MORADILLO HELLERY P.

BSPSYCH C2019

19-00172

DISCUSSION QUESTION #3

1. HUMAN ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING & CONTRIBUTION OF HERMAN EBBINGHAUS

IN ASSOCIATIVE LEARNING.

 Associative Learning states that behaviour can be modified or learned based on some stimulus
and response. Some stimulus can be learned and sometimes unlearned it was based only on the
responses being generated.

 Associative memory can be called upon based on the relationship between two stimuli. Using
both positive and negative reinforcers (stimuli used to change behavior), teachers can help
students modify their behavior.

Some example of positive reinforcement is mostly seen the four corners of a classroom. Such as,
when a teacher was verbally awarding or praising the student for doing a great job also another
example is in a house setting , whenever a child did a great job she will got a kiss to her cheek
and a hug from her mother or father.

This positive reinforcement will boost a child self esteem or confidence in doing some task in or
outside the house. Also this reinforcement helps the learner to be more motivated on learning.

Other than positive reinforcement we have also the opposite side of it which is the negative
reinforcement that you will take away a positive reinforcement in response to a behavior. In a
classroom setting we usually encounter it in a classroom such as when we pass our outputs or
project late we are being punished by taking points. Also when we are in the house when a child
screams to her parents they will immediately take away the food that’s in front of him.

 Associative learning is also a powerful management tool it depends on how we execute it how
often we execute that kind of reinforcement because when its not done properly it will confused
the learner.
 Contribution of Herman Ebbinghaus on Associative learning

Herman Ebbinghaus became the first psychologist to systematically study learning and memory by
carrying out a long, exhausting experiment on himself. Philosophers such as John Locke and David
Hume had argued that remembering involves association-linking things or ideas by shared characteristics,
such as time, place, cause, or effect. Ebbinghaus decided to test the effect of association on memory,
recording the results mathematically to see if memory follows verifiable patterns. He produces several
nonsense syllables and he try to memorize it and test himself how many he could recall. Ebbinghaus
found that he could remember meaningful material, such as a poem, ten times more easily than his
nonsense lists. He also noted that the more times the stimuli (the nonsense syllables) were repeated, the
less time was needed to reproduce the memorized information. Also, the first few repetitions proved the
most effective in memorizing a list.

2. Measurement of Memory

According to (Plessis, 2020) Ebbinghaus started by memorizing lists of words and testing how
many he could recall. To avoid the use of association, he then created 2,300 “nonsense syllables”,
all three letters long and using the standard word format of consonant-vowel-consonant: for
example, “ZUC” and “QAX”. Grouping these into lists, he looked at each syllable for a fraction of a
second, pausing for 15 seconds before going through a list again. He did this until he could recite a
series correctly at speed. He tested different lengths and different learning intervals, noting the
speed of learning and forgetting. When looking at his results for evidence of forgetting, Ebbinghaus
found, unsurprisingly, that he tended to forget less quickly the lists that he had spent the most time
memorizing, and that recall is best performed immediately after learning. Ebbinghaus also
uncovered an unexpected pattern in memory retention. He found that there is typically a very rapid
loss of recall in the first hour, followed by a slightly slower loss, so that after nine hours, about 60
percent is forgotten. After 24 hours, about two-thirds of anything memorized is forgotten. Plotted on
a graph, this shows a distinct “forgetting curve” that starts with a sharp drop, followed by shallow
shape. Other than forgetting curve he also has serial learning it involves having subjects learn a
list of items according to the order in which the items appear in the list. Serial Position Effect lower
recall error rates for the first (primacy effect) and last few (recency effect) items on the list, with
higher recall error rates for items appearing in the middle of the list.

Based on my understanding regarding to Ebbinghaus experiment is that the more we memorize

something the more we can forget about 50 percent of what we memorize. Like for example when
a student had an exam tomorrow and he tried to memorize all the lessons or the topics that is
 included in the test half of what he memorize will be forgotten. But if he try to memorize it few
weeks before the exam there is a chance of he will recall most of it. Also on my point of view as a
student I sometimes memorize some lesson but I also understand and analyse it so that it will
retain on my mind and I practice consistency which I always find time to repeat what I learn and
repeat it again and again until I recall all of it.

