EDC 241

PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT AND

LEARNING

22/09/2022 MRS. AMMAH, MS. EGGLEY, MR. AMOAKO, DR. MAHAMA, MS. KLUTSEY 1
 WEEK 8 – LEARNING
• Definition and meaning of learning
• Types of Learning
- Associative Learning (Classical and Operant Conditioning)
- Social learning theory
• Educational Implications and applications
 Learning Defined
• Domjan (2010) defines learning is defined as a relatively
permanent change in behavior due to experience.

• Almost all behaviours are learned e.g. writing, eating, walking,

dancing etc.
• You would be unable to read, write, or speak if you had not
learnt how to engage in these behaviours

• NB: Temporal behaviour changes do not qualify as learning.

 Types of Learning
• Associative learning
• It occurs whenever a person or an animal forms a simple
association among various stimuli and/or behaviors. In associative
learning, responses/behaviors are preceded by an antecedent and
followed by consequences

• Antecedents: Events that precede a response.

• Consequences: Effects that follow a response.
• The two major types of associative learning are classical
conditioning and operant conditioning.
 Classical Conditioning
• Propounded by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian psychologist

• It learning that takes place when two stimuli are linked together to
produce a new learned response in a person or animal.
• This learning occurs through the association of a neutral stimulus
with a biologically potent stimulus.

• He did the famous classical conditioning experiment with a dog,

meat powder and a bell.
Subtitle page 1
 Elements of Classical Conditioning
1. Unconditioned stimulus (US): A stimulus innately capable of
eliciting a response e.g. Meat powder

2. Unconditioned response (UR): An innate reflex response

elicited by an unconditioned stimulus e.g. Reflex salivation to the
US

3. Neutral stimulus (NS): A stimulus that does not evoke the

unconditioned response e.g. Bell before conditioning
 Elements of Classical Conditioning
4. Conditioned stimulus (CS): A stimulus that evokes a response
because it has been repeatedly paired with an e.g. unconditioned
stimulus Bell after conditioning

5. Conditioned response (CR): A learned response elicited by a

conditioned stimulus e.g. Salivation to the CS
 Principles of Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition: The period in conditioning during which a response is

strengthened.

• Expectancy: An anticipation concerning future events or

relationships.

• Extinction: The weakening of a conditioned response through

removal of reinforcement.
 Principles of Classical Conditioning
• Spontaneous recovery: The reappearance of a learned response
after its apparent extinction.

• Stimulus generalization: The tendency to respond to stimuli similar

to but not identical to, a conditioned stimulus.

• Stimulus discrimination: The learned ability to respond differently to

similar stimuli.
Classroom Examples of Classical Conditioning
• A warm and nurturing teacher (US) makes students feel connected
(UR). Students associate going to school (CS) with the teacher.
Therefore, students learn to enjoy going to school (CR)

• A harsh and strict teacher (US) makes students feel bad (UR).
Students associate going to school (CS) with the harsh teacher and
learn to feel bad about going to school (CR).

• A child is laughed at (US) when he gave a presentation in class and

he felt ashamed (UR). Now every time he has to speak up in front
of people (CS), he feels nervous and fearful (CR).
Everyday Examples of Classical Conditioning
• A child sees a dog attack a person. It’s a very frightening experience
(UR). Dogs are generally neutral stimuli (US) that many people find
adorable. But to this child, after this incident, he’s scared (CR)
whenever he sees a dog (CS).

• Food poisoning can lead to a phobia of a specific food. The first

time someone eats a certain food (US) and gets sick from it, they
may associate the food with feeling awful (UR). The food’s
appearance, smell, or taste (CS) can evoke an intense dislike or even
fear in the person (CR).
 Operant/Instrumental Conditioning
• Propounded by Edward Thorndike and B.F Skinner

• This is the type of learning in which reinforcement or punishment

are used to either increase or decrease the probability that a
behavior will occur again. Hence the consequences of a response
determine the probability of it being repeated.

• Skinner did the famous Skinner box experiment while Thorndike did
the puzzle box experiment.
Skinner’s Experiment
 Skinner’s Experiment
• Skinner placed a hungry rat inside the Skinner box. The rat was
initially inactive inside the box, but gradually as it began to adapt
and explore around the box.

• The rat discovered a lever, pressed it and food was released inside
the box. After eating, it explored again and pressed the lever for the
second time as it grew hungry again.

