CHAPTER- 5

LEARNING
NOTES
1. Learning definitions-
“any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience”
“Changes due to practice and experience, which are relatively permanent, are illustrative of
learning”
2. Features of learning
a. always involves some kinds of experience. Eg- For example, one learns that if the bell rings in the
hostel after sunset, then dinner is ready to be served. Repeated experience of satisfaction after
doing something in a specified manner leads to the formation of habit.
b. Behavioural changes that occur due to learning are relatively permanent.

3. What is not learning:

a. Learning due to fatigue- Suppose you are reading your textbook of psychology for sometime or
you are trying to learn how to drive a motor car, a time comes when you will feel tired. You stop
reading or driving. This is a behavioural change due to fatigue, and is temporary. It is not
considered learning.
b. Habituation- Suppose in the vicinity of your residence a marriage is being performed. It
generates a lot of noise, which continues till late night. In the beginning, the noise distracts you
from whatever you are doing. You feel disturbed. While the noise continues, you make some
orienting reflexes. These reflexes become weaker and weaker, and eventually become
undetectable. This is also one kind of behavioural change. This change is due to continuous
exposure to stimuli. It is called habituation. It is not due to learning.
c. Drug effect- people who are on sedatives or drugs or alcohol, their behaviour changes as it affects
physiological functions. Such changes are temporary in nature and disappear, as the effect wears
out.
d. Performance- Performance is a person’s observed behaviour or response or action. Suppose you
are asked by your teacher to memorise a poem. You read that poem a number of times. Then you
say that you have learned the poem. You are asked to recite the poem and you are able to recite it.
The recitation of the poem by you is your performance. On the basis of your performance, the
teacher infers that you have learned the poem.

4. Classical Conditioning
By Ivan P. Pavlov
 He was primarily interested in the physiology of digestion. During his studies he noticed that
dogs, on whom he was doing his experiments, started secreting saliva as soon as they saw the
empty plate in which food was served.
 Pavlov designed an experiment to understand this process in detail in which dogs were used.
In the first phase, a dog was placed in a box and harnessed. The dog was left in the box for
some time. This was repeated a number of times on different days. In the meantime, a simple
surgery was conducted, and one end of a tube was inserted in the dog’s jaw and the other end
of the tube was put in a measuring glass.
 In the second phase of the experiment, the dog was kept hungry and placed in harness with
one end of the tube ending in the jaw and the other end in the glass jar.
 A bell was sounded and immediately thereafter food (meat powder) was served to the dog.
The dog was allowed to eat it. For the next few days, every time the meat powder was
presented, it was preceded by the sound of a bell.
 After a number of such trials, a test trial was introduced in which everything was the same as
the previous trials except that no food followed the sounding of the bell. The dog still
salivated to the sound of the bell, expecting presentation of the meat powder as the sound of
bell had come to be connected with it.
 This association between the bell and food resulted in acquisition of a new response by
the dog, i.e. salivation to the sound of the bell. This has been termed as conditioning.
 It is obvious that the learning situation in classical conditioning is one of S–S learning in
which one stimulus (e.g., sound of bell) becomes a signal for another stimulus (e.g., food).
Here one stimulus signifies the possible occurrence of another stimulus.

i. TYPES OF STIMLUS AND RESPONSE

 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): A stimulus that naturally and automatically triggers

a response without prior learning (e.g., food causing salivation in dogs).

 Unconditioned Response (UCR): The unlearned, automatic reaction to the UCS (e.g.,
salivation in response to food).

 Conditioned Stimulus (CS): A previously neutral stimulus that, after being paired
with the UCS,riggers a learned response (e.g., the sound of a bell paired with food).

 Conditioned Response (CR): The learned reaction to the CS, which mirrors the UCR
(e.g., salivation in response to the bell alone, after conditioning).

ii. DETERMINANTS OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

 Time Relations between Stimuli : There are basically four types based on the
time relations between the onset of conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned
 stimulus (US). The first three are called forward conditioning procedures, and the
fourth one is called backward conditioning procedure.

a) When the CS and US are presented together, it is called simultaneous

conditioning.
b) In delayed conditioning, the onset of CS precedes the onset of US. The CS
ends before the end of the US.
c) In trace conditioning, the onset and end of the CS precedes the onset of US
with some time gap between the two.
d) In backward conditioning, the US precedes the onset of CS.

