Learning

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding,

knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and
preferences.
Learning Theories

1. Classical Conditioning?
Discovered by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov, classical
conditioning is a type of unconscious or automatic learning.
This learning process creates a conditioned response through
associations between an unconditioned stimulus and a
neutral stimulus
One of the best-known examples of classical conditioning is Pavlov's
classic experiments with dogs. In these experiments, the neutral signal
was the sound of a tone and the naturally occurring reflex was
salivating in response to food. By associating the neutral stimulus
(sound) with the unconditioned stimulus (food), the sound of the tone
alone could produce a salivation response
Key Principles of Classical Conditioning
Behaviorists have described a number of different phenomena
associated with classical conditioning. Some of these elements
involve the initial establishment of the response while others
describe the disappearance of a response. Here is a closer look
at five key principles of classical conditioning.
 Acquisition
Acquisition is the initial stage of learning, when a response is
first established and gradually strengthened. During the
acquisition phase of classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is
repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
As you may recall, an unconditioned stimulus is something that
naturally and automatically triggers a response without any learning.
After an association is made, the subject will begin to emit a behavior
in response to the previously neutral stimulus, which is now known as
a conditioned stimulus. It is at this point that we can say that the
response has been acquired.
Once the response has been established, you can gradually reinforce
the response to make sure the behavior is well learned.
 Extinction
Extinction is when the occurrences of a conditioned response decrease or
disappear. In classical conditioning, this happens when a conditioned
stimulus is no longer paired with an unconditioned stimulus.
For example, if the smell of food (the unconditioned stimulus) had been
paired with the sound of a whistle (the conditioned stimulus), the sound of
the whistle would eventually come to evoke the conditioned response of
hunger.
However, if the smell of food were no longer paired with the whistle,
eventually the conditioned response (hunger) would disappear.
 Spontaneous Recovery
Sometimes a learned response can suddenly re-emerge, even after a
period of extinction. This is called spontaneous recovery.
For example, imagine that after training a dog to salivate to the sound
of a bell, you stop reinforcing the behavior and the response becomes
extinct. After a rest period during which the conditioned stimulus is not
presented, you ring the bell and the animal spontaneously recovers the
previously learned response.
If the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus are no longer
associated, extinction will return very rapidly after a spontaneous
recovery.
Generalization
Stimulus generalization is the tendency for a conditioned stimulus to
evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned.
For example, if a dog has been conditioned to salivate at the sound of a
bell, the animal may also exhibit the same response to a sound that's
similar to the bell.
In John B. Watson's famous Little Albert Experiment, for example, a
small child was conditioned to fear a white rat. The child demonstrated
stimulus generalization by also exhibiting fear in response to other
fuzzy white objects, including stuffed toys and Watson's own hair.
Discrimination
Discrimination is the ability to differentiate between a conditioned
stimulus and other stimuli that have not been paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
For example, if a bell tone were the conditioned stimulus,
discrimination would involve being able to tell the difference between
the bell tone and other similar sounds. Because the subject is able to
distinguish between these stimuli, they will only respond when the
conditioned stimulus is presented.
Operant Conditioning
 Operant conditioning was first described by behaviorist
B.F. Skinner, which is why you may occasionally hear it
referred to as Skinnerian conditioning.
 As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that it was not really
necessary to look at internal thoughts and motivations in
order to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested, we
should look only at the external, observable causes of
human behavior.
Operant conditioning, sometimes referred to as
instrumental conditioning, is a method of learning that employs
rewards and punishments for behavior. Through operant conditioning,
an association is made between a behavior and a consequence (whether
negative or positive) for that behavior.

