LEARNING

BY:
HSK

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LEARNING
Learning
Involves change
Is relatively permanent
Is acquired through experience
DEFINITIONS
Acc. to E. R. Hilgard, Learning is a relatively
permanent change in behaviour that occurs as a
result of a prior experience.

In other words, it can be defined as a permanent
change in behaviour through education and
training, practice and experience.
NATURE OF LEARNING
1. Change in Behaviour
2. Change in Behaviour must be relatively
permanent.
3. Change must be based on some experience,
practice or training.
4. Reinforcement
5. Learning is reflected in behaviour
THEORIES OF
LEARNING
CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
OPERANT
CONDITIONING
COGINITIVE
CONDITIONING
SOCIAL
LEARNING
LEARNING
Key Concepts
Unconditioned stimulus
Unconditioned response
Conditioned response
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
DEFINITIONS
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): a stimulus that has the ability to produce a
specified response before conditioning begins.

Unconditioned Response (UR): the response produced by the US.
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): an initially neutral stimulus that comes to
produce a new response because it is associated with the US.
Conditioned Response (CR): the response produced by the CS.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
THE ELEMENTS OF ASSOCIATIVE
LEARNING
Ivan Pavlov
(Russian Psychologist)
Salivation
Conditioning Trial:
Test Trial: Salivation
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING:
DEFINITIONS
Unconditioned Stimulus (US): a stimulus that has the ability to produce a
specified response before conditioning begins.

(FOOD)
Unconditioned Response (UR): the response produced by the US.
(SALIVATION PRODUCED BY FOOD)
Conditioned Stimulus (CS): an initially neutral stimulus that comes to
produce a new response because it is associated with the US.
(BELL)
(SALIVATION PRODUCED BY THE BELL)
Conditioned Response (CR): the response produced by the CS.
EXAMPLE OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING.
In an organizational setting, we can see classical
conditioning operating.
For ex:- at one manufacturing plant, every time the
top executive from head office would make a visit,
the plant management would clean up the
administrative offices and wash the windows. This
went for years.
Eventually employees would turn on their best
behaviour and look clean & proper whenever the
windows were cleaned even on the occasions when
cleaning was not paired with the visit from the top
management.
In it people had learnt to associate the cleaning of
windows with the visit from head office.

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THEORIES OF LEARNING (CONTD)
Behaviour is likely to be repeated if the
consequences are favorable.
Behaviour is not likely to be repeated if the
consequences are not favorable.
This theory is based on the work of B.F.SKINNER
who advocated that individuals emit responses that
are rewarded and will not emit responses that are
either not rewarded nor punished.
This theory says that behaviour is likely to be
repeated if behaviour is favorable.
For Ex:-
Working hard and getting promotion will probably
cause the person to keep working hard in the
future.
On the other hand, if boss assures his subordinate
that he would be suitably compensated in the next
performance appraisal, provided the employee
works over time. But when the evaluation time
comes the boss does not fulfill his words, even
though the latter had worked overtime. Next time
subordinate will directly decline the work overtime
when the boss requests him.

It recognizes the role of
an organism in
receiving, memorizing,
retrieving and
interpreting the
stimulus and reacting
to it.

EDWARD TOLMAN
used rats in his
laboratory and he
showed that they learnt
to run through a
complicated maze
towards their goal of
food.
COGNITIVE LEARNING
It was observed that
rats developed
expectations at every
choice point of maze.
They learnt to expect
that certain cognitive
cues related to the
choice point could
ultimately lead to food.
The learning took place
when the relationship
between the cues and
expectancy was
strengthened because
the cues led to
expected goals.

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THEORIES OF LEARNING (CONTD)
Key Concepts
Attention processes
Retention processes
Motor reproduction processes
Reinforcement processes
What we learn comes from
observing and imitating
models-parents, teachers, peers,
Superiors, film stars etc.
1. Attention Process:- people learn from a model
only when they recognize and pay attention to its
critical features.
2. Retention Processes:- A models influence will
depend upon how will the individual remembers
the models action after the model is no longer
readily available.
3. Motor reduction Processes:- After a person sees
a behaviour, the watching must be converted to
doing.
4. Reinforcement Processes:- Individuals will be
motivated to exhibit the modeled behaviour if
positive rewards are provided. Behaviours that are
positively reinforced will be given more attention,
learned better and performed more often.

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THEORIES OF LEARNING (CONTD)
Key Concepts
Reinforcement is required to change behavior.
Some rewards are more effective than others.
The timing of reinforcement affects learning speed and permanence.
For example:-

An employee who chronically leaves the office half
hour early starts leaving the office twenty minutes
early, the manager can reinforce his behaviour so
that it comes close to desired behaviour to leave
the office in time.
REINFORCEMENT
It plays a central role in the learning process.

Reinforcement can be defined as anything that both
increases the strength of the response and tends to
induce repetitions of the behaviour that preceded
the reinforcement.
There are to types of reinforcement:
1. POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT
2. NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT
TYPES OF REINFORCEMENT
POSTIVE REINFORCEMENT:- It is reward
for desired behaviour. Reward should be
such which stimulates desired behaviour
and strengthen the probability of repeating
the behaviour
NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT:- it is also known as
AVOIDANCE LEARNING. It takes place when an
individual learns to avoid or escape from unpleasant
circumstances. For example:- the manager may like his
subordinates to come in formals and whosoever
doesnt he criticizes them, to avoid criticism the
employees may dress well to keep the manager happy.
EXTINCTION: it decreases the frequency of
undesirable behaviour. Eliminating any reinforcement
that is maintaining a behaviour is called extinction. If
rewards are withdrawn for behaviours that were
previously reinforced, the behaviour will probably
become less frequent and eventually die out.
PUNISHMENT:- it is anything that weakens
behaviour and tends to decrease its subsequent
frequency. It is historic method of reducing and
eliminating undesirable behaviour.
SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
CONTINUOS
SCHEDULE:- it
reinforces the desired
behaviour each and
every time it is
administered. This type
of reinforcement
increases the
behaviour rapidly and
withdrawal of
reinforcement
decreases the
performance
PARTIAL
SCHEDULE:- In it not
every instance of the
desirable behaviour is
reinforced, but
reinforcement is given
enough to make the
behaviour worth
repeating.

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SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT (CONTD)

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SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
Fixed-ratio
THANK YOU