CONCEPT & NATURE OF LEARNING

Learning pervades our lives. It is

involved not only in mastering in a new
skill or academic subject but also in
emotional development, social
interaction and even personality
development.
We learn what to fear, what to love,
how to be polite, how to be intimate
and so on.
 What is learning?
Different people view learning differently.

Some conceptions of learning:

- Learning is increasing knowledge
- Learning is memorizing or storing information
that can be reproduced.
- Learning is acquiring facts, skills and methods
that can be retained and used as necessary.
- Learning is making sense of things by relating
them to what is being learnt and to the real
world.
- Learning is comprehending the world by
reinterpreting knowledge.
 Most of what we do or do not do is
influenced by what we learn and how we
learn. Learning therefore provides a key
to the structure of our personality and
behaviour.

An individual starts learning

immediately after his birth or in a strict
sense even earlier in the womb of the
mother. Experiences direct or indirect is
found to play a dominant role in
moulding and shaping the behaviour of
the individual from the very beginning.
 /
Ex:- When a child touches a burning
matchstick the child gets burnt, and the next
time, when he comes across a burning
matchstick, he loses no time in withdrawing from
it.
In the same way from some other
experiences, he may conclude, for instance, that
“green apples are sore”, “a bird in hand is better
than two in the bush”, etc.

All these conclusions derived from

experiences, direct or indirect, bring about a
change in the behaviour of the individual. The
changes in behaviour brought about by
experience are commonly known as learning.
 DEFINITIONS OF LEARNING
Gardner Murphy
The term learning covers every modification in behaviour to
meet environmental requirements.

Skinner:
Learning is a process of progressive behaviour adaptation.

Gate & others:

Learning is the modification of behaviour through experiences
and training.

Henry P. Smith:
Learning is the acquisition of new behaviour of the strengthening
or weakening of old behaviour as the result of experiences.
CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING
 The term learning doesn't apply to temporary changes like
stemming from fatigue, drugs or illness.
 Learning is purposeful and goal oriented.
 Learning is universal and continuous.
 Learning is a life long process.
 Learning is transferable from one situation to another
 Learning is the process of adjustment.
 Learning is both individual and social
 It doesn't refers to changes resulting from maturation.
Maturation is a natural process.
 Learning as a product

• Learning is viewed as something external.

• Something that just happens or is done to
you by teachers
• Something like shopping. People go out
and buy knowledge - it becomes their
possession.
• People learn to get a good grade or a
certificate.
 Learning as a process
• Learning is viewed as something 'internal' or
personal.
• It is something that you do in order to
understand the real world.
• It is a tool for survival.
 Process of learning can take place in two
different ways.