Also this memory experiment conducted y Ebbinghaus has some limitations most important one
was that Ebbinghaus was the only subject in his study. This limited the study’s generalizability to
the population. Although he attempted to regulate his daily routine to maintain more control over
his results, his decision to avoid the use of participants sacrificed the external validity of the study
despite sound internal validity. In addition, although he tried to account for his personal influences,
there is an inherent bias when someone serves as researcher as well as participant. Also,
Ebbinghaus’s memory research halted research in other, more complex matters of memory such
as semantic and procedural memory and mnemonics.

But on the other side for me this experiment is second to the most interesting experiment I read
and learned about.

3. Connectionism Theory ( Edward Lee Thorndike)

Connectionism theory is based on the principle of active learning and is the result of the work of
the American psychologist Edward Thorndike. This work led to Thorndike’s Laws. According to
these Laws, learning is achieved when an individual is able to form associations between a
particular stimulus and a response. Connectionism is a general theory of learning for animals
and humans. The key feature of connectionism is that it can explain learning by observations
rather than suggested explanations of unobservable internal states. The application of
connectionism is widespread in the areas of education, measurement of intelligence and adult
learning. By trial and error, animals identify connections between a stimulus and a satisfying
consequence. These connections are stamped in because of the pleasure they bring. If an animal
perceives that a particular stimulus goes with a particular response then the connection is more
readily established. For example, by opening the puzzle box (stimulus) the cat can get at the food
(response). Learning displayed by animals (in particular cats, chickens and dogs) consists of
connections from external situations to bodily acts. The learning of humans also includes insight
and application.
Thorndike proposed four laws to explain more further about his theory, these laws are law of
effect, law of belongingness , law of exercise and law of readiness.

Law of Effect -responses that produce a satisfying effect in a particular situation become more
likely to occur again in that situation, and responses that produce a discomforting effect become
less likely to occur again in that situation.

Like for example when you occur early in you work and your boss noticed and praised your
diligence you feel happy and satisfied, so will repeat it again and it reinforces the behaviour. On
the opposite side when you show up late for work and miss an important meeting, you will
probably be less likely to show up late again in the future. Because you view the missed meeting
as a negative outcome, the behaviour is less likely be repeated.

Law of belongingness - if two or more elements are seen as belonging together, they are more
easily learned.

For example, to open a door successfully, you need to turn the handle and pull or push the door.
The combined actions of turning the handle and pushing or pulling, opens the door.

Also based on the puzzle box experiment the moving of paws of the cat is learnt but not pricking
of ears.

Law of Exercise- The law of exercise stated that behaviour is more strongly established through
frequent connections of stimulus and response. The more a person practices something, the
better he or she is able to retain that knowledge.

The knowledge that is not used becomes weakened and disappears from memory. "Use
it or lose it" isn't just a random saying: when it comes to learning, it is completely
accurate. Your learning design should take this into account and provide learners the
opportunity to use new information so that it sticks. This means repeating the information,
applying it immediately, or connecting the new information to existing knowledge.

The more we practice the more it will retain the learning’s. Learning is very hard and it
also depends on a certain individual many of us are not that fast in learning there are
people who need to do it and understand it several times so that it will retain on their
mind. This law of Thorndike is a great tool to asses a learners capability and his/ her
eagerness to learn.
Law of Readiness- states that learning can only take place when a student is ready to
learn. When students feel ready, they learn more effectively and with greater satisfaction
than when not ready.

A student or a learner must be physically, mentally and emotionally ready to learn so

he/she will grasp all the learning’s effectively. Here in this motivation is the key and the
teacher had a greater role this time, because whenever the student or learner feels
lethargic or doesn’t have that excitement to learn the topic the teacher needs to come up
with an idea that will let the student engage his/herself again the class.

Sometimes students can be exhausted and loss motivation to study and in this case his
surroundings had a bigger role in the situation. His family and some of his friends will talk
to him to bring back his good momentum in learning.