Presenter:Dr.S.Santhosh goud

DNB Resident,VIMHANS

Chairperson;Dr.S.Naveen

Guest faculty

Manassanthi hospital

Learning-changes and modifications in the behavior of the individual which he undergoes from his birth till death

Learning is modification of behavior to meet environmental requirements(Gardener murphy,1968)

Learning is the acquisition of new behavior or the strengthening or weakening of old behavior as a result of experience(Henry smith 1962)

Learning is the process by which behavior is originated or changes through practice or training(Pressy and Robbins,1967)

Learning is the process by which an activity originates or is changed through reacting to an encountered situation, provided that the characteristics of the changes in activity cannot be explained on the basis of native response,tendencies,maturation,or temporary states of the organism(Hilgard,1958)

Learning is a Process which brings Relatively Permanent Changes in the Behavior of a Learner through Experience or Practice

CHARACTERISTICS

It is a process

Involves all the experiences and trainings which helps to produce changes in behavior

The changes may be positive or negative

Helps in adjustment and adaptation

Purposeful and goal oriented

Covers all the aspects of mind

Universal and continuous

It does not include the changes in behavior on account of maturation,fatigue,illness or drugs

type

learning maturation Fatigue drugs illness

characters

Process brought by training or experienceRelatively permanent changes

No role of practice or learningUnfolding of inherited traits

Transitory in natureunstable

Types of learning

Verbal learning

Motor learning

Concept learning

Problem solving

Serial learning

Paired associate learning

Behaviorism

Learner is passive, responding to environmental stimuli

Learner starts off as a clean slate and behavior is shaped through reinforcement and punishment

Radical behaviorism

By skinner, role of emotions and mediating structures

Cognitivism

Humans are not programmed animals

Learning needs active participation with processing of information with mental faculties of thinking,memory,knowing and problem solving.

Constructivism

Learning is an active contextualized process of constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it

Knowledge is constructed upon personal experience and hypothesis of environment

Humanism

It focuses on human freedom,dignity and potential.

Humans act with intentionality and values

Behavioral

Thorndike’s trail and error

Pavlov’s classical conditioning

Operant conditioning

Cognitive

Insightful learning

Field theory of learning

Tolman’s cognitive maps

Social learning

Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian conditioning or respondent conditioning) is a kind of learning that occurs when a conditioned stimulus (CS) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US).

Usually, the CS is a neutral stimulus (e.g., the sound of a tuning fork), the US is biologically potent (e.g., the taste of food) and the unconditioned response (UR) to the US is an unlearned reflex response (e.g., salivation). After pairing is repeated (some learning may occur already after only one pairing), the organism exhibits a conditioned response (CR) to the CS when the CS is presented alone. The CR is usually similar to the UR , but unlike the UR, it must be acquired through experience and is relatively impermanent.

While studying physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov developed a procedure that enabled him to study the digestive processes of animals over long periods of time. He redirected the animal’s digestive fluids outside the body, where they could be measured. Pavlov noticed that the dogs in the experiment began to salivate in the presence of the technician who normally fed them, rather than simply salivating in the presence of food. Pavlov called the dogs' anticipated salivation, psychic secretion.

From his observations he predicted that a stimulus could become associated with food and cause salivation on its own, if a particular stimulus in the dog's surroundings was present when the dog was given food.

The timing between the presentation of the CS and US affects both the learning and the performance of the conditioned response. Pavlov found that the shorter the interval between the ringing of the bell and the appearance of the food, the stronger and quicker the dog learned the conditioned response.

Forward conditioning

Learning is fastest in forward conditioning. During forward conditioning, the onset of the CS precedes the onset of the US in order to signal that the US will follow. Two common forms of forward conditioning are delay and trace conditioning.

Delay conditioning: In delay conditioning the CS is presented and is overlapped by the presentation of the US. The difference between trace conditioning and delay conditioning is that in the delayed procedure the CS and US overlap.

