PSY 311 –HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND LEARNING

1.0 DEFINITION OF TERMS

1.1 Human behaviour

Behaviour refers to the actions and mannerisms made by organisms, systems, or artificial
entities in conjunction with its environment, which includes the other systems or organisms
around as well as the physical environment. It is the response of the system or organism to
various stimuli or inputs, whether internal or external, conscious or subconscious, overt or
covert, and voluntary or involuntary

Human behavior refers to the range of behaviors exhibited by humans and which are influenced
by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion
and/or genetics.

Factors affecting Human behaviour and actions

Genetics (evolutionary psychology) affects and governs the individual's tendencies toward
certain directions. Genetics affect one's tendencies to make choices based on their core beliefs
and attitudes.

Attitude – the degree to which the person has a favorable or unfavorable evaluation of the
behavior in question.

Social norms – the influence of social pressure that is perceived by the individual (normative
beliefs) to perform or not perform a certain behavior.

Perceived behavioral control – the individual's belief concerning how easy or difficult
performing the behavior will be.

Core faith – A person's set of beliefs, like religion, philosophy, etc. Provided, sometimes
subconsciously, by his or her family, peers, social media, and the society where he or she lives.

1.2 Learning

Learning is acquiring new or modifying existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, or

preferences and may involve synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is
possessed by humans, animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning
curves.

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Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, school or training. It may
be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how learning occurs is part of
neuropsychology, educational psychology, learning theory, and pedagogy.

Learning may occur as a result of habituation or classical conditioning, seen in many animal
species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play, seen only in relatively intelligent
animals. Learning may occur consciously or without conscious awareness.

There is evidence for human behavioral learning prenatally, in which habituation has been
observed as early as 32 weeks into gestation, indicating that the central nervous system is
sufficiently developed and primed for learning and memory to occur very early on in d
evelopment.

Play has been approached by several theorists as the first form of learning. Children play,
experiment with the world, learn the rules, and learn to interact. Vygotsky agrees that play is
pivotal for children's development, since they make meaning of their environment through play.

2.0 FOUNDATIONS OF HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

There is more than one type of learning. A committee of colleges, led by Benjamin Bloom
(1956), identified three domains of educational activities commonly known as Bloom’s
Taxonomy of Learning Domains. They include:

o Cognitive: mental skills (Knowledge)

o Affective: growth in feelings or emotional areas (Attitude)
o Psychomotor: manual or physical skills (Skills)

Since the work was produced by higher education, the words tend to be a little bigger than we
normally use. Domains can be thought of as categories.

Trainers often refer to these three categories as KSA (Knowledge, Skills, and Attitude). This
taxonomy of learning behaviors can be thought of as “the goals of the learning process.” That is,
after a learning episode, the learner should have acquired new skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes.

The committee also produced an elaborate compilation for the cognitive and affective domains,
but none for the psychomotor domain. Their explanation for this oversight was that they have
little experience in teaching manual skills within the college level (I guess they never thought to
check with their sports or drama departments).

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This compilation divides the three domains into subdivisions, starting from the simplest behavior
to the most complex. The divisions outlined are not absolutes and there are other systems or
hierarchies that have been devised in the educational and training world. However, Bloom's
taxonomy is easily understood and is probably the most widely applied one in use today.

2.1 Cognitive domain

1.3 The cognitive domain (Bloom, 1956) involves knowledge and the development of
intellectual skills. This includes the recall or recognition of specific facts, procedural patterns,
and concepts that serve in the development of intellectual abilities and skills. There are six major
categories, which are listed in order below, starting from the simplest behavior to the most
complex. The categories can be thought of as degrees of difficulties. That is, the first ones must
normally be mastered before the next ones can take place.

Category Examples Key words

Knowledge: Recall Recite a policy. Quote Defines, describes,
data or information prices from memory to identifies, knows,
a customer. Knows the labels, lists, matches,
safety rules. names, outlines,
recalls, recognizes,
reproduces, selects,
states
Comprehension: Rewrites the principles Comprehends
Understand the of test writing. Explain converts, defends,
meaning, translation, in one's own words the distinguishes,
interpolation, and steps for performing a estimates, explains,
interpretation of complex task. extends, generalizes,
instructions and Translates an equation gives an example,
problems. State a into a computer infers, interprets,
problem in one's own spreadsheet. paraphrases, predicts,
words. rewrites, summarizes,
translates.
Application: Use a Use a manual to Applies changes,
concept in a new calculate an computes, constructs,
situation or employee's vacation demonstrates,
unprompted use of an time. Apply laws of discovers, manipulates,
abstraction. Applies statistics to evaluate modifies, operates,
what was learned in the reliability of a predicts, prepares,
the classroom into written test. produces, relates,

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novel situations in the shows, solves, uses.
work place.

