Principles of Psychology

and Sociology

• The materials were first developed for the Dubai Medical College for Girls (DMCG) 2023-2024."
 Psychology of Learning - Classical and Operant
Conditioning

• The materials were first developed for the Dubai Medical College for Girls (DMCG) 2023-2024."
LEARNING PROCESS
 Meaning and Nature:
Learning is a key process in human behaviour. All living is
learning. If we compare the simple, crude ways in which a child
feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behaviour,
his skills, habits, thought, sentiments and the like- we will know
what difference learning has made to the individual.

The individual is constantly interacting with and influenced by the

environment.
This experience makes him to change or modify his behaviour in order to
deal effectively with it. Therefore, learning is a change in behaviour,
influenced by previous behaviour.
As stated above the skills, knowledge, habits, attitudes, interests and
other personality characteristics are all the result of learning.
 Definition:
Learning is defined as “any relatively permanent change in
behaviour that occurs as a result of practice and experience”.
This definition has three important elements.

a. Learning is a change in behaviour—better or worse.

b. It is a change that takes place through practice or
experience but changes due to growth or maturation are
not learning.
c. This change in behaviour must be relatively permanent,
and it must last a fairly long time
▪Age, motivation, intelligence, aptitude ( innate and
specific learning ability), maturation, physical
condition of learner, mental health and emotions of
learner.
▪External factors: good physical environment ,
quality of teaching, social support, availability of
resources.
▪Factor related to method of learning: basic
education level, length of working period,
repetition, learning methods.

Factors affect
learning
Types of learning
Verbal learning: the language we speak, communication, signs,
pictures, symbols, words, figures, etc. are used for verbal learning.
Motor learning: driving car, flying a plane, drawing using equipment's
etc.
Conceptual learning: its form of mental image which denotes a
generalized idea about the things, persons, or events.
Problem solving: a higher type of learning. It requires the use of
reasoning, thinking, imagination etc.

Serial learning: learning alphabets, multiplication table, the name of

states , lists, grids.
Paired- associate learning: a learning of something in association with
something else.
Bloom's domains of learning affective: psychomotor and cognitive
learning. To learn chess one has to learn the rules of game (cognition).
How to hold and move the pieces on chess board (psychomotor) get
involved in game and like the play (affective)
Guess Dexter Types of learning
Types of learning
Theories
of learning

01 ▪Classical 02 ▪Operant
conditioning conditioning
Classical conditioning ▪A learning process that occur when
two stimuli are repeatedly paired: a
01 response which is at first elicited by
the second stimulus is eventually
elicited by the first stimulus alone.

▪Is a form of learning in which

people ( or any organism) learn to
02 associate two stimulus that occur in
sequence.
▪A types of learning in which a
neutral stimulus comes to bring
about a response after it is paired
with a stimulus that naturally brings
about the response.
Classical conditioning
01

02
Classical conditioning
01

02
 add your text Here

Classical
conditioning
Neutral stimulus: a stimulus that, before
conditioning, does not naturally bring about the
response of interest.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) : a stimulus that

naturally brings about a particular response add your text Here
without having been learned.

Unconditioned response ( UCR): a response that

is natural and needs not training (e.g. salivation
at the smell of the food).
 add your text Here

Classical
conditioning
Conditioned stimulus ( CS) : a 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 add your text Here
that, after conditioning, follows a
previously neutral stimulus (e.g, salivation
at the ringing of the bell)

07
➢Conditioned = learned.
➢Unconditioned = not learned
➢An unconditioned stimulus leads
to an unconditioned response.
➢Unconditioned stimulus -
unconditioned response pairing are
unlearned and untrained.
➢During conditioning, a
previously neutral stimulus is ➢A conditioned stimulus leads to a conditioned
response, and a conditioned stimulus-
transformed into the conditioned conditioned response pairing is a consequence of
learning and training.
stimulus.
➢ a unconditioned response and a conditioned
response are similar ( such as salivation in
Pavlov's experiment ) but the unconditional
response occurs naturally, where's the condition
response is learned. 08
Extinction:
A basic phenomenon of learning that occurs when a
previously conditioned response decrease in frequency
and eventually disappears.

Spontaneous recovery:
The reemergence of extinguished conditioned
response after a period of rest and with no further
conditioning.
Stimulus generalization:
The process that occur when a conditioned response
follows a stimulus that is similar to the original
conditioned stimulus; the more similar the two stimulus
are, the more likely generalization is to occur.

