Psychology Chapter 6 Learning

Psychology Chapter 6 Learning

Question 1. What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?
Answer: The process of learning has certain features:

1. Learning always involves some kinds of experience or practice.

 Changes due to maturation or growth are not learning.

e.g.: One learns that if the bell rings in the hostel after sunset, then dinner
is ready to be served.
2. Sometimes a single experience can lead to learning.
e.g.: A child strikes a match stick on the side of a matchbox and gets her/his
finger burnt. Such an experience, makes the child learn to be careful in
handling the matchbox in future.
 Before it can be called learning, the change must be relatively
permanent, it must last for a fairly long time.
3. Learning must be distinguished from the behavioural changes that are neither
permanent nor learnt.
eg. changes in behaviour due to fatigue, habituation and drugs.
4. Learning is a change in behaviour, for better or worse.
5. Learning follows a sequence.

Question 2. How does classical conditioning demonstrate learning by

association?
Answer:

 Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to

associate stimulus.
 Conditioning is the simplest form of learning.
  Classical conditioning was first explained in Pavlovs experiments in which a
dog was kept on a harness with a tube attached to the dogs jaw on one end, a
measuring jar on the other end.
 The dogs was kept hungry in the course of experiments, every time the dogs
was
given food a bell was rung before it, slowly the dog become conditioned to
believe that the ringing bell meant that food was coming. .
 So, he began salivating at the sound at the bell.
 The dog continued to salivate even when food was not given after the bell.
 Hence, salivation became a conditioned response to the conditioned stimulus.
Various forms of classical conditioning are:

1. Unconditioned stimulus (US): This stimulus consistently evoked a response

or is reliably followed by one or it has potential capacity to evoke a natural
response. e.g. food.
2. Conditioned stimulus (CS): It is also known as a neutral stimulus because
except for an altering or intentional response, the first few times it is presented,
it does not evoke a specific response.
Any stimuli which lacks natural capacity to evoke natural response but
developes this capacity with consistent pairing with US. For example bell.
3. Unconditioned Response (UR): The response that reliably follows the
unconditioned stimulus is known as the unconditioned response, e.g. Saliva
due to food. (iv) Conditioned Response (CR): When presentation of the
originally neutral conditioned stimulus evokes a response.
This response is what is learned in classical conditioning, e.g. Saliva s a
response to the bell.

Determinants of classical conditioning:

1. Time Relations between stimuli: In classical conditioning the first three are
called Forward Conditioning Procedures and the forth one is called Backward
Conditioning.
The basic experimental arrangements of these procedures are as follows:
  Simultaneous Conditioning: When the CS and US are presented
together.
It is effective to acquire CR but requires greater number of trials.
 Delayed Conditioning: The onset of CS precedes the onset of US. The
CS ends before the end of the US. It is most effective way of acquiring
CR.
 Trace Conditioning: The onset and the end of the CS precedes the onset
of US with some time gap between the two. It is effective but requires
greater number of trials.
 Backward conditioning: The US precedes the onset of CS. It is least
effective way to acquire CR.
2. Type of unconditioned stimuli: The unconditioned stimuli used in studies of
classical conditioning are of two types: Appetitive e.g. eating drinking etc.
according to researches it is slower and requires greater number of trials
 Aversive e.g. Noise, bitter taste etc. classical conditioning is established
in one, two or three trials so it is more effective.
3. Intensity of conditioned stimuli: This influences the course of both appetitive
and aversive classical conditioning. More intense conditioned stimuli are more
effective in accelerating the acquisition of conditioned responses, e.g.: The
more intense the conditioned stimulus, the fewer are the number of acquisition
trials needed for conditioning, ie intense irritating noise is more effective.

Question 3. Define operant conditioning. Discuss the factors that influence the
course of operant conditioning.
Answer: Operant or instrumental conditioning is a form of learning in which
behaviour is learned, maintained or changed through its consequences.
Determinants of operant conditioning:
1. Reinforcers

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

of the occurrence of a desired response.
 The type – positive or negative, frequency, quality and schedule or reinforcer
are determinants of operant conditioning.
 1. Type of reinforcement:

 Positive reinforcement involves stimuli that have pleasant consequences.