Analysis: Separates Troubleshoot a piece Analyzes, breaks

material or concepts of equipment by using down, compares,
into component parts logical deduction. contrasts, diagrams,
so that its Recognize logical deconstructs,
organizational fallacies in differentiates,
structure may be reasoning. Gathers discriminates,
understood. information from a distinguishes,
Distinguishes between department and selects identifies, illustrates,
facts and inferences. the required tasks for infers, outlines, relates,
training. selects, separates.

Synthesis: Builds a Write a company Categorizes, combines,

structure or pattern operations or process compiles, composes,
from diverse elements. manual. Design a creates, devises,
Put parts together to machine to perform a designs, explains,
form a whole, with specific task. generates, modifies,
emphasis on creating a Integrates training organizes, plans,
new meaning or from several sources to rearranges,
structure. solve a problem. reconstructs, relates,
Revises and process to reorganizes, revises,
improve the outcome. rewrites, summarizes,
tells, writes.

Evaluation: Make Select the most Appraises compares,

judgments about the effective solution. Hire concludes contrasts,
value of ideas or the most qualified criticizes critiques,
materials. candidate. Explain and defends, describes,
justify a new budget. discriminates,
evaluates, explains,
interprets, justifies,
relates, and
summarizes, supports.

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2.2 Affective domain
The affective domain (Krathwohl, Bloom, Masia, 1973) includes the manner in which we deal
with things emotionally, such as feelings, values, appreciation, enthusiasms, motivations, and
attitudes. The five major categories are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex:

Receiving Phenomena: Awareness, willingness to hear, selected attention.

Examples: Listen to others with respect. Listen for and remember the name of newly introduced
people.

Key Words: asks, chooses, describes, follows, gives, holds, identifies, locates, names, points to,
selects, sits, erects, replies, uses.

Responding to Phenomena: Active participation on the part of the learners. Attends and reacts
to a particular phenomenon. Learning outcomes may emphasize compliance in responding,
willingness to respond, or satisfaction in responding (motivation).

Examples: Participates in class discussions. Gives a presentation. Questions new ideals,

concepts, models, etc. in order to fully understand them. Know the safety rules and practices
them.

Key Words: answers, assists, aids, complies, conforms, discusses, greets, helps, labels,
performs, practices, presents, reads, recites, reports, selects, tells, writes.

Valuing: The worth or value a person attaches to a particular object, phenomenon, or

behavior. This ranges from simple acceptance to the more complex state of
commitment. Valuing is based on the internalization of a set of specified values, while clues to
these values are expressed in the learner's overt behavior and are often identifiable.

Examples: Demonstrates belief in the democratic process. Is sensitive towards individual and
cultural differences (value diversity). Shows the ability to solve problems. Proposes a plan to
social improvement and follows through with commitment. Informs management on matters that
one feels strongly about.

Key Words: completes, demonstrates, differentiates, explains, follows, forms, initiates, invites,
joins, justifies, proposes, reads, reports, selects, shares, studies, works.

Organization: Organizes values into priorities by contrasting different values, resolving

conflicts between them, and creating an unique value system. The emphasis is on comparing,
relating, and synthesizing values.

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Examples: Recognizes the need for balance between freedom and responsible
behavior. Accepts responsibility for one's behavior. Explains the role of systematic planning in
solving problems. Accepts professional ethical standards. Creates a life plan in harmony with
abilities, interests, and beliefs. Prioritizes time effectively to meet the needs of the organization,
family, and self.

Key Words: adheres, alters, arranges, combines, compares, completes, defends, explains,
formulates, generalizes, identifies, integrates, modifies, orders, organizes, prepares, relates,
synthesizes.

Internalizing values (characterization): Has a value system that controls their behavior. The
behavior is pervasive, consistent, predictable, and most importantly, characteristic of the
learner. Instructional objectives are concerned with the student's general patterns of adjustment
(personal, social, emotional).

Examples: Shows self-reliance when working independently. Cooperates in group

activities (displays teamwork). Uses an objective approach in problem solving. Displays a
professional commitment to ethical practice on a daily basis. Revises judgments and changes
behavior in light of new evidence. Values people for what they are, not how they look.

Key Words: acts, discriminates, displays, influences, listens, modifies, performs, practices,
proposes, qualifies, questions, revises, serves, solves, verifies.

2.3 Psychomotor domain

The psychomotor domain (Simpson, 1972) includes physical movement, coordination, and use of
the motor-skill areas. Development of these skills requires practice and is measured in terms of
speed, precision, distance, procedures, or techniques in execution. The seven major categories
are listed from the simplest behavior to the most complex:

Perception: The ability to use sensory cues to guide motor activity. This ranges from sensory
stimulation, through cue selection, to translation.