Trace conditioning: During trace conditioning the CS and US do not overlap. Instead, the CS begins and ends before the US is presented. The stimulus-free period is called the trace interval. It may also be called the conditioning interval. For example: If you sound a buzzer for 5 seconds and then, a second later, puff air into a person’s eye, the person will blink. After several pairings of the buzzer and puff the person will blink at the sound of the buzzer alone

Principles of classical conditioning

Acquisition

Extinction

Recovery from extinction

Stimulus generalization

Stimulus discrimination

Blocking

Acquisition-depends upon number of times the conditoned and uncondtioned stmuli are paired

Magnitude,latency and probability of occurance of the conditioned response

Ideal time intervel is 0.5secs

Stimulus generalization-once conditioning has taken place for a given conditioned stimulus, the organism tends to respond in the similar fashion to other stimuli resembling the already conditioned cs.

Discrimination-when one of two similar stimuli is followed by a ucs while the other is not, the tendency to respond to the first stimulus is strengthened, while tendency to respond to the second is weakened

Initially the individual learns to pay attention to the appropriate stimulate dimensions and later the conditioned responses are attached to the cs.

Extinction and -when a cs is presented repeatedly without it being followed by a ucs,the ability of the csto elicit crs decreases.

spontaneous recovery-If the cs is presented again at a later time,its ability to evoke crs reappears.

Classical conditioning mere contiguity or cognitive processing?

Pairing of cs-ucs makes cs as a signal

Explained by blocking experiments in which subjects are exposed to repeated pairings of a light and electical shock until the light becomes a cs.

A second stimulus is then added so that both the light and noise occur together prior to the shock.

When the sound is later presented alone. it does not elicit a conditioned response

It was blocked due to previous conditioning to light

In cognitive perspective ,it is explained that the light already predicts the occurrence of the shock, the new stimulus is irrelevant because it provides no new information. since the new stimulus does not add to the subjects ability to predict the shock, it fails to become a conditioned stimulus.

Neural basis of learning and memory

Pavlov proposed that conditioning involved a connection between brain centers for conditioned and unconditioned stimuli. His physiological account of conditioning has been abandoned, but classical conditioning continues to be studied in attempts to understand the neural structures and functions that underlie learning and memory. Forms of classical conditioning that are used for this purpose include, among others, fear conditioning, eyeblinkconditioning, and the foot contraction conditioning of Hermissenda crassicornis, a sea-slug.

Behavioral therapies

Some therapies associated with classical conditioning are aversion therapy, systematic desensitization and flooding.

Aversion therapy is a type of behavior therapy designed to make patients give up an undesirable habit by causing them to associate it with an unpleasant effect.

Systematic desensitization is a treatment for phobias in which the patient is trained to relax while being exposed to progressively more anxiety-provoking stimuli.

Flooding attempts to eliminate an unwanted CR. This type of behavior therapy is a form of desensitization for treating phobias and anxieties by repeated exposure to highly distressing stimuli until the lack of reinforcement of the anxiety response causes its extinction. It is usually with actual exposure to the stimuli, with implosion used for imagined exposure, but the two terms are sometimes used synonymously.

Conditioning therapies usually take less time than humanistic therapies

Conditioned drug response

A stimulus that is present when a drug is administered or consumed may eventually evoke a conditioned physiological response that mimics the effect of the drug. This is sometimes the case with caffeine; habitual coffee drinkers may find that the smell of coffee gives them a feeling of alertness. In other cases, the conditioned response is a compensatory reaction that tends to offset the effects of the drug. For example, if a drug causes the body to become less sensitive to pain, the compensatory conditioned reaction may be one that makes the user more sensitive to pain. This compensatory reaction may contribute to drug tolerance. If so, a drug user may increase the amount of drug consumed in order to feel its effects, and end up taking very large amounts of the drug. In this case a dangerous overdose reaction may occur if the CS happens to be absent, so that the conditioned compensatory effect fails to occur. For example, if the drug has always been administered in the same room, the stimuli provided by that room may produce a conditioned compensatory effect; then an overdose reaction may happen if the drug is administered in a different location where the conditioned stimuli are absent

Conditioned hunger Signals that consistently precede food intake can become

conditioned stimuli for a set of bodily responses that prepares the body for food and digestion. These reflexive responses include the secretion of digestive juices into the stomach and the secretion of certain hormones into the blood stream, and they induce a state of hunger.