They strengthen and maintain the responses that have caused them to
occur.
 Negative reinforcer involve unpleasant and painful stimuli. Responses
that lead organisms to get rid of painful stimuli or avoid and escape from
them provide negative reinforcement. Negative reinforcement leads to
learning of avoidance and escape responses.
2. Frequency/number of reinforcement and other feature :
 Frequency of trial on which an organism has been reinforced or
rewarded.
 Amount of reinforcement i.e. how much of reinforcing stimulus (food or
water) one receives on each trial.
 Quality of reinforcement i.e. to the kind of reinforcer. Bread of inferior
quality as compared with pieces of cake have different reinforcing value.
3. Schedule of reinforcement:
 This refers to the arrangement of the delivery of reinforcement during
trials.
 When a desired response is reinforcement every time it occurs we call it
continuous reinforcement.
 When according to schedule responses are sometimes reinforced,
sometimes not it is known as partial reinforcement and has been found to
produce greater resistance to extinction.
4. Delayed reinforcement:
 It is found that delay in the delivery of reinforcement leads to poorer level
of performance.

Question 4. A good role model is very important for a growing up child.

Discuss the kind of learning that supports it.
Answer: Observational learning: The acquisition of new forms of behaviour,
information or concepts through exposure to others and the consequences they
experience is called observational learning. This learning is also called social
learning because we human beings learn many simple and complex social skills
through observations.The concept of social learning was introduced by BANDURA.
Characteristics of observational learning

 Individualsleam social behaviour of person of status, respect and behave

similarly when put in specific social situation e.g. In games, children quite often
use.
 For such learning only those persons are observed who are considered to be
as role models.
 Social behaviours are learned by observation.
 Personality characteristics, habits are developed through observational
learning.

Concept of modeling

 According to social learning much of what human beings learn through direct
experience can be learned through watching someone. It is because of
modeling.
 Observational learning observers acquire knowledge by observing the model’s
behaviour, but performance is influence by model’s behaviour being rewarded
or punished. 1
 Children of fearful parents become fearful, children of critical parents become
critical and children who observe confident adults tend to become confident
themselves.

Influence of modeling

 It can be well understood by studies conducted by BANDURA.

 He showed a 5 minute film to children. The film showed numerous dolls
including bobo dolls in a play room. The film had three versions:
1st group of children see a boy being punished for his aggressive behaviour
while playing.
2nd group of children see boy being rewarded and praised by adult for being
aggressive to the doll.
 3rd group of children see nothing, neither the boy being rewarded nor punished
for aggressive behaviour displayed.
 It was found that those children who displayed aggressive behaviour being
rewarded were most Aggressive, those who had seen aggressive model being
punished were least aggressive.

Conclusion
In observational learning, observers require knowledge by observing model’s
behaviour but performance is influenced by model’s behaviour being rewarded or
punished.

Question 5. Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.

Answer: Verbal Learning: The process of learning to respond verbally to verbal
stimulus, which may include symbols, nonsense syllables and lists of words.
Procedures for studying verbal learning are:

1. Paired—Associated learning:

 This method is similar to S-S conditioning and S-R learning.

 When the list of paired-associates is prepared, the first word of the pair is
used as the stimulus and the second word as the response.
 The first members of the pairs (stimulus term) are nonsense syllables
(consonant-vowel-consonant), and the second are English nouns
(response term).
e.g.: Stimulus = Response
Gen = Loot
Dem= Time
Div= Lamp
 The learner is first shown both the stimulus response pairs together and
is instructed to remember and recall the response after the presentation
of each stimulus term. After that a learning trial begins.
 Trials continue until the participant gives all the response words without a
single error.
2. Serial learning:
  First, lists of verbal items, i.e. nonsense syllables, most familiar or least
familiar words, interrelated words etc. are prepared.
 In serial learning the participant is presented the entire list and is required
to produce the items in the same serial order as in the list.
 Learning trials continue until the participant correctly anticipates and
recall in the given order.
3. Free Recall:
 In this method, participants are presented a list of words, each word is
shown at a fixed rate of exposure duration.
 Immediately after the presentation of the list, the participants are required
to recall the words in any order they can.

