THEORIES OF LEARNING

https://www.slideshare.net/NJ_Jamali/individual-difference-and-its-effects-on-learning :
Individual differences
THEORIES OF LEARNING
To explain how and why people learn.

Conducted many experiments on animals & children

These are also referred to types of learning

As a beginner distinction, behaviorism (learning as changes in

overt behavior) and constructivism, (learning as changes in
thinking). The second category can be further divided into
psychological constructivism (changes in thinking resulting from
individual experiences), and social constructivism, (changes in
thinking due to assistance from others).
CONDITIONING
The behavioral process, whereby a response becomes
more frequent to a given object (stimulus) as a result of
reinforcement, which is a reward for the response in a given
situation.

Conditioning is a process in which the ineffective object or

event becomes so effective that it makes the hidden
responses clearly visible to all.

The conditioning theory is based on the premise that

learning is establishing the relationship between the
stimulus and response.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
Proposed by Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

According to this theory, behavior is learned by a process of

repetitive association between the response and the
stimulus.

Based on the assumption that learning is developed

through the interactions with the environment. He
suggested that environment shapes behavior. While internal
mental state does not explain behavior (thoughts, feelings,
emotions).

He conducted various studies and came to his conclusions

about learning by complete accident (he was a physiologist
after all)!
Pavlov’s area of focus was the digestive system. He surgically
implanted tubes inside dogs’ cheeks to collect saliva, then measured
the amount of saliva produced in response to various foods. Over time,
he observed that the dog began to salivate not only at the taste of food,
but also at the sight of food, at the sight of an empty food bowl, and
even at the sound of the laboratory assistants’ footsteps (since
salivation is a reflex, there is no learning; dogs don’t naturally salivate
at the sight or sound of other stimuli).

He conducted an experiment on a dog (study the dog’s ‘psychic

secretions’) & measured the amount of saliva secreted by a dog, with a
use of a surgical procedure, when it is exposed to different stimulus or
object. At first, when Pavlov presented a piece of meat (US) to the dog,
he noticed a great amount of salivation (UR) whereas, in the second
time, when he just rang the bell, he observed there was no effect of a
bell on the dog’s salivation. After this, Pavlov rang the bell
accompanied with meat and noticed the salivation of a dog. He
repeated this process several times, and finally, one day he just rang
the bell without meat and observed that dog still salivated to the bell
alone which was originally a neutral stimulus. So, he found out, that the
dog has become classically conditioned (CR) to the sound of the bell
 a previously neutral stimulus.

Pavlov: An organism has two types of responses to it’s environment (1)

Unconditioned (unlearned) responses, & (2) Conditioned (learned)
responses,

4 elements: Note: (NS/tone - neutral stimuli: Presented immediately

before an unconditioned stimulus, and it also doesn’t naturally elicit a
response).

1. Unconditioned Stimulus (US or UCS): Invariably causes a response (a

stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism)

2. Unconditioned Response (UR or UCR): Natural (unlearned) reaction to

given stimulus

3. Conditioned Stimulus (CS): NS becomes CS eventually, which is

stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an
unconditioned stimulus.

4. Conditioned Response (CR): Response to the CS, same as US (is

 Process with the example:

1. Meat (UCS) → Salivation (UCR)

2. Tone (NS) + Meat (UCS) → Salivation (UCR)

3. Tone (CS) → Salivation (CR)

Educational context: Child if bullied at school, feels bad
when bullied. The child associates being bullied with going
to school. The child begins to feel bad when thinking about
the next day at school. Results in child not wanting to go to
school.

In order to extinguish the associated feelings of feeling bad

& thinking of school., the connection i.e. association b/w
school & being bullied must be broken.
Sub-principles: *

Extinction and spontaneous recovery: Extinction is

cessation/decrease of response: strength of CS gradually
decreases when it is presented alone and not followed by UCS
for a number of trails, i.e. extinction.

Stimulus generalization: Tendency to respond to a stimulus

which is similar to original one is called stimulus generalization,
the greater the similarity, the more the generalization.

Stimulus discrimination: When there is difference b/w 2 stimuli,

individual discriminates b/w the 2.

Higher order conditioning: Complex process. Useful in

behavior therapy (behavior modifcation), & in every day
learning instances.
Higher-order Conditioning: A second type of classical
conditioning

Pairing a new neutral stimulus (‘human footsteps’) with the

conditioned stimulus (‘tut-tut’) is called higher-order
conditioning, or second-order conditioning.

Using the conditioned stimulus of the bell to condition

another stimulus: the footsteps of the food server.

Example of CC: https://vimeo.com/35754924

Example: Let’s say you have a cat named Tiger, who is
quite spoiled. You keep her food in a separate cabinet, and
you also have a special electric can opener that you use
only to open cans of cat food. For every meal, Tiger hears
the distinctive sound of the electric can opener (“zzhzhz”)
and then gets her food. Tiger quickly learns that when she
hears “zzhzhz” she is about to get fed. What do you think
Tiger does when she hears the electric can opener?

She will likely get excited and run to where you are
preparing her food. This is an example of classical
conditioning. However, What if the cabinet holding Tiger’s
food becomes squeaky? In that case, Tiger hears “squeak”
(the cabinet), “zzhzhz” (the electric can opener), and then
she gets her food. Tiger will learn to get excited when she
hears the “squeak” of the cabinet.
Process of Classical Conditioning:

Acquisition: Neutral stimulus begins to elicit the conditioned

response, and eventually the neutral stimulus becomes a
conditioned stimulus capable of eliciting the conditioned response
by itself: Timing is very important here, there should only be a brief
interval between presentation of the conditioned stimulus and the
unconditioned stimulus (depending on the nature of the US, the
interval could be as low as 5 seconds-to as high as several hours)

Taste Aversion: Conditioning type when several hours pass /bw

the CS (something ingested) and the US (nausea or illness).
Example: Between classes, you and a friend grab a quick lunch from a food
cart on campus. You share a dish of chicken curry and head off to your next
class. A few hours later, you feel nauseous and become ill. Although your friend
is fine and you determine that you have intestinal flu (the food is not the culprit),
you’ve developed a taste aversion; the next time you are at a restaurant and
someone orders curry, you immediately feel ill. While the chicken dish is not what
made you sick, you are experiencing taste aversion: you’ve been conditioned to
be averse to a food after a single, unpleasant experience.
At times we need to break the connection b/w the US & the
CS. Pavlov explored these scenarios in his experiments
with dogs, by sounding the tone without giving the dogs the
meat powder. Soon the dogs stopped responding to the
tone. Extinction is the decrease in the CS when the US is
no longer presented with the CS. When presented with the
CS alone, the responses would get weaker & weaker, until
there was finally no response. ‘A gradual weakening and
disappearance of the conditioned response.’