An example of conditioned hunger is the "appetizer effect." Any signal that consistently precedes a meal, such as a clock indicating that it is time for dinner, can cause people to feel hungrier than before the signal. The lateral hypothalamus (LH) is involved in the initiation of eating. The nigrostriatal pathway, which includes the substantia nigra, the lateral hypothalamus, and the basal ganglia have been shown to be involved in hunger motivation

Conditioned emotional response

The influence of classical conditioning can be seen in emotional responses such as phobia, disgust, nausea, anger, and sexual arousal. A familiar example is conditioned nausea, in which the CS is the sight or smell of a particular food that in the past has resulted in an unconditioned stomach upset. Similarly, when the CS is the sight of a dog and the US is the pain of being bitten, the result may be a conditioned fear of dogs.

As an adaptive mechanism, emotional conditioning helps shield an individual from harm or prepare it for important biological events such as sexual activity. Thus, a stimulus that has occurred before sexual interaction comes to cause sexual arousal, which prepares the individual for sexual contact. For example, sexual arousal has been conditioned in human subjects by pairing a stimulus like a picture of a jar of pennies, with views of an erotic film clip. Similar experiments involving blue gourami fish and domesticated quail have shown that such conditioning can increase the number of offspring. These results suggest that conditioning techniques might help to increase fertility rates in infertile individuals and endangered species

"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select -- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."--John Watson, Behaviorism, 1930

The term behaviorism refers to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed.

Behaviorism, also known as behavioral psychology, is a theory of learning based upon the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment. Behaviorists believe that our responses to environmental stimuli shape our behaviors.

According to this school of thought, behavior can be studied in a systematic and observable manner with no consideration of internal mental states. It suggests that only observable behaviors should be studied, since internal states such as cognitions, emotions, and moods are too subjective.

The "Little Albert" experiment was a famous psychology experiment conducted by behaviorist John B. Watson and graduate student Rosalie Raynor.

Watson was interested in taking Pavlov's research further to show that emotional reactions could be classically conditioned in people.

Around the age of nine months, Watson and Raynerexposed the child to a series of stimuli including a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey, masks and burning newspapers and observed the boy's reactions. The boy initially showed no fear of any of the objects he was shown.

The next time Albert was exposed the rat, Watson made a loud noise by hitting a metal pipe with a hammer. Naturally, the child began to cry after hearing the loud noise. After repeatedly pairing the white rat with the loud noise, Albert began to cry simply after seeing the rat.

The instant the rat was shown, the baby began to cry. Almost instantly he turned sharply to the left, fell over on [his] left side, raised himself on all fours and began to crawl away so rapidly that he was caught with difficulty before reaching the edge of the table.“

Stimulus Generalization in the Little Albert Experiment

In addition to demonstrating that emotional responses could be conditioned in humans, Watson and Rayner also observed that stimulus generalization had occurred. After conditioning, Albert feared not just the white rat, but a wide variety of similar white objects as well. His fear included other furry objects including Raynor's fur coat and Watson wearing a Santa Claus beard.

Criticisms of the Little Albert Experiment

While the experiment is one of psychology's most famous and is included in nearly every introductory psychology course, it has also been criticized widely for several reasons. First, the experimental design and process was not carefully constructed. Watson and Rayner did not develop an object means to evaluate Albert's reactions, instead relying on their own subjective interpretations. Secondly, the experiment also raises many ethical concerns. The Little Albert experiment could not be conducted by today's standards because it would be unethical.

Thorndike's Puzzle Box ProcedureThorndike placed a hungry cat inside a "puzzle box" with food outside. Initially, the cat would become agitated and produce many different "random" behaviours in an attempt to get out of the cage. Eventually, the cat would press the paddle by chance, the door would open and the cat could escape and get the food. The cat would then be placed inside the box again and would again take a long time (on average) to escape after exhibiting many different behaviours

Stages in process of learning Drive goal block random movements chance success

Selection fixation

Thorndike proposed a general theory oflearning which is called the Law of Effect. This law of effect states that:

"The consequences of a response determine whether the tendency to perform it is strengthened or weakened. If the response is followed by a satisfying event (e.g., access to food), it will be strengthened; if the response is not followed by a satisfying event, it will be weakened.

The Law of Effect starts with the assumption that when an animal encounters anew environment, it will initially produce largely random behaviors (e.g., scratching, digging, etc.). Over repeated trials, the animal will gradually associate some of these behaviors with good things (e.g., access to food) and these behaviors will be more likely to occur again.