1. Task-conscious or acquisition learning

2. Learning-conscious or formalized learning.

Task-conscious or acquisition learning
• Acquisition learning takes place all the
time.
• It is concrete, immediate and confined to a
specific activity
• It is not concerned with general principles
Example: Many people learn cooking without
attending to classes or without learning the
theories of cooking.
• As the learner acquires the skill, he/she
may not be conscious of learning, but will
be aware of the specific task in hand.
Learning-conscious or formalized learning
• Formalized learning arises from the process
of facilitating learning.
• This is 'educative learning' rather than the
accumulation of experience.
• To this extent there is a consciousness of
learning people are aware that the task
they are engaged in requires learning.
• What formalized learning does is to make
learning more conscious in order to
enhance it
• It involves guided episodes of learning.
 LEARNING METHODS
 Learning by doing
 Learning by observing
 Learning by discussion
 Learning by imitation
 Trail & error
 Conditioning
 Insight(whole)
• Behaviouristic theories
S-R theories with R
Trail&Error theory by Thorndike
Operant conditioning by Skinner
S-R theories without R
Watson theory
Classical conditioning by Pavlov
 THEORIES OF LEARNING
1. Trail & Error theory
2. Conditioning theory
i. Classical Conditioning
ii) Operant Conditioning
3. Gestalt theory
I. Kohler
II. Gagne
4. Bandura’s theory of social
learning
TRAIL AND ERROR
THEORY
 TRAIL & ERROR THEORY
 Also called Connectionism & Bond
theory (S–R).
 The famous American
psychologist Edward L. Thorndike
was the initiator.
 Experiment
He put a hungry cat in a puzzle box. There
was only one door for exit which could be opened
by correctly manipulating by a latch. A fish was
placed outside the box. The smell of the fish
worked as a strong motive for the hungry cat to
come out of the box. As a result, the cat made very
possible effort to come out of the box.
In this way, it made a number of random
movements. In one of the random movements, by
chance the latch was manipulated. The cat come
out and got its reward responses. In due course,
the cat was able to open the door without any error
or in other words, learned the way of opening the
door.
Thorndike concluded “learning is nothing
but the stamping in of the correct responses
and stamping out of the incorrect responses
through trail and error”.
This experiment has undergone the following
stages in the process of learning:-
1. DRIVE or MOTIVE :- The cat was hunger & intensified
by the sight of food.
2. GOAL :- To get the food by getting out of the box.
3. BLOCK :- The cat was confined in the box with a
closed door.
4. RANDOM MOVEMENTS:- The cat persistently tried to
come out of the box without knowing how.
5. CHANCE SUCCESS :- As a result of this striving and
random movements the cat, by chance, succeeded in
opening the door.

cont.
6. SELECTION (OF PROPER MOVEMENT) :-
Gradually the cat recognise the correct
response to manipulate the latch. It has select
the proper way of manipulating the latch out
of its random movements.
7. FIXATION:- At last, the cat learned the
proper way to open the door by eliminating
all the incorrect responses and fixing only the
right responses. Now it was able to open the
door without any error or in other words,
learned the correct way of opening the door.
 Thorndike’s Laws of Learning
1. THE LAW OF READINESS:- When any
conduction unit is ready to conduct, for it to
do so is satisfying. When any conduction
unit is not in readiness to conduct, for it to
conduct is annoying. When any conduction
unit is in readiness to conduct, for it no to do
so is annoying.
Classroom implications:-
• Teacher must wait till the learner is ready to
learn and should give them those
experiences to enhance readiness
2. LAW OF EXERCISE:- This law has two sub parts-
i. Law of use ii. Law of disuse
Use strengthening of a connection with practice & law of
disuse to the weakening of connection/forgetting when practice
is discontinued.
NOTE:- After further work and experiments on the law of
exercise demonstrated that use in the shape of mere repetition
doesn’t result in effective strengthening of the connection nor
does the disuse /lack of practice result in total weakening of
connection.
Mechanical use or disuse, doesn’t necessarily lead to
effective learning or total forgetting.
Classroom implications:-
 More opportunities should be given to students to use and
repeat the knowledge they get in the class.
 To maintain the connections for the longer period, review of
the learned material is necessary.
3. LAW OF EFFECT:- the satisfaction and
dissatisfaction, pleasure or displeasure resulting
from experiences decides the degree of its
effectiveness. This law emphasis on the role of
reward and punishment in the process of learning.
[Success – pleasure – food]
[Failure – displeasure]
Note:- After further work and experiments he
concluded that “Satisfaction strengthens the bond
but annoyance doesn’t weaken it”.
Classroom implications:-
 The classroom experiences should be
satisfactory & pleasant.
 School experiences and activities must be
arranged in such a way that learners may have
some degree of confidence and success.
 SUPPLEMENTARY PRINCIPLES/SECONDARY LAWS
1. THE PRINCIPLE OF MULTIPLE RESPONSE:- The animal/man
may try many responses before a right response through
trail & error. It involves many factors as motives, a
difficulty of barriers.
2. PRINCIPLE OF MENTAL SET:- Pre disposition to act in a
given way. It is more or less temporary condition of one’s
attitudes, feelings and interests.
3. THE PRINCIPAL OF PARTIAL ACTIVITY:- According to
Thorndike a response made only to parts or aspects of a
total mater then to the totality
4. THE PRINCIPLE OF ANALOGY/ASSIMILATION:- An
individual responds to a new situation on the basis the
responses made by him in similar situations in the past i.e.
he makes responses by comparison of analogy.
5. PRINCIPLE OF ASSOCIATIVE SHIFTING:- Any response which
is possible can be linked with any stimulus. Ex- after
number of trails, a stage it would not necessary to show
the fish.
 EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS

• Habits, attitudes & interests that

develop in individuals with the help of
this theory
• Respective for objective view point,
systematic methods of problem solving.
 CONDITIoNIng
THEORIES

1.CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
2.OPERANT CONDITIONING
Classical conditioning was discovered by a
Russian physiologist Ivan P. Pavlov, who
won a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work on
digestive process, is best known for his
research on classical conditioning.
 Pavlov kept a dog hungry for a knight and then tied him on
to the experimental table which was fitted with certain mechanically
control devices as shown in figure. According to arrangement, every
time the food was presented before the dog, a bell also rang. When
the food was put before the dog and the bell was rung, there was
automatic secretion of saliva from the dog’s mouth. The activity of
presenting the food accompanied with ringing of bell was repeated
several times and the amount of saliva secreted was recorded and
measured.
It was found that even in the absence of food(the natural
stimulus), the ringing of the bell(an artificial stimulus)caused the dog
to secrete the saliva(natural response)
 MODEL OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING

1. CS (Bell) -- No response
2. UCS (Food) - UCR (Salivation)
3. CS (Bell)+UCS (Food) - UCR (Salivation)
4. CS (Bell) - CR(Saliva)
 DEFINITION
Classical conditioning may be
defined as, “a process in which a
un-natural stimulus, by pairing
with a natural stimulus, acquires
all the characteristics of natural
stimulus”.
HIGHER ORDER CONDITIONING

1. UCS - UCR
2. CS+UCS - CR
3. CS1+CS2+UCS - CR
4. CS2 - CR
SOME PHENOMENA OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
Pavlov and his associates discovered several
findings & principles during their experimental
studies on the gastric secretion in dogs.
1. INTENSITY:- There is a positive correlation
between intensity of the stimulus &
magnitude of the response, but there is
negative correlation between intensity of
stimulus and latency of response.…………
[High intensity – High
magnitude]……………………. [Low intensity –
Low magnitude]
2. TEMPORAL RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CS &UCS:-
Psychologists manipulated systematically the time
intervals between CS & UCS. The following of
temporal relationship have been studied by
psychologists for classical conditioning.
i) SIMULTANEOUS CONDITIONING:- When CS & UCS
occur either at the same time or just following the
onset of CS.
ii) DELAYED CONDITIONING:- It has been found
most effective in establishing conditioning. This
is called delayed because the onset of the UCS
is delayed following the onset of the CS
iii) TRACE CONDITIONING:- Trace
conditioning is not as effective as delayed
conditioning. It is very difficult to establish,
particularly when there is a long interval
between the CS & UCS.
iv) BACKWARD CONDITIONING:- Backward
conditioning is mostly unsuccessful. Here
the UCS is present to prior to CS.
3. EXTINCTION:- If CS is not followed by UCS, it
means there is no reinforcement. A stage
comes when the dog stops to secrete saliva.
This process is known as extinction.
4. SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY:- It has been
reported by psychologists that when the dog is
brought out of the experimental set-up and
again put in the set-up after a lapse of time, the
dog responds to CS by gastric secretion. This
process is called spontaneous recovery
5. INHIBITION:-
i) EXTERNAL INHIBITION:- It is a
process of inhibiting CR by external factors
in the environmental as noise or any other
distraction which may draw the attention
of the dog.
ii) INTERNAL INHIBITION:- It is
blocked by some internal inhibitory
process. For ex. Physical health of the
organism or pre-occupation with some
other activity etc.
 APPLICATION OF CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING
• TEACHING ALPHABETS, TABLES, RHYMES etc.
• DEVELOPING GOOD HABITS:- Such as cleanliness, respect
for elders and punctuality etc.
• BREAKING OF BAD HABITS AND ELIMINATING OF
CONDITIONED FEAR:- All learning is acquired in the social
environment. Principles of Classical conditioning can be
used to deconditioning anxiety and fear in maladjusted
children.
• USE IN PSYCHOTHERAPY:- The principles of Classical
conditioning are used in deconditioning emotional fears
in mental patents
• TRAINING OF ANIMALS:-
• DEVELOPING POSITIVE ATTITUDE:- Classical conditioning
can be used to develop favourable or unfavourable
attitude towards learning, teacher & school.
 OPERANT CONDITIONING