Acquisition and extinction involve the strengthening and

weakening, respectively, of a learned association. Two
other learning processes—stimulus discrimination and
stimulus generalization—are involved in distinguishing
which stimuli will trigger the learned association.
Stimulus Discrimination: When an organism learns to
respond differently to various that are similar i.e. the
organism demonstrates the conditioned response only to
the CS.

Stimulus Generalization: When an organism

demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are
similar to the CS - opposite of stimulus discrimination. The
more the similarity between stimulus/i & CS, the more likely
they are to give a conditioned response.

Habituation: Occurs when we learn not to respond to a

stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change. As
the stimulus occurs repeatedly, we possibly learn to not
focus our attention to it.
OPERANT/ INSTRUMENTAL
CONDITIONING

States that people are likely to elicit responses that are

rewarded and will not emit any responses that are neither
followed by any reward nor punishment. Organisms learn to
associate a behavior and its consequence.

Developed by American psychologist B.F. Skinner

Here, the motivation for behavior occurs after the behavior

is demonstrated.
Focus on how consequences of behavior affect the
behavior over time. Beginning with the idea that behavior
are more frequent. Example: Complimenting a student for a
good comment is class during a discussion increases the
chances of further comments being made by the student in
the future.

Classical conditioning hardly accounts for new behaviors,

and is limited to reflexive behaviors that are already
existing. Hence he focused on how behavior is motivated by
the consequences we receive for the behavior:
reinforcements and punishment.
Skinner conducted his famous experiment by placing a hungry rat
in a box called, ’Skinner box’. In that box, there were two levers,
one attached to the feeding tube, while the other produced the
electric shock. The rat pressed the first lever attached to the tube
and got the food to eat, but as soon as it pressed the other lever,
it got the shock. A rat discovered from its actions, the lever which
is rewarding and the one which gives a shock (negative
response) and pressed only that lever which resulted in food.
Thus, Skinner observed, that the rate of response, as well as the
change in the response, was seen after the behavior was
performed, not before. It was found in the beginning that the rat
pressed the lever occasionally and used to get food as
reinforcement for each pressing. Gradually, as the animal learnt
the pressing of lever would give some food, it repeated the
responses very rapidly. This rapid increase in pressing the lever
is the indication of the animal conditioned to get food.

The rat had “discovered” that the consequence of pressing the

level was to receive food.
Reinforcement is a motivating factor, leads organisms to repeat
action.

Made statement, “rewarded behavior is repeated”, famous.

Skinner conducted experiments on different animals like

pigeons, rats, etc.

Experiments have proved that intermittent reinforcement yields

better results than continuous reinforcement.

Skinner suggests that behavior is voluntary & is determined,

maintained & controlled by its consequences.

He suggested that we must focus on external or observable

causes of behavior rather than internal mental events such as
motivation, thoughts & feelings, etc.
Schedules of reinforcement: They are protocols or sets of
rules that a teacher follows when delivering reinforcers.
These rules state what the teacher could do after a correct or
incorrect response. 2 x 2 grid. Goal vs Direction

Reinforcement = Likelihood to increase behavior;

Punishment = Likelihood to decrease behavior

Positive R: Reward training (added to increase the likelihood

of a behavior) - Praises, reward; Negative R:
(removed to increase the likelihood of a behavior.) - Beeping
in the seatbelt system

Punishment: Positive (added to decrease the likelihood of a

behavior) - Time out, reprimand when texting or corporal
punishments & negative (removed to decrease the likelihood
of a behavior.)- siblings who fight aren’t allowed to play
Operant conditioning is applicable while shaping or
modifying undesirable behavior.

Useful in training of mentally retarded children to learn

dressing, eating and toilet training skills, treatment of
phobias, drug and alcohol addictions, and psychotherapy
and to teach needed behaviour in children.
 Elements resulting in development of new behavior:

1. Stimulus Situation (event or object)

2. Behavioral Response

3. Consequence of a Response

Example: Vehicle driver applies brakes to avoid an

accident. Possibility of an accident without application of
brakes is stimulus situation. Application of brake is the
behavior and escape from the accident is the consequence
of behavior.
Experiments proved that intermittent reinforcement yields
better results than continuous reinforcement.

Through this process: Distinguish b/w rewarding behaviors &

seek them out

Factors affecting operant conditioning: the operant, the

reinforcement, the schedule & the cues

Cues: Signals to the animal about when reinforcement was

available.

Example: reinforcement was more effective if it came

immediately after the crucial operant behavior, rather than
being delayed, and reinforcements that happened
intermittently (only part of the time) caused learning to take
longer, but also caused it to last longer.
Operant C & Student’s learning: Animal studies initially, are
these same theories applicable to students?

The process doesn’t certainly does not account for all forms
of student learning, but it accounts for many behaviors. *

General idea: (a) The process is widespread in

classrooms. (b) Learning by this form is not confined to a
grade, area, or style of teaching but by nature exists in
every classroom. (c) Teachers aren’t the only influencers of
reinforcement (activity itself or by friends or classmates)

Operates through both, intrinsic & extrinsic motivation

 Key concepts*:

1. Extinction: Disappearance of an operant behavior because of lack

of reinforcement.

