LEARNING

Industrial Psychology & Human

Behavior
MGT-401
 Learning
❑ Learning is the process of acquiring new, or modifying
existing, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or
preferences through study experience or being taught.
The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals,
and some machines and plants. Human learning
begins before birth and continues until death as a
consequence of ongoing interactions between person
and environment.
❑ Learning is detection and correction of error where an
error means “any mismatch between our intensions
and what actually happens.”
 Types of Learning
❑ Non-associative ❑ Rote learning
learning ❑ Meaningful learning
❑ Active learning ❑ Informal learning
❑ Associative learning ❑ Formal learning
❑ Play ❑ Non-formal learning
❑ Enculturation ❑ Tangential learning
❑ Episodic learning ❑ Dialogic learning
❑ Multimedia learning ❑ Incidental learning
❑ E-learning and ❑ Machine learning
augmented learning
❑ Non-associative learning
❑ Non-associative learning refers to "a relatively
permanent change in the strength of response to a
single stimulus due to repeated exposure to that
stimulus. Changes due to such factors as sensory
adaptation, fatigue, or injury do not qualify as non-
associative learning.“

❑ Non-associative learning can be divided into:

◼ Habituation
◼ Sensitization
 ▪ Habituation

❑ Habituation is an example of non-associative learning

in which the strength or probability of a response
diminishes when the stimulus is repeated. The
response is typically a reflex or unconditioned
response. Thus, habituation must be distinguished
from extinction, which is an associative process. In
operant extinction, for example, a response declines
because it is no longer followed by a reward.
❑ Example
 ▪ Sensitization

❑ Sensitization everyday example of this mechanism is

the repeated tonic stimulation of peripheral nerves
that occurs if a person rubs their arm continuously.
After a while, this stimulation creates a warm
sensation that eventually turns painful. The pain
results from the progressively amplified synaptic
response of the peripheral nerves warning that the
stimulation is harmful.
 ❑ Active learning
❑ It is important for learners to recognize what they
understand and what they do not.
❑ Active learning occurs when a person takes control of
his/her learning experience. Active learning
encourages learners to have an internal dialogue in
which they verbalize understandings. This and other
meta-cognitive strategies can be taught to a child over
time. Studies within metacognition have proven the
value in active learning, claiming that the learning is
usually at a stronger level as a result.
❑ Active learning is a key characteristic of student-
centered learning aims to develop learner autonomy
and independence. In a student-centered learning
space, students choose what they will learn, how they
will learn, and how they will assess their own learning.
 ❑ Associative learning
❑ Associative learning is the process by which a person
or animal learns an association between two stimuli or
events. In classical conditioning a previously neutral
stimulus is repeatedly paired with a reflex eliciting
stimulus until eventually the neutral stimulus elicits a
response on its own. In operant conditioning, a
behavior that is reinforced or punished in the presence
of a stimulus becomes more or less likely to occur in
the presence of that stimulus.
◼ Operant conditioning
◼ Observational learning
◼ Imprinting
 ▪ Operant conditioning

❑ In operant conditioning, a reinforcement (by reward)

or instead a punishment given after a given behavior,
change the frequency and/or form of that behavior.
Stimulus present when the behavior/consequence
occurs comes to control these behavior modifications.
 ▪ Observational learning

❑ Observational learning is learning that occurs through

observing the behavior of others. It is a form of social
learning which takes various forms, based on various
processes. In humans, this form of learning seems to
not need reinforcement to occur, but instead, requires a
social model such as a parent, sibling, friend, or
teacher with surroundings.
 ▪ Imprinting