History of operant
conditioning begins with
Prof. B.F. Skinner(1904-1990)
of Harvard University.
• Skinner apposed “no stimulus, no
response” mechanism in the evaluation
of behaviour.
• He argued that in practical situations we
can not always wait for things to happen
in the environment.
• Man is not a victim of the environment.
He may often manipulate the things in
the environment with his own initiative.
 OPERANT
SKINNER CONSIDERS AN OPERANT
AS A SET OF ACTS THAT CONSTITUTUTES
AN ORGANISM’S DOING SOMETHING.

DEFINITION:- “Operant conditioning refers

to a kind of learning process where a
response is made more probable/more
frequent by reinforcement”.
 RESPONDENT & OPERANT
BEHAVIOUR
 He defined two types of responses – the one
‘elicited’ by known stimuli which he called as
‘Respondent behaviour’ and the other ‘emitted’ by
the unknown stimuli which he called as ‘Operant
behaviour ’.

 In the respondent behaviour, the stimulus preceding

the response is responsible for causing the
behaviour. On the other hand, in the operant
behaviour the stimulus causing such behaviour is
unknown and it is not important to know the cause
of the behaviour. Here it is not the stimulus but the
consequences of the behaviour which are more
important and hence the operant behaviour is
controlled by the strength of its consequences
instead of stimuli.
 THE OPERANT EXPERIMENT
He developed a simple apparatus, commonly
known as Skinner box. The mouse mainly consists
of a grid floor, a system of light/sound produced at
the time of delivering food pallet in food cup. The
feeder mechanism is activated in this experiment
pressing the bar in a certain way by the rat could
result in production of click sound and get a food
pallet.

