SESSION 6

Learning: Understanding Acquired Behavior

I. OBJECTIVES
After completing this chapter, you will be able to
• Describe the principal aspects of the learning process.
• Identify basic concepts in classical conditioning.
• Explain the process of operant conditioning.
• Give an example of the important role that consciousness plays in learning.
• Specify the most important aspects of the memory process.

II. INTRODUCTION
• As indicated in the previous chapter, the perceptual world is a world of objects
that form the basis of our organized experience.
• Consequently, this organization also provides the first steppingstone for the
learning process.
• To learn it is essential to experience the world “out there” and respond to it. In
this session you will find out how we acquire behavioral patterns through
experience.

III. LEARNING AND LEARNING PROCESS

• learning process reveal that learning takes place under many conditions and in
many situations.
• Although learning takes place in school, it is clear that much—perhaps most—
learning goes on outside of the classroom.
• Indeed, the learning process affects almost everything we do.
• Learning is a more or less permanent change in behavior, or a behavioral
tendency, as a result of experience.
• Three important points in this definition.
1. “more or less” permanent
▪ This suggests that although learning tends to resist change once it
is acquired, it sometimes does change.
2. Behavioral tendency
▪ Indicates that learning is sometimes dormant, that it does not
reflect itself in immediate action.
3. Experience
▪ In order to learn it is necessary to receive information. This is done
through our sense organs.
 IV. CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: RESPONDING TO SIGNALS
• Researcher
o Ivan Pavlov (1849 – 1936)
o Russian Psychologist
o The pioneer researcher into classical conditioning.
• Classical conditioning is characterized by the capacity of a previously neutral
stimulus to elicit a reflex.
• Classical conditioning is a type of learning that happens unconsciously.
• When you learn through classical conditioning, an automatic conditioned
response is paired with a specific stimulus. This creates a behavior 1.
• The foundation stones of your understanding of classical conditioning.
1. Unconditioned Stimulus
▪ Is a stimulus that has an inborn power to elicit a reflex. Food in the
mouth is such a stimulus.
▪ The physiology of the body is such that when salivary glands are
stimulated by food, saliva will flow.
2. Conditioned stimulus
▪ is created by the learning process.
▪ It acquires a power that is sometimes (not always) similar to
that of the unconditioned stimulus.
▪ If a tone precedes food in the mouth a number of times, then
the tone may acquire the power to elicit saliva.
3. Unconditioned Reflex (Response)
▪ Is an inborn response pattern. (e.g. Dog salivate when food is
placed in the mouth)
▪ The word response is sometimes used in place of the word
reflex.
4. Conditioned Reflex
▪ Is a learned response pattern.
▪ If a dog salivates to a tone, then the elicited flow of saliva is a
conditioned reflex.
• Several important features of classical conditioning
1. First, the word conditioning implies a kind of learning that does
not require reflection and reasoning.
▪ The learning takes place primarily through a process of
association.
▪ e.g. Infants are capable of classical conditioning.

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 2. Second, Classical conditioning
▪ Is not limited to dogs and animals. Although Pavlov used dogs as
research subjects, the results of his research can be generalized
to human beings.
3. Third, conditioned reflexes are involuntary.
▪ They are outside of the conscious control of the subject.
• There are various behavioral patterns associated with classical
conditioning.
1. Extinction
▪ Takes place when the conditioned stimulus is presented several
times without the unconditioned stimulus.
▪ Extinction should not be confused with forgetting.
▪ Extinction is an active process that is designed to eliminate a
conditioned reflex. The process of actively extinguishing a
conditioned reflex is taken advantage of in desensitization therapy.
2. Stimulus generalization
▪ Occurs when a stimulus that is similar to an original conditioned
stimulus elicits a conditioned reflex.
▪ e.g. The Dog and the original and closer pitch
3. Discrimination
▪ The subject’s ability to tell the difference between an original
conditioned stimulus and other stimuli.
▪ e.g. The Dog and the high pitch
▪ e.g. Rosalie Raynor, an assistant to John B. Watson, trained a child
to be afraid of a white rat.

V. TRIAL – AND ERROR LEARNING: TAKING PLACE A ROCKY ROAD.

• Trial-and-error learning.
o The first kind of learning to be studied experimentally in the United States
o Proponent: Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949)
o Trial and Error: Finding out of the best way to reach a desired result or a
correct solution by trying out one or more ways or means and by noting
and eliminating errors or causes of failure.
o Also: the trying of one thing or another until something succeeds 2.

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https://www.merriam-webster.com.
 o First studied maze learning in baby chickens (with the assistance and
approval of William James). Later he studied the escape behavior of cats
from puzzle boxes.
o If a specific behavior helped a cat to escape, that behavior was retained
by the cat.
o Thorndike called this process stamping in, meaning that an action that is
useful is impressed upon the nervous system.
o Thorndike called the tendency to retain what is learned because
satisfactory results are obtained the law of effect. Thorndike’s law of
effect is the forerunner of what today is usually known as the process of
reinforcement.