Most effective- Delayed conditioning

Conditioning rarely occurs- Backward conditioning

 Type of Unconditioned Stimuli

a) Appetitive- Appetitive unconditioned stimuli automatically elicits approach

responses, such as eating, drinking, caressing, etc. These responses give satisfaction
and pleasure. They are slower and requires more traits for learning.
b) Aversive- aversive US, such as noise, bitter taste, electric shock, painful injections,
etc. are painful, harmful, and elicit avoidance and escape responses. Aversive classical
conditioning is established in one, two or three trials depending on the intensity of the
aversive US

 Intensity of Conditioned Stimuli

More intense conditioned stimuli are more effective in accelerating the acquisition
of conditioned responses. It means that the more intense the conditioned stimulus,
the fewer are the number of acquisition trials needed for conditioning.

5. Operant/Instrumental Conditioning

By B.F. Skinner

 Operants are those behaviours or responses, which are emitted by animals and
human beings voluntarily and are under their control. The term operant is used
because the organism operates on the environment. Conditioning of operant
behaviour is called operant conditioning.
 Experiment- Skinner conducted his studies on rats and pigeons in specially made
boxes, called the Skinner Box. A hungry rat (one at a time) is placed in the
chamber, which was so built that the rat could move inside but could not come out.
In the chamber there was a lever, which was connected to a food container kept on
the top of the chamber. When the lever is pressed, a food pellet drops on the plate
 placed close to the lever. While moving around and pawing the walls (exploratory
behaviour), the hungry rat accidentally presses the lever and a food pellet drops on
the plate. The hungry rat eats it. In the next trial, after a while the exploratory
behaviour again starts. As the number of trials increases, the rat takes lesser and
lesser time to press the lever for food. Conditioning is complete when the rat
presses the lever immediately after it is placed in the chamber. It is obvious that
lever pressing is an operant response and getting food is its consequence.
 Examples of instrumental conditioning abound in our everyday life. Children who
want to have some sweets in the absence of their mother learn to locate the jar in
which mother hides the sweets for safekeeping and eat it. Children learn to be
polite and say ‘please’ to get favours from their parents and others. One learns to
operate mechanical gadgets such as radio, camera, T.V., etc. based on the principle
of instrumental conditioning. As a matter of fact human beings learn short cuts to
attain desired goals or ends through instrumental conditioning.

A. Determinants of Operant Conditioning

A reinforcer is defined as any stimulus or event, which increases the

probability of the occurrence of a (desired) response. A reinforcer has
numerous features, which affect the course and strength of a response

i. Type of reinforcement

Negative- . Responses that lead organisms to get rid of painful stimuli

or avoid and escape from them provide negative reinforcement. Thus,
negative reinforcement leads to learning of avoidance and escape
responses. For instance, one learns to put on woollen clothes, burn
firewood or use electric heaters to avoid the unpleasant cold weather.
One learns to move away from dangerous stimuli because they provide
negative reinforcement.

Positive- Positive reinforcement involves stimuli that have pleasant

consequences. They strengthen and maintain the responses that have
caused them to occur. Positive reinforcers satisfy needs, which include
food, water, medals, praise, money, status, information, etc.
 ii. Number of reinforcement

The course of operant conditioning is usually accelerated to an extent as

the number, amount, and quality of reinforcement increases.

iii. Schedule of reinforcements

Continuous- When a desired response is reinforced every time it

occurs we call it continuous reinforcement.

Partial- in intermittent schedules responses are sometimes reinforced,

sometimes not.

iv. Delayed Reinforcement

It is found that delay in the delivery of reinforcement leads to poorer

level of performance

6. Important terms

a. Reinforcers

A primary reinforcer is biologically important since it determines the organism’s survival (e.g.,
food for a hungry organism).
 A secondary reinforcer is one which has acquired characteristics of the reinforcer because of the
organism’s experience with the environment. We frequently use money, praise, and grades as
reinforcers. They are called secondary reinforcers

b. Generalization

phenomenon of responding similarly to similar stimuli is known as generalization. Again,

suppose a child has learned the location of a jar of a certain size and shape in which sweets are
kept. Even when the child’s mother is not around, the child finds the jar and obtains the sweets.

c. Discrimination

discrimination is a response due to difference. For example, suppose a child is conditioned to be

afraid of a person with a long moustache and wearing black clothes. In subsequent situation, when
s/he meets another person dressed in black clothes with a beard, the child shows signs of fear. The
child’s fear is generalised. S/he meets another stranger who is wearing grey clothes and is clean-
shaven. The child shows no fear. This is an example of discrimination.

d. Extinction

Extinction means disappearance of a learned response due to removal of reinforcement from the
situation in which the response used to occur.

