Psychology of Learning

Meaning and Nature of Learning

According to Gardener Murphy

“The term learning covers every modification in behavior to meet the
environmental requirements.”

According to Gates
“learning is the modification of behavior through experience.”

“learning is modification of behaviour and experience of a permanent

nature which is not brought about by biological or physiological factors.”

From the analysis of the above definitions the meaning and nature of the learning
can be understood as follows:

1. All learning is modification of behaviour but all modification of behaviour is

not learning.

2. Modification of behaviour can occur because of maturation fatigue drugs

alcohol etc but this modification is not learning.

3. Learning is universal

4. Learning builds up on previous learning

5. Learning brings changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes, values etc.

6. Certain internal conditions within the learner and certain external

conditions within the learning situation are necessary for learning to occur.

7. There are different kinds of learning different levels of learning, and

different outcomes of learning.

8. No learning can takes place in the absence of environment.

9. Learning starts from the womb and continues up to death.

 Factors affecting learning
1. Maturation 2. Motivation 3. Attention 4. Remembering

1. Maturation:
Maturation is the name of the process of organisational changes in body
functioning through the continuing action of heredity. it is a natural process
which takes place within the individual. The maturational changes are the results
of unfolding and ripening of inherited traits. It is developmental process within a
person where from time to time some traits manifest. These changes take place
automatically. They seem to unfold from within following an inner genetically
determined time table. Example: bird flying at a particular stage, a child learning
to stand on his own, a child learning to speak at a particular age

Important characteristics

1. It is the growth of an organism from an immature state to mature state.

2. It is automatic and does not depend on experience.

3. Artificially it cannot be accelerated are retarded.

4. There is different maturity rate for different organs

5. Not influenced by fatigue, motivation, interest etc.

6. Influenced by heredity factors

7. Influences learning and not influenced by learning

Maturation and Learning

Maturation of an organism results in increased activity and greater learning

power. It is proved beyond doubt that an organism cannot learn until it reaches a
required maturity level. Simple and basic behaviours will appear under
appropriate degree of maturation with little or no learning without necessary
growth training is of no value, as the limits set by the heredity cannot be
overtakes by training. Learning is a behavioural change in the individual, which is
not the result of practice or experience. But any learning can take place only
when the stage for that type of learning is achieved through the process of
maturation. No amount of practice will develop a certain behavior until a given
level of maturity is reached. Training given before an appropriate maturity level
produces either temporary results or no results at all. Therefore children should
not be forced to learn before they are matured enough. Such a forced learning
will not be efficient.

Ex: When the child is able to speak teach him language, when the child is
able to stand teach him to walk, when the child is able to handle a pencil teach
him to write.

2. Attention
According to Ramanath Sharma

“Attention can be defined as a process which compels the

individual to select some particular stimulus according to his
interest and attitude out of the multiplicity of stimuli
present in the environment.”

Attention is a focused awareness accompanied by central nervous system,

readiness to respond to stimulation. it is a bridge over which some parts of the
external world are brought into the subjective world of our consciousness. It is
like spot light that illuminates certain portion of our surroundings. It is a state of
mind in which the mind centers on any one particular object. When our mind is
attentive on a particular object, the other nearest objects will be within the reach
of marginal consciousness. Attention is constantly shifting from one object to the
other. Attention is selective and it is governed by interest. During attention an
individual goes into a process of physical, mental and emotional alertness.
Attention is interest in action and interest is the mother of attention. Example:
there may be music from radio, news in TV, child shouting, People talking ect in a
situation depending on interest we show attention to any one stimulus.
Causes for in attention

1 Internal factors: lack of interest, motivation and bad health

2 External factors: a) Environmental: noise, abnormal temperature, poor

ventilation, improper lighting, bed seating

b) Teacher: Poor methods of teaching, repetition of known content, lack of

teaching aids, monotony, confusion, heavy punishment, improper behavior, over
dressing

Techniques of arousing attention

External conditions

1 nature of the stimulus:

If the stimulus provided is a picture it is more attractive than a world. Beautiful

thing is more attended than an ugly one, colorful stimuli is more attractive than a
colorless one .an effective stimulus should be used to capture attention.

2. Intensity and size of the stimulus:

Our attention is directed towards a loud sound, bright colour or light strong smell
etc. a large object catches our attention than a small object and a miniature
object also catches attention

3. Contrasting colours:

Changing stimuli and variety attracts more attention.

