Psychology

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

INTRODUCTION: .......................................................................................................................... 1 Factors Influencing Learning: ........................................................................................................ 1 Types of Learning: .......................................................................................................................... 2

Learning by Trial and Error: .................................................................................................. 2 Learning By Conditioning/Association; ................................................................................. 3

a) Classical Conditioning: ........................................................................................................ 3 b) Operant Conditioning: ......................................................................................................... 3

Cognitive Learning ................................................................................................................... 4

Importance or Role of Learning ..................................................................................................... 7

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LEARNING AND ROLE OF LEARNING INTRODUCTION:

Learning is a process which starts from the birth and continues till death. Human being has to learn a lot to fulfill his needs and to adjust according to the changing circumstances. The modern civilization and the invention of science, all are fruit of learning. So we simply define learning as; How we learn things from our environment and how we get benefits from them. HENRY E. GARRETT regards learning a result of physical and mental activity responding to the new or changing circumstances.

FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING:

The psychologists have deduced the following factors that help in learning:

1. Adjustment:
Adjustment in learning is the first and foremost factor. Our learned behavior is needed to fulfill all demands of life and environment and to enable us to adjust in the changing environment.

2. Motivation:
Motivation is the most important factor influencing learning. Motivation as a goal directed activity, prepares an individual to learn till achievement of goal or purpose.

3. Attitudes And Interests:

Attitudes and interest are also very important. Positive attitude and interest enhance learning while negative attitude and disinterest make learning difficult.

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4. Reinforcement:
Reinforcement exceeds the rate of learning. Positive reinforcement strengthens the successful behavior and negative reinforcement weakens the behavior.

5. Nature Of Goal:
Nature of goal also effect learning. More the goal or purpose of learning is important for the learner; the more hard work wills the learner do achieve his aim. (Bukhari, Sameer, Shah, 2012)

TYPES OF LEARNING:
Learning is a purposive action, it occurs only when the learner is ready to learn. Many experiments have been conducted to know the process of learning in animals as a preliminary step to understand the fast process of learning in human beings. These experiments proved to be informatory about the types of learning. Following are types of learning: 1. Learning by Trial and Error 2. Learning by Conditioning a) Classical Conditioning b) Operant Conditioning 3. Cognitive Learning

1. LEARNING BY TRIAL AND ERROR:

Trial and error is an experimental method of problem solving, repair, tuning, or obtaining knowledge. (Anonymous, 2008)

The Experiments Of Edward Thorndike: Cats And Puzzle Boxes:

Edward Thorndike, an American psychologist, conducted trial and error experiments on cats in the early 1900s. In these experiments, he would place a hungry cat in a special box he named the "Puzzle Box". He would put some pieces of fish outside of the puzzle box, so that the cat could smell (and sometimes see) the fish, but could not reach it. The puzzle box had a latch that would release the door to the box. Once the cat operated the lever, it would be able to escape the box

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and eat the fish. The cats would try numerous ways to get out of the cage, such as squeezing through the bars, or clawing their way out. Then they would accidentally push the lever, and the cage would open. Over many different trials of the same experiment, the cat would become faster. After around seven trials, the cat would go directly to the lever and push it immediately. It remembered how to open the box. The cat had learned through making mistakes. (Kristy, nd) In short trial and error learning consist of trying, failing, varying the procedure and ultimately attaining success without the learner seeing what the conditions of success are.

2. LEARNING BY CONDITIONING/ASSOCIATION:
Learning by conditioning is also called learning by association. Conditioning is simply the process of taking up some new stimulus for which we already have certain response. a) Classical Conditioning: A process of behavior modification by which a subject comes to respond in a desired manner to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the desired response.

Example: Amna went on a date at a restaurant where the food was very good. She really likes
the person and wishes to go on another date with the person. It is possible that she liking for the person is partly a reflection of classical conditioning. The food at the restaurant can be considered an unconditioned stimulus that naturally produces a pleasant feeling. The person may become associated with the food, and consequently you have a pleasant feeling about the person b) Operant Conditioning: Operant conditioning describes learning in which people make responses as a result of positive or negative consequences that are dependent on their responses. The term operant emphasizes the point: the organism operates on its environment in order to produce some desirable result.

Skinner's Experiment on Operant Conditioning;

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) began his experiments on operant conditioning in the 1930s. Skinner wanted a better control over the learning situation, which allowed the organism to freely operate in its environment. To do all this, he invented Skinner box. There is a device in the box, which
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can deliver food pellets into a tray at random. Inside the box, there is a lever which when pressed activates the device for delivering food pellets. A hungry rat is left inside the box. The rat exhibits random activities while exploring the box. Accidentally the rat presses the lever and a pellet of food is delivered. The first time it happens, the rat does not learn the connection between the response of lever pressing and food pellets. Sooner or later, the rat learns that the consequence of lever pressing is positive; lever pressing brings food. The experimenter counts the number of lever presses. The number of responses within a particular unit of time is called the rate of response. Skinner used rate of response as a measure of learning. (Anonymous, nd).

3. COGNITIVE LEARNING:
Cognitive learning is a process by which a learner uses mental process and memory to make a decision about behavior. Human beings can learn efficiently by observation, taking instruction, and imitating the behavior of others. Psychologists say that the person uses his mental structure and memory in order to make decision about behavior. Cognitive learning is categorized into a few kinds that are given below: i. ii. iii. Insight learning Latent learning Observational learning

Insight Learning:
Insight learning is a type of learning that uses reason, especially to form conclusions, inferences, or judgments, to solve a problem.