This method is used to study how participants organize words for storage in memory.
Studies also indicate that the items placed in the beginning or end of the lists are
easier to recall than those placed in the middle which are more difficult to recall.

Question 6. What is a skill? What are the stages through which skill learning
develops?
Answer: A skill is defined as the ability to perform some complex task smoothly and
efficiently, e.g.: car driving, writing etc.
Skill consists of a chain of perceptual motor responses or as a sequence of S-R
associations, e.g.: Movements of legs, feet and toes etc.
According to Fitts skill learning develops through three stages:

1. Cognitive Phase: In cognitive phase of skill learning, the learner has to

understand and memorise the instructions.

 The learner has to understand how the task has to be performed.

 In this phase every outside cue instructional demand, and one’s response
outcome have to be kept alive in consciousness.
2. Associative Phase:
 Different sensory inputs or stimuli are to be linked with appropriate
responses.
  As the practice increases, errors decrease, performance improves and
time taken is also reduced.
3. Autonomous Phase: two important changes take place in performance.
 The Attentional demands of the associative phase decreases.
 Inference created by external factors reduces. Finally, skilled
performance attains Automaticity with minimal demands of – conscious
effort.

Question 7. How can you distinguish between generalisation and

discrimination?
Answer: Generalisation:

 Pavlov noticed that when a C.S – C.R. bond has been established by
conditioning, a stimulus which is similar to the C.S can produce the same
response and he called this stimulus Generalisation, or in other words
Generalisation occurs due to similarity.
e.g. If the dog is conditioned to salivate to tone, it will salivate to any type of
tone , like electric bell, worship bell, college bell, buzzer and other sounds.
 Stimulus Generalisation in conditioning happens usually more in childhood
particularly when the child has not developed the capacity to differentiate
between two stimuli.
For example; During infancy the baby considers every woman to be his
mother.

Discrimination:

 Discrimination is the process of learning to make one response to one stimulus

and another response – or no response to another stimulus.
e.g: discrimination can be obtained in classical conditioning by pairing one
stimulus (the CS+) with an unconditioned stimulus and never pairing another
stimulus (the CS) with the unconditioned stimulus.
 Discrimination is a response due to difference or in other words discriminative
response depends on the discrimination capacity or discrimination learning of
an organism.
Question 8. How does transfer of learning takes place?
Answer: Transfer of learning refers to the way in which we might transfer skills
learned in one situation to a second, related situation. Thus, learning to play tennis
may introduce a range of coordination and racket skills that would then transfer to
similar games such as squash.

 It refers to the effects of prior learning on new learning.

 Transfer is consider to be positive if the earlier learning facilitates current
learning. If new learning is a related then it is consider to be negative transfer.
 Absence of facilitative of retarding effect means zero transfer i.e. earlier
learning has no effect on later learning.

Question 9. Why is motivation a prerequisite for learning?

Answer: Motivation is considered a pre-requisite and acts as a main facilitator of
learning.

1. It is a mental as well as a physiological state, which arouses an organism to act

for fulfilling the current need.
2. Motivation energises an organism to act rigorously for attaining some goal, and
such sets persist until the goal is attained and the need is satisfied.
e.g.: The more motivated you are the more hard work you do for learning.
3. Motivation for learning arises from two sources:

 Intrinsic motivation: One may learn many things because he/she enjoys
them or it provides the means for attaining some other goal.
 Extrinsic motivation: Throughout the session one learn to acquire
knowledge and skill, which may help to get a good job later.

Question 10. What does the notion of preparedness for learning mean?
Answer: Preparedness is a reference to the fact that organisms are better able to
associate certain combination of stimuli, responses and reinforces than others.

 If an animal eats and is then ill, it may develop an aversion to the flavor of the
food, but not to visual or auditory stimuli that works present at the same time.
  The members of different species are very different from one another in their
capacities and response abilities.
 The kinds of S-S or S-R learning an organism can easily acquire depends on
the associative mechanism it is genetically endowed with or prepared for.
 A particular kind of associative learning is easy for apes or human beings but
may be extremely difficult for another species.
 It implies that learning very much dependent on those association for which
one is genetically prepared at the same time on his/her psychological
preparedness to learn a particular task.

