LEARNING

 A relatively permanent change in behavior and mental process due to experiences or

observations is called learning.
 Thorandike was one of early psychologist, who done his valuable contributing work in
learning.
 In literature, behaviorism and learning run side by side. According to the behaviorism,
behavior always learned.
 Four factors are major contributors in learning 1) Association (associate fear with a
horror music etc.), 2) Learned association (when we learn behavior according to the
contexts i.e. eating popcorn in cinema, taking tea in university canteen etc.) , 3)
Conditioning ( Learning association) 4) Learning from other’s experiences
( observational learning/indirect experiences).

Types of Learning
Here we will discuss three types of learning
1) Classical conditioning
2) Operant conditioning
3) Observational learning

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is one of famous learning process discovered by Ivon Pavlov, a

Russian physiologist, who was doing experiments on digestive system of dogs, and
accidently he confronted the concept of classical conditioning. In classical conditioning,
investigator paired a neutral stimulus bell (conditioned stimulus) with natural stimulus
food (unconditioned stimulus) for creating conditioning response (Salivation). The
process of classical conditioning is as under.

1. First Pavlov provides food to the dog, when food comes, dog salivate. This is
unconditioned association, because food is natural thing to produce sliva.
2. In second step Pavlov, associate the conditioned stimulus (bell) with unconditioned
stimulus (food). In this step, he first rang the bell then present food to dog. He
repeated this activity several times.
3. After some trials, dog learned the association between bell and food and start salivate
only on bell in the absence of food.

UCS (Food)…………..........................UCR (Saliva)

UCS+CS (Food+Bell)………………………UCR (Saliva)
CS (Bell)…………………………..CR (Saliva on bell)
Features of classical conditioning

1. Acquisition………. This is the first step, when a subject learn association.

2. Extinction………..when unconditioned stimulus not present with conditioned
stimulus. Then conditioned response gradually decrease or eliminate. i.e. when a
person only rang the bell, not provide the food, salivation stop.
3. Stimulus Generalization…….. when conditioned formulated, subject may not
respond only on the actual conditioned stimulus, but can also respond on similar
object to the conditioned stimulus. i.e. dog may salivate not only on the one type of
bell, can also respond to the other type of bell.
4. Spontaneous Recovery…………after extinction, if the food (conditioned response)
provided to the dog after ringing of bell, conditioned recovered.
5. Stimulus Discrimination……….. when a subject rewarded on one type of
conditioned stimulus but not rewarded on the other similar conditioned stimulus.
Response stops on similar conditioned stimulus. i.e. if the food presented on one type
of bell, but not provided on other type of bell. Salivation stops on other similar type
of bell.

Operant Conditioning

Operant conditioning basically based on law of affect. BF Skinner is a great contributor

in invention of operant conditioning. He claimed that the consequences of a behavior play
important role in learning. Good consequences strengthen the behavior and bad
consequences remove or eliminate the behavior. i.e. if a pigeon get positive reward after
pressing a button, he will do this behavior again and again. Positive reward strengthen the
pressing behavior of pigeon. On the other hand if pigeon got electric shock after pressing
the button, he will learn that pressing of button will be harmful for him and he will avoid.
Reinforcement and punishment are two major influential concept of Operant
conditioning.

We will discuss the concepts of reinforcement and punishment one by one.

Reinforcement

Reinforcement basically an incentive given or taken after the behavior, which increases
the probability of occurrence of a behavior. Two types of reinforcements mostly discuss
in literature. 1) Positive reinforcement and 2) Negative reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement

When a motivating stimulus given to the subject after occurrence of required

behavior called positive reinforcement. Positive reinforcement given to the
 subject for strengthen/repeating the behavior in future. i.e. giving praise or money
after doing home work.

Negative reinforcement

When a stimulus most often aversive in nature removed or eliminate, chances of

occurrence of a behavior increased in future. i.e. mother will stop shouting, when
child do his home work on time. Child learn that if I will do home work on time,
mother will not shout at me.

Remember…. Reinforcement may be positive or negative, increased or strengthen

behavior in future. It means it enhance the chances of occurrence of a behavior in future.
Keep in mind, in both type of reinforcement (positive & negative) behavior strengthen.
On the other hand punishment decrease or eliminate or weaken the behavior in future. It
means it decrease the chances of occurrence of a behavior in future.

Punishment

Punishment decreases the probability (chances of occurrence) of a behavior. I.e. a mother

does not give pocket money to her child, who do not complete his home work on time.
After punishment of stopping of pocket money, child will stop his bad habit to not doing
home work on time.

Schedules of reinforcement

There are some precise rules to present the reinforcement for strengthen the required
behavior. These rules are called schedules of reinforcement. There are four types of these
rules i.e. 1) Fixed ratio, 2) Variable ratio, 3) Fixed interval and 4) Variable interval.

Fixed ratio…….. Providing reinforcement after fixed number of responses i.e.

every time after five right answers, child receive reinforcement.

Variable ratio…….. Providing reinforcement after varying number of responses.

Fixed interval ……. Providing reinforcement after fixed time interval…. i.e.
getting salary after one month every time.

Variable Interval ……. Providing reinforcement not after fixed time intervals.
i.e getting incentives some time after one week, sometime after two weeks or
sometime after one month and so on.