2. Generalizations: Incidental conditioning of behaviors similar to an

original operant. Similar to spread of new behaviors, as it is about
extending prior learning to new situations or contexts. However,
knowledge or skill isn’t being transferred.

3. Discrimination: Learning NOT to generalize. Here, behavior which

is not overgeneralized (discriminated) is operant behavior.

4. Schedules of reinforcement

5. Cues: Cues are stimuli that happen just prior to operant behavior &
signals that performing behavior might lead to reinforcement.
There are two* foundational forms of reinforcement schedules:
Continuous and Partial Reinforcement

Continuous Reinforcement:

When an organism receives a reinforcer each time it displays a

behavior, due to which: desired behavior is reinforced every single
time that it occurs, .

This schedule is best used during the initial stages of learning to

create a strong association between the behavior and response.

It is most effective when trying to teach a new behavior, and it is also

used as the quickest way to teach someone a behavior.

During following this schedule, timing is most important: reinforcer

must be presented immediately after the behavior is acted upon, so
that an association between the target behavior and the
consequence.
Partial Reinforcement:* Also referred to as intermittent
reinforcement, the subject (person or animal) doesn’t get
reinforced every time perform the desired behavior.

There are different types of partial reinforcements: fixed or

variable, and as either interval or ratio.

Fixed: Number of responses b/w reinforcements, or the amount

of time b/w reinforcements, which is set and unchanging.

Variable: Number of responses or amount of time b/w

reinforcements, which varies or changes.

Interval: Schedule is based on time b/w reinforcements.

Ratio: Schedule is based on the number of responses b/w

reinforcements.
Now, there are combinations of these 4 schedule types.

Fixed interval reinforcement schedule: When behavior is

rewarded after a set amount of time.

Variable interval reinforcement schedule: When subject

gets reinforcement based on varying amounts of time,
which are unpredictable.

Fixed reinforcement schedule: There are a set number of

responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded.

Variable ratio reinforcement schedule: The number of

responses needed for a reward varies. This is the most
powerful partial reinforcement schedule.
https://youtu.be/GLx5yl0sxeM
In operant conditioning, extinction of a reinforced behavior
occurs at some point after reinforcement stops, and the
speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement
schedule.

In a variable ratio schedule, the point of extinction comes

very slowly, but in the other schedules, extinction might
come quickly.
 Types of reinforcers: Primary & Secondary

1. Primary Reinforcers: Reinforcers that have innate

reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not
learned. Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, among
others. Pleasure is also a primary reinforcer. Organisms do
not lose their drive for these things.

2. Secondary Reinforces: Have no inherent value and only

has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary
reinforcer. Praise, linked to affection for example; or money
is worth something when you can buy other things with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhI5h5JZi-U
TRIAL & ERROR
Developed by American psychologist Edward Lee Thorndike.

He suggests that learning takes place through the trial &

error method; some call it “learning by selection of the
successful variant”.

Thorndike’s elements of theory of learning involved

connections formed in the nervous system b/w S & R.

In situations where there is no ready-made solution of a

problem is available to the learner, he adopts the method of
trial and error.
Edward L. Thorndike was the first contributor to the field,
“Law of Effect”.

According to it, behavioral responses that are followed by

rewards or satisfactory results are most likely to become
the established pattern and occurs again and again in
response to the same stimulus.

Depending on the strength of the rewards, there might be a

certain permanency in the stimulus related behavior.
Example: In this experiment the rats were taught to follow a
complex pattern of runs and turns through a maze to reach
the food. The rats were divided in three groups. First group
of rats was neither hungry nor given any food at the end or
trial. The second group was hungry but was not given food.
The third one was hungry and given food at the end of a
trial.It was concluded that only the third group learned
appreciably i.e., the number of errors went on decreasing in
each attempt. The logic is simple. To be motivated and
unrewarded leaves to you only frustration instead a notable
amount of learning.
 According to Thorndike, learner selects a correct response out of a large
number of possible responses, & connects it with the appropriate
stimulus.

Share 3 Experiments *

Primary Laws (3):

1. Law of readiness (or Law of action tendency): The readiness and

openness to learn and go through the process. Like conduction
depends on the readiness of the unit to conduct. Readiness =
Preparation for action

2. Law of exercise: Practice and repetition. Law of use and disuse: former
suggests repetition strengthens its connection w the stimulus, while the
latter is failure of it weakens.

3. Law of effect: Considers pleasant and unpleasant consequences.

Behavior followed by pleasant is likely to be repeated, while behavior
followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped. Element
of satisfaction
 Some more (5 secondary):

1. Law of multiple-responses: When confronted w new situations,

organisms respond in variety of ways before arriving at correct
response.

2. Law or set or attitude: Guided by attitude of organism towards

activity. The task is better if the attitude is healthy.

3. Law of pre-potency of elements:

4. Law of response by analogy: Individual response to a new

situation on the basis of the responses made by the individual in a
similar situation in the past.

5. Law of associative shifting: Response elicited from the learner in

association with any situation to which s/he is sensitive.
 Factors involved in T & E:

1. Motive or drive: Tension state resulting from needs. Biological or

psychological, or both

2. Stimulus or goal: Casual factor for activity.

3. Responses: Number of varies responses for an activity. Responses which

bring you closer to the goal are satisfying responses; while the one’s that do
not lead to the goal are annoying responses.

4. Block: An obstacle or problem that serves as a hinderance towards goal

attainment.

5. Chance success: Result of random movements, and not a deliberate

successful solution by the learner.

6. Selection of proper movement: Gradual improvement to the proper method

and direction, out of the random method

7. Fixation: Focus on the right response, without fixating on the errors. Fix the
incorrect methods, and eliminate them.
Educational implications:

Focus on motivation & practice: Readiness and Exercise

Incentives, rewards & punishments: Effect

Each trail requires a different motivation or reward level, and

uniqueness.