For example, when lab rats press a lever when a green light is on, they
receive a food pellet as a reward. When they press the lever when a red
light is on, they receive a mild electric shock. As a result, they learn to
press the lever when the green light is on and avoid the red light.
Skinner used the term operant to refer to any "active
behavior that operates upon the environment to generate
consequences." Skinner's theory explained how we acquire
the range of learned behaviors we exhibit every day.
Types of Behaviors
Skinner distinguished between two different types of behaviors

• Respondent behaviors are those that occur automatically and

reflexively, such as pulling your hand back from a hot stove or
jerking your leg when the doctor taps on your knee. You don't have
to learn these behaviors. They simply occur automatically and
involuntarily.
• Operant behaviors, on the other hand, are those under our
conscious control.
Some may occur spontaneously and others purposely, but it is the
consequences of these actions that then influence whether or not they
occur again in the future. Our actions on the environment and the
consequences of that action make up an important part of the
learning process.
 Components of Operant Conditioning
There are several key concepts in operant conditioning. The type of
reinforcement or punishment that is used can have an effect on how the
individual responds and the effect of conditioning. There are four types
of operant conditioning that can be utilized to change behavior:
positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment,
and negative punishment.
 Reinforcement in Operant Conditioning
Reinforcement is any event that strengthens or increases the behaviour
it follows. There are two kinds of reinforcers. In both of these cases of
reinforcement, the behaviour increases.
1. Positive reinforcement are favourable events or outcomes that are
presented after the behaviour. In positive reinforcement situations, a
response or behaviour is strengthened by the addition of praise or a
direct reward.
Positive reinforcement involves adding a rewarding stimulus (e.g., a
bonus) in order to increase a positive behavior (e.g., productivity).
If you do a good job at work and your manager gives you a bonus, that
bonus is a positive reinforcer.
Negative reinforcement involve the removal of an
unfavourable events or outcomes after the display of a
behaviour.
In these situations, a response is strengthened by the removal
of something considered unpleasant.
Abolishing the practice of clocking in and out when employees have
proven they can be trusted to accurately report their time worked
 Punishment in Operant Conditioning
Punishment is the presentation of an adverse event or outcome that
causes a decrease in the behavior it follows. There are two kinds of
punishment. In both of these cases, the behavior decreases.

1. Positive punishment, sometimes referred to as punishment by

application, presents an unfavorable event or outcome in order to
weaken the response it follows.
Examples

• Being verbally scolded by your boss, or perhaps by your Human

Resources department.
• Being assigned extra training when you break the rules or behave in
an unprofessional manner.
• Being assigned the tasks no one wants to do for failing to produce
quality work on time.
• Receiving an official warning for calling off work too often.
Negative punishment, also known as punishment by removal, occurs
when a favorable event or outcome is removed after a behavior occurs.
• Telling employees their work is not good enough
• Scheduling additional or more difficult work
• Removing annual bonuses
• Making the employee lose privileges
Operant Conditioning Reinforcement Schedules

1. Continuous reinforcement involves delivering a reinforcement

every time a response occurs. Learning tends to occur relatively
quickly, yet the response rate is quite low. Extinction also occurs
very quickly once reinforcement is halted.
2. Fixed-ratio schedules are a type of partial reinforcement.
Responses are reinforced only after a specific number of responses
have occurred. This typically leads to a fairly steady response rate.
3. Fixed-interval schedules are another form of partial reinforcement.
Reinforcement occurs only after a certain interval of time has
elapsed. Response rates remain fairly steady and start to increase as
the reinforcement time draws near, but slow immediately after the
reinforcement has been delivered.
3. Variable-ratio schedules are also a type of partial reinforcement
that involve reinforcing behavior after a varied number of
responses. This leads to both a high response rate and slow
extinction rates.

4. Variable-interval schedules are the final form of partial

reinforcement Skinner described. This schedule involves delivering
reinforcement after a variable amount of time has elapsed. This also
tends to lead to a fast response rate and slow extinction rate.
Cognitive Learning
Cognitive Learning?

