CLASSICAL CONDITIONING Principles of Classical Conditioning

 Major type of learning process  Acquisition – initial learning stage; neutral stimuli
 Discovered by Russian psychologist Ivan become conditioned stimuli that create conditioned
Petrovich Pavlov in 1900s responses
 Discovery came by accident while  Stimulus Generalization – when a new stimulus that
conducting experiment on his dog, Circa in resembles a conditioned stimulus elicits the
1905 conditioned response
 Devote his entire life discovering underlying  Stimulus Discrimination – tendency of a subject to
principles of classical conditioning respond differently to two or more similar stimuli
 Won the Nobel Prize for his contribution in  Extinction – process of a behavior response being
the field of psychology unlearned; conditioned stimulus is no longer paired
 Form of associative learning which deals with with the unconditioned stimulus
learning of a new behavior by associating various  Spontaneous Recovery – re-emergence of the
stimuli learned response after the obvious extinction
 Deals with the concept of pairing two or more
CONNECTIONISM
stimulus and then relating the output response
with different stimuli  Learning theory developed by Edward Thorndike in
 First documented experiment of classical 1900s
conditioning theory on humans was done by JB  Posits that learning is the process of forming
Watson and Rayner in 1920; associations or bonds, which he defined as “the
 The experiment was initiated on Little Albert, connection of a certain act with a certain situation
who was 9 months old at the time; and resultant pleasure”
 Watson and Rayner concluded that the learning
process was in fact possible on humans. Three laws emanated from this theory
 Accidental classical conditioning is what often Law of Readiness
causes fear and phobias in an organism.
 series of responses can be bound together to fulfill
some goal which will result in annoyance if
obstructed or blocked
 also called as “Law of Action Tendency” – learning
takes place when an action tendency is aroused
through preparatory adjustment
 *Readiness – preparation of action

Law of Exercise
Three stages of Classical Conditioning
Connections become strengthened with practice and
Stage 1: Before Conditioning weakened when the practice is stopped

 The unconditioned stimulus automatically causes an Law of Effect

unconditioned response.
Responses to a situation which are followed by
 The neutral stimulus causes no response.
rewarding or satisfying condition will be
Stage 2: During Conditioning strengthened and become habitual responses to that
situation
 The neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the
unconditioned stimulus. Five Characteristics of Learning

