Learning & Cognitive Psychology

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Introduction to Human Learning and Cognition

Introduction to Human Learning and Cognition

This chapter provides an overview of what learning is and how it fits in

cognitive psychology. Major figures in the development of this branch of
psychology are introduced as well as their contributions.
Objectives:
1. Define learning and describe five approaches to studying it.
2. Identify the main areas cognitive psychology deals with.
3. Understand the historical beginnings of learning and cognitive
psychology.
4. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the cognitive approach in
psychology.

Defining Learning
Learning is the means through which we acquire not only skills and
knowledge but values, attitudes and emotional reactions as well.

Learning – long term change in mental representations or associations as a

result of experience
Regardless of how we define learning, we know that it has occurred only
when we actually see it reflected in a person’s behavior such as:
 Performing a completely new behavior
 Changing the frequency of an existing behavior
 Changing the speed of an existing behavior
 Changing the intensity of an existing behavior
 Changing the complexity of an existing behavior
Psychologists understand the nature of learning by studying it objectively
and systematically through research.

Principles are consistent patterns of research findings have led

psychologists to make generalizations. For example, a behavior that is
followed by a satisfying state of affairs (a reward) is more likely to increase
in frequency than a behavior not followed by such a reward. Basically,
principles tell us what factors are important for learning.
When a principle stands the test of time it is called a LAW.

Course Module
 Theories tell us why these factors (principles) are important. It is what
psychologists use to explain data.
Ex. Behaviorism – focus on learning of tangible, observable behaviors
Cognitivism – focus on thought processes involved in human learning

Advantages of Theories
1. They allow us to summarize the results of many research studies and
integrate numerous principles of learning
2. They provide starting point for conducting new research; they suggest
research questions worthy of study
3. Theories help us make sense of and explain research findings
4. By giving us ideas about mechanisms that underlie human learning
and performance, they can ultimately help us design learning
environments and instructional strategies that facilitate human
learning to the greatest possible degree
Disadvantages
1. No single theory explains everything that researchers have discovered
about learning
2. Theories affect what new information is published. Thereby biasing
the knowledge we have about learning

Behavioral and Cognitive Approaches to Learning

Here’s another definition of learning. Learning is a relatively permanent
influence on behavior, knowledge, and thinking skills, which comes about
through experience.
There are five Behavioral and Cognitive approaches to learning
1. Behavioral – the emphasis is on experiences, especially reinforcement
and punishment, as determinants of learning and behavior. Behavioral
approach focuses on the conditioning, specifically classical and operant
conditioning. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an
organism learns to connect or associate stimuli. BF Skinner coined the
term Operant Conditioning (sometimes called Instrumental
Conditioning) wherein the consequences that follow some behavior
increase or decrease the likelihood of that behavior’s occurrence in the
future.

2. Social Cognitive – the emphasis is on the reciprocal determinism model

wherein there is an interaction of behavior, environment, and person
(cognitive) factors as determinants of learning. Albert Bandura is the
main proponent of social cognitive theory. He also posited the
observational learning that involves learning the skills, strategies, and
beliefs by simply observing others.
 Learning & Cognitive Psychology
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Introduction to Human Learning and Cognition

3. Information Processing – the emphasis is on how individuals process

information through attention, memory, thinking, and other cognitive
processes. It involves the three components of cognition, namely, input
processing, storage, and output.

4. Cognitive Constructivist – the emphasis is on the individual’s cognitive

construction of knowledge and understanding

5. Social Constructivist – the emphasis is on collaboration with others to

produce knowledge and understanding

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is the study of knowledge and how people use it. For
this reason cognitive psychology is also called information processing
psychology. It is the part of psychology that concerns itself with the
structure and functions of the mind. Cognitive psychology seeks to answer
that broad question and is the study of how humans obtain information,
store information in memory, recover information, and use information to
reach one’s goals.

The word cognitive comes from the Latin word cognoscere, meaning to
know. It tries to explain how the human mind comes to know things about
the world around it, people, and about itself, and how it uses this knowledge
to perform an impressive range of tasks such as remembering, speaking,
performing skilled actions, solving problems and reasoning.

Cognitive psychologists adopt a scientific perspective toward the working of

the mind. They also defined cognitive psychology as that branch of
experimental psychology concerned with explaining mental processes.