Fatigue or stress has an effect on learning

After habit formation, or at least occurrence of learning: Insights

emerge through the process & simpler associations to higher units.

Blundering must be directed & guided

Certain subjects like grammar, math, science, poetry: T & E cannot

be avoided
We learn by doing, so tasks & activities must be established in a
way that promotes an environment to discover for themselves,
what is required.

Both punishment & reward are significant but its often seen in
experiments that it is handled more successfully when in positive
phase.

Dealing with drastic forms of inhibitions, tendency of teachers to

impress upon the negative processes, stumbling upon
appropriate response - inhibiting false response when correct
reaction is fixated.

The gap or delay b/w successful performance & releasing

consequence has an effect on rate of learning.

Being informed of own progress promptly: maintains motivation

and tension can be mastered
LEARNING BY INSIGHT

Insight = Immediate & clear learning or understanding

which takes place without overt trial & error testing.

It occurs in human learning when people recognize

relationships , that help in solving new problems (make
new/novel associations b/w objects or actions).

Majorly studied by Wolfgang Köhler, a German Gestalt

psychologist.
In one experiment, Köhler placed a banana outside the
cage of a hungry chimpanzee, Sultan, and gave the animal
two sticks, each too short for pulling in the food but joinable
to make a single stick of sufficient length. Sultan tried
unsuccessfully to use each stick, and he even used one
stick to push the other along to touch the banana. Later,
apparently after having given up, Sultan accidentally joined
the sticks, observed the result, and immediately ran with the
longer tool to retrieve the banana. When the experiment
was repeated, Sultan joined the two sticks and solved the
problem immediately. This result, however, is ambiguous,
because it appeared that Sultan solved the problem by
accident—not through insight.
Also called Gestalt theory of learning (whole > sum of its
parts). or ‘Hit & miss’, ‘strive & succeed’

Learning by insight = sudden grasping of the solution, a

flash of understanding, w/o the process of trial & error.

All discoveries & inventions take place through insight.

Learner actively participates in the act of getting new

experience. He organizes his perceptions and observations
and gives meaning to them. It is his whole mind that
perceives, constructs and reconstructs experience.

2 experiments*
Insight is an awareness of key relationships between cause
and effect, which comes after assembling the relevant
information and either overt or covert testing of possibilities.

Type of learning in which one draws on previous experience

and also seems to involve a new way of perceiving logical
and cause-and-effect relationship.
Characteristics:

There is a pre-solution period which might come from intense

research/work

Time of idleness in which idea/concept seems to pop up

spontaneously in the next step.

Insight leads to change in perception.

Insight is sudden.

With insight, the organism tends to perceive a pattern or

organization (that helps in learning).

Understanding plays important role in insight learning.

Insight is related with higher order animals and not with inferior
animals.
Age influences insight learning. Adults are better learner
than children.

Past experience and perceptual organization is important in

perception.

Some psychologists also relate insight learning with

associative learning.
 Criterion or elements of learning by insight:

1. Comprehension as a whole

2. Clear goal

3. Power of generalization (and differentiation)

4. Suddenness of solution

5. New forms of objects

6. Transfer

7. Change in behavior
 Factor consideration/Laws:

1. Capacities

2. Previous experiences

3. Experimental arrangement

4. Fumbling & search

5. Readily repeated

6. Use in new situation

7. Wholesome experience
 Education implications: Teacher

1. Integrated curriculum

2. Problem as a whole: Present whole sentence then analyze

into words or alphabets

3. Child as a whole

4. Motivation

5. Importance of transfer

6. Emphasis on intelligent learning

7. Development of higher mental faculties:

8. Useful for difficult subjects

9. Useful for scientific inventions

10.Individual differences

11.Logical presentation

12.Persistant efforts

13.Goal-oriented approach

14.Multiple approach
LEARNING BY IMITATION

Advanced behavior whereby an individual observes &

replicates another’s behavior.

It is a form of social learning which leads to development of

traditions, culture and our entire society.

Allows transfer of information (customs, behaviors) b/w

individuals & down the generations w/o need for genetic
inheritance.

The term imitation generally refers to conscious behavior.

Children learn more by imitating than by understanding.

Social learning theory: Theorized by Albert Bandura, it

suggests that people learning from one another, via. observation,
imitation, & modeling. Imitation theory is also called observational
theory in some schools of thought.

Learning occurs by watching others and imitating what they do,

or say. The individuals performing the imitated behavior are
called models.

Research suggests that this imitative learning involves a specific

type of neuron, called a mirror neuron. For example: ‘monkey
see, monkey do’

Example: In a study of chimpanzees, researchers gave juice

boxes with straws to two groups of captive chimpanzees. The
first group dipped the straw into the juice box, and then sucked
on the small amount of juice at the end of the straw. The second
group sucked through the straw directly, getting much more juice
Imitation is sometimes more obvious in humans.

Bandura and others suggested a cognitive component to

learning, as it was occurring without absence of external
reinforcement. He felt internal mental states must also have
a role in learning and that observational learning involves
much more than imitation.

In imitation, a person simply copies what the model does.

Observational learning is much more complex.

Steps in the modeling process for learning to be successful:

attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation.
 There are various ways in which learning can occur:

1. You learn a new response: Example, watching your

coworker get chewed out by your boss for coming in late,
you start leaving home 10 minutes earlier so that you won’t
be late.

2. Choosing whether or not to imitate the model depending on

what you observe of the model: Example, When learning to
surf, Julian might watch how his father pops up successfully
on his surfboard and then attempt to do the same thing. On
the other hand, Julian might learn not to touch a hot stove
after watching his father get burned on a stove.

3. You could learn a general rule that you apply to other

situations
 There are 3 types of models identified by Bandura:

1. Live: Model demonstrates a behavior in person, as in

example - Ben stood up on his surfboard so that Julian could
see how he did it.

