Boon Pong Ying

Email add : boonpongying@oum.edu.my

Educational Psychology (HMEF5043)
1. What is Pschology?
2. Behavioural Learning Theories
3. Cognitive Learning Theories

4. Information Processing Model

5. Constructivism and Metacognition
6. Critical and Creative Thinking

7. Individual Differences in Learning

8. Learning from Text
9. Motivation and Learning
10. Teaching for Better Learning
Outline for Seminar 1
What is
Psychology?

Cognitive Behavioural
Learning Theories Learning Theories
 Learning Theories

Social Learning
Theory

Cognitive &
Constructivist theory
Behaviourist
theory

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Behaviourist Theory
 Pavlov; Watson (Classical Conditioning) ;Skinner
and Thorndike (Operant Conditioning)
 Focuses on how environmental stimuli bring about
changes in people’s behavior.
 Learning and behavior are described and explained
in terms of stimulus – response relationship
 Conditioning - learning

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Behavioural Theories of Leaning (Behaviourism)
Learning is a function of change in overt
behaviour, i.e. nothing to do with mental
processes. Human behaviour is observable &
measurable, not the mental processes.
Human behaviour is the product of
CONDITIONING.
In the behaviourist view, anyone can be
conditioned to do anything (including to learn
something) regardless of their attitudes, abilities
or experiences.
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 CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

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 Basic Concepts of classical
conditioning
1. Response (R) : specific behavior that an
individual exhibits.
2. Stimulus (S): specific object or event that
influences an individual’s learning or behavior.
3. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) : stimulus
that elicits a particular response without prior
learning
4. Unconditioned Response (UCR) : response
that is elicited by a particular (unconditioned)
stimulus without prior learning
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 5. Neutral Stimulus : stimulus that does not
elicit any particular response
6. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) : stimulus
that begins to elicit a particular response
through classical conditioning
7. Conditioned Response (CR) : response
that begins to be elicited by a particular
(conditioned) stimulus through classical
conditioning

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Classical Conditioning
 Pavlov observed that dog salivated in response to
several stimuli that should not produce salivation.
 Sight of food dish
 Sight of person who brought food
 Pavlov investigated by ringing a bell before giving food.

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 Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

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Principles of Classical Conditioning
 Generalization
Process by which the conditioned response
transferred to other stimuli that were similar to
the original conditioned stimulus
eg. Police
siren- response the same
way regardless if siren of different
pitch (pull to the side)

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Extinction
 Gradual disappearance of a learned response
 Extinction refers to loss of response to a CS
presented without the UCS
 Extinction is not forgetting

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Extinction
 You walk past a house with a vicious dog that
barks at you.
 Every time it barks, you tremble,and sweat
 After a while, when you approach this house,
you will tremble and sweat.
 Growling dog-UCS; house-CS and reaction-CR
 To get over fear, present house(CS) without the
dog (UCS); eventually, reaction/fear (CR) will be
extinguished

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Extinction
 Extinction The weakening of the conditioned response
in the absence of the unconditioned stimulus.

 Extinction is useful in clinical situations

 Extinction of a phobia can be treated by exposure to the
CS only

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Discrimination
 Process by which we learn not to respond to similar
stimuli in an identical manner.
 Discrimination is responding differently to two stimuli
* “v” from “u”
“ b” from “d”

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Example of Discrimination
Hearing an air raid siren would
not produce the same response
of pulling over to the side of the
road. You will continue to drive
on

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 Classical Conditioning Theory

• For example, the school, classroom, teacher,

or subject matter are initially neutral stimuli
that gain attention.
• Activities at school or in the classroom
automatically elicit emotional responses and
these activities are associated with the
neutral or orienting stimulus
• After repeated presentations, the
previously neutral stimulus will elicit the
emotional response
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 Classical Conditioning Theory

Example:
Child is harassed at school (NS)
• Child feels bad when harassed
• Child associates being harassed and school
• Child begins to feel bad when she thinks of
school
•

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 Classical Conditioning Theory

In order to extinguish the

associated feeling bad and
thinking of school, the
connection between school and
being harassed must be
broken.

