Education

Psychology
GGGA1243
Dr Nurwina Akmal binti Anuar

Created by 14/4/2023 by Dr Nurwina Anuar UKM

Learning
Theory
 01 Definitions
Agenda
02 Classical Behavioural
learning theory

03 Operant conditioning

04 Students' differential in
social and cognitive
behaviour
What is learning?
Learning involves relatively permanent potential or actual changes in behaviour as a
result of experience. Learning theories are systematic attempts to explain these
changes. Good learning theories allow us to explain behaviour and to predict and
perhaps to control it.

The business of education is to change behaviour and at the same time to predict and
control it. Predicting, controlling, and changing behaviour is also the business of
parenting, of therapy, of sales, and of many other human endeavours.
Learning is not defined by actual or potential
changes in behaviour but, happens to
human/non-human as a result of experience
 Evidence of learning is found in actual or
potential changes in behaviour as a result of
experience. But learning itself is an invisible,
internal neurological process
 What is learning
Disposition Performance
Acquired during learning is not obvious Changes in behaviour.
but changes in disposition.

Capability Definition
Change sin capability. Changes in skills Permanent changes in potential for
or knowledge. behaviours that result from experience
 Learning

Experience Learning Changes in

behaviour

All relatively permanent

Contact with changes in potential for Actual or
participants in behaviour that result potentially
exposure to external from experience but are observable
or internal events to not due to fatigue, aging, changes following
which that organism is maturation, drugs, aging experience
sensitive. These or disease.
called stimuli.
Theory

Theories, principles Laws and beliefs.

Theories : to summarize and explain observation. Begin with unproven beliefs and
assumptions

Principles: Statements that relate to some predictability in nature or more important

for psychology in behavior.

Laws : Accurate statement beyond reasonable doubt. Conclusion that is undeniable

observation

Beliefs: Private statement and personal compared to laws and principles.

Early Approaches
Structuralism The Mind Wundt
Feeling Titchener
Sensation
Immediate experience
Elements of thoughts

Functionalism The Mind James

Purpose of behaviour Dewey
Adjustment to the environment
Stream of consciousness

Behaviourism Stimuli Thorndike

Responses Pavlov
Reinforcement Guthrie
Punishment Watson
Skinner
Hull

A transition: the beginning of modern Evolutionary psychology Rescorla-Wagener

cognitivism Socio-biology Wilson
Stimuli Hebb
Responses Tolman
Reinforcement Koffka
Purpose Kohler
Goals Werthimer
Expectation
Representation

Cognitivism Representation Bruner

Self-awareness Piaget
Information processing Vygotsky
Perceiving Bandura
Organizing Computer models
Decision Making Neural networks
Problem solving Information processing
Attention Models of memory and motivation
Memory culture language Social learning theory
 Behaviourism
IVAN PAVLOV
EDWIN GUTHRIE Hull

By Harshal Lamba

1849-1936 1886 - 1959 1884-1952

1904-1990
Skinner

1878 - 1958 1874-1949

JOHN B. WATSON
THORNDIKE

Alamy stock photo

 Early behaviorism

Photo: Wikipedia
Pavlov, Watson and Guthrie

They say Watson liked to impress his friends with his dog's intelligence. So, at dinner one
night, he knelt with the dog and began to bark the way an intelligent dog might.
The dog listened politely and then ate. The next night, Watson did the same thing again.
He knelt and barked and howled while the dog again listened attentively and then ate its
supper. Watson was trying to teach the dog to bark--not just in an ordinary way but
intelligently-for its supper. The procedure, called conditioning, half-worked. At the end of
two weeks, the dog still wouldn't bark, but it absolutely refused to eat until Watson had
knelt and barked. Why?
 The effect of behaviour

Photo: Donald Clark

Thorndike and Hull

Some professors complain that their students often go to sleep when they present their
magnificent lectures on Hull. They think that the students are bored, but perhaps most of
them are simply suffering from symbol shock.
What does this mean: sEr = sHe × D × V × K?
 Operant conditioning

Photo : Bachrach
Operant conditioning : Skinner`s Radical behaviorism

A bright psychologist once decided that he would show a rat how to eat. "Pshaw," his
grandmother croaked, rats already know how to eat." Thats not what her grandson meant,
he intended to teach this rat how to eat properly, using a tiny spoon, sitting a the table,
chewing with its mouth closed. He also expected the rat eventually would lea to wipe its
chops delicately on a napkin after an especially mouth-watering chew.
The psychologist tried and almost succeeded. Unfortunately, the rat and the grand.
mother died of old age before the learning program was completed.
 Evolutionary Psychology