Historical perspective
Below are some of the important contributors to the development of
cognitive psychology.

Plato is an ancient Greek philosopher who likened memory to a wax tablet

on which information can be written.

Descartes argued that it was conscious mental activity that separated

humans from animals and endowed people with the gift of voluntary action
and thinking.
Course Module
Charles Darwin – Theory of Evolution implies that people and animals were
closely related.
Importance:
1. It demonstrated how quite complex physiological and biological systems
could emerge through the interaction of a changing environment with small
variations in an organism.
2. It dethroned people from the summit of the ladder of life, and placed them
as one admittedly very clever species amongst all the others.

In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt was the first psychologist who opened a

psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, in Germany.
In nineteenth century the dominant method used within psychology at the
time is introspection that was proved unsuitable for exploring mental
processes. Introspection is the process whereby one looks into one's own
mind and reports the contents.
Psychologists tried hard to use introspection to study mental activity when
the discipline first emerged. By carefully examining themselves carrying out
a range of tasks, they hoped to build up a list of the major mental states, ideas
or building blocks of mental life.
Difficulty in using introspection:
1. Mental activity is private.
2. When we introspect we may alter or perturb what we are introspecting.
3. It assumes all-important mental activities to be conscious, or open to
introspection in the first place.

J.B. Watson insisted that psychology should examine only what was
observable and external, such as behavior.
3 things were observable in principle
1. What had happened to a person in the past.
2. What the present environmental conditions were
3. How the person reacted as a result
Behaviorism enabled psychologists to perform objective experiments which
could be checked and, if necessary, repeated by other psychologists.

After WWII, the behaviorist influence began to wane.

Tolman and Hull began to refer increasingly to the role of internal factors in
controlling behavior.
The type of problems considered by psychologists began to change. From
behavior to human perception and performance in more complex
environments.
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Introduction to Human Learning and Cognition

Chomsky is a linguist who pointed out how a purely behavioral account of

language based on a simple application of reinforcement theory could not
succeed, by pointing out that people are capable of understanding and
producing novel, well-structured utterances for which they have never been
rewarded in the past.

Eventually the cognitive revolution emerged and cognitive psychologists

assumes that all human cognition involves information processing approach.
Information processing approach is a metaphor used for understanding
mental activity and comparing it on computing. The digital computer came,
which showed how a suitably programmed mechanical device could perform
tasks that previously it was thought, could only be done by people. Gradually
the suspicion emerged that this might be a good way of thinking about mind.
If the brain was a little bit like a computer then the mind could be likened to
its programs. Terms like mental operations (inner actions manipulating
mental representations), working memory (short-term limited memory
store for holding and manipulating information), and long-term memory
(virtually unlimited store of information) were conceptualized.

The cognitive psychologists claimed that it was possible to collect behavioral

data from well-designed experiments in which people were presented with
carefully controlled stimuli and their responses recorded. Specific
theoretical issue can be addressed by running an experiment.

Finally, artificial intelligence emerged as a branch cognitive science

developed as it became more interested in developing computer programs or
robots that behave intelligently, even if this entails mechanisms that are
unlike those characterizing animal and human cognition.

Activities
Activity No. 1: Essay
Explain the main areas that cognitive psychology deals with.

Course Module
Glossary
 Learning – long term change in mental representations or
associations as a result of experience
 mental operations - inner actions manipulating mental
representations working memory - short-term limited memory store
for holding and manipulating information
 long-term memory - virtually unlimited storage of information
 operant conditioning – Also called instrumental conditioning this is a
form of learning in which the consequences of behavior produce
changes in the probability that the behavior will occur.
 Reinforcement (reward) - A consequence that increases the
probability that a behavior will occur.
 punishment - A consequence that decreases the probability that a
behavior will occur.
 positive reinforcement - Reinforcement based on the principle that
the frequency of a response increases because it is followed by a
rewarding stimulus.
 negative reinforcement - Reinforcement based on the principle that
the frequency of a response increases because an aversive
(unpleasant) stimulus is removed.

References
Ormrod, J. (2012). Human Learning (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:
Pearson Education, Inc.
Gilhooly, K. Lyddy, F. (2009). Cognitive Psychology (1st ed.). McGraw Hill
Higher Education.