Learning theories

Learning
• Learning is a key process in human
behavior; it pervades everything
we do and think.


• It plays a central role in the language

we speak, our customs, our
attitudes and believes, our goals,
our personality traits and even our
perceptions.
 Definition
 “ Learning can be defined as any
relatively permanent change in
behavior that occurs as a result of
practice or experience”.


 This definition has three

important elements:-
• Learning is a change in behavior, for
better or worse.

• It is a change that takes place
through practice or experience,
changes due to growth or
maturation are not learning.


• Before it can be called learning, the

change must be relatively
permanent; it must last a fairly long
time.


 1. Classical conditioning


 2. Operant conditioning


 3. Observational learning
 Classical conditioning
(Principles of learning)
• Classical conditioning get its name
from the fact that it is the kind of
learning situation that existed in
the early “ classical” experiments
of Ivan P. Pavlov(1849-1936)


• In the late 1890s this famous Russian

psychologist begin to establish
many of the basic principles of this
form of conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is also
sometimes called respondent
conditioning or pavlovian
conditioning.
• It occurs under conditions in which
one stimulus is usually if not always
followed by another stimulus.
• As a result of such pairing, the first
stimulus often gains the ability to
evoke reactions which initially could
 Digestive process in animals

EXPERIMENT
 Diagrams of classical
conditioning
A.Before conditioning
 Neutral stimulus………..>
Response unrelated
 (Sound of bell) to meat powder
 Pricking of ears
Unconditioned stimulus---

Unconditioned
 response
 food…………….> Salivation
B. During conditioning


 Neutral stimulus
Unconditioned resp-
 Bell -onse(UCR)
 Unconditioned stimulus Salivation
 food
C. After conditioning


Conditioned stimulus…
>Unconditioned response
 Bell….> Salivation
 Basic principles of classical
conditioning
• Acquisition
• Stimulus generalization
• Stimulus discrimination
• Extinction
• Spontaneous recovery
 Operant
conditioning( Instrumental
learning)
• It is based upon the fact that our
actions often produce positive or
negative effects.
• “ Operant” means action or an
operation on the environment.
• The term “ operant” is used to
emphasize the component of work
involved on the part of the learner.
• Thus, we gradually come to behave
in ways which yield outcomes, we
find pleasant or which help us to
• B. F. Skinner formulated this type of
conditioning.


• Experiment
• We learn to engage in behavior which
produce positive outcomes or
stimuli.
• And we also learn complex actions
that help us to obtain such positive
outcomes as money, status and
success.
• Such stimuli are termed positive
reinforcement.
• We learn to engage in behavior which
permits us to avoid or escape from
Positive reinforce……> strengthens


responses which precede its

occurrence…..> individual learns to
perform responses which lead
negative reinforcement.


Negative reinforce…..>strengthens


responses which lead to its removal

or termination…..> individual learns
to perform responses which lead to
Reinforcement +ve
 Reinforcement -Ve


• Applying a +ve • Removal of –ve

(pleasant) stimulus (unpleasant
stimulus)
•

 Punishment +ve

 Punishment –ve

• Applying a –ve or
unpleasant stimulus • Removal of pleasant
(+ve) stimulus
 Operant principles
There are four types of reinforcement


• Primary reinforcement
• Secondary reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement
• Negative reinforcement
• Primary reinforcement satisfies
some biological needs. For e.g,
food.


• Secondary reinforcement is a
stimulus that becomes reinforcing
because of its association with a
primary reinforcement. For e.g.
money is valuable because it allows
us ‘to attain’ other desirable
• Positive reinforcement is a
process by which a stimulus added
to the environment that brings
about an increase in a preceding
response.
• Negative reinforcement is a
process by which the stimulus that
removes something unpleasant
from the environment, leads to an
increase in the probability that a
• Negative reinforcement teaches the
individual that taking an action
removes a negative condition that
exists in the environment.
• Negative reinforcement occurs in two
major forms of learning:-
1.Escape conditioning
2.Avoidance conditioning
• In escape conditioning, an
organism learns to make a
response that brings about an end
to an ever since reaction. For e.g.,
Children learn to withdraw their
hands from a hot radiator.
• Avoidance conditioning occurs
when an organism responds to a
signal of an impending unpleasant
event in a way that permit its
• Punishment refers to unpleasant or
painful stimuli that decreases the
probability that a preceding
behavior will occur again.
• In contrast, negative reinforcement is