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CHAPTER VI
LEARNING
Creative Minds have always been known to survive any kind of bad training.
- Anna Freud –
LEARNING
 a relatively permanent change in behavior that results from practice
 mental activity by mean of which knowledge and skill, habits and attitudes, and
ideals are acquired, retained, and utilized, resulting in the progressive adaptation
and modification of conduct and behavior
 a lifelong process; universal and an important occupation of man

the capacity to learn is the most significant native endowment of man, for it is the
primary characteristic of his rational nature
Types of Learning:
1. Rational Learning
 “mental assimilation of any object, fact, principle, or law within the natural or
supernatural order”
 involves the process of abstraction (forming concepts); process of judgment, and
process of reasoning
 KNOWLEDGE - outcome sought/product of rational learning
2, Motor Leaning
 outcome sought is SKILL
 adaptation of movement to stimuli resulting in speed and precision of
performance; coordination of movements
3. Associational Learning
 outcome sought is THE ACQUISITION AND RETENTION OF FACTS AND
INFORMATION
 involves the development of associative patterns by which ideas and experiences
are retained, recalled, and recognized through the process of linking together or
establishing relationships between and among these ideas and experiences so
that one will serve as the stimulus for the revival and recall of the other or others
previously experienced
4. Appreciational Learning
 outcome sought is APPRECIATION OR AESTHETIC IMPROVEMENT
 Appreciation: involves both intellectual and emotional elements, is a sensitive
awareness to an perception of the importance or utility of information in its
relation to other fields and in the development of attitudes and tastes
 Involves the process of acquiring attitudes, ideals, satisfactions, judgment, and
knowledge concerning values as well as the recognition of worth and importance
which the learner gains from participating in learning activities
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
 started by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist
Pavlov’s Experiments
 a process by which an individual learns that one stimulus follows another
 Basic Variables:
a. Unconditioned Stimulus (UCS) - any stimulus that elicits an
unconditioned response
b. Unconditioned Response (UR) – a response that “naturally” occurs
without undergoing previous training
c. Conditioned Stimulus (CS) – any stimulus that originally did not elicit a
conditioned response
d. Conditioned Response – response produced after training

if a conditioned stimulus (CS) consistently precedes an unconditioned stimulus
(UCS), the CS comes to serve as a signal for the UCS and will elicit a
conditioned response (CR) that often resembles the unconditioned response
(UCR)
Diagram of Classical Conditioning
BEFORE CONDITIONING
CS (light) --------------------- No response or irrelevant response
UCS (food) ------------------- UCR (salivation)
AFTER CONDITIONING
CS (light) --------------------- UCS (salivation)
Critical Periods:
a. ACQUISITION – trails during which the subject is learning the association
between the two stimuli
b. TRIAL – stage wherein there is a paired presentation of the conditioned
stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS)
Extinction – occurs when the response will gradually diminish; occurs when
association is not reinforced
Generalization - accounts in part for an individual’s ability to react to novel stimuli that
are similar to familiar ones
Discrimination – brought about through selective reinforcement and extinction
OPERANT CONDITIONING
 responses are learned because the operate on, or affect the environment
 deals with situations in which the response operates on the environment rather than
being elicited by an unconditioned stimulus
Edward Thorndike
 learning has two components, impressions (stimulus) and impulses to action
(responses)
 learning involve the establishment of S-R connections
 “cat-in-a-cage” experiment
Thorndike’s Theories
1. Law of Effect
- states that the association between a stimulus and a response is strengthened
when a “satisfier” or reward follows the response, and is weakened when an
“annoyer” follows it;
- the strengthening or weakening of the bond is dependent on what follows the
response
2. Law of Readiness
- Readiness: when the S-R connections are ready to conduct, the learner is
ready to learn; where this conduction is not possible because the conduction
units are not ready, the learner is not ready to learn
- States that when a connection between a situation and a response is ready to
function, for it to do so is satisfying
- The purpose of this law seems to be to account for the motivational aspects of
learning
-
Learning depends on the individual’s willingness to learn
3. Law of Exercise
- S-R connections are strengthened when these are used and are weakened
when they are not utilized.
- Learning occurs then occurs with constant practice
- However, correct practice or exercise in itself does not result in learning
(example: practice or exercise without knowing the reasons for practicing or
exercising does not improve learning)
4. Trial-and-error
- is present in all learning activities
- in the trials, the learner generally acquires certain response while eliminating
others
- rewarded responses are acquired and “kept” while those that are punished are
eliminated
B.F. Skinner
 revised some principles of operant conditioning that were originally proposed by
Thorndike
 his method of studying operant conditioning is simpler than Thorndike’s
 popularized the “SKINNER BOX”
Skinner’s Experiment
 typically a rat or pigeon learns to make a simple response, such as pressing
lever, to obtain reinforcement
 Shaping: is a training procedure used when the desired response is novel; it
involves reinforcing only those variations in response that deviate in the direction
desired by the experimenter
APPLICATIONS OF SKINNER’S EXPERIMENTS
1. Conditioned Reinforcement
 wherein a stimulus associated with a reinforcer acquires its own reinforcing
properties
 usually for applicable to secondary reinforcers
two types of reinforcers:
a. Primary Reinforcers – those which cater to basic needs
b. Secondary Reinforcers – do not cater to basic needs but are
considered also as rewards
2. Generalization and Discrimination
 can be brought under the control of a discriminative stimulus
3. Schedules of Reinforcement – Once a behavior is established, it can be maintained
when reinforced only part of the time
1. RATIO SCHEDULE – reinforcement depends on the number of responses the
organism makes
a. Fixed Ratio Schedule – the number of responses that has to be
made is fixed at a particular value
b. Variable Ratio Schedule – one still gets reinforced only after
making a certain number of responses but that number varies
unpredictably
2. INTERVAL SCHEDULES – reinforcement is available only after a certain time
interval has elapsed
a. Fixed Interval – the organism is reinforced for it first response after
a certain amount of time has passed since its last reinforcement;
responses made during the time interval has no consequence
b. Variable Interval – reinforcement still depends on a certain interval
having elapsed, but the interval’s duration varies unpredictably
AVERSIVE CONDITIONING
 deals with situations wherein conditioning uses negative reinforcers are used (i.e.
shock)
Types of Aversive Conditioning
1. PUNISHMENT
 response is followed by an aversive stimulus or event, which results in the
response being weakened or suppressed on subsequent occasions
2. ESCAPE
 organisms learn to make a response to terminate an ongoing aversive event
 usually precedes avoidance learning
3. AVOIDANCE
 organisms learn to make a response to prevent an aversive event from even
starting
SOCIAL LEARNING
 special type of operant conditioning
 assumes that personality differences result from variations in learning experiences
 responses may be learned through observation, without reinforcement, but
reinforcement is important in determining whether the learned responses will be
performed
 a person’s behavior depends on the specific characteristics of the situation in
interaction with the individual’s appraisal of the situation and reinforcement history;
people’s behavior behave consistently only insofar as the situations they encounter
and the roles they are expected to play remain relatively stable
Reference:
Atkinson, Rita L. et.al. Hilgard’s Introduction to Psychology, 13th edition.
Philippines: Thomson Learning, Incorporated. 2000.
Gaerlan, Josefina. et.al. General Psychology, 5th edition.
Philippines: Ken, Incorporated. 2000.