Stage 3: After Conditioning 1. Multiple response or varied reaction – when

faced with a problem, animal will try one
 The neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned response after another until it finds success
stimulus, which evokes a conditioned response.
 2. Set or attitude – animals will try, the results that reinforcements will be strengthened and can be
it will find satisfying, depend largely on animals repeated in the future and those followed by
attitude undesirable consequences or negative
3. Partial activity or prepotency of elements – reinforcements can never be repeated in the future.
certain features of a situation may be prepotent  Skinner introduced a new term in the Law of Effect;
in determining a response than others and an reinforcement (based on Thorndike’s Law of Effect).
animal is able to attend critical elements and It meant that behavior that is reinforced (also known
ignore the less important ones as “reinforcers”) would tend to be repeated while
4. Assimilation – “to any situation which have no behavior that is not reinforced would tend to die out
special original or acquired response of their (also known as “punishers”.) There are also neutral
own, the response made will be that which by operants; responses from the environment that
original or acquired nature is connected with neither increase nor decrease the probability of the
some situation which they resemble” behavior being repeated.
5. Associative shifting – transfer of response
Reinforcement Punishment
evoked by a given stimulus to an entirely
different stimulus Addition of a Addition of an
Positive pleasure unpleasant
Four Factors of Learning (summarized by Bower & stimulus stimulus
Hilgard in 1981) Removal of an Removal of a
Negative unpleasant pleasure
1. Belongingness – connection between two units stimulus stimulus
is more readily established if the subject
perceives the two as belonging
2. Associative Polarity – connections act more  BF Skinner made the “Skinner Box” which involved
easily in the direction in which they were formed having a rat in a box in controlled conditions. The
than in opposite direction concept of the box was to test if the rat would be
3. Stimulus Identifiability – situation is easy to able to manipulate its behavior through different
connect to a response to the extent that the conditions and scenarios.
situation is identifiable, distinctive, and  A box consisted of a lever that played a role in
distinguishable positive and negative reinforcement, signal lights, an
4. Response Availability – the ease of forming electric grid, and a food dispenser. As the rat would
connections is directly proportional to the ease casually move around in the box and accidentally
with which the response required by the pulls the lever, it would dispense food. Eventually the
situation is summoned rat learns that if it pulls the lever, food would come
out and this is positive reinforcement.
OPERANT CONDITIONING  However, in the case of negative reinforcement, a
 Operant Conditioning is a method of learning that signal light would light up prior to the electric grid
takes place through consequences such as rewards that would shock the rat. After the rat moves
or punishments for a behavior being shown. randomly around again and hits the lever at the right
time of this situation, it slowly learns that pulling the
 Burrhus Frederic Skinner, commonly known as B.F.
lever at this right time with the signal light would
Skinner proposed the Operant Conditioning theory.
stop the grid from giving it the electrical shock. This
He focused on consequences and how it can affect
represents negative reinforcement.
human behavior.
 His theory was influenced by Edward Thorndike’s BEHAVIORISM
Law of Effect which states that desirable outcomes
are more likely to be repeated while undesirable  Behaviorism is a systematic approach to
outcomes are less likely to be repeated after an understanding the behavior of humans and other
action has been done. animals. It assumes that all behaviors are either
 With this principle, Operant Conditioning states that reflexes produced by a response to certain stimuli in
actions which are followed by positive the environment.
  John Broadus Watson (January 9, 1878 – September changes in the layout of a maze it had previously
25, 1958) was an American psychologist who mastered through reinforcements.
established the psychological school of behaviorism.
CONTIGUITY THEORY
He conducted the controversial "Little Albert"
experiment and the Kerplunk experiment. Watson  Contiguity theory or law of contiguity is an idea
popularized the use of the scientific theory with introduced in 1920s by American philosopher,
behaviorism. mathematician and psychologist Edwin Guthrie in
 Experiments by behaviorists identify conditioning as collaboration with Stevenson Smith.
a universal learning process. There are two different  Law of contiguity states that a close temporal
types of conditioning, each yielding a different relationship between a stimulus and a response is
behavioral pattern: the only necessary condition for an association
 Classic conditioning occurs when a natural reflex between the two to be established.
responds to a stimulus. One of the more  In contiguity theory, rewards or punishment play no
common examples of classical conditioning in significant role in learning since they occur after the
the educational environment is in situations association between stimulus and response has been
where students exhibit irrational fears and made.
anxieties like fear of failure, fear of public  Another way of explaining the theory is to say that if
speaking and general school phobia. you did something in a given situation, the next time
 Behavioral or operant conditioning occurs when you encounter the same event you will tend to do
a response to a stimulus is reinforced. Basically, the same thing.
operant conditioning is a simple feedback  The classic experimental paradigm for Contiguity
system: If a reward or reinforcement follows the theory is cats learning to escape from a puzzle box.
response to a stimulus, then the response Guthrie used a glass paneled box that allowed him to
becomes more probable in the future. photograph the exact movements of cats. These
Two types of Behaviorism photographs showed that cats learned to repeat the
1. Methodological behaviorism: Watson's same sequence of movements associated with the
behaviorism states that only public events can preceding escape from the box. Improvement comes
be objectively observed, and that therefore about because irrelevant movements are unlearned
private events should be ignored or not included in successive associations.
2. Radical behaviorism: Skinner's behaviorism
theorizes that processes within the organism PRINCIPLES
should be acknowledged, particularly the One Trial Learning
presence of private events and suggests that
environmental variables also control these  Guthrie completely rejected the law of frequency as
internal events just as they control observable a learning principle. He however proposed, that
behaviors. Radical behaviorism forms the core stimulus pattern gains its full associative strength on
philosophy behind behavior analysis. its first pairing with the movement (response).