In Thorndike's terms, these behaviors are "stamped in". Other behaviors that have no useful consequences are "stamped out“.

Thorndike's view of learning-the animal simply learns to associate certain behaviors with satisfaction such that these behaviors become more likely to occur. Thorndike called this type of learning instrumental learning. The animal learns to produce a response that is instrumental in getting satisfaction.

B. F. Skinner replaced the term instrumental learning with the term operarant learning refined Thorndike's terminology and methodology to fit the new paradigm in psychology -- Behaviorism as well as Ernst Mach's paradigmitic contribution to physics Operationalism. He began by elucidating differences between Pavlovian/Watsonian type classical conditioning and his operant learning--showing that they were fundamentally different processes.

In operant learning:a biologically significant event is followed by a

response, not a stimulus,a consequence of that response alters the strength of association between a neutral stimulus context (e.g., the operant chamber) and a quite arbitrary response (e.g., pressing the paddle). The response is not any part of a reflex and so Skinner termed it a behavior rather than a response to distinguish it from PavlovianConditioning

Skinner replaced Thorndike's term instrumental responses with the term operant responses or simply operants because they operate on the world to produce a consequence (feedback from the world that has just been operated on). He also referred to instrumental learning as operant learning.

In operant conditioning, behavior is also affected by its consequences, but the process is not trial-and-error learning.

Operant learning : The process through which the consequence of an operant (behavior) affects the likelihood that the behavior will be produced again in the future. Unlike reflexes, operant behaviors can be accomplished in a number of ways and are what we normally think of as voluntary actions.

In operant learning, the emphasis is on the consequences of a motor act rather than the act in and of itself. Skinner, like Thorndike, believed in the Law of Effect. He believed that the tendency to emit an operant behavior is strengthened or weakened by the consequences of the response.

Classical respondent conditioning Operant conditioning

Learning of respondent behavior Learning of operant behavior

S conditioning stimulus is important in eliciting response

R Type conditioning as the emphasis on the response

Beginning with specific stimuli that bring certain responses

Beginning made with responses as they occur naturally /unnaturally ,shaping them into existence

Strength of conditioning determined by magnitude of the conditioned response

Strength of conditioning shown by the response rate

Skinner BoxSkinner developed a new method for studying operant learning using what iscommonly called a "Skinner box". Skinner boxes are also called operant chambers

A Skinner box is a cage with a lever or some other mechanism that the animal can operate to produce some effect, such as the delivery of a small amount of food. The advantage of the Skinner box over Thorndike's puzzle box is that the animal does not have to be replaced into the cage on each trial. With the Skinner box, the animal is left in the box for the experimental session and is free to respond whenever it wishes.

Skinner and his followers argued that virtually everything we do can be understood as operant or instrumental responses that occur because of their past reinforcement and that this is independent of whether or not we are aware of the consequences of our behavior.

Skinner believed that operant behavior (i.e., operant responses) is determined by its consequences. He identified four possible consequences of behavior:

1) Positive ReinforcementAny stimulus that increases the probability of a behavior

2) Negative ReinforcementAny stimulus whose removal increases the probability of a behavior.

2)3) Positive Punishment

Any stimulus whose presence (as opposed to absence in -vereinforcement) decreases the probability of behavior.

3)4) Negative Punishment

Any stimulus whose removal decreases the probability of a behavior.

Reinforcement increases the behavior

Positive –gives something rewarding

Negatives-removes something aversive

Punishment decreases the behavior

Positive-gives something aversive

Negative-removes something rewarding

In most cases reinforcement refers to an enhancement of behavior but this term may also refer to an enhancement of memory. One example of this effect is called post-training reinforcement where a stimulus (e.g. food) given shortly after a training session enhances the learning.

Primary reinforcers

A primary reinforcer, sometimes called an unconditioned reinforcer, is a stimulus that does not require pairing to function as a reinforcer and most likely has obtained this function through the evolution and its role in species' survival.

Ex;-sleep, food, air, water, and sex.