Examples: Detects non-verbal communication cues. Estimate where a ball will land after it is
thrown and then moving to the correct location to catch the ball. Adjusts heat of stove to correct
temperature by smell and taste of food. Adjusts the height of the forks on a forklift by comparing
where the forks are in relation to the pallet.

Key Words: chooses, describes, detects, differentiates, distinguishes, identifies, isolates, relates,
selects.

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Set: Readiness to act. It includes mental, physical, and emotional sets. These three sets are
dispositions that predetermine a person's response to different situations (sometimes called
mindsets).

Examples: Knows and acts upon a sequence of steps in a manufacturing process. Recognize
one's abilities and limitations. Shows desire to learn a new process (motivation). NOTE: This
subdivision of Psychomotor is closely related with the “Responding to phenomena” subdivision
of the Affective domain.

Key Words: begins, displays, explains, moves, proceeds, reacts, shows, states, volunteers.

Guided Response: The early stages in learning a complex skill that includes imitation and trial
and error. Adequacy of performance is achieved by practicing.

Examples: Performs a mathematical equation as demonstrated. Follows instructions to build a

model. Responds hand-signals of instructor while learning to operate a forklift.

Key Words: copies, traces, follows, react, reproduce, responds

Mechanism: This is the intermediate stage in learning a complex skill. Learned responses have
become habitual and the movements can be performed with some confidence and proficiency.

Examples: Use a personal computer. Repair a leaking faucet. Drive a car.

Key Words: assembles, calibrates, constructs, dismantles, displays, fastens, fixes, grinds, heats,
manipulates, measures, mends, mixes, organizes, sketches.

Complex Overt Response: The skillful performance of motor acts that involve complex
movement patterns. Proficiency is indicated by a quick, accurate, and highly coordinated
performance, requiring a minimum of energy. This category includes performing without
hesitation, and automatic performance. For example, players are often utter sounds of
satisfaction or expletives as soon as they hit a tennis ball or throw a football, because they can
tell by the feel of the act what the result will produce.

Examples: Maneuvers a car into a tight parallel parking spot. Operates a computer quickly and
accurately. Displays competence while playing the piano.

Key Words: assembles, builds, calibrates, constructs, dismantles, displays, fastens, fixes, grinds,
heats, manipulates, measures, mends, mixes, organizes, sketches.

NOTE: The Key Words are the same as Mechanism, but will have adverbs or adjectives that
indicate that the performance is quicker, better, more accurate, etc.

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Adaptation: Skills are well developed and the individual can modify movement patterns to fit
special requirements.

Examples: Responds effectively to unexpected experiences. Modifies instruction to meet the

needs of the learners. Perform a task with a machine that it was not originally intended to do
(machine is not damaged and there is no danger in performing the new task).

Key Words: adapts, alters, changes, rearranges, reorganizes, revises, varies

Origination: Creating new movement patterns to fit a particular situation or specific problem.
Learning outcomes emphasize creativity based upon highly developed skills.

Examples: Constructs a new theory. Develops a new and comprehensive training programming.
Creates a new gymnastic routine.

Key Words: arranges, builds, combines, composes, constructs, creates, designs, initiate, makes,
originates.

3.0 BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF BEHAVIOUR

3.1 Sensory processes

A sensory system is a part of the nervous system responsible for processing sensory
information. A sensory system consists of sensory receptors, neural pathways, and parts of the
brain involved in sensory perception. Commonly recognized sensory systems are those for
vision, hearing, somatic sensation (touch), taste and olfaction (smell). In short, senses are
transducers from the physical world to the realm of the mind.

The receptive field is the specific part of the world to which a receptor organ and receptor cells
respond. For instance, the part of the world an eye can see is its receptive field; the light that
each rod or cone can see, is its receptive field. Receptive fields have been identified for the
visual system, auditory system and somatosensory system, so far.

Sensory systems code for four aspects of a stimulus; type (modality), intensity, location, and
duration. Arrival time of a sound pulse and phase differences of continuous sound are used for
localization of sound sources.

Certain receptors are sensitive to certain types of stimuli (for example, different
mechanoreceptors respond best to different kinds of touch stimuli, like sharp or blunt objects).
Receptors send impulses in certain patterns to send information about the intensity of a stimulus
(for example, how loud a sound is). The location of the receptor that is stimulated gives the brain

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information about the location of the stimulus (for example, stimulating a mechanoreceptor in a
finger will send information to the brain about that finger). The duration of the stimulus (how
long it lasts) is conveyed by firing patterns of receptors. These impulses are transmitted to the
brain through afferent neurons.