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Consider this situation….
 Henry’s dad often plays “tickle” with him. At first,
dad would actually tickle Henry, but now all he
has to is wiggle his fingers around Henry’s body
and Henry will bursts into peals of giggles and
laughter.
 UCS :__________
 UCR : ________
 NS/CS:
 CR :

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Consider this situation….
 Henry’s dad often plays “tickle” with him. At first,
dad would actually tickle Henry, but now all he
has to is wiggle his fingers around Henry’s body
and Henry will bursts into peals of giggles and
laughter.
 UCS :_tickle_________
 UCR : giggles________
 NS/CS: wiggle fingers
 CR : giggles

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 Watson: Classical Conditioning
 Watson showed that emotions could be
learned by conditioning
 Watson’s work was inspired by Pavlov’s
experiment on classical conditioning
BEFORE CONDITIONING
White Rat No fear
(Unconditioned Stimulus) (Unconditioned Response)

DURING CONDITIONING
White Rat Albert cries and avoid
(Unconditioned Stimulus)
touching – Fear
Loud Noise
(Conditioning Stimulus) (Unconditioned Response)

AFTER CONDITIONING
White Rat Fear
(Conditioned Stimulus)
(Conditioned Response)
 Watson’s Experiment
 Albert had LEARNED to fear the white rat
because of its association with the loud noise.
 Watson’s experiment indicated that our
emotional reactions can be rearranged through
classical conditioning

Watson had no chance to help Albert to

overcome his fear.
If you were Watson, how would you help
Albert?
Discussion Questions
 A student seems very anxious about
reading aloud in class. How would
you use the following classical
conditioning technique to reduce and
hopefully eliminate this fear?

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Systematic Desensitization
 Reduce anxiety by getting students to associate deep
relaxation with successive visualization of increasing
anxiety producing situations.
1. Get student to associate reading aloud in front of class
with relaxation rather than anxiety
2. Relaxing feeling that student imagines - US which will
produce relaxation (UR)
3. Visualization begins 2 weeks before reading
aloud.......then 1 week....then 4 days and finally a day
before.....
4. On the day itself...walking into the class and during the
reading aloud.......
 Thorndike and Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

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 Operant Conditioning
 A response is strengthened – and thus is more
likely to occur again – when it is followed by a
reinforcing stimulus (a reinforcer)

 The process by which a response becomes more

or less likely to occur depending on its
consequences.

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  When behaviors are followed by desirable
consequences they tend to increase in frequency.

 When behaviors do not produce results, they

typically decrease and may disappear altogether.

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Operant conditioning can occur
under 2 conditions:-
 The learner must make a response (the learner must
do something)

 The reinforcer should be contingent on the learner’s

response (it should occur when, and only when, the
desired response has occurred)

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Thorndike Connectionism
Thorndike – Connectionism (S-R Theory)
 Learning is the result of associations (connections)
between STIMULUS (S) and RESPONSE (R).
E.g. Pressing the lever (S) Door opening (R)
 The associations (habits) become strengthened or
weakened by the nature & frequency of pairings.
E.g. A particular S-R connection was established because
pairings happened many times
 The basic form of learning is trial and error learning in
which certain responses come dominate others due to
rewards.
E.g. A particular S-R connection was established if it was
rewarded (i.e. escape from box & food)
 Operant Conditioning
Thorndike’s Puzzle Box

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 Operant Conditioning
Thorndike’s Puzzle Box Results

One cat’s learning

curve over 24 separate
trials. Notice that the
cat escaped much
more quickly after
about 5 trials. It had
learned the
consequences of its
behaviour.