Gestalts Experiment on Insight Learning:

A Gestalt psychologist named Wolfgang Kohler performed experiments on chimpanzee confined in a cage with a banana placed outside, some distance away. Inside the cage there were two sticks so fashioned that the end of one could be inserted into the end of the other to make one

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long stick. Neither of the sticks was of sufficient length to reach the banana, but when both were used together as a single long stick, the banana could be pulled to the cage. Kohler observed that the animal at first tried to reach through the bars to the banana. Being unsuccessful, after a silent period, the animal seized the sticks, inserted one in the other and secured the banana. (Bano, 2009) The below figure explains the theory presented by Kohler.

Latent Learning:
The word latent means hidden and thus latent learning that can be defined as the learning that occurs but is not evident in the behavior until later, when conditions for its appearance are favorable. Latent learning is said to occur without reinforcement for particular responses seems to involve changes in the ways in which information is processed. (Bano, 2009)

Tolman and Honziks Experiment on Latent learning:

Psychologists named Tolman and Honzik performed an experiment in which three groups of rates were run through a complex maze on 17 consecutive days. The researcher placed each rat in the start box of a 14-unit T maze and the rat was then left to its own devices to traverse the maze to its end. One group of rats had food available at the end of the maze from the 1st day of the study. The second group of rats never found food at the end of the maze for the entire study. The third group, however, had no food at the end of the maze for the first 10 days, but on the 11th day, the experimenter placed food in the end box prior to the rat's entry into the maze. As Tolman and Honzik noted, The reward period [for this third group of rats extended from the twelfth to the twenty-second day inclusive What was of such great interest then, as now, were the results for this third group of rats: on the day following finding food at the end of the maze,

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their average error rate decreased and their average speed from the start to the end of the maze increased when compared to those averages for the always-fed rats. The drop in errors and increase in speed occurred literally overnight. Rats in the third group had, through their wanderings, learned a great deal about the maze without ever getting so much as a morsel for their trouble. Tolman and Honzik interpreted these data to mean that learning could take place in the absence of any reinforcement. (Jensen, 2006) The figure below explains the arrangement of the start box and the placement of food and the groups of rats.

Observational Learning:
Observational Learning, also known as Social Learning, deals with the imitation of a model's behavior. An example would be a cub learning to hunt by watching its mother and copying her actions.

Albert Banduras Experiment on Observational Learning:

According to a psychologist Albert Bandura and colleagues, major part of human learning consists of observational learning, which they define as learning through observing the behavior of another person, a model. Bandura demonstrated rather dramatically the ability of models to stimulate learning. In what is now considered a classic experiment, young children saw movie of an adult widely hitting a tall inflatable punching toy called a bobo doll. Later the children were given the opportunity to play with the toy themselves and, sure enough, they displayed the same kind of behavior, in some cases mimicking the aggressive behavior almost identically. This could be better explained by the following figure where a child learns hitting the toy by learning from TV:

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According to Bandura, observational learning takes place in four steps: 1. Paying attention and perceiving the most critical features of another person's behavior. 2. Remembering the behavior 3. Reproducing the action 4. Being motivated to learn and carry out the behavior. Bandura suggested Imitative behavior is a key to understanding such important human psychological phenomena as language learning, attitude for formation and personality development; it also plays a role in certain therapy for behavior problems. (Bano, 2009)

IMPORTANCE OR ROLE OF LEARNING:

Importance of learning or role of learning can thus be summed up in the following points: 1. Learning is of great importance in all fields as it is through learning that people can response to any stimuli or solves a problem. 2. Learning in psychology has helped in solving various disorders in human personality as it has helped in learning disabilities along with their cures. 3. Through learning one can also develop an understanding of behavior of individuals. 4. The theories of learning help an individual to achieve self-control and face up the circumstances by responding in the best way possible. 5. The theories of learning make us aware by our current knowledge of neuroscience allowing us to evaluate and design learning environments that provide for maximum learning efficiency.

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REFERENCES:
Bukhari, Z. Process of Psychology and Applied Psychology. Allied Book Centre: Pakistan Anonymous. (nd). Brief Note on Skinner's Experiment on Operant Conditioning. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://www.preservearticles.com/201102033859/brief-note-on-skinnersexperiment-on-operant-conditioning.html Bano, S. (2008-09) Psychology F.A (Part-1) (New Edition) She Publisher: Pakistan. Kristy, DR. (nd). The Basics of Trial and Error Learning. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http// Doctorkristy,hubpages.com/hub/trial-and-error-learning. Anonymous. (2008). Trial and Error. Retrieved April 11, 2012 from http://en.wikipedia.org/ Wiki/Trial_and_error. Anonymous. (nd). Classical Conditioning. Retrieved April 12, 2012 from http://www.thefree dictionary.com/classical+conditioning. Anonymous. (2012), Latent learning. Retrieved April 14, 2012 from http://www.alleydog.com/glossary/definition.php?term=Latent%20Learning

Jensen, R. (2006). Behaviorism, Latent Learning, and Cognitive Maps. Retrieved April 14, 2012 from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2223150/.

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