• This continued for some time and later the rat immediately pressed
the lever once it was placed in the box.
 Skinner’s Experiment
• B.F. Skinner did another experiment. Here, he placed a rat in a box
and subjected it to unpleasant electric current.

• The rat experienced discomfort and started moving around the box.
It accidentally knocked the lever. Pressing of the lever immediately
seized the flow of unpleasant current.

• After a few times, the rat had smartened enough to go directly to

the lever in order to prevent itself from the discomfort.
Thorndike’s Experiment
 Thorndike’s Experiment
• Thorndike placed a cat in the puzzle box and encouraged it to escape to
reach a scrap of fish placed outside.

• Thorndike timed how long it took the cat to escape. The cats
experimented with different ways to escape the puzzle box and reach
the fish. Eventually it stumbled upon a lever which opened the cage.

• When it had escaped it was put in again, and once more the time it took
to escape was noted. Subsequently, the cat learned that pressing the
lever had favorable consequences and adopted this behavior, becoming
increasingly quick at pressing the lever.
 Thorndike’s Experiment
• Thorndike came up with three laws.

i. The “Law of effect” states that any behavior that is followed by

pleasant consequences is likely to be repeated, and any behavior
followed by unpleasant consequences is likely to be stopped.

ii. The “Law of exercise” states that drill or practice helps in increasing
efficiency and durability of learning.

i. The “Law of readiness” states that learning takes place when an action
tendency is aroused through preparatory adjustment, set or attitude.
Classroom Examples of Operant Conditioning
• A student tends to complete his/her homework daily; because
he/she knows that he/she will be rewarded with a candy (action) or
praise (behavior).

• A student who always comes late to the class gets lashed every time
in front of everyone. To prevent this, he/she may avoid coming late
to the class.

• If a student is praised or complimented for doing a class

presentation, he/she will be encouraged to do well, but if ridiculed
in front of everyone, he or she may avoid such in the future.
Everyday Examples of Operant Conditioning
• A driver is fined some amount, and his driving license is ceased for
not following the traffic rules to deter him from doing such in the
future.

• A child may learn to clean his/her room regularly; because he/she

will be rewarded with extra TV hours every time he/she cleans up.

• Workers are often offered with the incentives and bonus in return
of completing their targets in time or for regular attendance. It
makes the workers to perform better, so that, they can
continuously get those incentives and bonus.
 Reinforcement
• Any stimuli which strengthens or increases the probability of a
specific response in the future. For example, if you want your
dog to sit on command, you may give him a treat every time he
sits for you. Reinforcements strengthen behaviour.

• Reinforcer: Any event, item that reliably increases the

probability or frequency of responses it follows. E.g. Candy
 Types of Reinforcement
• Positive Reinforcement: It occurs when something pleasant is
added in order to increase a response e.g. pens, erasers etc.

• Negative Reinforcement: It occurs when something aversive is

taken in order to increase a response e.g. Asking a child not to do a
chore they dislike to increase a target behavior.
• A child who doesn’t like eating because she doesn’t enjoy
vegetables can be reinforced by talking away the vegetables to make
the child eat more.
 Schedules of Reinforcement
• Fixed Ratio refers to applying the reinforcement after a specific
number of behaviors.
• Variable Ratio refers to applying a reinforcer after a variable
number of responses.

• Fixed Interval is about applying the reinforcer after a specific

amount of time.
• Variable Interval is about reinforcing someone after a variable
amount of time is the final schedule.
 Punishment
• Punishment is a term used in operant conditioning psychology to
refer to any change that occurs after a behavior that reduces the
likelihood that that behavior will occur again in the future.

• It refers to anything that decreases the likelihood of a behavior

being repeated.
 Types of Punishment
Positive Punishment: This is when something aversive is added in
order to decrease a behavior. The most common example of this is
disciplining (e. g. beating) a child for misbehaving.

Negative Punishment: When you remove something pleasant in

order to decrease a behavior. Putting a child in a time-out until
they can decrease their aggressive behavior, for instance, is an
example of a negative punishment.
 LET’S DISCUSS

WHY IS POSITIVE PUNISHMENT OR CORPORAL

PUNISHMENT DISCOURAGED?
 Downsides of Positive Punishment
• Punished behavior is not forgotten, it's suppressed- behavior
returns when punishment is no longer eminent.

• Creates fear that can generalize to desirable behaviors, e.g. fear of

school, learned helplessness, depression.