2. Verbal: Model does not perform the behavior, but instead

explains or describes the behavior, as when a soccer coach
tells his young players to kick the ball with the side of the
foot, not with the toe

3. Symbolic: Model can be fictional characters or real people

who demonstrate behaviors in books, movies, television
shows, video games, or Internet sources
Bandura’s wanted to explain children learn in social
environments by observing and then imitating the behaviour
of others.

We could base this on the idea that learning could not be

fully explained simply through reinforcement, but that the
presence of others was also an influence.

He theorized that the consequences of an observed

behaviour often determined whether or not children adopted
the behaviour themselves.

A series of experiments were conducted, where he watched

children as they observed adults attacking Bobo Dolls.
Experiment: BOBO DOLL experiment (look it up!). He
particularly researched children’s modeling of adults’
aggressive and violent behaviors. He conducted an
experiment with a five-foot inflatable doll that he called a
Bobo doll. In the experiment, children’s aggressive behavior
was influenced by whether the teacher was punished for
her behavior. In one scenario, a teacher acted aggressively
with the doll, hitting, throwing, and even punching the doll,
while a child watched. There were two types of responses
by the children to the teacher’s behavior. When the teacher
was punished for her bad behavior, the children decreased
their tendency to act as she had. When the teacher was
praised or ignored (and not punished for her behavior), the
children imitated what she did, and even what she said.
They punched, kicked, and yelled at the doll.
Continued: When hit, the dolls fell over and then bounced
back up again. Then children were then let loose, and
imitated the aggressive behaviour of the adults. However,
when they observed adults acting aggressively and then
being punished, Bandura noted that the children were less
willing to imitate the aggressive behaviour themselves.

Conclusion from the study: we watch and learn, and that

this learning can have both prosocial and antisocial effects.
Prosocial (positive) models can be used to encourage
socially acceptable behavior. This holds true for hobbies,
morals, values, interests, routine, etc.

The antisocial effects are vast too. It’s a vicious cycle of

aggression and violence and anger that needs to be
broken.
Based on the research, Bandura formulated 4 principles of social
learning:

Attention: To learn, we need to focus on the task. If we observe

something as novel or different, we are more likely o make it the
focus of their attention. Social contexts help to reinforce these
perceptions.

Retention: We learn by internalizing information in our memories.

We recall that information later when we are required to respond to
a situation that is similar the situation within which we first learnt
the information.

Reproduction: We reproduce previously learnt information

(behaviour, skills, knowledge) when required. However, practice
through mental and physical rehearsal often improves our
responses.

Motivation: Motivation guides any behavior. Often that motivation

originates from our observation of someone else being rewarded
or punished for something they have done or said. This usually
Educational Application:

Social modeling is a powerful method of education.

Novel and unique contexts often capture the students’

attention and could stand out in their memory.

Children are motivated to pay attention if they observe

others around them paying attention.

To encourage students to develop their individual self-

efficacy through confidence building and constructive
feedback.
TRANSFER OF LEARNING

It is the dependency of human conduct, learning, or

perforce on prior experience.

Based on the notion of transfer of practice by Edward

Thorndike and Robert. S. Woodsworth; who explored how
individuals would transfer learning in one context to
another, similar context or even how ‘improvement in one
mental function’ could influence a related one.

Their theory implied that transfer of learning depends on

how similarity b/w the learning task and transfer tasks are.
It is not common that situations when we learn are identical
to the situations where we apply and use our learning.
Education is a segment that prepares us for life, and most
of what we learn in school, we are expected to apply the
same in life.

Example: The arithmetic we learn, we could apply to

shopping.

Transfer + Learning = Transfer of Learning

Where, Transfer: An act of moving something to another

place; Learning: An act of gaining knowledge, skill by
experience, study, being taught or creative thought.

Transfer of learning: A process in which something learnt

in one situation is used in another situation.
Presently, transfer of learning is described as the process
and the effective extent to which past experiences (transfer
source) affect learning and performance (transfer target).

In education, transfer of learning or knowledge, refers to the

capacity to apply acquired knowledge and skills to new
situation.

There are 3 types of transfers: From prior knowledge to

learning, from learning to new learning, and from learning to
application.

Transfer of learning underlies the ability to think, reason,

plan, and to make good decisions.

ToF is considered to be the most elusive to demonstrate,

but it is the key to all effective instruction and learning.
 Transfer of learning occurs when the learner:

1. Recognizes common features among concepts, skills or

principles.

2. Links the information in memory.

3. Sees the value of utilizing what was learned in one

situation, in another situation.

Transfer reduces our world to manageable proportions, it

makes the world familiar. Transfer, the seeing of
similarities, creates categories and concepts for us, and it is
responsible for our creating generic or general structures of
thinking
 Principles: For significant learning and transfer

1. Purposeful: Acquire motivation (spirit of transfer), engage hours of

practice and drill.

2. Utilization of previous knowledge: Acquire large primary knowledge

base in area where transfer is required, acquire some level of
knowledge bas e in subjects outside the primary area, understand
history and theory in area(s) transfer is wanted,

3. Helpful in adjustment: Allow time for learning to incubate.

4. Utilization of mental capacities: Develop an orientation to think and

encode learning in transfer terms,

5. Development of insight: Create cultures of transfer or support systems

6. Effect: Observe and read the works of people who are exemplars and
masters of transfer thinking.
 Process:

1. Experience: Awareness and motivation

2. Content Input: Lecture/Film, discussion, handout

3. Analysis (of experience): In terms of content input

4. (Leading to) Generalizations or Inferences:

5. Practice or Tryouts

6. Transfer (to next situation or life)

 Stages of learning:

1. Unconscious experience: Unaware of what you need to

learn

2. Conscious incompetence: Aware of what you need to learn

3. Conscious competence: Learnt what you need to know but

have to practice it.