There have been many criticisms of behaviorism, The Recency Principle

including the following:
 This principle states that recent stimuli will form
 Behaviorism does not account for all kinds of association with an action or movement than
learning, since it disregards the activities of the mind. previous stimuli. Whatever we did last under a given
 Behaviorism does not explain some learning–such as set of circumstances will be what we will tend to do
the recognition of new language patterns by young again if those circumstances are re-encountered.
children–for which there is no reinforcement
Movement-Produced Stimuli
mechanism.
 Research has shown that animals adapt their  It is stimuli which are caused by movements of the
reinforced patterns to new information. For body. For example, if we hear a sound and turn
instance, a rat can shift its behavior to respond to towards it, the muscles, tendons, and joints produce
 stimuli that are distinctly different from the external  The word Gestalt in German Language means
stimulation that caused us to move. “whole”, “total pattern”, or “configuration”.
 Forgetting - like one-trial learning, it also occurs in  Kohlar performed number of experiments on
one trial. Forgetting occurs when one habit prevents monkeys, and arrived at the result that highest types
another due to some stronger stimuli. It is due to of learning is through insight.
interference because the stimuli become associated  Learning by Insight means sudden grasping of the
with new responses. solution, a flash of understanding, without any
process of trial and error.
 Movements are simple muscle contractions
 Acts are made up of large number of movements Educational Implications
 Practice allows more of these specific  Proceeding from whole to part: we must always
association to be made. The relationship proceed from the whole to the part, so as to give a
between one set of stimuli and one movement is complete insight into the subject.
learned at full strength in one trial, but this does  Creating motivation
not bring about proficiency at a skill.  Emphasis on understanding: learning by insights,
 Habit is a response that has become associated whether it is a geometrical problem, arithmetical
with a large number of stimuli. The more the sum, or scientific experiment, saves time and energy.
stimuli elicit the response, the stronger the
habit. The Experiment

Methods of Changing Habits: Kohlar kept a monkey named Sultan, hungry for time,
and then shut him in a large cage. He hung bananas from
1. Threshold the ceiling and kept a box on the floor of the cage, fast
 Introduce a weak stimulus then increase it but keep beneath. The monkey could not reach the banana.
it below threshold value that will produce an Another Box was put in a corner of the cage.
unwanted response But sultan could not get the idea of placing one box on
2. Fatigue the other and thus reaching the banana. Ultimately,
Kohlar gave demonstration of putting one box on the
 Performing an act until it is no longer enjoyable. other. Sultan could now learn the whole situation. He
used his intelligence and insight to put the two boxes one
3. Incompatible Response
upon the other, stand on these and then reach the
 The stimuli for the undesired response are presented bananas.
along with other stimuli that produce a response
In another experiment Kohler kept two stick in the cage.
incompatible with the undesired response.
One end of the shorter sticks could not be fitted in the
 Punishment - it works not because of the pain
one end of the longer sticks, so as to make them longer.
experienced but because it changes the way he/she
The monkey did not get the idea of forming the two sticks
responds to a stimuli. Punishment is effective when
through trial and error. When Kohlar gave a hint through
it results in a new response to the same stimuli
putting his finger in the whole of the bigger stick, the
 Drives - maintaining stimuli that keep the organism
monkey viewed the whole situation and performed the
active until a goal is reached
right task through understanding the insight.
 Intentions - responses that are conditioned to
maintaining stimuli are called intentions. Essentials of Learning

THEORY OF LEARNING BY INSIGHT Laws

 This theory is also called Gestalt Theory of Learning. 1. Capacities

It is an explanation of Gestalt School of Psychology.  The more developed, the more will be the
This school believes that the whole is more capacity to develop insight
important than the parts. 2. Previous Experience
  Insight depends upon relevant previous cannot be fully accommodated under an existing
experience and maturation schema, so the schema evolves to become more
3. Experimental arrangement consistent with experience.
 Depends upon experimental arrangement also Accommodation: When new information cannot
4. Fumbling and search be accommodated merely by tuning an existing
schema, it results in the creation of new schema.
5. Readily repeated
6. Use in new situation 3 Inherent information stored in form of
7. Wholesome Experience schemata:
FIELD THEORY ● content schema - prior knowledge about the
topic of the text
Field is defined as the totality of coexisting facts which ● formal schema - awareness of the structure of
are conceived of as mutually interdependent. Kurt Lewin the text
believed that for change to take place the whole ● language schema - knowledge of the
psychological field, or life space, within which people vocabulary and relationships of the words in
acted, had to be viewed in order to understand behavior. text
It includes the person’s drives, tensions thoughts and
environment.