If the occurrence of CS-CR is not followed by the US in classical conditioning, or lever pressing
is no more followed by food pellets.

In Skinner box, the learned behaviour will gradually be weakened and ultimately disappear.

e. Resistance to extinction

It means that even though the learned response is now not reinforced, it would continue to occur
for sometime. However, with increasing number of trials without reinforcement, the response
strength gradually diminishes and ultimately it stops occurring.

It has been found that with increasing number of reinforced trials resistance to extinction
increases and learned response reaches its highest level. At this level performance gets stabilised.
After that the number of trials do not make a difference in the response strength.

Resistance to extinction is strongest in- Intermittent/Partial reinforcement.

f. Spontaneous Recovery-

Spontaneous recovery occurs after a learned response is extinguished. Suppose an organism has
learned to make a response for getting reinforcement, then the response is extinguished and
 sometime lapses. A question now may be asked, whether the response is completely extinguished,
and will not occur if the CS is presented. It has been demonstrated that after lapse of considerable
time, the learned or CR recovers and occurs to the CS. The amount of spontaneous recovery
depends on the duration of the time lapsed after the extinction session. The longer the duration of
time lapsed, the greater is the recovery of learned response.

7. Observation Learning

By Bandura

1. Definition: Observational learning is learning through watching and imitating others, sometimes
referred to as social learning or modeling.

2.Bandura's Contribution: Psychologist Albert Bandura extensively studied observational learning,

emphasizing its role in acquiring social behaviors.

3. Nature of Observational Learning:

- In situations where individuals are unsure of how to behave, they often observe and emulate
others.

- Observational learning is especially relevant in social behaviors and norms.

4. Modeling in Society:

- Example: Fashion designers use models to display clothing, which influences public behavior.

- People imitate observed behaviors from various sources like media, advertisements, and social
settings.

5. Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment:

- Children watched a film showing a boy behaving aggressively toward a Bobo doll.

- Three versions of the film were shown:

- In one version, the boy was rewarded for aggression.

- In the second, he was punished.

- In the third, no reward or punishment was shown.

 - Outcome:

- Children who saw the boy rewarded showed the most aggression.

- Those who saw him punished showed the least.

- Observers’ actions were influenced by whether the behavior was rewarded or punished.

6. Application in Everyday Life:

- Children observe and mimic adults in social scenarios and at home, learning social rituals and
roles.

- Examples: Playing marriage ceremonies, birthday parties, role-playing as police, or housekeeping.

7.Acquisition of Social Behaviors:

- Observational learning helps children develop social skills like courtesy, diligence, and pro-social
behavior.

- Negative traits like aggression or indolence can also be acquired if observed in role models.

8. Role in Personality Development:

- Personality traits and behaviors such as aggressiveness, politeness, and empathy are often
developed through modeling.

9. Overall Impact:

- Observational learning is a key way through which children and adults acquire behaviors,
attitudes, and social skills by observing others in their environment.

8. Cognitive learning theories

1. Introduction to Insight Learning

- Kohler’s experiments demonstrated a type of learning beyond conditioning.

- Insight learning involves sudden understanding or solution without trial and error.
2. Experiment Setup

- Conducted with chimpanzees in an enclosed play area.

- Food was placed out of reach.

- Tools (e.g., poles and boxes) were available for problem-solving.

3. Observations and Findings

- Chimpanzees did not learn through trial and error.

- They exhibited sudden flashes of insight to solve problems.

- Example: Standing on a box, using a pole to reach a banana above the enclosure.

- The solution appeared suddenly and could be easily repeated.