Stimulus Modality
A stimulus modality (sensory modality) is a type of physical phenomenon that can be sensed.
Examples are temperature, taste, sound, and pressure. The type of sensory receptor activated by a
stimulus plays the primary role in coding the stimulus modality.

In the memory-prediction framework, Jeff Hawkins mentions a correspondence between the six
layers of the cerebral cortex and the six layers of the optic tract of the visual system. The visual
cortex has areas labeled V1, V2, V3, V4, V5, MT, IT, etc. Thus Area V1 mentioned below, is
meant to signify only one class of cells in the brain, for which there can be many other cells
which are also engaged in vision.

Hawkins lays out a scheme for the analogous modalities of the sensory system. Note that there
can be many types of senses, some not mentioned here. In particular, for humans, there will be
cells which can be labeled as belonging to V1, V2 A1, A2, etc.

The Human sensory system consists of the following sub-systems:

 V1 (vision)

Visual system consists of the photoreceptor cells, optic nerve. Visual Area 1, or V1, is used for
vision, via the visual system to the primary visual cortex.

 A1 (auditory - hearing)

Auditory Area 1, or A1, is for hearing, via the auditory system, the primary auditory cortex

 S1 (somatosensory - touch)

Somatosensory system consists of the receptors, transmitters (pathways) leading to S1, and S1
that experiences the sensations labelled as touch or pressure, temperature (warm or cold), pain
(including itch and tickle), and the sensations of muscle movement and joint position including
posture, movement, and facial expression (collectively also called proprioception).

Somatosensory is for touch in the sensory system. It feeds the primary somatosensory cortex. But
there are also pathways (via the cerebellum), and motor control.

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  G1 (gustatory - taste)

The sense of taste is equivalent to excitation of taste receptors, and receptors for a large number
of specific chemicals have been identified that contribute to the reception of taste. Despite this
complexity, five types of tastes are commonly recognized by humans:

 Sweet - usually indicates energy rich nutrients

 Umami - the taste of amino acids (e.g. meat broth or aged cheese)
 Salty - allows modulating diet for electrolyte balance
 Sour - typically the taste of acids
 Bitter - allows sensing of diverse natural toxins

 O1 (olfactory - smell)

Olfactory Area 1, or O1, is used for smell. In contrast to vision and hearing, the olfactory bulbs
are not cross-hemispheric; the right bulb connects to the right hemisphere and the left bulb
connects to the left hemisphere

Human sensory receptors are:

1. Chemosensor
A chemoreceptor, also known as chemo sensor, is a sensory receptor that transduces a chemical
signal into an action potential. In more general terms, a chemo sensor detects certain chemical
stimuli in the environment.
2. Mechanoreceptor
This is a sensory receptor that responds to mechanical pressure or distortion. There are four main
types in the glabrous skin of humans: Pacinian corpuscles, Meissner's corpuscles, Merkel's discs,
and Ruffini corpuscles. There are also mechanoreceptors in hairy skin, and the hair cells in the
cochlea are the most sensitive mechanoreceptors, transducing air pressure waves into nerve
signals sent to the brain. In the periodontal ligament, there are some mechanoreceptors, which
allow the jaw to relax when biting down on hard objects; the mesencephalic nucleus is
responsible for this reflex.
3. Nociceptor
It is a sensory receptor that responds to potentially damaging stimuli by sending nerve signals to
the spinal cord and brain. This process, called nociception, usually causes the perception of pain.
4. Photoreceptor
A photoreceptor cell is a specialized type of neuron found in the eye's retina that is capable of
photo transduction. The great biological importance of photoreceptors is that they convert light
(electromagnetic radiation) into signals that can stimulate biological processes. To be more
specific, photoreceptor proteins in the cell absorb photons, triggering a change in the cell's
membrane potential.

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The two classic photoreceptor cells are rods and cones, each contributing information used by
the visual system to form a representation of the visual world, sight. The rods are narrower than
the cones and distributed differently across the retina, but the chemical process in each that
supports photo transduction is similar. A third class of photoreceptor cells was discovered during
the 1990s the photosensitive ganglion cells. These cells do not contribute to sight directly, but
are thought to support circadian rhythms and pupillary reflex.

5. Thermoreceptor
A thermoreceptor is a sensory receptor, or more accurately the receptive portion of a sensory
neuron, that codes absolute and relative changes in temperature, primarily within the innocuous
range. In the mammalian peripheral nervous system warmth receptors are thought to be
unmyelinated C-fibres (low conduction velocity), while those responding to cold have both C-
fibers and thinly myelinated A delta fibers (faster conduction velocity). The adequate stimulus
for a warm receptor is warming, which results in an increase in their action potential discharge
rate. Cooling results in a decrease in warm receptor discharge rate. For cold receptors their firing
rate increases during cooling and decreases during warming. Some cold receptors also respond
with a brief action potential discharge to high temperatures, i.e. typically above 45°C, and this is
known as a paradoxical response to heat. The mechanism responsible for this behavior has not
been determined. A special form of thermoreceptor is found in some snakes, the viper pit organ
and this specialized structure is sensitive to energy in the infrared part of the spectrum.

