LEARNING

A. Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior, or behavior potential,

produced by experience.
Learning is a more or less permanent change in behaviour, or a behavioural
tendency, as a result of experience.
1. Learning is “more or less” permanent. (far from permanent)
 Implies that although learning can resist change once it is acquired, it
sometimes does change. Learning can be forgotten (extinction), shaped
or modified.

2. The term behavioural tendency indicates that learning is sometimes dormant, that
does not reflect itself in immediate action. This phenomenon is called Latent
Learning. (consciousness seems to play a larger role).

3. In order to learn something, it is necessary to receive information – done through the

sense organs. Observing events or behavior or even participating in them.

4. Does not apply to temporary changes like those stemming from drugs, fatigue, or
illness.
[NOT ALWAYS POSITIVE]

B. BASIC FORMS OF LEARNING:

  CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 OPERANT CONDITIONING
 OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING

C. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:

 A BASIC FORM OF LEARNING IN WHICH TWO STIMULUS EVENTS

BECOME ASSOCIATED IN SUCH A WAY THAT THE OCCURRENCE OF ONE
EVENT RELIABLY PREDICTS THE OCCURRENCE OF THE OTHER.

 STIMULUS: A PHYSICAL EVENT CAPABLE OF AFFECTING BEHAVIOR.

[ CC = CLASSICAL CONDITIONING]

IN CC, A PHYSICAL EVENT (STIMULUS) THAT INITIALLY DOES NOT ELICIT A

PARTICULAR RESPONSE, GRADUALLY ACQUIRES THE CAPACITY TO ELICIT THAT
RESPONSE AS A RESULT OF REPEATED PAIRING WITH A STIMULUS THAT CAN ELICIT
A REACTION.

CC became the subject of careful study in the early 20th century, when IVAN PAVLOV, a
Nobel Prize – winning psychologist from Russia, identified it as an important behavioral
process.

D. PAVLOV’S EARLY WORK ON CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

IMPORTANT TERMS
 Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS): In classical conditioning, a stimulus that can evoke
an unconditioned response the first time it is presented. (inborn power to elicit a
reflex.)
 Unconditioned Response (UCR): In CC, the response evoked by an unconditioned
stimulus. (inborn response pattern).
 Conditioned Stimulus (CS): In CC, the stimulus that is repeatedly paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.
 Conditioned Stimulus (CR): In CC, the response of conditioned stimulus. (learned
response pattern.)

SUMMARY

 Pavlov did not actually set out to investigate CC. Rather, his research focused
on the process of digestion in dogs.

 During his investigations he noticed a curious fact – his dogs in his study
started to salivate when they saw the food but before they actually tasted it.
They even salivated when they saw the pan in which they were served food or
even saw the person who served them food.