4. Characteristics of Insight Learning

- A problem is presented, followed by a period with no apparent progress.

- Sudden solution emerges, without step-by-step reinforcement.

- Immediate application of the solution when the problem reoccurs.

5. Key Takeaways on Insight Learning

- Insight learning involves a cognitive understanding of the relationship between a means (tools)
and an end (obtaining food).

- Unlike conditioning, it is not based on stimuli-response associations.

- Insight can be generalized to similar problem situations.

Tolman’s Latent Learning

Tolman’s experiment aimed to demonstrate that learning can occur without immediate reinforcement,
introducing the concept of *latent learning*. He wanted to show that animals can form mental
representations or "cognitive maps" of their environment, which can be later used when a reward is
introduced.
Experiment Setup

1. Participants:

- Two groups of rats were used as subjects for the experiment.

2. Maze Design:

- Tolman created a complex maze with multiple paths leading to the end, where food could be
placed.

- The maze was designed to observe whether rats could learn to navigate the maze efficiently over
time.

3. Groups and Procedure:

- Group 1 (Rewarded Group):

- These rats received a food reward at the end of the maze every time they completed it.

- Each day, as they found food at the end, they gradually learned to reach the end more quickly,
indicating clear signs of learning.

- Group 2 (Unrewarded Group):

- These rats explored the maze without any food reward at the end.

- Without reinforcement, this group did not appear to improve their navigation speed or show
signs of learning the maze layout.

The Key Phase of the Experiment:

- After a period of exploration, Tolman introduced a food reward for the unrewarded group (Group
2).

- Surprisingly, when food was placed at the end of the maze for Group 2, these rats were able to
navigate the maze as efficiently as Group 1, despite having previously shown no signs of learning.

Tolman’s Conclusion:

Latent Learning: Tolman concluded that Group 2 rats had learned the layout of the maze during the
initial exploration, even without reinforcement. Their learning was "latent" — hidden until the food
reward was introduced.
 -Cognitive Map: Tolman suggested that rats formed a cognitive map, a mental layout of the maze,
which they later used to navigate directly to the goal once they had a reason (food reward) to do so.

Significance of the Experiment:

- Tolman’s findings challenged traditional behaviorist views that learning only occurs with
reinforcement.

- The experiment introduced the idea that animals (and by extension, humans) can develop mental
representations of their environment.

- This showed that learning can occur without immediate reward and that organisms can store
information in their minds and use it when needed, thus providing a basis for cognitive learning
theory.

9. Verbal Learning and Methods of Study

1. Definition of Verbal Learning:

- Distinct from conditioning, primarily limited to human beings.

- Involves acquiring knowledge about objects, events, and features through words.

- Words are associated with each other to facilitate learning.

2. Methods for Studying Verbal Learning:

1. Paired-Associates Learning:

- Similar to stimulus-stimulus (S-S) and stimulus-response (S-R) conditioning.

- Used to learn foreign language equivalents of words.

- Process:

- A list of paired words is prepared, with the first word as a stimulus and the second as a response.

- Can involve nonsense syllables as stimulus terms and actual words as response terms.

- Learner is shown both pairs and then tested by presenting only the stimulus term to recall the
response term.
 - Trials continue until all responses are recalled correctly.

- Measure: The number of trials taken to reach perfect recall.

2. Serial Learning:

- Used to study how participants learn lists of verbal items and the processes involved.

- Process:

- A list of items (e.g., nonsense syllables, familiar words, etc.) is presented.

- Participant must recall items in the exact order.

- **Serial Anticipation Method**: Each item in the list acts as a stimulus for the following item.

- Trials continue until the participant recalls all items in the correct order.

3. Free Recall:

- Participants are presented with a list of words, read at a fixed rate.

- Process:

- After the list is shown, participants recall words in any order.

- List includes more than ten words and may be interrelated or unrelated.

- Presentation order changes from trial to trial to assess memory organization.

- Findings: Words at the beginning or end of the list are typically recalled more easily than those in
the middle.

Materials Used in Verbal Learning:

- Variety of verbal materials such as:

- Nonsense syllable

- Familiar words
 - Unfamiliar words

- Sentences and paragraphs

These methods allow psychologists to investigate how verbal materials are learned and organized in
memory, providing insights into language acquisition and memory processing.