3.2 Perceptions
Perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by
organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous
system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs. For example, vision
involves light striking the retinas of the eyes, smell is mediated by odor molecules and hearing
involves pressure waves. Perception is not the passive receipt of these signals, but can be shaped
by learning, memory and expectation. Perception involves these ‘top-down’ effects as well as the
‘bottom-up’ process of processing sensory input. Perception depends on complex functions of
the nervous system, but subjectively seems mostly effortless because this processing happens
outside conscious awareness.

The process of perception begins with an object in the real world, termed the distal stimulus or
distal object. By means of light, sound or another physical process, the object stimulates the
body's sensory organs. These sensory organs transform the input energy into neural activity—a
process called transduction. This raw pattern of neural activity is called the proximal stimulus.
These neural signals are transmitted to the brain and processed. The resulting mental recreation
of the distal stimulus is the percept. Perception is sometimes described as the process of

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constructing mental representations of distal stimuli using the information available in proximal
stimuli.

An example would be a person looking at a shoe. The shoe itself is the distal stimulus. When
light from the shoe enters a person's eye and stimulates their retina, that stimulation is the
proximal stimulus. The image of the shoe reconstructed by the brain of the person is the percept.
Another example would be a telephone ringing. The ringing of the telephone is the distal
stimulus. The sound stimulating a person's auditory receptors is the proximal stimulus, and the
brain's interpretation of this as the ringing of a telephone is the percept. The different kinds of
sensation such as warmth, sound, and taste are called ‘sensory modalities.’

Stimuli are not necessarily translated into a percept and rarely does a single stimulus translate
into a percept. An ambiguous stimulus may be translated into multiple percepts, experienced
randomly, one at a time, in what is called ‘multistable perception.’ And the same stimuli, or
absence of them, may result in different percepts depending on subject’s culture and previous
experiences. Ambiguous figures demonstrate that a single stimulus can result in more than one
percept; for example the Rubin vase which can be interpreted either as a vase or as two faces.
The percept can bind sensations from multiple senses into a whole. A picture of a talking person
on a television screen, for example, is bound to the sound of speech from speakers to form a
percept of a talking person.

3.3 Memory
In psychology, memory is an organism's ability to store, retain, and recall information and
experiences. Traditional studies of memory began in the fields of philosophy, including
techniques of artificially enhancing memory. During the late nineteenth and early twentieth
century, scientists have put memory within the paradigm of cognitive psychology. In recent
decades, it has become one of the principal pillars of a branch of science called cognitive
neuroscience, an interdisciplinary link between cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

Sensory memory
Sensory memory corresponds approximately to the initial 200–500 milliseconds after an item is
perceived. The ability to look at an item, and remember what it looked like with just a second of
observation, or memorisation, is an example of sensory memory. With very short presentations,
participants often report that they seem to ‘see’ more than they can actually report. The first
experiments exploring this form of sensory memory were conducted by George Sperling (1960)
using the "partial report paradigm". Subjects were presented with a grid of 12 letters, arranged
into three rows of four. After a brief presentation, subjects were then played either a high,
medium or low tone, cuing them which of the rows to report. Based on these partial report
experiments, Sperling was able to show that the capacity of sensory memory was approximately
12 items, but that it degraded very quickly (within a few hundred milliseconds). Because this
form of memory degrades so quickly, participants would see the display, but be unable to report

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all of the items (12 in the "whole report" procedure) before they decayed. This type of memory
cannot be prolonged via rehearsal.

Short-term memory
Short-term memory allows recall for a period of several seconds to a minute without rehearsal.
Its capacity is also very limited: George A. Miller (1956), when working at Bell Laboratories,
conducted experiments showing that the store of short-term memory was 7±2 items (the title of
his famous paper, ‘The magical number 7±’. Modern estimates of the capacity of short-term
memory are lower, typically on the order of 4–5 items however, memory capacity can be
increased through a process called chunking. For example, in recalling a ten-digit telephone
number, a person could chunk the digits into three groups: first, the area code (such as 215), then
a three-digit chunk (123) and lastly a four-digit chunk (4567). This method of remembering
telephone numbers is far more effective than attempting to remember a string of 10 digits; this is
because we are able to chunk the information into meaningful groups of numbers. Herbert Simon
showed that the ideal size for chunking letters and numbers, meaningful or not, was three. This
may be reflected in some countries in the tendency to remember telephone numbers as several
chunks of three numbers with the final four-number groups, generally broken down into two
groups of two.