Question 11. Explain the different forms of cognitive learning.

Answer: Insight learning is a form of cognitive learning.

 Insight is defined as sudden perception of relationship between the learner, the

goal and intervening obstacles.
 Insight occurs when the learner suddenly sees the relations between two
valuables. Many experiments have been performed on insight learning. One Of
the simplest of these experiments requires the chimpanzee to reach food with
a stick when it cannot be reached by hand and when nothing else other than a
stick is a available in the room. Latent learning is another form of cognitive
learning.

The word latent means ‘hidden’ and thus latent learning is learning that occurs but is
not evident in behaviour until later, when conditions for its appearance are
favourable.

 Latent learning is said to occur without reinforcement of particular responses

and seems to involve changes in the ways information is processed.
 Thus latent learning is an example of cognitive learning.

Experimental evidence:

 Rats in an experimental group-the latent learning group were first given plenty
of experience in a maze. After they thoroughly experienced the maze,
 reinforced maze learning under instrumental conditioning began ie. They were
rewarded for their successful effort.
 The rats in a control group are not being given experience with the maze. The
control group animals were put in a box that is unlike the maze.
 When reinforcement for maze learning starts, the experimental group did better
than the rats in the control group.
 The latent learning group rats learned the maze faster and with fewer errors
than did the control animals.
 It proves that the latent learning showed up in their performance.

Question 12. How can we identify students with learning disabilities?

Answer: Learning disability refers to a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested
in terms of difficulty in the acquisition of learning, reading, writing, speaking,
reasoning, and mathematical activities.

 The sources of such disorders are inherent in the child.

We can identify students with learning disabilities from many symptoms. These
symptoms are following:

1. Difficulties in writing letters, words, and phrases, reading out text, and
speaking, appear quite frequently, quite often they have listening problems,
although they may not have auditory defects. Such children are very different
from others in developing learning strategies and plans.
2. Learning disabled children have disorders of attention. They get easily
distracted
and cannot sustain attention on one point for long. Some times it leads to
hyperactivity ie they are always moving, doing different things and trying to
manipulate things without any purpose.
3. Poor space orientation and inadequate sense of time are common symptoms.
Such children do not get easily oriented to new surroundings and get lost. They
lack a sense of time and are late or sometimes too early in their routine work.
They also show confusion in direction and misjudge right, left, and down.
 4. Learning-disabled children have poor motor-coordination and poor manual
dexterity. This is evident in their lack of balance. They show Inability to sharpen
pencil, handle doorknobs, difficulty in learning to ride a bicycle, etc.
5. These children fail to understand and follow oral directions for doing things.
6. They misjudge relationships as to which classmates are friendly and which
ones are indifferent. They fail to learn and understand body language.
7. Learning-disabled children usually show perceptual disorders. These include
visual, auditory, tectual and kinesthetic, misperception etc. They fail to
differentiate a call-bell from the ring of the telephone. It is not they do not have
sensory acuity.They simply fail to use it in performance.
8. Fairly large number of learning-disabled children have dyslexia. They quite
often fail to copy letter and words, e.g,: they fail to distinguish between b and d,
p and q, p and I, was and saw, unclear and nuclear etc., they fail to organize
verbal materia

Psychology Chapter 6 - Learning

Question 1:

What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?

ANSWER:

Learning can be defined as any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural

potential produced by experience. Changes that occur due to practice and experience,
and are relatively permanent, are a component of learning.

Its distinguishing features are:

(i) Learning always involves some kind of experience. For instance, a child gets
lost at a place on leaving the hands of the parents, would learn not to leave the
hand of elders the next time.

(ii) Behavioural changes that occur due to learning are relatively permanent and
are different from temporary behavioural changes caused by habituation, drugs
or fatigue. For example, feeling tired after studying is a temporary change and
does not involve learning.
 (iii) Learning is an inferred process that involves a series of psychological events.
It is also different from a performance.

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Question 2:

How does classical conditioning demonstrate learning by association?