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Thorndike’s Theories of Learning
 The Law of Readiness
One will act if one is ready. When one is ready to act, to do so is
satisfying while not doing so is annoying
 The Law of Exercise
S-R connection is strengthened with practice but weakened when
practice is discontinued.
 The Law of Effect
The strength of S-R connection is influenced by the consequence. If
the response is followed by a pleasant consequence, the strength is
increased. If the response is followed by an unpleasant consequence,
the strength is decreased.
Implications for Teaching
 Intelligence is the function of the number of S-R
connections formed.
 Complex ideas should be broken down into pre-requisite
concepts. Positive reinforcement should be applied as these
concepts are learned.
 Transfer of Learning
- The degree of transfer between initial and later learning
depends on the match/similarity between elements across
two events
- Transfer is specific, never general.
Skinner Operant Conditioning
 The Skinner Box

Davis, S.F., & Palladino, J.J. (1997). Psychology,

(2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

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Operant Conditioning
 Shaping: process of rewarding
approximations of desired behaviour
 train animals
 rats in Skinner box
 dogs to shake hands
 humans
 toilet training

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Example
 Stimulus/Antecedent : Door bell rings
 Response/Behaviour: You answer the door
 Consequence: Friends at the door ( increase
likelihood that you will answer door the next time)

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 Example
 Antecedent (Stimulus): Door bell rings
 Behaviour: You answer the door
 Consequence: It’s the police or taxman or salesman (
decrease likelihood of answering door again)

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Principles of Operant Conditioning
 Reinforcement is the process by which a
behaviour is increased because it is
followed
 by a rewarding stimulus (positive
reinforcement) or
 by the removal of an unpleasant
stimulus (negative reinforcement)

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 Reinforcement
 A stimulus strengthens or increases the
probability of the response that it follows.
 Primary reinforcers are inherently reinforcing
and typically satisfy a physiological need.(food,
water, warmth, security)
 Secondary reinforcers are stimuli that have
acquired reinforcing properties through
associations with other reinforcers.(praise+money,
nagging+attention)

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Types of Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement

Negative reinforcement

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Positive reinforcement
 Consequence that brings about the increase of a
behavior through the presentation of a stimulus.
 Example:-
1. A concrete reinforcer – an actual object (something
that can be touched) – snack, sticker, toy

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 2. A social reinforcer – gesture or sign, smile, attention,
praise, thank you.
3. An activity reinforcer - an opportunity to engage in a
favourite activity, Premack principle.
4. Positive feedback - simple message that an an answer
is correct.

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Negative reinforcement
Increase of a behavior through the removal of
a stimulus (typically unpleasant one).
 The word negative refers to the act of taking away.

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Schedules of Reinforcement
 Continuous Reinforcement
 Fixed Ratio : Number of times to reinforce is fixed
 Variable Ratio : Number of times to reinforce varies
throughout lessom
 Fixed Interval: Reinforcement given at a specific
fixed time (eg after 1 minutes)
 Variable Interval: Not fixed time specified for
reinforcement
 Types of Reinforcement
 Positive reinforcement
 when a pleasant consequence
follows a response, making the
response more likely to occur again.
 Negative reinforcement
 when a response is followed by the
removal of something unpleasant,
making the response more likely to
occur again.

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Operant Conditioning
 Behaviour Positive Reinforcement

Turn in Teacher praises your

homework on performance.
time

Randomly press Great music

a button on begins to play
radio of a
friend’s car

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Operant Conditioning
Behaviour Negative Reinforcement
Turn in homework Teacher stops criticizing
on time late homework.

Randomly press An annoying song

a button on radio shuts off.
of a friend’s car

Negative Reinforcement The frequency of a behaviour

increases because it is followed by the removal of an
aversive (unpleasant) stimulus.
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Implications for teaching
Provide feedback to students
Use principles of programmed instruction
Use a variety of reinforcers to enhance
desired behaviours and effective learning
 Using schedules of reinforcement