JEROME BRUNER

 Bruner sees the learner as an active agent; emphasising the importance of existing schemata in
guiding learning.
 The notion of a "spiral curriculum" embodies Bruner's ideas by "spiraling" through similar topics
at every age, but consistent with the child's stage of thought.
 The aim of education should be to create autonomous learners (i.e., learning to learn).

Bruner (1966) was concerned with how knowledge is represented and organized through different
modes of thinking (or representation).

In his research on the cognitive development of children, Jerome Bruner proposed three modes of
representation:

 Enactive representation (action-based)

 Iconic representation (image-based)
 Symbolic representation (language-based)

Bruner's constructivist theory suggests it is effective when faced with new material to follow a
progression from enactive to iconic to symbolic representation; this holds true even for adult learners.

Bruner's work also suggests that a learner even of a very young age is capable of learning any material
so long as the instruction is organized appropriately, in sharp contrast to the beliefs of Piaget and other
stage theorists.

BRUNER'S THREE MODES OF REPRESENTATION

ENACTIVE (0 - 1 year)

 The first kind of memory. This mode is used within the first year of life (corresponding with
Piaget’s sensorimotor stage). Thinking is based entirely on physical actions, and infants learn by
doing, rather than by internal representation (or thinking).
 It involves encoding physical action-based information and storing it in our memory. For
example, in the form of movement as a muscle memory, a baby might remember the action of
shaking a rattle.
 This mode continues later in many physical activities, such as learning to ride a bike.
 Many adults can perform a variety of motor tasks (typing, sewing a shirt, operating a lawn
mower) that they would find difficult to describe in iconic (picture) or symbolic (word) form.

ICONIC (1 - 6 years)

 Information is stored as sensory images (icons), usually visual ones, like pictures in the mind. For
some, this is conscious; others say they don’t experience it.
 This may explain why, when we are learning a new subject, it is often helpful to have diagrams
or illustrations to accompany the verbal information.
 Thinking is also based on the use of other mental images (icons), such as hearing, smell or touch.
SYMBOLIC (7 years onwards)

 This develops last. This is where information is stored in the form of a code or symbol, such as
language. This mode is acquired around six to seven years-old (corresponding to Piaget’s
concrete operational stage).
 In the symbolic stage, knowledge is stored primarily as words, mathematical symbols, or in
other symbol systems, such as music.
 Symbols are flexible in that they can be manipulated, ordered, classified, etc. so the user isn’t
constrained by actions or images (which have a fixed relation to that which they represent).

GESTALT PRINCIPLE

PROXIMITY

 The Gestalt principle of proximity is when an individual perceives several objects that are close
together as belonging together. An example of this is in the picture above. In the picture the
dots are all the same color, size, and shape. The only reason that we perceive two different
blocks of dots is because of their position, and how close they are to each other. If these dots
were to be miles and miles apart, then we would not perceive them as being a group.

SIMILARITY

 If proximity is due to position, then the Gestalt principle of similarity is how we piece
information together by how similar objects are. For example, if there were five dogs of all
different breeds and five cats of different breeds, then we would group them as cats and dogs.
Here, positions do not matter, because we are looking into how similar the objects are to each
other.
 Another example is the picture above. When looking at these dots one would say that there are
two groups. There are white dots and there are blue dots. We perceive these two groups as
such, because they have the same shape. The only difference we see is in similarity, or in this
case, the color. If all of the dots were blue, then we would say that there was one group of blue
dots.

CONTINUITY

 The third Gestalt principle is continuity. Continuity is that our brains tend to see objects as
continuous or smooth rather than disjointed or discontinuous. A great example of this
phenomenon is a movie. Movies are just millions of pictures put together and flipped through at
a fast rate. Your brain brings all of these pictures, these disjointed pictures, together into one
cohesive, smooth unit.
 Another great example of continuity is music. Music is individual notes that are strung together.
Our brains bring those notes together into one smooth unit through continuity.

CONNECTEDNESS

 Connectedness is the fourth principle of the Gestalt principles. Connectedness is when we see
connections in disjointed objects. One example of this is when you can see the image that will
 be made on a connect the dots picture before you connect the dots. For example, when people
find constellations in the sky, they see a picture made up of dots.
 Another example of connectedness is a mosaic. A mosaic is made up of tiny broken pieces of
glass or tile that are all put together in a collage to make a new, unified whole.

CLOSURE

 Closure is the final Gestalt principle. Closure is when individuals fill in the blanks. This means
that the brain sees the big picture even when an element of that picture may be missing. An
example of this is in the alphabet.
 You may not have noticed that some letters were missing (see image above), because your brain
knows what that sequence of letters is supposed to look like, and you perceived that the missing
letters were there.
 Another example of the Gestalt principle of closure is seen in the picture to the left. While these
roughly drawn shapes are not finished, we can perceive that these shapes are a circle and a
rectangle. Our ability to see closure with almost finished objects fills in the missing information.

