Learning.

Definition of Learning
• Learning can be defined as the process leading to relatively
permanent behavioural change or potential behavioural change. In
other words, as we learn, we alter the way we perceive our
environment, the way we interpret the incoming stimuli, and
therefore the way we interact, or behave.

Would other School of thoughts also agree with the fact that learning is
a behavioural change?
 Academi
cs

Environme
World Learning nt

Self
Theories of Learning
 Ivan Pavlov
• A physiologist interested in studying the digestion system of mammals
(he used a dog)
• This research won him the Nobel Prize in 1904
• His experiments are one of the most famous experiments in
Psychology.
Initially what was a neutral
stimulus became a
conditioned stimulus. What
was a natural response
became a conditioned
response.
 • Pavlov said the dogs were demonstrating classical conditioning. He summed it up like
this: there's a neutral stimulus (the bell), which by itself will not produce a response, like
salivation. There's also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus (the food), which will
produce an unconditioned response (salivation)

• He also varied interval between the signal for food and food itself.

• The effects of presenting the signal without food (experimental extinction)

• Other Researchers went ahead to check other reflexes and their connections with neutral
stimulus. Such as puff of air delivered to corner of eye associated with a bell sound will
eventually make an individual blink without a puff of air but just with the bell sound.

• Pavlov argued that Classical conditioning provided objective and observable data and
there was high replicability.
• Higher order classical conditioning happens when we associate a new
neutral stimulus with an already conditioned stimulus.

• For example: The dog now salivates to a light.

• Original conditioning: CS-Bell, CR-Salivation on bell.

• New Association: Light + CS (bell)= Salivation (CR)
• New CS presented alone CS(light) will still lead to same response as before
Salivation (CR)
 John B. Watson
"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 beggarman and thief,
regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and
race of his ancestors. I am going beyond my facts and I admit it, but so
have the advocates of the contrary and they have been doing it for
many thousands of years." –John B. Watson, Behaviorism, 1924
Are Phobias like that? Can this be used for helping people un-learn
some negative associations as well?
We are done here.. Includes in
Mid term
 Operant Conditioning
• By the term operant we mean Operation; meaning it serves a
purpose. Operant condition therefore talks about consequences.
• Operant Conditioning is a type of learning in which behavior is
strengthened if followed by a reinforce or diminished if followed by a
punisher.
• According to Skinner Psychology is about behaviour, not about the
mind, and not about the nervous system. It deals only with variables
that can be directly observed.
• He invented the Skinner Box and called it an operant chamber.
 Skinner Box
• It was a small chamber in which there was a response to be made (a
lever for a rat to press, or a disk mounted on the wall for a pigeon to
peck) and a means of delivering a reinforcement (a bit of food, a sip
of water or anything else for which his animal would perform)

• The reward having been delivered, the rat or pigeon was free to
respond again.
• He was the pioneers of automation in behavioural research;
Responses could be detected, recorded and followed up with
reinforcements, all by automatic apparatus.
Skinner found that the events following a
response had a great influence on its
subsequent rate of occurrence.
Lever Pressing is an operant
Food is a reinforcing stimulus
If an animal is reinforced for lever pressing only if a light is on and is
never reinforced if it is off, then the animal will come to press at a much
higher rate when the light is on. This is called discrimination.

Stimulus Discrimination: Learned response to a specific stimulus but

not to other, similar stimuli.
Stimulus Generalization: Learned response to similar stimuli.
 The continuous schedule of reinforcement
involves the delivery of a reinforcer every single One may reinforce certain instances of a
time that a desired behavior is emitted. given behavior while allowing other
Behaviors are learned quickly with a continuous instances to go unreinforced.
schedule of reinforcement and the schedule is Occasionally reinforcing a behavior.
simple to use

Schedules of
Continuou Reinforcement
Intermittent
s Schedule Scheduling

Reinforcement is made available to • Fixed Ratio

the subject or participant only some of • Variable Ratio
the time, according to certain rules; • Fixed Interval
Different schedules give rise to • Variable
characteristically different patterns of Interval
operant behaviour
 Fixed Ratio Variable Ratio
• A certain number is set and • The number of responses
once that number of required to produce
responses are reached, it is reinforcement changes
reinforced. unpredictable, from one
• ‘Every nth response is reinforcement to the
reinforced’ other.
• On such a schedule, the • Could be every 5 times
animal will typically pause once then every 2nd time
after each reinforcement and
then run off the next series
or every 8th time.
of responses at a high rate. • Variable ratio schedule
• The higher the value of the produces a high steady
reinforce the longer the rate of responses and
pause- Post Reinforcement produces no or very small
pause post reinforcement pause.
 Fixed Interval Variable Interval
• A reinforcement • The reinforcement could
becomes available after become available at any
a fixed period of time, time.
following the previous • On a Variable Interval
reinforcement. schedule, there is a
• The animal will come to steady moderate rate of
make only a few response throughout the
responses following session.
reinforcement, but then • Going fishing you might
will respond at a catch a fish after 10
gradually increasing minutes, then have to
rate until the next wait an hour, then have
reinforcement occurs. to wait 18 minutes.
 Modeling
Observational Learning

• Occurs when an organism’s responding is influenced by the

observation of others, called models.
• It was pioneered by Albert Bandura, who showed that conditioning
does not have to be a product of direct experience.
• Both classical and operant conditioning can take place through
observational learning.
• Observational learning depends on the processes of attention,
retention, reproduction and motivation.
• He did the bobo doll experiment.
 Processes Operating in
Observational Learning
• Attentional Process: The model must be attended to.
• Retention Process: What the model did and the consequences of this,
must be remembered.
• Skills for performing the observed behavior: The child must have the
necessary skills and so be able to reproduce the activities in question.
• Reinforcement/Rewards: If there are rewards or some reinforcement
for the observed behaviour, it is more likely to be performed.
Observe around you learning taking place around
you and how it is affected by these principles.