Cognitive learning is an active style of learning that focuses on

helping you learn how to maximize your brain’s potential. It makes it
easier for you to connect new information with existing ideas hence
deepening your memory and retention capacity.
The ability of the brain’s mental processes to absorb and retain
information through experience, senses, and thought is known
as cognition.
Employers need to expose employees to training on cognitive learning
—an organization whose employees have strong cognitive skills is
likely successful.
Well-trained and fully engaged employees are capable of learning
quickly and being highly productive by handling multiple complex
tasks without the necessity of a supervisor.
These are the things going on in your brain, such as thinking, attention,
learning, problem-solving, perception, among others.
The following are fundamental aspects of cognitive learning:
1. Comprehension
For cognitive learning to be efficient and benefit you, understand the reason why
you are learning a specific subject in the first place.
2. Memory
Cognitive learning discourages cramming of information, which is very
ineffective in education. Having a deep understanding of a subject improves your
ability to relate new knowledge with previous experiences or information.
3. Application
Cognitive learning strategies help you apply new information or skills in life
situations. They encourage you as you continue to develop problem-solving skills.
Social learning theory
Social learning theory suggests that social behavior is learned by
observing and imitating the behavior of others. Psychologist Albert
Bandura developed the social learning theory as an alternative to the
earlier work of fellow psychologist B.F. Skinner, known for his
influence on behaviorism.
 The social learning theory has four mediational processes that help
determine whether a new behavior is acquired:
1. Attention: The degree to which we notice the behavior. A
behavior must grab our attention before it can be imitated.
Considering the number of behaviors we observe and do not imitate
daily indicates attention is crucial in whether a behavior influences
imitation.
2. Retention: How well we remember the behavior. We cannot
perform the behavior if we do not remember the behavior. So, while
a behavior may be noticed, unless a memory is formed, the observer
will not perform the behavior. And, because social learning is not
immediate, retention is vital to behavior modeling.
3. Reproduction: The ability to perform the behavior. This is the
ability to reproduce a behavior we observe. It influences our
decision about whether to try performing the behavior. Even when
we wish to imitate an observed behavior, we are limited by our
physical abilities.
4. Motivation: The will to emulate the behavior. This mediational
process is referred to as mediated reinforcement. It involves
learning through observing the consequences of actions for other
people, rather than through direct experience.
PERCEPTION
Perception
The process by which one screens, selects, organizes, and interprets
stimuli to give them meaning.
It is a process of making sense out of the environment in order to make
an appropriate behavioral response.
Perception does not necessarily lead to an accurate portrait of the
environment, but rather to a unique portrait, influenced by the needs,
desires, values, and disposition of the perceiver.
 As described by Kretch and associates, an individual’s perception of a
given situation is not a photographic representation of the physical
world; it is a partial, personal construction in which certain objects,
selected by the individual for a major role, are perceived in an
individual manner.
Every perceiver is, as it were, to some degree a nonrepresentational
artist, painting a picture of the world that expresses an individual view
of reality.
The multitude of objects that vie for attention are first selected or
screened by individuals. This process is called perceptual selectivity.
Certain of these objects catch our attention, while others do not. Once
individuals notice a particular object, they then attempt to make sense
out of it by organizing or categorizing it according to their unique
frame of reference and their needs.
This second process is termed perceptual organization.
When meaning has been attached to an object, individuals
are in a position to determine an appropriate response or
reaction to it. Hence, if we clearly recognize and understand
we are in danger from a falling rock or a car, we can quickly
move out of the way.
Perceptual Selectivity: Seeing What We See
As noted above, perceptual selectivity refers to the process
by which individuals select objects in the environment for
attention.
Without this ability to focus on one or a few stimuli instead
of the hundreds constantly surrounding us, we would be
unable to process all the information necessary to initiate
behavior.
The individual is first exposed to an object or stimulus—a loud
noise, a new car, a tall building, another person, and so on.
Next, the individual focuses attention on this one object or
stimulus, as opposed to others, and concentrates his efforts on
understanding or comprehending the stimulus.