4. Unconscious competence: No longer need to practice,

what you learn becomes second nature to you.
Research shows: For transfer to occur, the original learning
must be repeatedly reinforced with multiple examples or
similar concepts in multiple contexts (and possibly, on
different levels and orders of magnitude).

Psychologist Jean Piaget referred to this method as

epigenetic, as a kind of spiral where each new turn is a
higher order manifestation of the order below it, just as 2 is
to 4 and 4 is to 8.

The bare-bones essence of transfer is simple: it’s

equivalence can be summarized by the ‘=’ sign.
Transfer is integrally responsible for classifying things: we
generally place something into a category by its similarity to
things in that category.

It is a general phenomenon, and a form of analogical

reasoning.

No hard set education approach to transfer of learning,

there is a 5 step approach use in motor learning and motor
learning skills: Readying - Imaging - Focusing - Executing -
Evaluating

Near & Far ToF: Near transfer refers to transfer between

very similar contexts, whereas, far transfer refers to transfer
between contexts that, on appearance, seem remote and
alien to one another. Near and far are intuitive notions that
resist precise codification. It’s simply a broad
categorization, but ToF cannot be strictly defined in terms of
metric of closeness.
The Low Road/High Road:

Low-road transfer refers to developing some

knowledge/skill to a high level of automaticity. It requires a
great deal of practice in varying settings (Example: shoe
typing and keyboard typing).

High-road transfer involves the cognitive understanding and

purposeful and conscious analysis, mindfulness, and
application of strategies that cut across disciplines. In high-
road transfer, there is intentional mindful abstraction of an
idea that can transfer, and then conscious and intentional
application of the idea when faced by a problem where the
idea may be useful.
 Forms of transfer:

1. General Transfer: Ability to apply knowledge or skills

learned in one context, to a variety of different contexts.

2. Specific transfer: Ability to apply information in a context

similar to the one originally learned.

• The problem of achieving transfer of learning is both simple

and complex. In certain ways, some issues lie in our social
values about the importance of education and learning and
what we expect and think is necessary for students to learn,
some lie against the schools, teachers and teaching
methods.
 Types based on specificity of transfer:

1. Content- to- content transfer: Making use of existing knowledge of one

subject area to the learning of another. Knowledge about proteins, fats
and carbs would help in health education.

2. Procedural-to-procedural transfer: Or skill-to-skill transfer, using

procedures learned in one skill area in another skill area.

3. Declarative-to-procedural transfer: Learning about something helps in

actually doing something

4. Procedural-to-declarative transfer: When practical experience in an

area helps us to learn more abstract knowledge of the area.

5. Strategic Transfer: When knowledge about our mental processes, such

as how we learn or remember, is gained through monitoring our mental
activities during learning
6. Conditional Transfer: Knowledge concerning when to apply the knowledge
learned in one context may be appropriate for transferring it to another context.

7. Theoretical Transfer: Understanding deeper cause and effect relationship.

8. General or non-specific transfer: Previous knowledge that isn’t specific to the

training situation irrespective of no apparent similarities b/w o and n situations.

9. Literal transfer: Use knowledge or procedure directly in new situation.

10.Vertical T: Prior learning transferred to new learning which is higher in a

hierarchy

11.Lateral T: previous learning is transferred to the same level in a hierarchy

12.Reverse T: Backward T, existing knowledge is modified and re-viewed in

terms of its similarities to the new information

13.Proportional T: Abstract, like melody in a different octave

14.Relational T: Mathematical analogies, share similar nature or structure but no

causal relationship
 Enhancing transfer b/w school and everyday life:

1. Collaboration

2. Use of tools

3. Contextualized Reasoning

4. Technology: HCI

• Levels and other types of transfers based on judgments of

similarity: Non-specific, Context, Application, Displacement
of creative transfer, (Near and Far)
 Factors impacting the transfer process (or obstacles):

1. Meaningfulness of context

2. Similarity of content

3. Meaningful learning

4. Similarity b/w learning situations

5. Generalization

6. Similarity b/w technique and principles

7. Intelligence

8. Deliberations

9. Methods of teaching

10.Depth of original understanding

11.Quality of example & variety of example

12.Emphasis on metacognition
Educational Implications of ToL:

Suitable curriculum (integrated, practical and utilitarian

curriculum & Guidance in selection of curriculum)

Effects methods of teaching so as to increase the

possibilities of transfer.
LEVELS OF LEARNING:
GAGNE (GON-YEH)
Robert Gagne stipulates that there are several different types
or levels of learning, and the significance of these
classifications is that each different type requires different
types of instruction.

Best known for his Conditions of Learning: The book,

published in 1965, identified the mental conditions that are
necessary for learning.

During WW II, he worked with the Army Air Corps training

pilots, and Gagne pioneered the science of instruction.

He developed a series of studies and works which simplified

and explained what he and others believed was ‘good
instruction’.
In his book, Conditions of learning, he described the
analysis of learning objectives, and how these different
classes of learning objectives relate to the appropriate
instructional designs.
Sometimes his work is referred to as the ‘the Gagne
assumption’. The assumption is that different types of learning
exist, and that different instructional conditions are most likely to
bring about these different types of learning.

The theory stipulates that each type and level requires

instruction that is tailored to meet the needs of the pupil. While
the learning blueprint covers all aspects of training, the focus is
on retention and honing of intellectual skills.

Gagne says: "Since the purpose of instruction is learning, the

central focus for rational derivation of instructional techniques is
the human learner. Development of rationally sound
instructional procedures must take into account learner
characteristics such as initiate capacities, experimental
maturity, and current knowledge states. Such factors become
parameters of the design of any particular program of
instruction.”
Gagne identifies 5 major categories of learning or learning outcomes:

Verbal information: Concerned with declarative knowledge (facts, information,

names, places, etc.).

Intellectual skills: Discrimination, concrete concept, defined concept, rule

Cognitive strategies: Include rehearsal (verbally repeat, underline, or copy

materials), elaboration (associate new information with the existing one through
paraphrasing, summarizing, note-taking, and questions and answers), and
organizing (arrange material in an organized and meaningful order through
outlining, concept mapping, advance organizer, etc.).