EXPERIMENT CONCLUSIONS:- “Behaviour shaped

and maintained by its consequences. It is operated
by the organism & maintained by its results”.
 MECHANISMS/OPERATIONS OF
OPERANT CONDITIONING
1. SHAPING:- Shaping refers to the judicious use of
selective reinforcement to bring certain desirable
changes in the behaviour of the organism.
Suppose we wish to shape behaviour of an
untrained pigeon in the Skinner box to learn a
particular instrumental response, say pecking a
particular disk.
2. EXTINCTION:- It consists simply of withholding
the appropriate response occurs. Suppose in the
Skinner box the rat presses the bar but does not
get pellet of food. If this is repeatedly done, the
pressing behaviour of the rat will be extinguished.
3. SPONTANEOUS RECOVERY:- It refers to the fact
that if an organism is removed from the situation for
a while after extinction and then returned and again
presented with stimulus, his performance will be
better than would be predicted from his performance
at the end of preceding extinction.
THE CONCEPT OF REINFORCEMENT:- The
concept of reinforcement is central in Operant
conditioning theory of Skinner. “Any
environmental event that is programmed as a
consequence of a response that can increase
the rate of responding , is called a reinforcer”.
Reinforcers are events that raise the rate of
responding.
3.PUNISHER:- A punisher is an aversive stimulus
which follows a response and frequently serves to
suppress it.
 SCHEDULES OF REINFORCEMENT
1. CONTINUOUS SCHEDULE:- It is an agreement of
providing reinforcement after every correct response.
2. FIXED INTERVAL REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE:- In this
schedule the organism is rewarded for a response made
only after a set interval of time, e.g. every 3 or every 5
minutes.
3. FIXED RATIO REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE:- In this
schedule, the reinforcement is given after a fixed
number of response. Ex- Salary.
4. VARIABLE REINFORCEMENT SCHEDULE:- When
reinforcement is given at varying number of responses,
it Is called a variable reinforcement schedule. In this
case reinforcement is intermittent or irregular.
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CLASSICAL/OPERANT CONDITIONING
CLASSICAL OPERANT
• It helps in the learning of • It helps in the learning of
respondent behaviour. operant behaviour.
• Emphasis the importance of • It is called type R
the stimulus in the eliciting conditioning because of the
desired responses. emphasis on the response.
• In this type of conditioning , • Here beginning is made
beginning is made with the with the responses as they
help of specific stimulus occur “naturally” or
that brings certain unnaturally shaping them
responses. into existence.
• Here strength of • Here strength of
conditioning is usually conditioning is shown by
determined by the the response i.e. the rate
magnitude of the with which an operant
conditioned response i.e. response occurs as a result
the amount of saliva. of some reinforcement.
3.Dealing with anxieties through conditioning:
Through conditioning fear, anxieties, prejudices,
attitudes, perceptual meaning develops.
4. Conditioning group behaviour:
Conditioning makes entire group learn and complete
change in behaviour is seen due to reinforcement. It
breaks undesired and unsocial behaviour too.
Example: Putting questions or telling lie to teachers
will make teachers annoyed in such circumstances
students learn to keep mum in the class.
Asking questions, active participation in class
discussion will make the teacher feel happy –
interaction will increase and teaching learning
process becomes more effective.
GESTALT/INSIGHT
THEORY
 Gestault (German)=
SHAPE/FORM/CONFIGURATION
• 'Pragnanz' is the German word for 'pithiness',
which means 'concise and meaningful'. It is an
overall principle in Gestalt that underpins
other laws such as continuation and closure,
whereby we tend to complete shapes.
Law of Pregnanz
 EXPERIMENT
In one experiment, Kohler put a
chimpanzee named Sultan inside a cage
and banana was hung from the roof of the
case. A box was placed inside the case.
The chimpanzee tried to reach the banana
by jumping but could not succeed.
Suddenly, he got an idea and used the box
as jumping platform by placing it just
below the hanging banana.
With such experiments, Kohler concluded that in
the solution of problems, his apes did not resort
to blind trail and error mechanism. They solved
their problem intelligently. Kohler used the term
‘Insight’ to describe the learning of his apes.
Insight involves the following criteria:-
1. The situation as a whole is perceived by
the learner.
2. The learner tries to see and judge the
relationship between various factors
involved in the situation.
3. As a result, the learner is helped in the
sudden grasping of the solution of the
problem.
Insight depends upon the following factors:-
1. EXPERIENCE:- Past experiences help in the insightful
solution of the problem.
2. INTELLIGENE:- Insightful solution depends upon the basic
intelligence of the learner. More intelligent is greater will be
his insight.
3. LEARNING SITUATIONS:- How insightfully the organism
will react, depends upon the situation in which he has to
act. As a common observation, insight occurs when the
learning situation is so arranged that all the necessary
aspects are open for observation.
4. INITIAL EFFORTS:- Insightful learning has to pass through
the process of trail & error. But this stage does not last long.
5. REPETATION & GENERALIZATION:- After having an
insightful solution of a particular type of problem, the
organism tries to repeat it in another situation, demanding
similar type of solution.
 EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
• It has made learning purposeful & goal
oriented task.
• The use of blind fumbling and mechanical
trail and error should be minimized. The
learner should try to see relevant
relationships and act intelligently.
• The purpose or motive plays the central
role in the learning process.
• Subject-matter (learning material) should
be presented in Gestalt form.