perceive information from
the environment selectively and to
send it to the short-term memory.
This information is kept for a short
time in short term memory and it
may be sent to the long-term
memory.
Sensory • The information in the long-term
memory can be recalled into the
Memory/ short term memory, its contents and
form can be changed, and it can be
Register used for generating a response. This
process is similar to a computer’s
operation.
Sensory Memory/
Register
• Perception and attention
play an important role in
selecting information in our
sensory register.
• Since our senses are
bombarded with
information from the
external environment, we
only focus on some of them
and ignore others.
Sensory Memory/
Register
• Perception is the meaning
we attach to the stimulus.
• If the stimulus means
something then we
perceive it as information.
• If the stimulus has no
meaning, then it is
meaningless for us and
not perceived.
Sensory Memory/
Register
• Attention is used to select certain
stimuli from the environment and,
simultaneously, ignore others
(Snowman & Biehler, 2000).
• We can pay attention to only a
small number of things at once.
That reflects a limitation in our
attention capacity.
• Novel stimuli require more of our
attention than familiar stimuli.
Therefore, we have a narrower
attention span when we are
learning something new.
Short Term Memory (STM)
or Working Memory
• After the information is perceived
through the sensory register as
representations of images or sounds, it
enters the short-term memory.
• The capacity of short-term memory is
very limited; therefore, we cannot hold
a lot of new information there at once.
• For example, human beings can hold
about five to nine new items in the
short-term memory at once.
• When more new items enter, we tend
to forget the previous ones.
Short Term Memory (STM) or Working
Memory
In terms of duration, we can hold new information
When the attention shifts to new
for about 20-30 seconds. In this case, forgetting
information, the previous is
occurs due to time decay. However if it is kept
forgotten. This kind of forgetting is
activated, it can be remembered for longer periods
due to interference caused by the
of time.
new stimuli.

We also process information in the For this reason, short-term memory

short-term memory when we recall is also known as working memory
it from the long-term memory. In and equated with consciousness
fact, the short-term memory (Sweller, van Merrienboer, & Paas,
involves what we are thinking at the 1998, cited in Eggen & Kauchak,
moment, something new or old. 2001).
 There are certain strategies used to remember new information in the short-term
memory for longer periods of time.

Short Term Repeating information (e. g., the name of a book) is called maintenance rehearsal

Memory (also called rote rehearsal or repetition), which simply keeps the information
activated.

(STM) or Elaborative rehearsal (also called elaborative encoding) refers to relating the new

Working information to something we already know.

For example, remembering the name of a place in relation to its similarity to some
place already known is an example of elaborative rehearsal, and this strategy
Memory makes it easier to move the new information to long term memory.

Finally, chunking refers to regrouping units of information into fewer numbers of

manageable units. Remembering a seven-digit telephone number in two or three
grouped numbers instead of seven separate numbers makes it easier to remember
(Woolfolk, 2001).
 Three guidelines that
is useful for
maximizing students’ 1. Active learning
encoding, and
retrieval.

2. Aligning learning 3. Providing repeated

Long Term activities with the

conditions under
which knowledge is to
opportunities to review
and practice newly
acquire knowledge

Memory be use enhances

retrieval processes.
reduce the chances that
it will be forgotten.

(LTM)
Long Term Memory (LTM)
• Knowing how to use a computer requires that a number of steps be taken together, and in relation to
each other. Therefore, elaboration or organization of new information assists in more effective storage,
and use in the long-term memory.
• When new information is related to the old (elaboration) and placed in a certain structure
(organization), it can be recalled and processed more efficiently by the individual.
• Units of information which are not elaborated and organized in a meaningful way will more likely to
be forgotten and be difficult to reconstruct into the short term memory for use (Woolfolk, 2001).
Long Term Memory (LTM)
• Retrieval from the long-term memory is not always an easy task for human beings. In fact, it is
increasingly becoming a challenge as we tend to store more knowledge in our long-term memory in
this information age. Hence, effective storage of information becomes more important as we become
more verbal in our cognitive operations.
• Sometimes remembering a piece of information activates recall of related information. That is, the
spread of activation helps us to find the information we seek. If spreading activation does not help, we
can still retrieve information by reconstruction.
• Reconstruction is recreating information by using our existing knowledge, memories, logic, and
expectations (Woolfolk, 2001). Attaching meaning and relating to experience also help individuals
achieve reconstruction more effectively and accurately.