Motor skills or psychomotor: Sequences of motor responses or movements,

which are combined into complex performances. These physical performances
are assessed by rapidity, accuracy, force, or smoothness. Further divided into
sub-skills (part skills), that are performed simultaneously or in sequential order to
produce performances.

Attitudes. An internal state that affects personal choices and actions over an
object, person, event and so on.
The primary significance of the hierarchy is to identify
prerequisites that should be completed to facilitate learning at
each level. Prerequisites are identified by doing a task analysis
of a learning/training task. Learning hierarchies provide a basis
for the sequencing of instruction.

Gagne proposed a system of classifying different types of

learning in terms of the degree of complexity of the mental
processes involved. He identified eight basic types, and
arranged these in the hierarchy

He suggested that learning tasks for intellectual skills can be

organized in a hierarchy according to complexity:

According to him, the higher orders of learning in this hierarchy

build upon the lower levels, requiring progressively greater
amounts of previous learning for their success.
The lowest four orders tend to focus on the more behavioral
aspects of learning, while the highest four focus on the
more cognitive aspects.
1. Stimulus recognition or signal learning

2. Response generation or stimulus response

3. Chaining: Following procedures

4. Verbal Association: Use of terminology,

5. Discriminations learning:

6. Concept learning:

7. Rule Learning or application:

8. Problem solving.
 Gagne create a 9-step process which detailed each element
required for effective learning. The model is useful for all types
of learning. The 9 steps of instruction:

1. Gain attention (Reception): Present stimulus to ensure

reception of instruction.

2. Inform learners the learning objective (Expectancy): What will

the pupil gain from the instruction?

3. Stimulate recall of prior learning (Retrieval): Ask for recall of

existing relevant knowledge.

4. Present the stimulus (Selective Perception): Display the

content.
5. Provide learning guidance (Semantic Encoding)

6. Elicit performance (Responding): Learners respond to

demonstrate knowledge.

7. Provide feedback (Reinforcement): Give informative

feedback on the learner's performance.

8. Assess performance (Retrieval): More performance and

more feedback, to reinforce information.

9. Enhance retention and transfer (Generalization)

Each step here gives a checklist to trainers and educators
to use before they engage in training or teaching activities.

Each step highlights a form of communication that aids the

learning process.
REMEMBERING AND
FORGETTING
We deal with memory, every day in life, in one way or another.

Our memory defines us and gives us an identity. Loss of

memory means loss of one’s self.

Learning will not make sense if it isn’t retained by the person. It

is our memory through the capacity of which we are able to
relate to different events, experiences, conditions, people and
objects.

We use our understanding thus developed in different contexts

and on different occasions. Thus, memory makes it possible to
operate beyond the constraints of time and place.
Say a child learns something in class and uses it in the
market or at home or some other place. Memory
establishes links across diverse experiences.

Whether it is to develop social relationships, mastering

cognitive competencies (mental capacities) and solving
various problems.

However, there are times when our memory fails us, we

forget a name, a formal or fail to recognize a person.

Memory is a very complex psychological process and any

kind of mechanical analogy in terms of storage, processing
and retrieval (e.g., tape recorder, computer) falls short.

In this process, information is retained not only as it is, but it

may be subjected to change and modification.
We might fail to remember due to brain damage, resulting
in loss of memory functions, called amnesia.

People might forget in the normal course of life.

Remembering and forgetting are both natural processes
that are subject to a number of factors that operate in
everybody’s life.
Some factors that are critical to retention:

Decay of Memory Traces: It is a common experience that

memories of many events and experiences fade over time. This
notion has been proposed as the general cause of forgetting.
People might remember events of early childhood during old age
without any kind of distortion. Decay cannot be considered as a
general cause of forgetting, but it occurs as an important factor in
sensory memory and in STM when there is lack of rehearsal.

Interference: We learn everything in some context. Every

experience of learning is preceded and followed by other
experiences, they are often interrelated and influence each other.
When these influences become adverse they become
interference. When earlier learning negatively influences present
learning, it is called proactive interference and when present
experience influences previous learning then it is termed as
retroactive interference. Similarity b/w two sets of materials to be
learned and the degree of interference b/w them is positively
correlated.
Motivation: Freud suggests that forgetting takes place
because the event is unpleasant, so we forget as we do not
want to remember something. We might exclude memories
or push them out of consciousness (repression). We
commonly remember pleasant experiences more often than
unpleasant ones. We tend to remember incomplete tasks
more than completed tasks. Role of mood in human
memory suggests affective aspects of our lives shape our
memories in significant ways.

Retrieval Failure: A lot of forgetting, particularly LTM is due

to absence or non-availability of retrieval cues at the time of
recall. Changes in context associated with physical and
mental states from the occasion of learning (encoding) to
recall (retrieval) often result in poor retention scores.
Example: We blank out during examinations.
Stimulus Encoding: We encode information only in its
context, and it plays an important role in remembering..
Experiences are encoded in certain form and are located in
a situation, That is if the conditions during retrieval are
similar to encoding the memory remains intact.

Level of Processing: While learning some material we may

attend to it in detail and process at a deeper level or neglect
it and attend at a surface level. This may be a cause of
forgetting.
Biology: Brain is a maze of brain cells called neurons and
the it is composed of around 100 billion neurons. They
affect brain activity based on their location, number, type,
and function.

We have the ability to form two different types of long-

lasting memories. One: Learn to perform certain actions,
such as talking, riding a bike, or playing a musical
instrument, and we will remember how to do these things
forever. We unconsciously repeat them, and we perform
them without thinking about them. Two: Intentional recall is
when we need to think about these things to remember
them. Examples are things like our first-grade teacher’s
name, the meaning of words, or the street where we were
attacked by a dog.
We usually use a process of association when intentional
recall is involved. Learning by association was first studied
by a Russian scientist named Ivan Pavlov. CC is similar to
association.