4. Repetition of stimulus gains more attention:

Important points of teaching when repeated catch more attention

5 movement:

A moving stimulus catches our attention more than a stimulus that does not
move
6. Novelties:

Novel stimulus catches more attention.

Internal conditions

1. Interest: Interest is the mother of attention and we attend to objects in which

we are interested. A teacher should make his teaching to become interesting for
students by connecting it with their basic needs and interests.

2. Curiosities: Basic motive like curiosity when aroused secure attention.

3. Mental set: It is the tendency or our bent of mind towards a person or an idea.
A person attends to those things for which he has his mind.

4. Our sentiments, habits, emotions and attitudes affect our attention.

Educational Implications of attention

Attention puts one into a state of alertness and brings readiness physically and
mentally. Attention is responsible for bringing efficiency in learning. The deep
concentration during attention helps the teacher to achieve desired success.
teachers should use the following to make learning become easy.

1. Interest should be created: Interest is the mother of attention hence the

teacher must make his lesson to become more interesting to keep students
attentive, curious, supplementary information should be present in every class.

2. Rotation of Subject: Monotony spoils students attention to avoid this, rotation

of the subjects should be there in the time table.

3. Using different Methods of Teaching: Teacher should adopt activity oriented

methods of teaching like Heuristic method, project method etc. this relieves the
students from listening to boring lectures.

4. Questioning Technique: Proper use of question answer techniques in the class

keeps the students attentive
5. Using Audio-Visual Aids: To break the monotony Audio-Visual Aids should be
used appropriately.

6. Avoiding destructive factors: Destructing factors should be reduced.

7. Explaining the utility of the subject matter: It catches attention

8. Observation: Proper observation by the teacher helps to secure better

attention.

9. Repetition: Repetition of important matter helps in securing attention.

10. Novelty: Novelty should be there in teaching

11. Rewards and punishment: Rewards and punishment should be used

appropriately.

12. Physical activities: the teacher should adopt the method which involves some
physical activities by the students

3. Motivation
Motivation is derived from the latin word “Movere” which means “To
Move”. Motivation is an essential condition of learning. “Why” of learning is
answered by motivation.

According to Bernard,
“Motivation is the stimulation of action towards a particular goal where
previously there was little or no attraction”.

According to Lowell,
“Motivation is a psychological or internal process initiated by some need,
which leads to the activity which will satisfy that need”.

From the above definitions we can say that motivation arouses and
maintains interest in learning. It concentrates the attention and energy of a
person on the activity. Human behaviour is motivated by biological, psychological
and social motives. Motivation is a state of the organism which involves the
existence of a need that drives the organism from within and directs his activities
to a goal that can satisfy the need. This we call as motivation cycle.

Motive

Relief Tension

Goal Motivated Behaviour

Motivation cycle

Types of Motivation

1. Intrinsic Motivation: Shows behaviour for internal satisfaction. Ex: Peacock

dancing.

2. Extrinsic Motivation: Shows behaviour to get a reward or to avoid punishment.

Ex: wearing uniform.

Functions of Motivation

1. Arousal of Interest:
Motivation arouses interest in the individual towards a goal. Earlier there was no
interest but due to motivation he finds interest in the activity.

2. Direction of Interest:
All the interest is now directed towards the goal and no activity takes place till the
goal is reached.

3. Control of Behaviour:
All other irrelevant activities are kept aside and the total behaviour is towards the
goal. The behaviour will be controlled and directed.
Techniques of Motivation/Strategies to be adopted while motivating
students
1. Following child centred approach: If learning is linked to the needs, interests
and abilities of the children they will be intrinsically motivated which avoids any
external force in learning.

2. Previous knowledge should be linked: Learning becomes easy if the content is

related to the past experience of the child. The child is easily motivated to learn
the new material if he thinks that he follows the base for new learning. Hence the
teacher should link previous learning of the student to the present content.

3. Using Audio-Visual aids: Good teaching stimulates the students for learning;
teacher should adopt progressive methods based on psychological principles to
teach. Use of audio-visual aids makes his teaching to become effective.

4. Goal should be fixed: Purposeful and definite goals should be set for students
which help them to work in a desirable direction.

5. Giving immediate feedback: Knowledge of results is a reinforcing factor. Hence

immediate feedback should be given.

6. Incentives should be used: Incentives like praise and rewards should be used to
bring desired behaviour among children. Punishment as a negative motive can
also be used to change the behaviours.