ANSWER:

Classical conditioning demonstrates learning by association as one stimulus signifies the

possibility of the occurrence of another stimulus. Unconditioned stimulus and response
are gradually conditioned. For example, in the experiment conducted by Ivan P. Pavlov
on the dog, a bell was rung after which food was served to the dog. After some days, no
food was served after the ringing of bell, but the dog still salivated to the sound of it and
thus, associated the bell with the food. The association resulted in the acquisition of the
new response by the dog, i.e. salivation to the sound of bell. In this case, the bell was a
conditioned stimulus and saliva secretion was a conditioned response.

Therefore, in classical conditioning, one stimulus signifies the possible occurrence of

another stimulus.

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Question 3:

Define operant conditioning. Discuss the factors that influence the course of operant
conditioning.

ANSWER:

Operant conditioning refers to the conditioning of behaviours and responses that are
under the control of animals and human beings and are emitted voluntarily by them. The
behaviour is learned, maintained or changed through its consequences called
reinforcers. These refer to a stimulus or event that increases the probability of the
occurrence of the response. The factors that influence the course of operant conditioning
are as follows:
  Type of reinforcements − Positive reinforcement involves pleasant
consequences that satisfy needs. Negative reinforcement involves unpleasant
and painful consequences that lead to learning of avoidance.

 Number and quality of reinforcements − The course of operant conditioning is

accelerated by increase in number, amount and quality of reinforcements.

 Schedule of reinforcement − Continuous reinforcement elicits a desired

response every time during a trial. Intermittent reinforcement elicits responses
only intermittently.

 Delay in the delivery of reinforcement − It results in a poor level of conditioning

and performance.

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Question 4:

A good role model is very important for a growing up child. Discuss the kind of learning
that supports it.

ANSWER:

A good role model is very important for a growing up child as children learn social
behaviour and acquire personality characteristics by observing and emulating adults. It is
a form of learning that takes place by observing others. Hence it is called modeling
which is a form of observational learning. The observers acquire knowledge by
observing the model. Similarly, children learn various personality characteristics through
observational learning. For instance, traits like aggressiveness, pro-social behaviour,
courtesy, politeness, diligence and indolence are acquired through observational
learning.

A negative role model would lead to the development of negative personality while a
positive role model would lead to the development of good personality of the child.
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Question 5:

Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.

ANSWER:

The following are the procedures for studying verbal learning:

(i) Paired Associates Learning

 This method is used to learn foreign languages. A list of paired-associates is

prepared and the first word is used as a stimulus, while the second word is used
as a response.

 Members of the each pair may be from the same language or two different
languages.

 The learner is first shown both the stimulus-response pairs and instructed to
remember and recall the response after the presentation of each stimulus term.

 This continues until the participant remembers all the response words without any
error.

 The total number of trials taken to reach the criterion becomes the measure of
paired associates learning.

(ii) Serial Learning

 This method is used to find out the ways through which participants learn the lists
of verbal items and the processes involved in it.

 The participant is presented with a list of nonsense syllables, most familiar or

least familiar words and interrelated words. Then, he/she is required to produce
the items in the same serial order.

 During the first trial, the participant is shown the first item after which he/she has
to produce the second item. If the participant fails to do that then the second item
is presented and the participant has to produce the third.
  The learning trials continue until the participant remembers all the items in the
given order.

(iii) Free Recall

 The participants in this method are presented with a list of words to read and
speak out. After this, they are required to remember the words in any order.

 This method is used to study the kind of organisation of words made by the
participants in order to store them in memory.

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Question 6:

What is a skill? What are the stages through which skill learning develops?

ANSWER:

A skill is referred to the ability to perform some complex tasks smoothly and efficiently. It
consists of a chain of perceptual motor responses or a sequence of stimulus-response
associations.

The stages of development of skill learning are as follows:

(i) Cognitive − The learner has to understand and memorise the instructions to perform
a task. In this, every external instruction has to be kept in the consciousness.

(ii) Associative − Different sensory inputs or stimuli are linked with appropriate
responses. Further, errors decrease, time taken is reduced and performance improves
with increase in practice.

(iii) Autonomous − The attentional demands of the associative stage decrease and
interference of external factors is reduced. Skilled performance attains automaticity with
minimal demands on conscious effort.
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Question 7:

How can you distinguish between generalisation and discrimination?

