LEARNING THEORIES

❑ PAVLOV,
PROPONENTS
❑THORNDIKE,
OF
❑SKINNER
BAHAVIORISM
❑AND WATSON
❑ Behavioral Learning
Theory focuses on
observed behaviors
and attempts to
Behavioral
determine how Learning
reinforcements and
punishments in the Theory
environment shape
behavior.
❑ Ivan Pavlov was a
Russian physiologist PAVLOV’S
who was well known CLASSICAL
for his classical CONDITIONING
conditioning or THEORY
stimulus substitution.
His experiment on dog,
meat and bell .
 PAVLOV’S
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
THEORY
❑ Before Conditioning
Bell (Neutral stimulus) since it does
not cause any response from the PAVLOV’S
hungry dog ----- No response
❑ During Conditioning
CLASSICAL
Bell (Neutral Stimulus) + Meat CONDITIONING
(Unconditioned Stimulus) provoke the
hungry dog to salivate automatically
THEORY
even without prior training ------
Salivation (Unconditioned Response)
occurred automatically also without
the need for any training or experience
❑After Conditioning
Bell (Conditioned PAVLOV’S
Stimulus) causes the dog CLASSICAL
to salivate ----- Salivation CONDITIONING
(conditioned response) THEORY
occurred after training
1. Stimulus Generalization- the
process by which the
conditioned response transfers Principles
to other stimuli which are
similar to the original of
conditioned stimulus. The dog
will eventually salivate upon
Classical
hearing similar sounds. Conditioning
2. Extinction- the process by
which conditioned response is
lost. If the ringing of the bell
will no longer be followed with
the presentation of food,
salivation will eventually cease.
 3. Spontaneous Recovery – the
process by which extinguished
response can be recovered after Principles
some time. of
4. Discrimination-the process
which an organism learns not to Classical
respond to similar stimuli in an
identical manner. The dog may
Conditioning
learn to distinguish which bell
would result in the presentation
of food and which would not.
 5. Higher-Order Conditioning-
Once the dog has been Principles
conditioned to associate the
bell with food, another of
unconditioned stimulus, such Classical
as a light may be flashed at
the same time that the bell is
Conditioning
rung. Eventually the dog will
salivate at the flash of the
light without the sound of the
bell.
❑ Edward L. Thorndike also
viewed learning as a response
to stimuli in the environment. THORNDIKE’S
He asserted that learning takes
CONNECTIONISM
place when a strong
connection or bond between THEORY
stimulus and response is (S-R BOND)
formed.
❑ The model for S-R theory
was trial and error learning
in which certain responses
came to be repeated than
others because of rewards.
1. Law of Effect - states that if
an act is followed by a
satisfying result, the
likelihood that the act will Primary
be repeated increases and
if the act is followed by an Laws of
annoying result the Learning
response is weakened.
2. Law of Exercise - the more an
S-R bond is practiced, the stronger it
will become, following the saying
“practice makes perfect”. Thorndike
found that practice without feedback
does not necessarily enhance
performance.
3. Law of Readiness - – the
more readiness the learner
has to respond to the
stimulus, the stronger will be Primary
the bond between them.
When a person is ready to Laws of
respond to a stimulus and is Learning
not made to respond, it
becomes annoying to the
learner.
1. Learning requires both
practice and rewards.
2. A series of S-R connections
can be chained together if Principles of
they belong to the same
action sequence. Connectionism
3. Transfer of learning occurs
because of previously
encountered situations.
4. Intelligence is a function of
the number of connections
learned.
❑ Burrhus Frederick Skinner
or B.F. Skinner also believed
in the stimulus-response
pattern of conditioned SKINNER’S
behavior. He proposed OPERANT
that learning is a result of CONDITIONING
change in overt behavior.
Changes in behavior are the THEORY
result of an individual’s
response to events or
stimuli that occur in the
environment.
❑ When a particular stimulus-
response pattern is
reinforced or rewarded, the
learner is conditioned to SKINNER’S
response. OPERANT
❑ His work also focused on the
relation between behavior and
CONDITIONING
its consequences, that is, if the THEORY
behavior is immediately
followed by pleasurable
consequences, the behavior
would be frequently repeated.
1. Reinforcement – the key
element to Skinner’s
Operant Conditioning that
refers to any behavioral Principles of
consequence that
strengthens a desired Operant
response. It increases the Conditioning
likelihood of the recurrence
of a particular type of
response.
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT
a. Positive reinforcer – any stimulus
that is given to increase the response
such as praise, grades, stars, extra time.
Other examples are: when a child is Principles of
promised an extra allowance for getting
high scores in tests and when a teacher
Operant
gives extra play time to a pupil who
finished first his work.
Conditioning
b. Negative reinforcer - any stimulus
that results in the increased frequency of
a response when it is withdrawn or
removed such as when a student will be
exempted from the final exam when he
got perfect in the summative test before
the final examination.
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT
c. Primary reinforcers- are
those that satisfy basic human
needs such as food water, Principles of
security
Operant
d. Secondary reinforcers - are
those that acquire reinforcing Conditioning
power because they have been
associated with the primary
reinforcers such as money, grades,
medals
2. Shaping of Behavior - The
process by which successive
approximations of the behavior are
rewarded until one learns the
association expected behavior and Principles of
the reinforcement given.
3. Behavioral Chaining - come
Operant
about when a series of steps are Conditioning
needed to be learned.
Ex. Shoe lace tying
4. Reinforcement Schedule - the
interval of time when a target
response is reinforced.
5. Programmed Instructions are
the implications of operant
conditioning
a. Practice should take the form of
question (stimulus)-answer Principles of
(response) frames which expose the
student to the subject in gradual Operant
steps.
b. Require the learner to make a Conditioning
response for every frame and
receives immediate feedback.
c. Arrange the difficulty of the
questions so the response is
always correct and hence, a
positive reinforcement.
❑ John B. Watson was an
American psychologist who
believed that humans are born
with a few reflexes and the
emotional reactions of love and WATSON’S
rage.
❑ . He was also a proponent of
BEHAVIORISM
learning through stimulus- THEORY
response associations through
conditioning.
❑ He strongly believed in the power of
conditioning that he said “give me a
dozen healthy infants and I could
make them into someone I would
want them to be”
❑ In his research, he used a young child named
Albert and a white rat. In the beginning,
Albert was not afraid of the rat; but Watson
made a sudden loud noise each time Albert
touched the rat. Because Albert was
frightened by the loud noise, he soon
became conditioned to fear and avoid the WATSON’S
rat. Later, the child’s response was
generalized to other small animals. Now, he BEHAVIORISM
was also afraid of small animals. Watson
then ‘extinguished” or made the child
“unlearn” fear by showing the rat without
THEORY
the loud noise. His work clearly illustrates
the role of conditioning in the development
of emotional responses of children to certain
stimuli which may help explain fears,
phobias and prejudices that people develop.
1. Breaking down the skills and
information to be learned into
small units. Behavioral
teaching and learning Educational
emphasizes on the breaking Implications of
down of complex tasks, such behavioral
as learning to read, into sub-
skills that are to be taught learning theory
separately.
2. Checking student's work regularly and
providing feedback as well as
encouragement (reinforcement).