❑ Imprinting is a kind of learning occurring at a

particular life stage that is rapid and apparently
independent of the consequences of behavior. In filial
imprinting, young animals, particularly birds, form an
association with another individual or in some cases,
an object that they respond to as they would to a
parent. In filial imprinting young animals requires
several of its behavioral characteristics from its parents.
In 1935, the Austrian Zoologist Konrad Lorenz
discovered that certain birds follow and form a bond if
the object makes sounds.
 ❑ Play
❑ Play generally describes behavior with no particular
end in itself, but that improves performance in similar
future situations. Play, as it pertains to humans as a
form of learning is central to a child's learning and
development. Children learn social skills such as
sharing and collaboration. Play facilitates the
development of thinking and language skills.
 ❑ Enculturation
❑ Enculturation is the process by which people learn
values and behaviors that are appropriate or necessary
in their surrounding culture. Parents, other adults, and
peers shape the individual's understanding of these
values. If successful, enculturation results in
competence in the language, values and rituals of the
culture. This is different from acculturation, where a
person adopts the values and societal rules of a culture
different from their native one.
 ❑ Episodic learning
❑ Episodic learning is a change in behavior that occurs
as a result of an event.
❑ For example, a fear of dogs that follows being bitten
by a dog is episodic learning. Episodic learning is so
named because events are recorded into episodic
memory, which is one of the three forms of explicit
learning and retrieval, along with perceptual memory
and semantic memory.
 ❑ Multimedia learning
❑ Multimedia learning is where a person uses both
auditory and visual stimuli to learn information.
❑ E-learning and augmented
learning
❑ Electronic learning or e-learning is computer-
enhanced learning. A specific and always more
diffused e-learning is mobile learning (m-learning),
which uses different mobile telecommunication
equipment, such as cellular phones.
❑ When a learner interacts with the e-learning
environment, it's called augmented learning. By
adapting to the needs of individuals, the context-
driven instruction can be dynamically tailored to the
learner's natural environment. Augmented digital
content may include text, images, video and audio
(music and voice). By personalizing instruction,
augmented learning has been shown to improve
learning performance for a lifetime.
 ❑ Rote learning
❑ Rote learning is memorizing information so that it can
be recalled by the learner exactly the way it was read
or heard. The major technique used for rote learning is
learning by repetition, based on the idea that a learner
can recall the material exactly (but not its meaning) if
the information is repeatedly processed. Rote learning
is used in diverse areas, from mathematics to music to
religion. Although it has been criticized by some
educators, rote learning is a necessary precursor to
meaningful learning.
 ❑ Meaningful learning
❑ Meaningful learning is the concept that learned
knowledge (e.g., a fact) is fully understood to the
extent that it relates to other knowledge. To this end,
meaningful learning contrasts with rote learning in
which information is acquired without regard to
understanding. Meaningful learning, on the other
hand, implies there is a comprehensive knowledge of
the context of the facts learned.
 ❑ Informal learning
❑ Informal learning occurs through the experience of
day-to-day situations (for example, one would learn to
look ahead while walking because of the danger
inherent in not paying attention to where one is going).
It is learning from life, during a meal at table with
parents, play, exploring, etc.
 ❑ Formal learning
❑ Formal learning is learning that takes place within a
teacher-student relationship, such as in a school
system. The term formal learning has nothing to do
with the formality of the learning, but rather the way it
is directed and organized. In formal learning, the
learning or training departments set out the goals and
objectives of the learning.
 ❑ Non-formal learning
❑ Non-formal learning is organized learning outside the
formal learning system. For example, learning by
coming together with people with similar interests and
exchanging viewpoints, in clubs or in (international)
youth organizations, workshops.
 ❑ Tangential learning
❑ Tangential learning is the process by which people self-
educate if a topic is exposed to them in a context that
they already enjoy.
❑ For example
 ❑ Dialogic learning
❑ Dialogic learning is learning that takes place through
dialogue. It is typically the result of egalitarian
dialogue; in other words, the consequence of a
dialogue in which different people provide arguments
based on validity claims and not on power claims.
 ❑ Incidental learning
❑ In incidental teaching learning is not planned by the
instructor or the student, it occurs as a byproduct of
another activity an experience, observation, self-
reflection, interaction, unique event, or common
routine task. This learning happens in addition to or
apart from the instructor's plans and the student's
expectations.
 ❑ Machine learning
❑ Machine learning, a branch of artificial intelligence,
concerns the construction and study of systems that
can learn from data. For example, a machine learning
system could be trained on email messages to learn to
distinguish between spam and non-spam messages.
 Learning Domains
❑ There are three domains of educational activities
or learning.
▪ Cognitive: mental skills (knowledge)
▪ Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas
(attitude or self)
▪ Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (skills)
 ❑ Cognitive Domain
❑ The cognitive domain involves the development of our
mental skills and the acquisition of knowledge. The six
categories under this domain are:
 ❑ Affective Domain
❑ The affective domain involves our feelings,
 emotions and attitudes. This domain is categorized
into 5 subdomains, which include:
 ❑ Psychomotor Domain
❑ The psychomotor domain is comprised of utilizing
motor skills and coordinating them. The seven
categories under this include:
Factors Affecting Learning
❑ Main factors affecting learning are:
▪ Psychological Factors
▪ Internal Factors
▪ External Factors
 ❑ Psychological Factors
❑ Frustration
❑ Aptitude
❑ Mental Health
❑ Natural Ability to learn
❑ Individual Differences
❑ Ability
❑ Orientation
 ▪ Frustration

❑ The feeling of being upset or annoyed, especially

because of inability to change or achieve something is
called frustration.
❑ Frustration is caused by a lack of control over a
situation. The best way to handle frustration is to back
away from the problem, take a breath, and then
approach the problem calmly and rationally.
 ▪ Aptitude

❑ Aptitude is the potential in the student, which has yet

not been tapped and trained to a skill level. A student,
who possesses appropriate aptitude for particular
subject of study or skill, will learn better and retain it
for a longer.
 ▪ Mental Health

❑ Mental health is defined as a state of well-being in

which every individual realizes his or her own
potential, can cope with the normal stresses of life, can
work productively and fruitfully, ad is able to make a
contribution to her or his community.
 ▪ Natural Ability to learn