7. Competitive spirit: Healthy competition among students motivates them to

achieve better.

8. Environment should be encouraging: Appropriate learning environment helps

in motivating students.

9. Developing curiosity: By arousing curiosity students can be motivated.

10. Using novel methods: Every novel thing creates interest in children; teacher
must introduce novelty into his teaching.
4. Remembering or memory
Meaning

According to Ryborn

“The power that we have to store our experiences and to bring them into
field of consciousness sometimes after the experiences have occurred is called
memory.” The term remembering and memory carry the same meaning. The
ability of retention and reputation is known as memory. It is a special activity of
our mind to store what is learned and to reproduce after sometime. The process
of memorization begins with learning and ends with its recalling. when we say a
an individual has got good memory that means he has got an ability to learn
easily, to retain it for a long time, to recognize it and recall it rapidly and
accurately. Therefore the ideal revival of past experiences as far as possible in the
manner and order in which they originally occurred is called remembering.

Causes for Poor memory

1. Weak impression: when we do not attend to what we wish to remember then

the experiences fails to make a strong impression this leads to poor memory.

2. Disuse: By not repeating properly if we allow a memory trace to fall into disuse
it causes poor memory.

3. Interference: Similar things learnt together or two sets of memories at a given

time cause interference. This may lead to confusion and hence poor memory.

4. Repression: Unconscious forgetting of painful experiences is repression. if the

learning situation is painful or the content is not producing pleasure that leads to
poor memory.

5. Use of drugs and heavy smoking causes poor memory.

Improvement of memory/ memory training/ factors influencing memory

1 Better Registration: for better remembrance better registration is essential. For

this a strong determination on the part of the learner is required.
2 Attention should be proper: By bringing in the attention into the learning
situation the remembrance improve. The learners should avoid all internal
destructions and the teachers should overcome the external factors causing
destruction.

3 Repetition: Repetition of the material helps in better recall. The teacher should
repeat the important points and the student should read the material to be learnt
again and again.

4 Interest: Only when an individual is interested in learning he can learn. The

teacher should create interest among the students in the content and the student
should also get themselves interested in the content by relating it to some goals.

5. Principle of Association: One should follow the principle of association. This

can be related what is already learnt with what he is going to learn. Remembering
one thing helps him to recall the associated thing.

6. Grouping similar things: Grouping similar things and bringing in rhythms

facilitates memory.

7. Using more sense organs: More the sense organs involved in the process of
learning better will be the memory. Teacher should make use of audio visual aids
in his teaching.

8. Provision for Rest: Provision for rest should be there in between the periods
for better learning.

9. Pleasure: Make the learning atmosphere a pleasurable one to avoid

repression.

10. Avoiding Interference: Avoid situations of interference in learning which

cause forgetting due to retroactive inhibition or proactive inhibition.

11. Using Mnemonics Technique: Whenever possible adopt Mnemonic

techniques to improve memory.

12. Novelty: Novelty enhances memory.

 Stages of remembrance
Remembrance being a special activity or process is carried out in four stages.

1. Registration:

This is the first stage of memory. Here the brain registers the information
whatever is received through the sense organs. For better remembrance better
registration is essential and for better registration attention and impression
should be better. If the first received message is strong then the process of
learning will be effective. It requires alertness perfect and strong motivation and
attention.

2. Retention:

Retention is nothing but the repetition of the content registered under several
situations. After registration it should be used repeatedly which leads to short
term memory and further continuation leads to long term memory. Regular
repetition requires less time and less effort which results in better memorization.
Without strong registration retention will fail. Registration is most needed as
basic foundation for further stages. Conscious efforts should be made to push the
short term memory into long term.

3. Recognition:

It is a simple reaction with a feeling or familiarity to a stimulus when placed

before us. it is that stage where the situation that comes out to put the stored
information after some time i.e. the registered information.

Example: Recognizing a particular object or experience or place after a period of

gap.

Here better registration and better retention leads to better recognition.

Sometimes without retention also recognition is possible with some effort if it
occurs is better registration.

4. Recall:
Efficiency of memory is indicated in this step. Recalling means revoking the past
or the registered content. Recalling depends upon the previous three stages. With
strong impressed registration, regular retention and by recognizing recalling will
be easy with a little effort. Recalling becomes rapid and accurate according to the
experience.

If the process of learning is passed through all these stages, then the work of
brain will be systematic which may result in good remembrance and it is difficult
or no chance for forgetting.