While these primary reinforcers are fairly stable through life and across individuals, the reinforcing value of different primary reinforcers varies due to multiple factors (e.g., genetics, experience). Thus, one person may prefer one type of food while another abhors it. Or one person may eat lots of food while another eats very little. So even though food is a primary reinforcer for both individuals, the value of food as a reinforcerdiffers between them.

Secondary reinforcers

A secondary reinforcer, sometimes called a conditioned reinforcer, is a stimulus or situation that has acquired its function as a reinforcer after pairing with a stimulus that functions as a reinforcer. This stimulus may be a primary reinforcer or another conditioned reinforcer (such as money).

A generalized reinforcer is a conditioned reinforcer that has obtained the reinforcing function by pairing with many other reinforcers and functions as a reinforcer under a wide-variety of motivating operations. (One example of this is money because it is paired with many other reinforcers).

Reinforcement Schedules in Operant ConditioningA major area of research in Operant Learning is on the effects of different reinforcement schedules. The first distinction is between partial and continuous reinforcement.Continuous Reinforcement: every response is reinforced

Partial or Intermittent Reinforcement: only some responses are reinforced.

Intermittent reinforcements

Pigeons experimented on in a scientific study were more responsive to intermittent reinforcements, than positive reinforcements. In other words, pigeons were more prone to act when they only sometimes could get what they wanted. This effect was such that behavioral responses were maximized when the reward rate was at 50% (in other words, when the uncertainty was maximized), and would gradually decline toward values on either side of 50%.

In initial training, continuous reinforcement is the most efficient but after a response is learned, the animal will continue to perform with partial reinforcement. Extinction is slower following partial reinforcement than following continuous reinforcement. Skinner and others have described four basic schedules of partial reinforcement which have different effects on the rate and pattern of responding.

Ratio schedules: reinforcer given after some number of responses.

Interval schedules: reinforcer given after some time period.

Fixed: the number of responses or time period is held constant.Variable: the number of responses or the time period is varied

around a mean

Typical Behavior with the 4 Schedules

Fixed-Ratio: bursts of responses.

Variable-Ratio: extremely high, steady rate of responding. (Slot machines work on a VR schedule). Known to produce extreme behavior patterns categorized as compulsive or addictive behavior patterns

Fixed-Interval: pauses with accelerating responses as the time approaches (the "scallop effect").

Variable-Interval: after training, a slow, steady pattern of responses is usually seen.Response rate is generally higher with the ratio schedules.

The Premack principle is a special case of reinforcement elaborated by David Premack, which states that a highly-preferred activity can be used effectively as a reinforcer for a less-preferred activity.

Also known as grandma principle

In his 1967 paper, Arbitrary and Natural Reinforcement, Charles Ferster proposed classifying reinforcement into events that increase frequency of an operant as a natural consequence of the behavior itself, and events that are presumed to affect frequency by their requirement of human mediation, such as in a token economy where subjects are "rewarded" for certain behavior with an arbitrary token of a negotiable value.

Shaping -reinforcement of successive approximations to a desired instrumental response.

Chaining-involves linking discrete behaviors together in a series, such that each result of each behavior is both the reinforcement (or consequence) for the previous behavior, and the stimuli (or antecedent) for the next behavior. There are many ways to teach chaining, such as forward chaining (starting from the first behavior in the chain), backwards chaining (starting from the last behavior) and total task chaining (in which the entire behavior is taught from beginning to end, rather than as a series of steps).

Persuasive communication & the reinforcement theory

Persuasion influences any person the way they think, act and feel. Persuasive skill tells about how people understand the concern, position and needs of the people.

Process of persuasion relates how you influence people with your skills, experience, knowledge, leadership, qualities and team capabilities. Persuasion is an interactive process while getting the work done by others.

Examples for persuasion skills in real time. Interview: you can prove your best talents, skills and

expertise. Clients: to guide your clients for the achievement of the

goals or targets. Memos: to express your ideas and views to coworkers for

the improvement in the operations. Resistance identification and positive attitude are the vital

roles of persuasion. Persuasion is a form of human interaction. It takes place

when one individual expects some particular response from one or more other individuals and deliberately sets out to secure the response through the use of communication.

Distinguishing between positive and negative can be difficult and may not always be necessary; focusing on what is being removed or added and how it is being removed or added will determine the nature of the reinforcement.