10. Key Determinants of Verbal Learning

- Verbal learning is influenced by features of the material, such as:

- Length of the list- Longer lists increase learning time.

- Meaningfulness of material: Assessed by factors such as familiarity, association value,

frequency, and sequential dependence.

- Nonsense syllables: Chosen based on association value for standardization.

General Findings on Learning Time

-Learning Time and List Length: As the list length increases or association value decreases,
learning time increases.

- Total Time Principle: A fixed time is needed to learn a fixed amount of material, regardless of
trial divisions. More time generally results in stronger learning.

Serial Learning vs. Free Recall

- Serial Learning: Recalls items in the presented order.

- Free Recall: Items are recalled in a self-organized manner, not necessarily in the order presented.

Bousfield’s Experiment on Category Clustering

Experiment Setup-

- List of 60 words from four categories: names, animals, professions, vegetables.

- Words presented in random order.

 Observation: Participants naturally grouped words by category in free recall, a process termed
**category clustering**.

- Conclusion: Free recall shows organization based on meaningful relations or categories, even if
items are presented randomly.

Subjective Organization in Recall

-Subjective Organization- Individuals organize items in unique ways, reflecting personal

preferences in recall patterns.

Intentional vs. Incidental Learning

Intentional Learning: Actively focusing on learning verbal material.

Incidental Learning: Unintentional acquisition of details, such as rhyming patterns, starting letters,
or vowels within the words.

11. SKILL LEARNING

- Skill: The ability to perform a complex task smoothly and efficiently.

- Examples: Car driving, piloting, navigating, shorthand writing, reading, and writing.

- Skills are developed through practice and involve perceptual-motor responses or S-R (Stimulus-
Response) associations.

. Phases of Skill Acquisition

- Skill learning progresses through distinct phases, each improving performance.

Performance Plateau -A stage where progress appears to pause before improvement resumes in the next
phase.

Fitts' Three Phases of Skill Acquisition

a. Cognitive Phase:

- Involves understanding and memorizing instructions.

 - Learner consciously processes each cue, instruction, and response outcome.

b. Associative Phase:

- Sensory inputs are linked with appropriate responses.

- Errors decrease, performance improves, and time taken reduces.

- Attention to sensory inputs remains necessary, but performance becomes more consistent.

- c. Autonomous Phase:

- Performance becomes automatic with minimal conscious effort.

- Attentional demands reduce, and interference from external factors decreases.

Importance of Practice

- Practice is essential for transitioning between phases.

- Continuous practice leads to increased improvement rates and errorless, automatic performance.

- Emphasizes the concept: “Practice makes a man perfect.”

12. LEARNING DISABILITIES

Definition of Learning Disabilities

- A group of disorders that make school learning and skill acquisition challenging.

- Thought to originate from central nervous system issues.

- Can occur in children of average to superior intelligence with adequate sensory abilities and
learning opportunities.

- If unaddressed, can affect self-esteem, vocational skills, social relationships, and daily activities.

Symptoms of Learning Disabilities

- Difficulties with Basic Skills:

 - Struggle with writing, reading, speaking, and listening.

- Develop different learning strategies and plans compared to peers.

Attention Disorders:

- Easily distracted, difficulty sustaining attention.

- Often leads to hyperactivity, frequent movement, and fidgeting.

- Space and Time Orientation:

- Poor orientation to surroundings, confusion with directions (right/left, up/down).

- Difficulty managing time and maintaining punctuality.

- Motor Coordination Issues:

-Poor balance and manual skills (e.g., sharpening pencils, handling objects, riding bicycles).

- Difficulty with Oral Directions:

- Struggle to follow spoken instructions.

- Social Misjudgments:

- Difficulty understanding peer relationships, body language, and social cues.

-Perceptual Disorders:

- Issues with processing visual, auditory, tactual, and kinesthetic stimuli.

- Fail to differentiate similar sounds (e.g., phone vs. bell).

- Dyslexia:

Common in learning disabilities, struggle to copy and recognize letters and words (e.g., confusing
b/d, p/q, was/saw).

Importance of Remediation - Learning disabilities are treatable with remedial teaching methods.

- Proper intervention can help learning-disabled children succeed like their peers.