VI. OPERANT CONDITIONING: HOW BEHAVIOR IS SHAPED BY ITS OWN

CONSEQUENCES.
• Operant behavior is characterized by actions that have consequences.
• Proponent: B. F. Skinner (1904–1990)
• He saw that operant behavior is both acquired and shaped by experience.
Consequently, he identified it as a kind of learning.
• Some important device used by B.F. Skinner to formulate his study.
o The operant conditioning apparatus: its informal name is the Skinner
box.
o A reinforcer is a stimulus that has the effect of increasing the frequency
of a given category of behavior (in this case, lever pressing).
o The concept of reinforcement plays a big part in Skinner’s way of looking
at behavior. Consequently, it is important to expand on the concept.
o Note in the above definition that a reinforcer is understood in terms of its
actual effects. It is to be distinguished from a reward.
o A reward is perceived as valuable to the individual giving the reward, but
it may not be valued by the receiving organism. In the case of a reinforcer,
it is a reinforcer only if it has some sort of payoff value to the receiving
organism.
o By definition, a reinforcer has an impact on operant behavior. Its function
is always to increase the frequency of a class of operant behaviors.
o One important way to categorize reinforcers is to refer to them as positive
and negative.
▪ A positive reinforcer has value for the organism. (e.g. Food when
hungry, Water, when thirsty)
▪ A negative reinforcer has no value for the organism.
 o Another important way to classify reinforcers is to designate them as
having either a primary or a secondary quality.
▪ A primary reinforcer has intrinsic value for the organism. No
learning is required for the worth of the reinforcer to exist.
▪ A secondary reinforcer has acquired value for the organism.
Learning is required.

VII. CONSCIOUSNESS AND LEARNING: WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE AN INSIGHT.

• Although classical and operant conditioning play a large part in both animal and
human learning, it is generally recognized by behavioral scientists that these two
related processes give an insufficient account of the learning process,
particularly in human beings.
• Consequently, it is important to identify at least four additional aspects of
learning.
1. Observational learning
o Proponent Social learning theory: Albert Bandura (1925 – 2021)
Was a Canadian American psychologist. He was a professor of
social science in psychology at Stanford University.
o It takes place when an individual acquires behavior by watching
the behavior of a second individual (Model).
o Albert Bandura, a principal researcher associated with
observational learning, identified important features of this
particular process.
o The second individual is a model, and either intentionally or
unintentionally demonstrates behavior.
o If the observer identifies with the model and gains imaginary
satisfaction from the model’s behavior, then this is vicarious
reinforcement.
o Vicarious reinforcement is characterized by imagined
gratification. Psychologically, it acts as a substitute for the real
thing.
o Social learning theory
o Associated with Bandura’s research, states that much of our
behavior in reference to other people is acquired through
observational learning.
o Both prosocial behavior and antisocial behavior can be acquired
through observational learning.
 ▪ Prosocial behavior is behavior that contributes to the long-
run goals of a traditional reference group such as the family
or the population of the nation.
▪ Antisocial behavior is behavior that has an adverse impact
on the long-run goals of a traditional reference group.
2. Latent learning
o Pioneer research on latent learning is associated with experiments
conducted by the University of California psychologist Edward C.
Tolman (1886 – 1959) and his associates.
o learning is called latent learning, meaning learning that is dormant
and waiting to be activated.
o The process of latent learning calls attention to the learning-
performance distinction. Learning is an underlying process.
o In the case of latent learning, it is temporarily hidden.
o Performance is the way in which learning is displayed in action.
Only performance can be observed and directly measured.
3. Insight learning
o Proponent: Wolfgang Köhler (1887 – 1967)
o One of the principal Gestalt psychologists.
o Wolfgang Köhler was a German psychologist and
phenomenologist.
o The conscious mental process that brings a subject to an insight is
called insight learning.
o Insight learning is a sudden realization of a solution to a problem.
o E.g. the Monkey “Sultan” - Sultan was presented with two short
handles that could be assembled to make one long tool, a kind of
rake.
4. Learning to learn
o Harry Harlow, a former president of the American Psychological
Association discovered a phenomenon called learning sets.
o learning set, an ability to quickly solve a given type of problem.
o The underlying process is called learning to learn.
o Human beings also acquire learning sets. A person who often
solves crossword puzzles tends to get better and better at working
them.
o A mechanic who has worked in the automotive field for a few years
discovers that it is easier and easier to troubleshoot repair
problems.
VIII. MEMORY: STORING WHAT HAS BEEN LEARNED
• Memory, the encoding, storage, and retrieval in the human mind of past
experiences.
• Memory is a process that involves the encoding, storage, and retrieval of
cognitive information.
1. Encoding
o Is a process characterized by giving an informational input a more
useful form.
o The use of a mnemonic device, a cognitive structure that improves
both retention and recall, is a special case of encoding.
o A device such as a pattern of letters, ideas, or associations that
assists in remembering something, for example Richard Of York
Gave Battle In Vain for the colors of the spectrum (red, orange,
yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet).
2. Storage
o It refers to the fact that memories are retained for a period of time.
o A distinction is made between short-term memory and long-term
memory.
▪ Short – term memory - Also known as working memory, is
characterized by a temporary storage of information.
▪ Long – term memory - Is characterized by a relatively
stable, enduring storage of information. The capacity to
recall much of your own personal history and what you
learned in school pro- vide examples of the long-term
memory process.
3. Retrieval
o Retrieval of cognitive information takes place when a memory is
removed from storage and replaced in consciousness.
o Three phenomena are of particular interest in connection with the
retrieval process:
1. Recall takes place when a memory can be retrieved easily by
an act of will.
2. Recognition takes place when the retrieval of a memory is
facilitated by the presence of a helpful stimulus.
3. Repression takes place when the ego, as a form of defense
against a psycho- logical threat, forces a memory into the
unconscious domain.