• Often ineffective unless it is given immediately after the

undesirable behavior and each time the that behavior occurs.
 Downsides of Positive Punishment
• Causes increased aggression- shows that aggression is a way to
cope with problems- Explains why aggressive delinquents and
abusive parents come from abusive homes.

• Signals that an inappropriate behavior has occurred but does not

specify what should be done instead.
 How to Make Punishment Work
• To make punishment work:
• Punishment should be swift.
• Punishment should be certain-every time.
• Punishment should be limited in time and intensity.
• Punishment should clearly target the behavior, not the person.
• Punishment should not give mixed messages.
• The most effective punishment is often omission training-negative
punishment.
 Shaping
• The process of gradually molding responses to a final desired
pattern.
• In shaping, successive attempts towards the desired behaviour are
rewarded instead of waiting till the final behaviour is exhibited.
• It is used in animal training. This is why animals on television and
at amusement parks taught to perform complicated tricks?

• How can shaping be applied in the classroom?

 Social Learning Theory
• This theory was proposed by Albert Bandura.
• He emphasized the importance of observation, modelling, and
imitation, attitudes, and emotional reactions of others in
learning.

• The theory states that learning occurs from the environment

through the process of observational learning.
• Observational learning posits that children observe the people
around them behaving in various ways. This is illustrated during
the famous Bobo doll experiment (Bandura, 1961).
Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment
 Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment
• There were two experimental groups, each made up of twenty
four 24 children (12 boys and 12 girls).

• The first group watched a male or female model behaving

aggressively towards a toy called a 'Bobo doll’.

• The adults attacked the Bobo doll in a distinctive manner - they

used a hammer in some cases, and in others threw the doll in
the air and shouted at it.
 Bandura’s Bobo Doll Experiment
• The other group was exposed to a non-aggressive model who
played in a quiet and subdued manner for 10 minutes (playing with
a tinker toy set and ignoring the bobo-doll).

• Children who observed the aggressive model made far more

imitative aggressive responses than those who were in the non-
aggressive or control groups.

• Bobo doll experiment demonstrated that children are able to learn

social behavior such as aggression through the process of
observation learning, through watching the behavior of another
person.
 Social Learning Theory
• Individuals that are observed are called models.

• In society, children are surrounded by many influential models,

such as parents within the family, characters on children’s TV,
friends within their peer group and teachers at school.

• These models provide examples of behavior to observe and

imitate, e.g., masculine and feminine, pro and anti-social, etc.
 Principles of Social Learning
• From his research Bandura formulated four principles of social
learning.

• Attention: We cannot learn if we are not focused on the task. If we

see something as being novel or different in some way, we are more
likely to make it the focus of their attention.

• 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 learned
the information.
 Principles of Social Learning
• Reproduction: We reproduce previously learned information
(behavior, skills, knowledge) when required. However, practice
through mental and physical rehearsal often improves our
responses.

• Motivation: We need to be motivated to do anything. Often that

motivation originates from our observation of someone else being
rewarded or punished for something they have done or said. This
usually motivates us later to do, or avoid doing, the same thing.
 Vicarious Learning
• Vicarious learning is a way of learning that allows individuals to
learn from the experience of others. It involves sensing, feeling,
and empathizing with what people are doing and taking notes, and
evaluating.

• Rather than direct, hands-on instructions, vicarious learning is

derived from indirect sources such as hearing and seeing.
• Examples of indirect sources include: when an individual sees or
hears a live situation, watches a video, listens to a story, reads a
book, or imagines a situation.
 Educational Implications
• Teachers are able to apply classical conditioning in the class by
creating a positive classroom environment to help students
overcome anxiety or fear.

• Pairing an anxiety-provoking situation, such as performing in front

of a group, with pleasant surroundings helps the student learn new
associations

• Using operant conditioning can give students immediate feedback

about their behavior.
 Educational Implications
• When the teacher rewards positive behavior, other students are
more likely to copy that behavior to earn the reward. The
rewarded student is also more likely to repeat that behavior
because of the positive feedback.

• Teachers can use the principles of social learning and modelling

to demonstrate to learner's classroom appropriate behaviours.
 Educational Implications
• Students should be involved in using their prior experiences and
structures to learn new knowledge.

• Teachers should assist learners in building their knowledge. This

assistance should fade away as it becomes unnecessary
 MRS. AMMAH, MS. EGGLEY, MR. AMOAKO, DR. MAHAMA, MS.
22/09/2022 43
KLUTSEY