Three cognitive Theories: Bruner, Piaget, and Vygotsky

If I say to you "red hair, blue eye, scar," do you simply see a thatch of reddish hair, a
single eyeball with a blue iris, a length of surgical scar?
Or have you already built a face, added a nose and ears, drawn your scar from ear to
jowl?
Could you help going beyond the information given?
 Symbolic Model

Mind and Neural Networks

Can machine think how you think? What do they think? Can they deliberately lie?
 Learning and memory

Photo: Pch vector

Mind and Neural Networks

In a carefully guarded psychological laboratory at a large North American university, a

small, bespectacled, shabbily dressed undergraduate student sits on a straight-backed
kitchen chair. Her name is Miranda. In front of Miranda is a dish filled with curled, grayish
pieces of food. She doesn't know what the food is, but when well salted and pep-pered,
it's quite palatable. She hasn't been fed for 24 hours and is now busily eating.
Just before being given this meal, Miranda was given a simple problem in advanced
calculus-which she failed miserably. Now, after eating four dishes of this food, she's
expected to be able to solve the problem. Why? And do you really believe this one?
 Motivation

Photo : Freepik

Three radical student leaders are cleverly coerced into volunteering for a psychological
investigation. They later discover that they will be required to write an essay strongly
advocating a pro-Establishment, nonradical viewpoint. None of them dare refuse for fear
of incurring the wrath of the psychology instructor. For their efforts, one student is paid
$50, the second is paid $10, and the third is presented with a single $1 bill. The students
are told that their essays are quite good and that the authorities would like to see them
published. The money is ostensibly payment for publication rights. The students agree to
allow their work to be published. A day later, a skilled interviewer uncovers how each of
the subjects really feels about the Establishment. A naïve lumberjack would almost
certainly predict that the student who was paid $50 dollars would be most likely to feel
better about the Establishment. But the lumberjack would be wrong.
Why? Like most lumberjacks, he isn't stupid.
 Social Learning

Photo : Wikipedia
Bandura`s Social Cognitive theory

welve-year-old Ronald, who has been a rule-abiding child all his short life, is allowed to
spend the summer with his cousin Edward. One day shortly after returning home at the
end of the summer, he smashes his thumb with a hammer while helping his dad build a
chicken coop. @#!%*&, says Ronald with impressive conviction. His dad had never
before heard Ronald say @#!%*&.
What might Ronald's saying @#!%**& suggest about Edward? What might it suggest
about Ronald?
 Classical conditioning

Unconditional Stimulus (US) Unconditioned response (UR)

Food Salivation

Reinforcement and
Punishment
Conditioned Stimulus (CS) Conditioned response (CR)
Buzzer Salivation.
 Implication
Teachers
Option A

Option B 1 Need to do whatever they can to maximize the frequency,

distinctiveness, and potency of pleasant unconditioned stimuli
in their classroom.
Option C
Teachers

2 Need to try to minimize the unpleasant aspect of classroom

learning to reduce the number and potency unconditioned
stimuli in their classroom

Teachers

3 Need to know what is being paired with in their classroom.

Classical conditioning

Learning through stimulus substitution.

Basic facts: If a stimulus or situation that
readily leads to a response is paired with a
neutral stimulus that can eventually be
substituted for the original stimulus. The CS
will evoke a similar but weaker response
Activity

Edwin Guthrie 1886 - 1959

John Broadus Watson 1878 – 1958
Wilhelm Wundt 11832 – 1920
Clark Leonard Hull 1884 - 1952
 Thorndike
Law of exercise
Frequently, Recently and vigorously

Law of effect
How organism adapts to the
environment by modifying behaviour
as a result of its consequences.
Law of readiness
Mainly with learners` motivation. Certain behaviour more
likely to be learned than others.
 Subsidiary Law
Multiple responses Associative shifting
Any given situation, the learners will Shift response to one stimulus to another.
response in a variety ways which does not Training a cat stand by using stimulus.
necessary lead to satisfying stage.
Trial and error.

Set or attitude Response by analogy

Predisposition to react in a given way. Recognise important similarities between
Culture react aggressive with aggressive. current situation and the problem-solving
issue. - analogy

Prepotency of elements
Learners is possible to react only to significant elements. For example : react on colour not shape
 What are the
weaknesses in
Thorndike theory?
Discuss
Weakness of Thorndike theory
Repeal of Law of exercise
Mistake 1

Mistake 2 1 The mere repetition on animal will not the same on human

Mistake 3
Half a law of exercise

2 Repetition does not lead to learning. Effect of action does.

Learning by Ideas

3 Involves analysis, abstraction and meaningfulness.

 Thorndike's theory of trial-and-error Although Hull's theory is not so
connection-ism is based partly on clearly directed at improving
his attempts to determine whether educational practice, he is largely
animals think-whether they are credited with popularizing the

Take home message intelligent in human terms..