Negative reinforcement is not punishment. The two, as explained above, differ in the increase (negative reinforcement) or decrease (punishment) of the future probability of a response. However, in negative reinforcement, the stimulus is an aversive stimulus, which if presented contingent on a response, may also function as a positive punisher.

The increase in behavior is independent of (i.e. not related to) whether or not the organism finds the reinforcer to be pleasant or aversive. Example: A child is given detention for acting up in school, but the frequency of the bad behavior increases. Thus, the detention is a reinforcer (could be positive or negative) even if the detention is not a pleasant stimuli, perhaps because the child now feels like a "rebel" or sees it as an opportunity to get out of class.

Some reinforcement can be simultaneously positive and negative, such as a drug addict taking drugs for the added euphoria (a positive feeling) and eliminating withdrawal symptoms (which would be a negative feeling).

Both positive and negative reinforcement increasebehavior. Most people, especially children, will learn to follow instruction by a mix of positive and negative reinforcement

The experimental analysis of operant behavior has led to a technology often called behavior modification. It usually consists of changing the consequences of behavior, removing consequences which have caused trouble, or arranging new consequences for behavior which has lacked strength. Historically, people have been controlled primarily through negative reinforcement that is, they have been punished when they have not done what is reinforcing to those who could punish them. Positive reinforcement has been less often used, partly because its effect is slightly deferred, but it can be as effective as negative reinforcement and has many fewer unwanted byproducts.

Edward Tolman showed the flaws in the law of effect as well as radical Behaviorism as promoted by Skinner and his followers and explained the mechanism of mental mapping in learning.

Tolman was an "S-S" (stimulus-stimulus), non-reinforcement theorist: he drew on Gestalt psychology to argue that animals could learn the connections between stimuli and did not need any explicit biologically significant event to make learning occur. This is known as latent learning

He introduced concept of cognitive maps(1948), which has found extensive application in almost every field of psychology.

Tolman assessed both response learning and place learning. Response learning is when the rat knows that the response of going a certain way in the maze will always lead to food; place learning is when the rats learn to associate the food in a specific spot each time.

In his trials he observed that all of the rats in the place-learning maze learned to run the correct path within eight trials and that none of the response-learning rats learned that quickly, and some did not even learn it at all after seventy-two trials.

Tolman's theoretical model was described in his paper "The Determiners of Behavior at a Choice Point".

The three different variables that influence behavior are: independent, intervening, and dependent variables. The experimenter can manipulate the independent variables; these independent variables (e.g., stimuli provided) in turn influence the intervening variables (e.g., motor skill, appetite). Independent variables are also factors of the subject that the experimenter specifically chooses for. The dependent variables (e.g., speed, number of errors) allows the psychologist to measure the strength of the intervening variables.

Information Processing Theory (G. Miller)

George A. Miller has provided two theoretical ideas that are fundamental to cognitive psychology and the information processing framework.The first concept is "chunking" and the capacity of short term memory. Miller (1956) presented the idea that short-term memory could only hold 5-9 chunks of information (seven plus or minus two) where a chunk is any meaningful unit. A chunk could refer to digits, words, chess positions, or people's faces. The concept of chunking and the limited capacity of short term memory became a basic element of all subsequent theories of memory.

The second concept is TOTE (Test-Operate-Test-Exit) proposed by Miller, Galanter & Pribram (1960). Miller et al. suggested that TOTE should replace the stimulus-response as the basic unit of behavior. In a TOTE unit, a goal is tested to see if it has been achieved and if not an operation is performed to achieve the goal; this cycle of test-operate is repeated until the goal is eventually achieved or abandoned. The TOTE concept provided the basis of many subsequent theories of problem solving and production systems.

For explaining higher cognitive abilities

Learning is processing and giving response

Wolfgang kohler originated insightful learning

Gestalt school

Learning is purposive, exploratory and creative enterprise

Learner perceives the situation as a whole and after seeing and evaluating the different relationships takes the proper decision in an intelligent view(insight)

Kohler's experiments with chimpanzees showed learning by insight(Mentality of Apes 1925)

The chimpanzees used higher problem solving abilities.

Identifying the problem

Organizing the perceptual field and

Using insight to solve the problems

Cognitive learning depends on

Experience

Intelligence

Learning situation

Initial efforts

Repetition and generalization

Social learning posits that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context and can occur purely through observation or direct instruction, even in the absence of motor reproduction or direct reinforcement.