Stimulus discrimination:
The process that occur if two stimulus are sufficiently
distinct from one another that one evoke a conditioned
response but the other does not; the ability to differentiate
between stimuli.
Operant conditioning:
•It is sometimes refers to instrumental
conditioning.
•It is a method of learning that employs
rewards and punishments for behavior.

•Through operant condition. As association is

made between a behavior and a consequence (
either positive or negative) for that behavior.
•Learning in which a voluntary response is
strengthened or weakened, depending on its
favorable or unfavorable consequences.
❑For example: rewards on getting good result
Operant Conditioning :

This method of conditioning was developed by an American

psychologist BF Skinner. This theory is also known as
‘Instrumental conditioning’, because the animals use certain
operations or actions as instruments to find solution.

Skinner conducted his famous experiment by placing a hungry

rat in a box called after his name ‘Skinner box’. This box was
containing a lever and a food tray in a corner of the box. It was
so arranged, that the animal was free to move inside the box,
but the pressing of the lever would get the animal a pallet of
food in the tray as reinforcement.
Arrangement was also made to record the number of pressings
of the lever by a mechanical device. It was found in the
beginning that the rat pressed the lever occasionally and used
to get food as reinforcement for each pressing.
B.F SKINNER EXPERIMENT

walid@dmcg.edu

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B.F SKINNER EXPERIMENT

Gradually, as the animal learnt the pressing of lever would

give some food, it repeated the responses very rapidly.
This rapid increase in pressing the lever is the indication of
the animal conditioned to get food.

In day-to-day’s life also, much learning takes place in animals as

well as in human beings by this method. The reinforcement will be
the motivating factor. It will make the organism to repeat its action.
It is on the basis of these experiments, Skinner made his famous
statement “Rewarded behaviour is repeated”. Instrumental
conditioning involves more activity by the learner than classical
conditioning. Skinner conducted his experiments on different
animals like pigeons, rats, etc.
Types of behavior

Respondent behavior:
oAre those that are occur automatically . E.g.
pulling your hand back from heat stove.
oThese are unlearned behaviors, involuntary and
automatic
oIn which you don’t need any thinking

Operant behavior :
oThose are under conscious control
oOpposite to respondent behavior.
oBased on thinking and learning.
oBased on law of effect .
Reinforcement

▪Reinforcement: The process by which a

stimulus increases the probability that a preceding
behavior will be repeated.
▪Reinforces: Any stimulus that increases the
probability that a preceding behavior will occur
again.
▪Primary reinforcer: satisfies some biological
need and work naturally, regardless of a person
prior experiences.
e.g. food for the hungry person.
Reinforcement
▪Secondary reinforcer: is contrast is a stimulus
that becomes reinforcing because of its association
with a primary reinforcer.
▪For instance , we know that money is valuable
because it allows us to obtain other desirable object.

▪Positive reinforce: A stimulus added to the

environment that brings about an increase in a
preceding response.
e.g. you get bonus on good performance. And do
more hard work to get more rewards. ( positive
stimulus- positive response)
Reinforcement

▪Negative reinforce: An unpleasant stimulus

whose removal leads to an increase in the
probability that a preceding response will be
repeated in the future.
▪E.g. professor tells students that if perfect
attendance all semester then they will able to
take final exams. Students don’t want to attend
class but did it forcefully. ( for positive
outcome , an unpleasant stimulus was provided
for getting positive results)
Punishment
Punishment: A stimulus that decreases the
probability that a previous behavior will
occur again.
Positive punishment weakens a response
through the application of an unpleasant
event. sometimes refers to punishment by
application.
e.g. rude or spank to student on
misbehaving ( to decrease his bad behavior
) so next time he wont do the same.
Punishment

Negative punishment consists of the

removal of something pleasant. ( when
favorable event or outcome is removed after
behavior occurs).
•In which you taken away the positive
stimulus.
•E.g. a teenage girl ask to clean up her
room, but she is keeping using her mobile.
So you take away her mobile for rest of the
day (next time she wont do the same).
EXAMPLES
walid@dmcg.edu

2518

10
 Generalization in operant conditioning
❑In which you learn a response to stimulus and
then applies it to other stimuli (same as operant
conditioning).
❑You are likely to generalize your response to
other situations as well.
❑Consequences would be positive and negative.

Discrimination in operant conditioning

oIn which people learn to discriminate stimuli is
known as stimulus control training.
oReinforced in the presence of a specific
stimulus
.
 Thanks
sadafsana@dpc.edu

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