❑ Some learners have natural ability to learn the things

quickly and some are slow learners. Teachers have to
trace out the natural abilities of students to make them
a complete personality.
 ▪ Individual Difference

❑ Learners have different strategies, approaches, and

capabilities for learning that are a function of prior
experience and heredity.
❑ Educators need to help students examine their
learning preferences and expand or modify them, if
necessary. The interaction between learner differences
and curricular and environmental conditions is
another key factor affecting learning outcomes.
 ▪ Ability

❑ Ability is what it is present here and now in the

student, that is extent to which an individual can
currently execute a given task.
❑ Abilities are considered innate capacities, the
foundation upon which the delegated tasks are carried
out.
 ▪ Orientation

❑ Orientation can be described as an integrated set of

attitudes beliefs and practices as well as the alignment
of oneself and ones idea to circumstances and context.
Some students are mastery oriented while others are
performance oriented.
 ❑ External Factors
❑ Physical status of students.
❑ Teaching and Learning Methods.
❑ Teacher’s Personality.
❑ Physical environment.
 ▪ Physical Status of the
students
⬜ This include things such as your overall health,
nutrition, hearing and physical deficiencies, glandular
problems and physical development.
⬜ If you are in poor health, you won’t be able to learn the
things presented to you in school. This is one of the
factor affecting learning that most people
underestimate.
 ▪ Teaching and Learning
Methods
❑ Students sometimes don’t understand what they have
been taught because information has not been taught
to them in proper way.
❑ It is important to teach things in ways that the vast
majority of students can catch on to the material being
taught.
 ▪ Teacher’s Personality

⬜ Each teacher has his/her own personality that can

strongly affect the individual’s learning environment.
The success or failure of the student can depend on the
teacher’s personality. The teacher’s personality may
mesh/not mesh with the student’s personality and
will affect how the student is taught.
 ▪ Physical Environment

❑ You need to have the proper environmental conditions

in order to learn. Size, configuration, comfort fresh air,
temperature, light acoustics, furniture can all affect a
student’s learning. The classroom must be conductive
to good learning and the texts, equipment and school
supplies must be of good quality so that the student
can learn as easily as possible.
 ❑ Internal Factors
❑ Intellectual Factors
❑ Learning factor
❑ Emotional condition
❑ Interest
❑ Fatigue
❑ Environmental factor
 ▪ Intellectual factor

❑ The term refers to the individual mental level. Success

in school is generally closely related to the level of the
intellect. Pupils with low intelligence often encounter
serious difficulty in mastering schoolwork. Sometimes
pupils do not learn because of special intellectual
disabilities.
❑ A low score in one subject and his scores in other
subjects indicate the possible presence of a special
deficiency. Psychology reveals to use that an individual
possess different kinds to intelligence. Knowledge of
the nature of the pupil’s intellect is of considerable
value in the guidance and diagnosis of disability.
❑ The native capacity of the individual is of prime
importance in determining the effectiveness of the
learning process.
 ▪ Learning factor

❑ Factors owing to lack of mastery of what have been

taught, faculty methods of work/study and
narrowness of experimental background may affect
the learning process of any pupil. If the school
proceeds too rapidly and does not constantly check up
on the extent to which the pupil is mastering what is
being taught, the pupil accumulates a number of
deficiencies that interfere with successful progress.
 ▪ Emotional Conditions

❑ Emotions are physiological states of being. Students

who answer a question properly or give good results
should be praised. This encouragement increases their
ability and helps them produce better results. Certain
attitudes, such as always finding fault in a student’s
answer or provoking or embarrassing the student in
front of a class are counterproductive.
❑ Personal factors such as instincts, emotions and social
factors such as cooperation and rivalry are directly
related to a complex psychology of motivation. It is a
recognized fact that the various responses of the
individual to various kinds of stimuli are determined
by a wide variety of tendencies.
 ▪ Interest

❑ This is a quality that arouses a feeling. It encourages

the students to move over task further. During
teaching, the instructor must raise interests among
students for the best learning. Interest is an apparent
(clearly seen or understood) behavior.
 ▪ Fatigue

❑ Generally, there are three types of fatigue, i.e. muscular,

sensory and mental. Muscular and sensory are bodily
fatigue. Mental fatigue is in the central nervous system.
The remedy is to change teaching methods, e.g. use
audio-visual aids.
 ▪ Environmental Factor

❑ Physical conditions needed for learning is under

environmental factor. One of the factors that affect the
efficiency of learning is the condition in which
learning takes place. This includes the classrooms,
textbooks, equipment, school supplies and other
instructional materials.
❑ In the school and at the home, the conditions for
learning must be favorable and adequate if teaching is
to produce the desired results. It cannot be denied that
the type and quality of instructional materials and
equipment play an important part in the instructional
efficiency of the school.