ANSWER:

The distinguishing features between generalisation and discrimination are as follows:

Generalisation refers to the phenomenon of responding similarly to similar stimuli. It

represents the occurrence or elicitation of learned response by a new stimulus. For
instance, in the absence of mother, a child is able to find the jar of chocolates.
Furthermore, generalisation occurs due to failure of discrimination.

Discrimination on the other hand is a response caused by difference in stimuli.

Discriminative response depends on the discrimination capacity of the organism. For
example, a child who is scared of all men with moustache may not be scared of clean-
shaved men.

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Question 8:

How does transfer of learning takes place?

ANSWER:

Transfer of learning refers to the effects of prior learning on new learning. It is

considered to be positive when the earlier learning facilitates current learning. On the
other hand, it is considered to be negative if the new learning is retarded. It takes place
through general transfer and specific transfer.

 General transfer implies that prior learning predisposes one to learn another task
in a better manner. The learning of one task warms-up the learner to learn the
next task more conveniently. This warm-up effect lasts over one session of
learning.

 Specific transfer means that every kind of learning consists of a series of

stimulus-response associations. It means the effect of learning of earlier task on
 learning of second task. This kind of transfer depends on the similarity or
dissimilarity between the initial learning tasks on the second task.

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Question 9:

Why is motivation a prerequisite for learning?

ANSWER:

Motivation is a prerequisite for learning because it energises the organism to act

vigorously in order to attain some goal. It provides a purpose to actions that continue till
the goal is attained and the need is satisfied. It also provides impetus to the need for
survival and growth that is essential for learning. Thus, an organism works harder when
the motivation is high. For example, a student studies in order to achieve a good result.
This is because the student is motivated towards a good result for which s/he learns to
achieve a specific goal.

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Question 10:

What does the notion of ‘preparedness for learning’ mean?

ANSWER:

The notion of ‘preparedness for learning’ means that an organism can learn only those
associations that it is genetically prepared to acquire. It implies the biological constraints
upon learning due to sensory capacities and response abilities. This is because the
kinds of S-S or S-R learning an organism can acquire, depends upon the associative
mechanism it is genetically endowed with. The dimension of preparedness consists of
learning tasks that are easy for members of particular species to those tasks that they
are unsuited to learn. Therefore, while on one hand preparedness for learning is a
dimension where the members are prepared to learn tasks, on the other hand members
are not prepared for the learning task. In the middle lie those learning tasks whereby
people are neither prepared, nor unprepared.
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Question 11:

Explain the different forms of cognitive learning?

ANSWER:

The different forms of cognitive learning are:

(i) Insight Learning

 It refers to the process through which the solution to a problem suddenly

becomes clear.

 The problem is presented after which a period of time follows without apparent
progress and finally a solution suddenly emerges.

 The solution can be repeated immediately the next time the problem is
confronted.

 Learning is not a specific set of conditioned associations between stimuli and

responses but a cognitive relationship between a means and an end. Thus, it can
be generalised to similar problems.

(ii) Latent Learning

 A new behaviour is learnt but not demonstrated until the reinforcement is

provided for displaying it.

 Tolman explained it with an experiment on rats wherein the rats were grouped
into two, and one group was given food at the end of maze, while the other group
was not given any food. However, after being reinforced these rats ran through
the maze as efficiently as the group that was given food.

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Question 12:

How can we identify students with learning disabilities?

ANSWER:

The students with learning disability have some common symptoms through which they
can be identified. These are as follows:

(i) They have difficulty in reading and writing letters, words, phrases and
speaking. They suffer from hearing problems without any auditory defect.

(ii) They have disorders of attention and get distracted easily leading to
hyperactivity.

(iii) They have poor space orientation and inadequate sense of time. They also
have difficulty in getting oriented to new surroundings and feel lost. They get
confused in following directions and misjudge right, left, up and down.

(iv) These children have poor motor coordination and manual dexterity.

(v) They are unable to understand and follow oral directions.

(vi) They misjudge relationships as to the classmates who are friendly and the
ones who are not and are unable to comprehend various body languages.

(vii) They show perceptual disorders which includes visual, auditory, tactual and
kinesthetic misperception.

(viii) Many learning disabled children suffer from dyslexia and fail to copy letters
and words and do not learn to organise verbal mat