WHY ARE THESE PRINCIPLES OF GESTALT IMPORTANT?

 The principles of Gestalt are extremely important in that they dictate how we perceive life. Life
is just a giant whirlwind of stimuli, and to make sense of these stimuli we must group them
together. For example, people do not need to examine every brick on the house to determine
that it is a house. Here we have grouped the bricks together to realize that that was a wall.
Then, we group together those walls to make a house. If there are other houses next to it, then
we group those houses into a development. Multiple developments are then grouped into a
community. Grouping of stimuli allows us to make sense of the world so that we do not have to
focus on the tiny details.

ALBERT BANDURA

 SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY

Albert Bandura's social learning theory suggests that observation and modeling play a primary role in
how and why people learn. Bandura's theory goes beyond the perception of learning being the result of
direct experience with the environment. Learning, according to Bandura, can occur simply by observing
others' behavior.

He explains in his 1977 book Social Learning Theory, "most human behavior is learned observationally
through modeling: from observing others one forms an idea of how new behaviors are performed, and
on later occasions, this coded information serves as a guide for action."

OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

 Children observe the people around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during the
famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).
 Individuals that are observed are called models. In society, children are surrounded by many
influential models, such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV, friends within
their peer group and teachers at school. These models provide examples of behavior to observe
and imitate, e.g., masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social, etc.
MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES

 SLT is often described as the ‘bridge’ between traditional learning theory (i.e., behaviorism) and
the cognitive approach. This is because it focuses on how mental (cognitive) factors are involved
in learning.
 Unlike Skinner, Bandura (1977) believes that humans are active information processors and
think about the relationship between their behavior and its consequences.
 Observational learning could not occur unless cognitive processes were at work. These mental
factors mediate (i.e., intervene) in the learning process to determine whether a new response is
acquired.
 Therefore, individuals do not automatically observe the behavior of a model and imitate it.
There is some thought prior to imitation, and this consideration is called mediational processes.
This occurs between observing the behavior (stimulus) and imitating it or not (response)

THERE ARE FOUR MEDIATIONAL PROCESSES PROPOSED BY BANDURA:

ATTENTION

 The individual needs to pay attention to the behavior and its consequences and form a mental
representation of the behavior. For a behavior to be imitated, it has to grab our attention. We
observe many behaviors on a daily basis, and many of these are not noteworthy. Attention is
therefore extremely important in whether a behavior influences other imitating it.

RETENTION

 How well the behavior is remembered. The behavior may be noticed but is it not always
remembered which obviously prevents imitation. It is important therefore that a memory of the
behavior is formed to be performed later by the observer.
 Much of social learning is not immediate, so this process is especially vital in those cases. Even if
the behavior is reproduced shortly after seeing it, there needs to be a memory to refer to.

REPRODUCTION

 This is the ability to perform the behavior that the model has just demonstrated. We see much
behavior on a daily basis that we would like to be able to imitate but that this not always
possible. We are limited by our physical ability and for that reason, even if we wish to reproduce
the behavior, we cannot.
 This influences our decisions whether to try and imitate it or not. Imagine the scenario of a 90-
year-old-lady who struggles to walk watching Dancing on Ice. She may appreciate that the skill is
a desirable one, but she will not attempt to imitate it because she physically cannot do it.

MOTIVATION

 The will to perform the behavior. The rewards and punishment that follow a behavior will be
considered by the observer. If the perceived rewards outweigh the perceived costs (if there are
any), then the behavior will be more likely to be imitated by the observer. If the vicarious
 reinforcement is not seen to be important enough to the observer, then they will not imitate the
behavior.

BURRHUS FREDERIC SKINNER (B.F SKINNER)

 B. F. Skinner (1904-1990) was an American psychologist known for his impact on behaviorism. In
a 2002 survey of psychologists, he was identified as the most influential psychologist of the 20th
century.
 B. F. Skinner himself referred to his philosophy as "radical behaviorism." He suggested that the
concept of free will was simply an illusion and, instead, believed that all human action was the
direct result of conditioning.
 Learn about Skinner's many contributions to psychology—one of the most well-known being
operant conditioning, his theory of learning—his numerous inventions and publications, along
with his biography to better understand who B. F. Skinner was.