Short-term memory is believed to rely mostly on an acoustic code for storing information, and to
a lesser extent a visual code. Conrad (1964) found that test subjects had more difficulty recalling
collections of letters that were acoustically similar (e.g. E, P, D). Confusion with recalling
acoustically similar letters rather than visually similar letters implies that the letters were
encoded acoustically. Conrad's (1964) study however, deals with the encoding of written text,
thus while memory of written language may rely on acoustic components, generalizations to all
forms of memory cannot be made.

However, some individuals have been reported to be able to remember large amounts of
information, quickly, and be able to recall that information in seconds.

Long-term memory
The storage in sensory memory and short-term memory generally have a strictly limited capacity
and duration, which means that information is available only for a certain period of time, but is
not retained indefinitely. By contrast, long-term memory can store much larger quantities of
information for potentially unlimited duration (sometimes a whole life span). Its capacity is
immeasurably large. For example, given a random seven-digit number we may remember it for
only a few seconds before forgetting, suggesting it was stored in our short-term memory. On the
other hand, we can remember telephone numbers for many years through repetition; this
information is said to be stored in long-term memory.

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While short-term memory encodes information acoustically, long-term memory encodes it
semantically: Baddeley (1966) discovered that after 20 minutes, test subjects had the most
difficulty recalling a collection of words that had similar meanings (e.g. big, large, great, huge).

Short-term memory is supported by transient patterns of neuronal communication, dependent on

regions of the frontal lobe (especially dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) and the parietal lobe. Long-
term memories, on the other hand, are maintained by more stable and permanent changes in
neural connections widely spread throughout the brain. The hippocampus is essential (for
learning new information) to the consolidation of information from short-term to long-term
memory, although it does not seem to store information itself. Without the hippocampus, new
memories are unable to be stored into long-term memory, and there will be a very short attention
span. Furthermore, it may be involved in changing neural connections for a period of three
months or more after the initial learning. One of the primary functions of sleep is thought to be
improving consolidation of information, as several studies have demonstrated that memory
depends on getting sufficient sleep between training and test. Additionally, data obtained from
neuroimaging studies have shown activation patterns in the sleeping brain which mirror those
recorded during the learning of tasks from the previous day, suggesting that new memories may
be solidified through such rehearsal.

Research has suggested that long-term memory storage in humans may be regulated by DNA
methylation.

Working memory
In 1974 Baddeley and Hitch proposed a working memory model which replaced the concept of
general short term memory with specific, active components. In this model, working memory
consists of three basic stores: the central executive, the phonological loop and the visuo-spatial
sketchpad. In 2000 this model was expanded with the multimodal episodic buffer.s

The central executive essentially acts as attention. It channels information to the three component
processes: the phonological loop, the visuo-spatial sketchpad, and the episodic buffer.

The phonological loop stores auditory information by silently rehearsing sounds or words in a
continuous loop: the articulatory process (for example the repetition of a telephone number over
and over again). Then, a short list of data is easier to remember.

The visuospatial sketchpad stores visual and spatial information. It is engaged when performing
spatial tasks (such as judging distances) or visual ones (such as counting the windows on a house
or imagining images).

The episodic buffer is dedicated to linking information across domains to form integrated units
of visual, spatial, and verbal information and chronological ordering (e.g., the memory of a story

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or a movie scene). The episodic buffer is also assumed to have links to long-term memory and
semantical meaning.

The working memory model explains many practical observations, such as why it is easier to do
two different tasks (one verbal and one visual) than two similar tasks (e.g., two visual), and the
aforementioned word-length effect. However, the concept of a central executive as noted here
has been criticized as inadequate and vague.

Levels of memory processing

Craik and Lockhart (1972) proposed that it is the method and depth of processing that affects
how an experience is stored in memory, rather than rehearsal.

 Organization - Mandler (1967) gave participants a pack of word cards and asked them to
sort them into any number of piles using any system of categorization they liked. When they
were later asked to recall as many of the words as they could, those who used more
categories remembered more words. This study suggested that the organization of memory is
one of its central aspects (Mandler, 2011).
 Distinctiveness - Eysenck and Eysenck (1980) asked participants to say words in a
distinctive way, e.g. spell the words out loud. Such participants recalled the words better than
those who simply read them off a list.
 Effort - Tyler et al. (1979) had participants solve a series of anagrams, some easy
(FAHTER) and some difficult (HREFAT). The participants recalled the difficult anagrams
better, presumably because they put more effort into them.
 Elaboration - Palmere et al. (1983) gave participants descriptive paragraphs of a fictitious
African nation. There were some short paragraphs and some with extra sentences elaborating
the main idea. Recall was higher for the ideas in the elaborated paragraphs.