Various areas applied in Schema Theory:

Motor learning - schema theory was extended

to schema theory of discrete motor learning in
1975 by Richard Schmidt Wulf has shown that
developing a motor schema has resulted in
better performance in children when learning a
Lewin describes his viewpoint in the following formula: motor task.
b=F(pe)
Reading comprehension - used to assist second
B represents behavior
language learning since it often contains reading
f is a function P is the person a lot of texts in the target language.

E is the total environment situation.

Mathematical problem solving - Jitendra et al.
Lewin explains the individual behavior on the basis of conducted a research showing that 3rd- graders
life-space. An individual’s life-space depends on his taught to using schemata to solve mathematical
psychological force. It includes the person; his drives, problems formulated in words performed better
tensions, thoughts and his environment, which consists than their peers who were taught to solve them
of perceived objects and events. in four steps.

SCHEMA THEORY BY DAVID RUMELHART ASSIMILATION THEORY

According to this theory, schemata represent knowledge
- states that new information is made to fit with
about concepts: objects and the relationships they have already existing knowledge in a learner’s mind.
with other objects, situations, events, sequences of This is a type of cognitive theory introduced in
events, actions, and sequences of actions. 1962 by American Psychologist, David Ausubel
(1918-2008).
● Schema: hypothetical mental structure for
representing generic concepts stored in  Subsumer
memory. It has been described as a sort of - The “anchoring site” of knowledge
framework, plan, or script. gained. (e.g. Specific knowledge being
● Assimilation: New information or experience linked to more general concepts)
  Prior Knowledge Component Processes underlying observational
- Previously held knowledge by the learning
person
1. Attention
 Advanced Organisers
-modeled events and observer characteristics.
- Tools that aid in a person’s learning,
preparation for learning, and the 2. Retention
retention of said learning. These are
- ability to store information. (Symbolic coding, cognitive
generally introduced before the
organization, symbolic and motor rehearsal )
introduction of a general concept.
3. Motor Reproduction
Types of Learning under the Assimilation Theory
- time to actually perform the behavior observed
A. Meaningful Learning
(physical capabilities, accuracy of feedback, & self-
- defined as learning that is “anchored”,
observation reproduction)
or is related to other pre-existing
knowledge 4. Motivation
- requirement of prior knowledge in
order for Meaningful learning to occur. - to be successful one must have to be motivated to
1. Derivative Subsumption – New imitate the behavior that has been modeled (Van
information learned is an example of a Wagner)
previously taught concept Cognitive Factors
2. Correlative Subsumption – Information
is merely an extension of a previously 1. Learning without performance:
learned concept. -distinction between learning through
3. Superordinate Learning – Examples of a observation and the actual imitation of what
concept were given previously, but the has been learned (Bandura)
concept per se was not yet learned until
it was taught later on. 2. Cognitive processing during learning: attention
4. Combinatorial Learning – An idea is a critical factor in learning (Abbott)
comes from, or is derived from, another
idea. In short: Learning by Analogy. 3. Expectations: consequences that future
behaviors are likely to bring. Reinforcements
and Punishments increase a response only
B. Rote Learning when the learner is aware.
- defined as learning or information gained a. Response reinforcements
that is not related to any pre-existing b. Response punishments
knowledge on the part of the learner and
thus, easier for the learner to forget. 4. Reciprocal Causation: Behavior can influence
both the environment and a person
SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY BY ALBERT BANDURA 5. Modeling:
a. Live model = actual demonstration (acting out a
- explains human behavior in terms of
behavior)
continuous reciprocal interaction between
b. Verbal instructional model = descriptions and
cognitive, behavioral and environmental
explanations of behaviors
influences
c. Symbolic Model = real or fictional character
- emphasizes the importance of observing and
displaying behaviors
modeling the behaviors, attitudes and
emotional reactions of others.
How the environment reinforces and punishes
modeling

1. By model = fit to a certain group to feel

accepted.

2. By 3rd person = modeling the actions of

someone else (people with accomplishments)

3. By the reinforcing consequences = things that

we learn from others that produce satisfying or
reinforcing results

4. Vicarious reinforcement = consequence of the

models behavior affect the observers behavior
vicariously