In addition to the observation of behavior(Pure Modeling -no one gets rewarded or punished), learning also occurs through the observation of rewards and punishments, a process known as vicarious reinforcement. The theory expands on traditional behavioral theories, in which behavior is governed solely by reinforcements, by placing emphasis on the important roles of various internal processes in the learning individual social learning.

Bandura began to conduct studies of the rapid acquisition of novel behaviors via social observation, the most famous of which were the Bobo doll experiments.

Bobo doll experiments

In 1961, Bandura and colleagues published the first paper on the results of the now-famous Bobo doll experiments.The Bobo doll is a child-sized inflatable doll with a weighted bottom that causes it to pop back up after being knocked down. In the first iteration of these studies, preschool-aged children were divided into three groups: one group that observed an adult behaving aggressively towards the Bobo doll (punching, kicking, striking with a mallet, yelling), another group that observed the adult playing peacefully, and a control group.

To control for possible peer influences, each participant viewed their assigned scenario individually. Later, the child was allowed to play independently in the play room which contained a variety of aggressive and non-aggressive toys, including the Bobo doll. Participants’ acts of verbal and physical aggression toward the Bobo doll were then recorded. Results revealed significant group differences, such that children exposed to the aggressive model were more likely to imitate what they had seen and behave aggressively toward the doll.Bandura and colleagues argued that the results supported that children could rapidly acquire novel behaviors through the process of observation and imitation, and this occurred even in the absence of any kind of reinforcement.

Subsequent variations on the original experiment provided additional insights into the social nature of learning. In a 1963 paper, Bandura and colleagues demonstrated that children imitated aggressive behavior witnessed on video, in addition to live observation, and children also imitated aggressive behaviors enacted by a cartoon character.Anadditional study, published in 1965, showed that witnessing the model being punished for the aggressive behavior decreased the likelihood that children would imitate the behavior, a process he referred to as vicarious reinforcement.

Social learning theory integrated behavioral and cognitive theories of learning in order to provide a comprehensive model that could account for the wide range of learning experiences that occur in the real world. As initially outlined by Bandura and Walters in 1963 and further detailed in 1977, key tenets of social learning theory are as follows:

Learning is not purely behavioral; rather, it is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context.

Learning can occur by observing a behavior and by observing the consequences of the behavior (vicarious reinforcement).

Learning involves observation, extraction of information from those observations, and making decisions about the performance of the behavior (observational learning or modeling). Thus, learning can occur without an observable change in behavior.

Reinforcement plays a role in learning but is not entirely responsible for learning.

The learner is not a passive recipient of information. Cognition, environment, and behavior all mutually influence each other (reciprocal determinism).

Social learning theory draws heavily on the concept of modeling, or learning by observing a behavior.

Bandura outlined three types of modeling stimuli:

Live model-in which an actual person is demonstrating the desired behavior

Verbal instruction-in which an individual describes the desired behavior in detail and instructs the participant in how to engage in the behavior

Symbolic-in which modeling occurs by means of the media, including movies, television, Internet, literature, and radio. Stimuli can be either real or fictional characters.

Exactly what information is gleaned from observation is influenced by the type of model, as well as a series of cognitive and behavioral processes, including:[3]

Attention

In order to learn, observers must attend to the modeled behavior. Attention is impacted by characteristics of the observer (e.g., perceptual abilities, cognitive abilities, arousal, past performance) and characteristics of the behavior or event (e.g., relevance, novelty, affective valence, and functional value).

Retention

In order to reproduce an observed behavior, observers must be able to remember features of the behavior. Again, this process is influenced by observer characteristics (cognitive capabilities, cognitive rehearsal) and event characteristics (complexity).

Reproduction

To reproduce a behavior, the observer must organize responses in accordance with the model. Observer characteristics affecting reproduction include physical and cognitive capabilities and previous performance.

Motivation

The decision to reproduce (or refrain from reproducing) an observed behavior is dependent on the motivations and expectations of the observer, including anticipated consequences and internal standards

An important factor in social learning theory is the concept of reciprocal determinism. This notion states that just as an individual’s behavior is influenced by the environment, the environment is also influenced by the individual’s behavior. In other words, a person’s behavior, environment, and personal qualities all reciprocally influence each other.