3.4 Thinking
Thinking generally refers to any mental or intellectual activity involving an individual's
subjective consciousness. It can refer either to the act of thinking or the resulting ideas or
arrangements of ideas. Similar concepts include cognition, sentience, consciousness, and
imagination. Because thought underlies almost all human actions and interactions, understanding
its physical and metaphysical origins, processes, and effects has been a longstanding goal of
many academic disciplines including, among others, biology, philosophy, psychology, and
sociology.

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Thinking allows beings to make sense of or model the world in different ways, and to represent
or interpret it in ways that are significant to them, or which accord with their needs, attachments,
objectives, plans, commitments, ends and desires.

3.5 Reasoning language

Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to
establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions and beliefs. It is closely
associated with such characteristically human activities as Philosophy, Science, language,
mathematics and art, and is normally considered to be a definitive characteristic of human nature.
The concept of reason is sometimes referred to as rationality and sometimes as discursive
reason, in opposition to ‘intuitive reason.’

Reasoning is associated with thinking, cognition, and intellect. Reason, like habit or intuition, is
one of the ways by which thinking comes from one idea to a related idea. For example, it is the
means by which rational beings understand themselves to think about cause and effect, truth and
falsehood, and what is good or bad.

Language on the other hand primarily is the mental faculty that allows humans to undertake
linguistic behaviour: to learn languages and produce and understand utterances. Another
definition sees language as a formal system of signs governed by grammatical rules of
combination to communicate meaning. This definition stresses the fact that human languages can
be described as closed structural systems consisting of rules that relate particular signs to

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particular meanings. Yet another definition sees language as a system of communication that
enables humans to cooperate. This definition stresses the social functions of language and the
fact that humans use it to express themselves and to manipulate objects in their environment.

In contrast to reason as an abstract noun, a reason is a consideration which explains or justifies

some event, phenomenon or behaviour. The ways in which human beings reason through
argument are the subject of inquiries in the field of logic.

Reason is closely identified with the ability to self-consciously change beliefs, attitudes,
traditions, and institutions, and therefore with the capacity for freedom and self-determination.

Psychologists and cognitive scientists have attempted to study and explain how people reason,
e.g. which cognitive and neural processes are engaged and how cultural factors affect the
inferences that people draw. The field of automated reasoning studies how reasoning may or may
not be modeled computationally. Philosophy can be described as a way of life based upon
reason, and in the other direction reason has been one of the major subjects of philosophical
discussion since ancient times. Reason is often said to be reflexive, or ‘self-correcting’ and the
critique of reason has been a persistent theme in philosophy. It has been defined in different
ways, at different times, by different thinkers.

Classical philosophy
For many classical philosophers, nature was understood teleologically, meaning that every type
of thing had a definitive purpose which fit within a natural order that was itself understood to
have aims. Reason was considered to be of higher stature than other characteristics of human
nature, such as sociability, because it is something humans share with nature itself, linking an
apparently immortal part of the human mind with the divine order of the cosmos itself.

Within the human mind or soul (psyche), reason was described by Plato as being the natural
monarch who should rule over the other parts, such as spiritedness and the emotions.
Aristotle, Plato's student, defined human beings as rational animals, emphasizing reason as a
characteristic of human nature. He defined the highest human happiness or well being as a life
which is lived consistently, excellently and completely in accordance with reason.

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Substantive and formal reason
In the formulation of Kant, who wrote some of the most influential modern treatises on the
subject, the great achievement of reason is that it is able to exercise a kind of universal law-
making. Kant was able therefore to re-formulate the basis of moral-practical, theoretical and
aesthetic reasoning, on ‘universal’ laws.

Here practical reasoning is the self-legislating or self-governing formulation of universal norms,

and theoretical reasoning the way humans posit universal laws of nature.

Under practical reason, the moral autonomy or freedom of human beings depends on their ability
to behave according to laws that are given to them by the proper exercise of that reason. This
contrasted with earlier forms of morality, which depended on religious understanding and
interpretation, or nature for their substance.

1. Cognitive-instrumental reason is the kind of reason employed by the sciences. It is used

to observe events, to predict and control outcomes, and to intervene in the world on the
basis of its hypotheses.
2. Moral-practical reason is what we use to deliberate and discuss issues in the moral and
political realm, according to universalizable procedures.

3. Aesthetic reason is typically found in works of art and literature, and encompasses the
novel ways of seeing the world and interpreting things that those practices embody.