3. Teaching "out of context". Educational

Behaviorists generally believe that
students can be taught best when the Implications of
focus is directly on the content to be
taught. Behavioral instruction often takes
behavioral
the material out of the context in which
it will be used. Such approach does not
learning theory
generally ask you to actually put the
skills or knowledge you learn into use in
a "real" or "authentic" situation.
4. Direct or "teacher centered"
instruction. Lectures, tutorials,
drills, demonstrations, and other
forms of teacher controlled Educational
teaching tend to dominate
behavioral classrooms. This Implications of
teaching model is aimed at helping behavioral
students learn basic skills and
knowledge that can be taught in a learning theory
step-by-step fashion. Sometimes it
is referred to as active teaching,
mastery teaching of explicit
instruction.
BANDURA’S SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
❑ Albert Bandura believed that learning
is not shaped by its consequences but
is more efficientlylearned directly
from a model. Hence, learning occurs
NEO-
within a social context. It considers
that people learn from one another
BEHAVIORISM:
through modeling (imitation of BANDURA AND
other’s behavior and of vicarious
experience (learning from successes TOLMAN
or failures of others).
1 . People can learn by observing
the behavior of others and the
outcomes of those behaviors.
2. Learning can occur without a
Principles of
change in behavior thus , learning Social Learning
may or may not result in behavior
change. This idea contradicts with Theory
the other behaviorists that
learning has to be represented by a
permanent change in behavior
3. Cognition plays a role in
learning. Social learning theory can
be considered a bridge or a
transition between behaviorist and
cognitive learning theory.
1. Learning without performance-
Bandura makes a distinction
between learning through
observation and the actual
imitation of what has been learned Cognitive
2. Cognitive processing during
Factors in
learning- attention is a critical Social Learning
factor in learning
3. Expectations-as a result of being
reinforced, people for expectations
about the consequences that
future behaviors are likely to bring.
They expect certain behaviors to
bring reinforcements and others to
4. Reciprocal causation- behavior
can influence both the
environment and the person
5. Modeling-There are different
types of models. Cognitive
a. live model - the actual person
demonstrating the behavior.
Factors in
b. symbolic model- the person or Social Learning
action portrayed in some other
medium such as television,
videotapes, computer programs.
1. Attention-the person must pay
attention to the model
2. Retention-the observer must be
able to remember the behavior
that has been observed Four Phases of
3. Motor Reproduction- observer
must have the ability to replicate
behavioral
the behavior or the that the model learning
has demonstrated
4. Motivation- Learners must want
to demonstrate what they have
learned.
1. Use strategies to gain students’ How the
attention
2. Ensure that the observation is principles
not too complex. of social cognitive
3. Link new skills to students’ learning
prior knowledge
4. Use practice to ensure long-
theory can be
term retention. translated into
5. Ensure a positive attitude the teaching
new skill so students will be behaviors
motivated to reproduce or use
the new behavior.
❑ Edward Tolman and Albert
Bandura are the proponents of
neobehaviorism. Both theories
are influenced by behaviorism
TOLMAN’S
which is focused on external PURPOSIVE
elements in learning but their BEHAVIORISM
principles seem to also be
reflective of the cognitive
perspective (focused on more
internal elements).
1. Learning is purposive and goal-
directed- -individuals do more than
merely responding to stimuli; they
act on beliefs, attitudes, changing
Key Concepts in
conditions, and they strive toward Purposive
goals. Behavior is holistic, Behaviorism
purposive and cognitive.
2. Cognitive map- the ability to
create a mental picture of what
had been previously experienced
for future use to achieve a goal.
3. Latent Learning-a kind of
learning that remains or stays with
the individual until needed. It is a
kind of learning that is not
outwardly manifested at once. It
Key Concepts in
can exist even without Purposive
reinforcement. Behaviorism
4. Intervening variables- are factors that
are not readily observable but serve as
determinants of behavior such as
expectations, perceptions,
representations, needs and other
internal or environmental factors. In his
experiment with rats, he observed that
hunger was an intervening factor.
 5. Reinforcement is not essential
to learning- learning can take place
even without reinforcement but by
the goal or purpose that the
Key Concepts in
individual would want to achieve. Purposive
Behaviorism
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