External Influences on Selective Attention
External influences consist of the characteristics of the
observed object or person that activate the senses. Most
external influences affect selective attention because of
either their physical properties or their dynamic properties.
Physical Properties. The physical properties of the objects
themselves often affect which objects receive attention by
the perceiver. Emphasis here is on the unique, different, and
out of the ordinary.
A particularly important physical property is size. Generally, larger
objects receive more attention than smaller ones. Advertising
companies use the largest signs and billboards allowed to capture the
perceiver’s attention.
However, when most of the surrounding objects are large, a small
object against a field of large objects may receive more attention. In
either case, size represents an important variable in perception.
Moreover, brighter, louder, and more colourful objects tend to attract
more attention than objects of less intensity.
 Dynamic Properties.
The second set of external influences on selective attention are those
that either change over time or derive their uniqueness from the order
in which they are presented. The most obvious dynamic property
is motion.
We tend to pay attention to objects that move against a relatively static
background.
This principle has long been recognized by advertisers, who often use
signs with moving lights or moving objects to attract attention.
In an organizational setting, a clear example is a rate-buster, who
shows up his colleagues by working substantially faster, attracting
more attention.
Another principle basic to advertising is repetition of a message or
image.
Work instructions that are repeated tend to be received better,
particularly when they concern a dull or boring task on which it is
difficult to concentrate.
This process is particularly effective in the area of plant safety. Most
industrial accidents occur because of careless mistakes during
monotonous activities.
Repeating safety rules and procedures can often help keep workers
alert to the possibilities of accidents.
Personal Influences on Selective Attention
In addition to a variety of external factors, several important
personal factors are also capable of influencing the extent to
which an individual pays attention to a particular stimulus or
object in the environment. The two most important personal
influences on perceptual readiness are response
salience and response disposition.
Response Salience.
This is a tendency to focus on objects that relate to our immediate needs or
wants. Response salience in the work environment is easily identified.
• A worker who is tired from many hours of work may be acutely sensitive to
the number of hours or minutes until quitting time.
• Employees negotiating a new contract may know to the penny the hourly
wage of workers doing similar jobs across town.
• Managers with a high need to achieve may be sensitive to
opportunities for work achievement, success, and promotion.
• Finally, female managers may be more sensitive than many male
managers to condescending male attitudes toward women.
• Response salience, in turn, can distort our view of our surroundings.
“Time spent on monotonous work is usually overestimated. Time spent
in interesting work is usually underestimated. . . .
Judgment of time is related to feelings of success or failure.
Perceptual Error
A perceptual error is the inability to judge humans, things
or situations fairly and accurately. Examples could include
such things as bias, prejudice, stereotyping, which have
always caused human beings to err in different aspects of
their lives.
• Perceptual error has strong impact in organization and it
hampers in proper decision making skill while hiring,
performance appraisal, review, feedback etc.
1.Selective Perception-People generally interpret according to their
basis of interests, idea and backgrounds. It is the tendency not to notice
and forget the stimuli that cause emotional discomfort.
For example we might think that fresher graduates with above 80 %
marks will exceptionally do well in technical interviews of respective
subjects
2.Halo Effect-We misjudge people by concentrating on one single
behavior or trait. It has deep impact and give inaccurate result most of
the time.
For example we always have an impression of a lazy person can never
be punctual in any occasion.
3.Stereotypes-We always have a tendency to classify people
to a general groups /categories in order to simplify the
matter.
For example-Women are always good homemakers and can
do well in work life balance
4.Contrast Effect-We again sometimes judge people in
comparison to others .
This example generally found in sports, academics and
performance review
5.Projection-This is very common among Perceptual errors.
Projection of one's own attitude, personality or behavior into some
other person.
For example- To all honest people, everybody is honest.

6.Impression-We all know the term "first impression is the last

impression" and we apply that too .
For example-During the time of hiring, thought like this "The most
decent and modest person in the interview can do very well in every
roles and responsibilities " always arise.