HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT

SESSION:5

LEARNING

Instructor:
Dr. S. Sahney
Vinod Gupta School of Management, IIT Kharagpur

Source: Luthans, Robbins and Others

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DEFINITION:

“Any relatively permanent change in behaviour

that occurs as a result of experience.”
- Robbins 

- It is accompanied by acquisition of knowledge, skills and expertise

which are relatively permanent.

We infer that learning has taken place, if an individual behaves,

reacts, responds as a result of experience in a manner different
from the way he formerly behaved.

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NATURE OF LEARNING:
1. It involves a change though not necessarily an improvement in
behavior.

2. The change must be relatively permanent.

3. It is reflected in behavior.

4. Some form of experience is necessary for learning to occur.

Direct: Observation, Practice
Indirect: Reading, Hearing

5. The practice of learning must be reinforced to have some impact.

If reinforcement does not accompany the practice or experience, the
behavior will eventually disappear.

6. Because learning is a process, we cannot directly observe the learning

process in individuals;
It can only be inferrred. 3
BASIC ELEMENTS IN LEARNING:

1. Motivation
The degree of relevance, or involvement, determines a person’s level
of motivation to search for knowledge or information.

2. Cues
If motives serve to stimulate learning, cues are the stimuli that give
direction to these motives.

3. Response
How individuals react to a drive or cue—how they behave—constitutes
their response.  

4. Reinforcement
Reinforcement increases the likelihood that a specific response will
occur in the future as the result of particular cues or stimuli.
 
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THEORIES OF LEARNING:

- three general approaches to understanding learning:

(1)    behavioral learning theories:

- learning is the result of behavioral responses to events in
an individual's external environment.
 
(2)    cognitive learning theories:
- learning results from an individual's conscious information
processing activity to solve problems.

(3) social learning and social cognitive theory

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1. BEHAVIORIST / CONNECTIONIST/ CONDITIONING
THEORIES OF LEARNING:

- They define learning as the association between:

a stimulus —an external event or object the individual
perceives

a response —an act of behavior the individual exhibits in

reaction to the event.
 
- further sub-divided under two heads:

a) Classical behaviorists

b) Instrumental or Operant behaviorists

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The two most widely known behavioral learning theorists
are Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner.
 
Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, pioneered the theory of
classical conditioning.

Skinner, an American psychologist, developed much of the

theory that forms the foundation of instrumental, or
operant conditioning.

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a) Classical behaviorists:

Classical behaviorists like Pavlov and Watson,

attributed learning to a connection between stimulus
and response (Stimulus → Response) or (S - R).
 
This theory is referred to as the classical, reflexive,
reactive or respondent conditioning.
 
Premise: All organisms (both animal and human) are
relatively passive entities that could be taught certain

behaviors through repetition (or "conditioning").

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I Before conditioning

Meat (US) Salivation (UR)

Bell (Neutral stimulus) No response

II During conditioning

Meat (US) + Bell (CS) Salivation (UR)

III After conditioning

Bell (CS) Salivation (CR)

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In experimental terms, if an unconditioned stimulus (US)
results in an unconditioned response (UR), then the
conditioned stimulus (CS), after repeated pairings with
the unconditioned stimulus, will result in the same
response, which is now called a conditioned response
(CR).
 
Pavlov demonstrated what he meant by conditioned
learning in his studies with dogs.
 
The dogs associated the bell sound (the CS) with the
meat paste (the US) and, after a number of pairings,
gave the same response (salivation) to the bell alone as
they did to the meat paste.
 
The unconditioned response (UR) to the meat paste
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became the conditioned response (CR) to the bell.
b) Operant behaviorists:

Operant behaviorists such as Skinner emphasized on the

role that consequences play in learning or the response-
stimulus connection in understanding the learning process
(Response -→ Stimulus) or (R - S).
 
This theory is referred to as the instrumental or operant
conditioning.
 
The name most closely associated with instrumental
(operant) conditioning is that of the American psychologist B.
F. Skinner.
 

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Skinner noted that animals and humans act
instrumentally—that is, they repeat behaviors that get
them what they want and avoid acting in ways that will
not get them what they want.

Small animals, such as rats and pigeons, were placed in

his "Skinner box;" if they made appropriate movements
(e.g., if they pressed levers or pecked keys), they
received food (a positive reinforcement).