The two main behavioristic

notion that reinforcement is
centrally involved in learning

explanations for the formation of

relationships between stimuli (S-S), Thorndike described learning as
between responses (R-R), or involving the
between stimuli and responses (S- "stamping in" of bonds
R) are contiguity and (connections) between neural
reinforcement.. events corresponding to stimuli and
responses. Forgetting involves
"stamping out"
Thorndike's subsidiary laws also bonds..
stress the importance of taking
students' attitudes into
consideration, the importance of
drawing attention to the most
important aspects of a situation,
and the importance of teaching for
transfer (for generalization).
Thorndike suggested that teachers
can facilitate transfer by pointing
out how different situations are
similar..
Skinner theory
2 assumptions

1 Human behaviour follows certain laws

2 Although psychology looked for certain

behaviour, skinners ended with absolute
conviction that it causes are outside the Operant
person which can be studied and observed.
conditioning
 Operant conditioning

Positive reinforcement (reward) Presentation punishment (castigation)

Sam is given a Rm for behaving well Sam has ears pulled for misbehaved

Behavior strengthened Behavior weakened

Reinforcement and
Punishment
Removal Punishment (penalty) Negative reinforcement (relief)
Sam has his RM taken away for Sam`s ears are released when he
misbehaving behaves well again

Behavior weakened Behaviour strengthened.

 What is the

Application weakness of this

technique?

Schedule the reinforcement

5 categories :
1. Consumable ( candies)
2. Manipulatable ( toys)
3. Visual and auditory stimuli ( bell rings)
1 4. Social stimuli ( praise)
5. Token ( item can be exchanged for other
reinforcement)

2 Premack principle
Behaviours that occurs frequently and
naturally can be used to reinforce less Positive
frequent behaviour.
contingencies
Watch what they likely to do freely? Like watch
TV, running,
Application Result in prevalence
or effectiveness?

The case against punishment.

1 Coral punishment > physical which cause pain.

Discuss the impact using this technique

2 Less objectionable form of punishment

Time out – the children is excluded in ongoing Aversive

activity. They can watch but not participate.
Consequences
Reprimands – negative shake of head or
frown)
Implication
Term : Behaviour Management

Pavlov : Behaviour Therapy

Skinner : Behaviour modification

Positive reinforcement Counterconditioning

Widely used and most effective is Systematic desensitization typically
the scheduled and well-planned. used for anxiety and phobias
Involve 3 steps.

Extinction Punishment
Modify unwanted behaviour by Use response cost or timeout
removing source of unwanted procedure.
reinforcement. Spelled out in written document.
 Skinner
Reinforcer : Event that follows a response and
that changes the probability of a response`s
occurring again
Any behaviour that is acquired of reinforcement can be
Reinforcement is simply the effect of reinforcer. interpreted as an illustration of operant conditioning.

Photo Soul McLeod

Skinner box
What is this technique?
Adam, continually disrupted
his class by making weird
noises that made everybody
laugh. Each time the
teacher drew attention to
the behavior by
reprimanding Adam, the
class would laugh again
(and Adam would laugh
hardest). In the end, the
class was instructed to
ignore Adam; all students
who did would be rewarded
with free time. Adam
continued to make noises
for a few days, but no one
paid any attention. A week
later, the behavior appeared
to have been extinguished.
What is this technique?
Parents praise children to
toilet-train them, employers
give bonuses for hard work,
Test
and teachers smile at
diligent students. Each of
these is an example of
yourself
reinforcement. Parents may
also withhold praise or scold
when children fail to reach
the bathroom in time,
employers may withhold
pay for tardiness, and
teachers might express
disapproval toward lazy
students: Each of these is
an example of punishment.
What is this technique?
Highly simplified, systematic
desensitization involves
three steps. First, the
The final step is to present
the mildest stimulus while
the patient is relaxing and to
Test
patient describes all the
situations that bring about
the unwanted behavior,
continue presenting
progressively more potent
stimuli until the patient
yourself
listing these in hierarchical begins to feel uncomfortable.
order from least to most At that point, the therapist
likely to produce the stops and the patient
behavior. Next, the therapist relaxes once more. The
teaches the patient a object of the procedure is
response that is eventually to present the
incompatible with the strongest stimulus without
unwanted response--usually, eliciting the unwanted
a relaxation response reaction. .
because relaxing is
incompatible with fear or
anxiety.
THANK YOU
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