Example: Walking down a particular street makes you feel

completely normal until the day you are bitten by a dog on
that street. From that moment on and for a long time into
the future, you will feel fear when you walk down that street
because you associate that place with the pain caused by
the fierce dog.
Brain region: Hippocampus is majorly involved with
memories. Disease, disorder, dysfunction or damage to the
region (each or either side of the brain) could cause
problems related to memory.

Damage to hippocampus leaves people unable to form new

memories; therefore, they become amnesic.

Alzheimer’s disease, which causes neuron death in the

hippocampus, impairs the ability to remember recent events
and causes a progressive memory loss.

Amnesia is of two types: Anterograde and Retrograde.

Memory loss during bad experiences, possibly due to
excessive memories, possible overwhelmingness, is
applicable as in PTSD.

Memorization is a process occurs due to the power or the

ability of the mind to retain and reproduce learning.
Memorization is the same as remembering,

Memory can be likened to a giant filing cabinet in the brain,

with data stored and sorted, classified and cross-filed for
future reference. Remembering depends on how the brain
goes about coding its input. In practical sense, good or poor
memory is weight in terms of “remembering what has
previously been learned”.
Methods of storage:

Encoding: process of converting information into specific

forms for processing.

Storage: storage of information for subsequent recovery

or retrieval. The model of storage is the model of the stage,
which includes sensory, short-term, and long-term memory.
Generally, all long-term memories begin as sensory
experiences, are encoded and then are stored long-term
after passing through short-term processing.

Retrieval: aware of the conscious or unconscious of

information from long-term memory. Consolidated
information is stored in long-term memory registers, and
then re-activated and returned to short-term memory. Use
of retrieval signals is done.
Basic methods of retention: Recognition, Recall and
Relearning

Recognition: When you are not able to remember

someone’s name but you know that you have seen his/her
face before. Here, you are checking the stimulus (face) with
your memory content to find out the match.

Recall: When one tries to remember a name without a face

in front. Recall is a process of using a general stimulus and
finding the information that is in the memory. When you are
given a question in essay you use the process of recall.

Relearning: It is a method of learning the material second

time. It usually takes less time than original learning.
 Forgetting painful events: Repression is when events and
experiences that are threatening or painful are eliminated from our
consciousness.

Amnesia: Refers to a loss of memory stemming from illness, injury,

drug abuse or other causes. Two types:

1. Korsakoff’s syndrome: Illness caused by long-term abuse of alcohol.

It often involves profound retrograde amnesia. That is, patient
cannot remember events that took place many years before the
onset of their illness. Medical examinations of such person's brains
after their death indicate that they have experienced extensive
damage to portions of the the thalamus and hypothalamus, portions
that play key role in long-term memory.

2. Alzheimer’s: Illness usually onsets in old age (65 over), some cases
in young age too. Beings with mild problems, such as increased
difficulty in remembering names, phone numbers, or appointments.
Gradually, patients condition worsens until they become totally
confused are unable to perform simple tasks like dressing, and
experience an almost total loss of memory.
 Factors of forgetting:

1. Lack of interest

2. Old age

3. Brain injury

4. Lapse of time

5. Lack of practice

6. Emotional Condition

7. Retroactive inhibitor

8. Repression

9. Use of drugs and alcohol

LEARNING CURVE:
REMEMBERING AND
FORGETTING
Forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory
retention in time. It shows how information is lost over time
when there is no attempt to retain it.

Strength of memory: Refers to the durability that memory

traces in the brain i.e. it states that the time period up to
which a person can recall any memory is based on the
strength of the particular memory.

The stronger the memory, the longer period in time that a

person is able to recall it.
A typical graph of a forgetting curve purports to show that
humans tend to halve their memory of newly learned
knowledge in a matter of days or weeks unless they
consciously review the learned material.
The forgetting curve
supports one of the 7
kinds of memory
failures: Transience,
which is the process
of forgetting that
occurs with the
passage of time
Ebbinghaus created the forgetting curve after repeatedly
testing himself after various time periods and recording
results.

He hypothesized that the speed of forgetting depends on a

number of factors: Difficulty of the learned material (e.g.
how meaningful it is), its representation and physiological
factors such as stress and sleep.

Further, he hypothesized that the basal forgetting

rate differs little between individuals. He concluded that the
difference in performance (e.g. at school) can be explained
by mnemonic representation skills.

Additionally hypothesized that basic training in mnemonic

techniques could help overcome certain difference related
to that part.
Hermann asserted that the best methods for increasing
strength of memory are: better memory representation (e.g.
with mnemonic techniques) and repetition based on active
recall (especially spaced repetition).

His premise was that each repetition in learning increases

the optimum interval before the next repetition is needed
(for near-perfect retention, initial repetitions may need to be
made within days, but later they can be made after years).

Later research suggested: Additional factor = Higher

original learning would also produce slower forgetting.
R = Retention, S = Relative strength of memory and t = time

How? Ebbinghaus conducted a series of tests on himself,

which included memorization and forgetting of meaningless
three letter words. Ebbinghaus memorized different
nonsense words such as “WID”, “ZOF and “KAF”, and then
he tested himself to see if he could retain the information
after different time periods. The results thus obtained were
plotted in a graph, which is now referred to as
the forgetting curve.
Ebbinghaus found the forgetting curve to be exponential in
nature. Memory retention is 100% at the time of learning
any particular piece of information. However, it drops
rapidly to 40% within the first dew days. After which, the
declination of memory retention slows down again.

Another concept: over learning = If you practiced something

more than what is usually required to memorize it, the effect
of overlearning takes place. This means that the information
is now stored much more strongly and thus the effects of
forgetting curve for overlearned information is shallower.
 Rate of forgetting: Factors affecting rate of forgetting
include

1. Meaning-fulness of the information

2. The way it is represented

3. Physiological factors (stress, sleep, etc)