Instrumental conditioning occurs when the subject

learns to exhibit behaviors that are positively reinforced
and to avoid those behaviors that yield negative
reinforcement.

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A type of conditioning in which the desired voluntary
behaviour leads to a reward or prevents punishment.
 
- If our actions have pleasant effects, then we will be more
likely to repeat them in the future.

- If, however, our actions have unpleasant effects, we are

less likely to repeat them in the future.

- known, as Law of effect, is fundamental to operant

conditioning.

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1. Behaviour is a function of its consequences.

2. Behaviour is assumed to be determined from without

(i.e., learned), rather than from within (reflexive or
unlearned).

3. People are most likely to engage in desired behaviour if

they are positively reinforced for doing so.

4. Behaviour that is not rewarded, or punished, is less likely

to be repeated.

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Theory of Reinforcement:

- proposed by Skinner. According to this theory, the key to

learning is Reinforcement.

Reinforcement can be defined as anything that both

increases the strength of response and tends to induce
repetitions of the behavior that preceded the reinforcement.

- This is also proposed through the Law of Effect by

Thorndike.

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Skinner distinguished two types of reinforcement (or
reward) that influence the likelihood that a response will
be repeated.
 
1. Positive reinforcement, consists of events that
strengthen the likelihood of a specific response.

2. Negative reinforcement is an unpleasant or

negative outcome that also serves to encourage a
specific behavior.

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Research findings of reinforcement:

-Some type of reinforcement is necessary to produce a

change in behaviour.
 
-Some types of rewards are more effective for use in
organizations that others.
 
-The speed which learning takes place and the
permanence of its effects will be determined by the timing
of reinforcement.

-Positive reinforcement is a more effective tool than

punishment.

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THE REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE:

Skinner pointed out that the reinforcement schedule:

—the frequency with which reinforcement follows the
behavior
—has an important influence on the degree of learning.
 
He favored intermittent reinforcement.
 
Rewards should not automatically follow every desired
behavior because the reward becomes expected and is no
longer effective.
 

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Application of reinforcement in organizations:

Schedules of reinforcement:

1. Continuous schedule
  A desired behaviour is reinforced each and every time it is
demonstrated.
(Positively reinforcing a latecomer every time he is not late)
 
 2. Intermittent schedule
 A desired behaviour is reinforced often enough to make the
behaviour worth repeating, but not every time it is demonstrated.
(Rewarding a designer when he comes up with a new design but not always)

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 REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULES AND
BEHAVIOUR

Continuous Early satiation ; weakens rapidly ;

reinforcement appropriate for newly – emitted, unstable or
low frequency responses.

Intermittent No early satiation ; appropriate for stable or

reinforcement high frequency responses.

In general, variable schedules lead to higher performance than

fixed schedules, because of high co-relation between
performance and reward, and because of the uncertainty
involved.
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 INTERMITTENT SCHEDULES

 
INTERVAL RATIO

FIXED FIXED – INTERVAL FIXED – RATIO

VARIABLE VARIABLE – INTERVAL VARIABLE - RATIO

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Fixed – interval - a fixed amount of time has to elapse before
schedule reinforcement is administered.
- Rewards are spaced at uniform time
intervals (salary increases).

Variable – interval - no fixed amount of time required to elapse

schedule before reinforcement is administered. It
can be a short/long intervals.
- Rewards are distributed in time so that
reinforcements are unpredictable
(unannounced class tests).

Fixed – Ratio Schedule - Rewards are initiated after a fixed or

constant number of responses (piece rate
incentive).

Variable – Ratio - The reward varies relative to the behaviour

Schedule of the individual.

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2. COGNITIVE LEARNING THEORY:

Learning based on mental activity is called cognitive

learning.
 
- Cognitive learning theories stress the importance of
complex mental processes.
 
These theories examine an individual's active use of
creativity, insight, and information processing to solve
problems.
.
 
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According to cognitive theorists, the learner forms a
cognitive structure of memory, preserves and organizes
information about the various events that occur in a
learning situation.
 
Cues and expectations help in learning.

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Edward Tolman, a cognitive theorist felt that cognitive learning
consists of relationship between cognitive environmental cues and
expectation.
 
