Learning

Learning can be defined as a relatively permanent change in immediate or potential behavior or mental process
that is a result of past experiences or practice. It is involved not only in the mastery of a new skill or academic subject but
also in the development of emotions, social interaction and even personality. We LEARN, for example, to adjust, love,
far, hate and so on.

5 Different Learning Process:

A. Habituation – it is the simplest kind of learning. It accounts for learning to ignore a stimulus that has become familiar
and has no serious consequences.

B. Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov/ 1904/ Dog Digestive Experiment/ In this process, an individual learns that one
event follows another.

Basic Processes of Classical Conditioning:

1. Acquisition
2. Stimulus Generalization
3. Stimulus Discrimination
4. Extinction

C. Operant Conditioning – Edward L. Thorndike/ 1898/ Skinner Box (Rat) Experiment/ Skinner stated that a human
being learns that a response he makes will be followed by a consequence.

Basic Components of Operant Conditioning:

1. Operant
2. Reinforcer
3. Stimulus Discrimination
4. Generalization and Discrimination

D. Social Learning – Bandura/ 1977/ Social learning theorists highlight the fact that people can learn from the
experiences of others.

Processes of learning:

1. Vicarious Conditioning – it is a process of learning by seeing or hearing about the consequences of other
people’s actions.
2. Observational Learning– it is the process of learning by watching what others are doing. The person who is
watched is called the Model.

4 Requirements of Observational Learning:

a)Attention
b) Retention
c) Ability
d) Motivation

E. Cognitive Learning – Edward Tolman/ 1989/ (Wolfgang Kohler) Insight Learning/ assumes that learning results from
thinking and other mental processes.