B. F. Skinner's Theory of Learning: Operant Conditioning

 According to B. F. Skinner's theory of learning, our behaviors are developed or conditioned

through reinforcements. He referred to this process as operant conditioning, with operant
referring to any behavior that acts on the environment and leads to consequences.
 Operant behaviors (actions under our control) differ from respondent behaviors. Skinner
described respondent behaviors as anything that occurs reflexively or automatically—such as
jerking your hand back when you accidentally touch a hot pan.
 Skinner's idea of operant conditioning influenced thoughts about child development, or that a
child's behavior could be impacted through positive and negative reinforcements. It also
contributed to the behavioral theory of personality, explaining that we respond in certain ways
based on our learned experiences.

SKINNER'S ABCS OF BEHAVIORISM

B. F. Skinner's theory of learning says that a person is first exposed to a stimulus, which elicits a
response, and the response is then reinforced (stimulus, response, reinforcement). This, ultimately, is
what conditions our behaviors.

To make this process easier to remember, the ABCs of behaviorism were developed. The ABCs are
antecedent (stimulus), behavior (response), and consequence (reinforcement).

REINFORCEMENT

 In B. F. Skinner's theory of learning, reinforcement plays a critical role in behavior development.

Reinforcement is any event that strengthens a certain behavior and it can be positive or
negative in nature.
 Positive reinforcement includes actions or events that strengthen a response by providing a
stimulus for certain behaviors, such as giving a child a reward or praise for cleaning their room.
Negative reinforcement also strengthens a response, but by the removal of an unfavorable
outcome, such as the child cleaning their room to avoid being grounded.
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT

 Skinner further described schedules of reinforcement in his operant conditioning research.

These schedules determine when specific behaviors are reinforced (either based on the number
of responses or time) and impact how strong a learned behavior becomes.

SKINNER'S FOUR SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT ARE:

 Fixed-ratio schedules: Responses are reinforced after a specific number of responses

 Variable-ratio schedules: Responses are reinforced after an unspecified or unpredictable
number of responses
 Fixed-interval schedules: Responses are reinforced after a specific amount of time
 Variable-interval schedules: Responses are reinforced after an unspecified or unpredictable
amount of time

PUNISHMENT

 Punishment can also play a role in the learning process, according to B. F. Skinner. Punishment is
described as the application of an adverse outcome in an effort to decrease or weaken a specific
behavior.
 Punishment may involve presenting a negative reinforcer—such as a spanking, scolding, or the
imposition of a prison sentence—which some refer to as positive punishment. Or it can involve
the removal of a positive reinforcer, such as taking away a favorite toy, also known as a negative
punishment.
IVAN PAVLOV

 The people who fed Pavlov's dogs wore lab coats. Pavlov noticed that the dogs began to drool
whenever they saw lab coats, even if there was no food in sight. Pavlov wondered why the dogs
salivated at lab coats, and not just at food. He ran a study in which he rang a bell every time he
fed the dogs. Pretty soon, just ringing a bell made the dogs salivate.
 Pavlov said the dogs were demonstrating classical conditioning. He summed it up like this:
there's a neutral stimulus (the bell), which by itself will not produce a response, like salivation.
There's also a non-neutral or unconditioned stimulus (the food), which will produce an
unconditioned response (salivation). But if you present the neutral stimulus and the
unconditioned stimulus together, eventually the dog will learn to associate the two. After a
while, the neutral stimulus by itself will produce the same response as the unconditioned
stimulus, like the dogs drooling when they heard the bell. This is called a conditioned response.
Think of an unconditioned response as completely natural and a conditioned response as
something that we learn.

Classical conditioning process

Terms to know

UNCONDITIONED STIMULUS. This is the thing that triggers an automatic response. Food is the
unconditioned stimulus in Pavlov’s dog experiment.

UNCONDITIONED RESPONSE. This is what response naturally occurs when you experience the
unconditioned stimulus, such as salivating from the food.

CONDITIONED STIMULUS. This is considered a neutral stimulus. When you’re presented with it over and
over before the unconditioned stimulus (e.g., food), it will start to evoke the same response. The bell
before the food is the conditioned stimulus.
CONDITIONED RESPONSE. This is the acquired response to the conditioned stimulus (the bell), which is
often the same response as the unconditioned response. So, the dogs salivated for the bell the same
way they salivated for the food in front of them.

EXTINCTION. This term is used when you start presenting the conditioned stimulus (the bell) over and
over but without the unconditioned stimulus (the food). Over time, the dogs would unlearn their
conditioning that the bell means food is coming.

GENERALIZATION. This refers to when you can generalize similar things and respond the same way. Dogs
began salivating at sounds similar to bells because they were generalizing what they learned.

DISCRIMINATION. The opposite of generalization, this is our ability to tell the difference when
something is similar but not identical, so it won’t produce the same response. A horn sound, for
instance, wouldn’t make the dogs salivate.