Deductive reasoning
Reasoning in an argument is valid if the argument's conclusion must be true when the premises
(the reasons given to support that conclusion) are true. One classic example of deductive
reasoning is that found in syllogisms like the following:
Premise 1: All humans are mortal.

Premise 2: Socrates is a human.

Conclusion: Socrates is mortal.

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The reasoning in this argument is valid, because there is no way in which the premises, 1 and 2,
could be true and the conclusion, 3, be false.

Inductive reasoning
Induction is a form of inference producing propositions about unobserved objects or types, either
specifically or generally, based on previous observation. It is used to ascribe properties or
relations to objects or types based on previous observations or experiences, or to formulate
general statements or laws based on limited observations of recurring phenomenal patterns.

Inductive reasoning contrasts strongly with deductive reasoning in that, even in the best, or
strongest, cases of inductive reasoning, the truth of the premises does not guarantee the truth of
the conclusion. Instead, the conclusion of an inductive argument follows with some degree of
probability. A classic example of inductive reasoning;

Premise: The sun has risen in the east every morning up until now.

Conclusion: The sun will also rise in the east tomorrow.

Abductive reasoning
Abductive reasoning or argument is a form of inductive reasoning. What distinguishes abduction
from the other forms of reasoning is an attempt to favour one conclusion above others, by
attempting to falsify alternative explanations or by demonstrating the likelihood of the favoured
conclusion, given a set of more or less disputable assumptions.

For example, when a patient displays certain symptoms, there might be various possible causes,
but one of these is preferred above others as being more probable.

Analogical reasoning
Analogical reasoning is reasoning from the particular to the particular. An example follows:

Premise 1: Socrates is human and Socrates died.

Premise 2: Plato is human.

Conclusion: Plato will die.

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Analogical reasoning can be viewed as a form of inductive reasoning, since the truth of the
premises does not guarantee the truth of the conclusion. However, the traditional view is that
inductive reasoning is reasoning from the particular to the general, and thus analogical reasoning
is distinct from inductive reasoning.

Fallacious reasoning
Flawed reasoning in arguments is known as fallacious reasoning. Reasoning within arguments
can be bad because it commits either a formal fallacy or an informal fallacy.

Formal fallacies occur when there is a problem with the form, or structure, of the argument. The
word "formal" refers to this link to the form of the argument. An argument that contains a formal
fallacy will always be invalid. Consider, for example, the following argument:

1. If a drink is made with boiling water, it will be hot.

2. This drink was not made with boiling water.
3. This drink is not hot.

An informal fallacy is an error in reasoning that occurs due to a problem with the content, rather
than mere structure, of the argument.

Psychology
Scientific research into reasoning is carried out within the fields of psychology and cognitive
science. Psychologists attempt to determine whether or not people are capable of rational thought
in various different circumstances.

Assessing how well someone engages in reasoning is the project of determining the extent to
which the person is rational or acts rationally. It is a key research question in the psychology of
reasoning. Rationality is often divided into its respective theoretical and practical counterparts.

Behavioral experiments on human reasoning

Experimental cognitive psychologists carry out research on reasoning behaviour. Such research
may focus, for example, on how people perform on tests of reasoning such as intelligence or IQ

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tests, or on how well people's reasoning matches ideals set by logic. Experiments examine how
people make inferences from conditionals e.g., If A then B and how they make inferences about
alternatives, e.g., A or else B. They test whether people can make valid deductions about spatial
and temporal relations, e.g., A is to the left of B, or A happens after B, and about quantified
assertions, e.g., All the A are B. Experiments investigate how people make inferences about
factual situations, hypothetical possibilities, probabilities, and counterfactual situations.

Developmental studies of children's reasoning

Developmental psychologists investigate the development of reasoning from birth to adulthood.
Piaget's theory of cognitive development was the first complete theory of reasoning
development. Subsequently, several alternative theories were proposed, including the neo-
Piagetian theories of cognitive development.

Neuroscience of reasoning
The biological functioning of the brain is studied by neurophysiologists and neuropsychologists.
Research in this area includes research into the structure and function of normally functioning
brains, and of damaged or otherwise unusual brains. In addition to carrying out research into
reasoning, some psychologists, for example, clinical psychologists and psychotherapists work to
alter people's reasoning habits when they are unhelpful.

Computer science
Automated reasoning
In artificial intelligence and computer science, scientists study and use automated reasoning for
diverse applications including automated theorem proving the formal semantics of programming
languages, and formal specification in software engineering.

Meta-reasoning
Meta-reasoning is reasoning about reasoning. In computer science, a system performs meta-
reasoning when it is reasoning about its own operation. This requires a programming language
capable of reflection, the ability to observe and modify its own structure and behaviour.

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