Criminology

Social learning theory has been used to explain the emergence and maintenance of deviant behavior, especially aggression. Criminologists Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess integrated the principles of social learning theory and operant conditioning with Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association Theory to create a comprehensive theory of criminal behavior.

Developmental psychology In her book Theories of Developmental Psychology, Patricia H.

Miller lists both moral development and gender-role development as important areas of research within social learning theory. Social learning theorists emphasize observable behavior regarding the acquisition of these two skills. For gender-role development, the same-sex parent provides only one of many models from which the individual learns gender-roles. Social learning theory also emphasizes the variable nature of moral development due to the changing social circumstances of each decision: "The particular factors the child thinks are important vary from situation to situation, depending on variables such as which situational factors are operating, which causes are most salient, and what the child processes cognitively. Moral judgments involve a complex process of considering and weighing various criteria in a given social situation.

Management

Social Learning theory proposes that rewards aren't the sole force behind creating motivation. Thoughts, beliefs, morals, and feedback all help to motivate us. Three other ways in which we learn are vicarious experience, verbal persuasion, and physiological states.

Modeling, or the scenario in which we see someone's behaviors and adopt them as our own, aide the learning process as well as mental states and the cognitive process.

Media violence

Principles of social learning theory have been applied extensively to the study of media violence. Akers and Burgess hypothesized that observed or experienced positive rewards and lack of punishment for aggressive behaviors reinforces aggression. Many research studies have discovered significant correlations between viewing violent television and aggression later in life, as well as playing violent video games and aggressive behaviors.The role of observational learning has also been cited as an important factor in the rise of rating systems for TV, movies, and video games.

Psychotherapy Another important application of social learning theory

has been in the treatment and conceptualization of anxiety disorders. The classical conditioning approach to anxiety disorders, which spurred the development of behavioral therapy and is considered by some to be the first modern theory of anxiety,began to lose steam in the late 1970s as researchers began to question its underlying assumptions. For example, the classical conditioning approach holds that pathological fear and anxiety are developed through direct learning; however, many people with anxiety disorders cannot recall a traumatic conditioning event, in which the feared stimulus was experienced in close temporal and spatial contiguity with an intrinsically aversive stimulus.

Social learning theory helped salvage learning approaches to anxiety disorders by providing additional mechanisms beyond classical conditioning that could account for the acquisition of fear. For example, social learning theory suggests that a child could acquire a fear of snakes by observing a family member express fear in response to snakes. Alternatively, the child could learn the associations between snakes and unpleasant bites through direct experience, without developing excessive fear, but could later learn from others that snakes can have deadly venom, leading to a re-evaluation of the dangerousness of snake bites, and accordingly, a more exaggerated fear response to snakes.

School Psychology Many classroom and teaching strategies draw on principles of

social learning to enhance students' knowledge acquisition and retention. For example, using the technique of guided participation, a teacher says a phrase and asks the class to repeat the phrase. Thus, students both imitate and reproduce the teacher's action, aiding retention. An extension of guided participation is reciprocal learning, in which both student and teacher share responsibility in leading discussions.

Additionally, teachers can shape the classroom behavior of students by modelling appropriate behavior and visibly rewarding students for good behavior. By emphasizing the teacher's role as model and encouraging the students to adopt the position of observer, the teacher can make knowledge and practices explicit to students, enhancing their learning outcomes

Learning is relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs as a result of practice or experience

Classical conditioning-a neutral cs regularly precedes an us that evokes an ur, as a result the previosly neutral cs now begins a response.this response now known as cr

Instrumental learning-an action of the learner is instrumental learning in bringing about a change in the environment that makes the action more or less likely to occur in the future.

An environmental event that is the consequence of an instrumental response and that makes the response more likely to occur again is known as reinforcer.

Cognitive learning refers to change in the way information is processed as a result of experience a person or animal has had.

Cognitive maps,latent learning,insight learning,andimitation are examples

The principles of learning may not be general as previously thought.application of laws of learning must take into consideration both the characterstics of learner and the response being learned.

Sources

General Psychology-S.K.Mangal

Introduction To Psychology-King and Morgan

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