In his famous place learning experiments, Tolman used white rats.
 
He found that a rat could learn to run through an intricate maze,
with purpose and direction, towards a goal (food).

At each point in the maze, expectations were established.

 
The rat learned to expect that certain cognitive cues associated
with the choice point might eventually lead to food.

The rat had formed a cognitive map to figure out how to get the
food. The smell of food acted as a cue.
 
If the rat actually received the food, the association between the

cue and the expectancy was strengthened and learning occurred. 25

Tolman’s approach could be depicted as:
- stimulus leads to another stimulus (or S-S)

-learning occurs because of the association between

the cue and the expectancy, i.e. between cognitive
environmental cues and expectation, and behavior is
goal directed.
 

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3. SOCIAL LEARNING AND SOCIAL COGNITIVE
THEORY:

a SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY:

Researcher: Albert Bandura

The theory combines and integrates both the behaviorists and

cognitive concepts and emphasizes the interactive nature of cognitive,
behavioral and environmental determinants.
 
It is an integrative theory of learning which explains that people learn
through observation, direct experience and imitation (modeling)

The influence of MODELS is central to Social Learning.

Managers should be models.

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Important processes which enhance learning:

4 processes have been found to determine the influence

that a model will have on an individual.

Attention – people learn from a model only when they recognize and
pay attention to its critical features.

Retention – a model’s influence will depend on how well the individual

remembers the model’s action after the model is no longer available.

Motor reproduction – after a person has seen a new behaviour by

observing the model, the watching must be converted to doing.

Reinforcement – individuals will be motivated to exhibit the modeled

behaviour if positive incentives or rewards are provided.

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SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY:

- focuses on learning and/or modifying behavior by giving

more attention to the self-regulatory mechanisms.

- two social cognitive derivatives: Modeling processes and

Self efficacy.

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I Modeling Processes:
- also called vicarious processes; essentially based on observational
learning.

- Miller and Dollard; Bandura.

- Bandura concludes that modeling involves interrelated sub processes

such as attention, retention, motoric reproduction and reinforcement.

II Self-efficacy:
- Bandura has defined self-efficacy as the self-perceptions of how well
a person can cope with the situations as they arise.

- In particular, people who think they can perform well on a task (high
self-efficacy) do better than those who think they will fail (low self-
efficacy).

- Employees with high self-efficacy tend to persevere and end up doing

a good job without suffering stress or burnout.

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Two of the most prevalent forms of learning that occur
in organizations – operant conditioning and
observational learning.

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ORGANISATIONAL APPLICATIONS OF LEARNING
THEORY IN THE WORK SETTING:

SPECIFIC ORGANIZATIONAL APPLICATIONS:

1. Using incentives to reduce absenteeism:

- Reinforcement
- Follow a variable-ratio schedule.

2. Well pay vs. sick pay:

- Organizations with paid sick leave programs experience almost twice
the absenteeism of organizations without such programs.
- Sick leave programs reinforce the wrong behaviour – absence from
work.

-Organizations should reward attendance, not absence.

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3. Employee discipline:
- Positive and negative reinforcements.
- Cognitive theories: strengthen relationship between cognitive cues
(supervisory, organizational and job procedures) and worker
expectations (incentive payments for good performance).
- OB Mod

4. Developing training programs:

Methods of enhancing the effectiveness of employee training:
a) Participation
b) Repetition
c) Transfer of training
d) Feedback

- Learning through experience

- Social-learning theory tells us that training should offer a model to
grab the trainee’s attention, provide opportunities for learning and allow
some opportunity to transfer what he or she has learned to the job.
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5. Creating mentoring programs:
- Social-learning theory.
- Mentors are role models; Mentees observe and then imitate.
- Preparing young managerial talent for greater responsibilities should
give careful attention to who takes on mentoring roles.

6. Self-management:
- learning techniques allow individuals to manage their own behaviour
so that less external management control is necessary.
- the basic processes involve observing one’s own behaviour,
comparing the behaviour with a standard, and rewarding oneself if the
behaviour meets the standard.

7. Organization Behavior Management:

– the systematic application of positive reinforcement principles in
organizational settings for the purpose of raising the incidence of
desirable organizational behaviours.
- Shaping behaviour
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