Learning | ISC Class 11 Psychology Notes

This note covers the meaning of learning and how it differs from performance, classical conditioning (Pavlov), trial and error learning (Thorndike), operant conditioning (Skinner) with its principles and schedules of reinforcement, insight learning (Kohler), observational learning (Bandura), learning styles, and learning disabilities (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, dyspraxia) together with remedial measures for dyslexia.

What is learning, and how does it differ from performance?

Learning may be defined as "any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience". Some behavioural changes, such as those caused by fatigue, habituation or drugs, are only temporary and are not treated as learning.

For example, feeling tired after reading for a long time is a change due to fatigue, not learning; gradually stopping being disturbed by continuous noise at night is habituation, not learning.

Learning is an inferred process and must be distinguished from performance, which is a person's observed behaviour, response or action.

A typical learning situation involves a sequence: a pre-test to know what the person already knows, presentation of material for a fixed time, processing of that material, acquisition of new knowledge (this is learning itself), and later recall of the processed information.

The teacher infers that a student has learned a poem only from the student's performance, that is, the recitation.

How did Pavlov explain learning through classical conditioning?

Definition: Classical conditioning. A type of learning, first investigated by Ivan P. Pavlov, in which a neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response that was originally produced only by another stimulus, through repeated pairing of the two.

Pavlov noticed that dogs in his digestion experiments began to salivate at the mere sight of an empty plate in which food was usually served. He designed an experiment using a harnessed dog with a tube from the salivary gland leading to a measuring glass.

1. A dog was placed in a box and harnessed repeatedly over several days so that it got used to the apparatus.
2. A bell was sounded and immediately afterwards food (meat powder) was served to the hungry dog, which ate it.
3. This pairing of bell and food was repeated over a number of trials on different days.
4. A test trial was then introduced in which the bell was sounded but no food followed.
5. The dog still salivated to the sound of the bell alone, showing that a new response had been acquired.

Food is an Unconditioned Stimulus (US) because it automatically produces salivation, an Unconditioned Response (UR). After conditioning, the bell becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) and salivation to the bell alone becomes a Conditioned Response (CR).

Before conditioning the bell produced only alertness and no specific response; during conditioning the bell (CS) was paired with food (US) and produced salivation (UR); after conditioning the bell (CS) alone produced salivation (CR).

This is called S and S learning, since one stimulus (the bell) becomes a signal for another stimulus (food).

Everyday examples include feeling saliva form in the mouth on merely seeing a sweet dish after a satisfying lunch, and a child who is frightened by the loud bang of a bursting balloon afterwards showing fear at the mere sight of a balloon, because the balloon (CS) has become associated with the loud noise (US).

What factors influence classical conditioning?

The strength and speed of conditioning depend on several determinants. The time relation between CS and US gives four procedures: simultaneous conditioning (CS and US presented together), delayed conditioning (CS begins before US and ends before US ends), trace conditioning (CS begins and ends before US begins, with a gap), and backward conditioning (US precedes CS).

Delayed conditioning is the most effective; acquisition of a response under backward conditioning is very rare.

The type of unconditioned stimulus also matters: appetitive US (such as food, which gives pleasure) make conditioning slower and need more trials, while aversive US (such as noise, bitter taste or shock, which are painful) can establish conditioning in just one, two or three trials depending on intensity. Finally, more intense conditioned stimuli speed up acquisition, needing fewer trials.

What principles did the conditioning experiments establish?

Pavlov's experiments, and later work on operant conditioning, established four principles that apply to both kinds of conditioning.

• Extinction: if the CS is presented again and again without the US (or, in a Skinner box, lever pressing no longer produces food), the learned response gradually weakens and finally disappears. It does not vanish at once: learning shows resistance to extinction, so the response continues for some time without reinforcement.
• Spontaneous recovery: after a response has been extinguished and a rest interval has passed, presenting the CS again brings the conditioned response back, usually weaker than before.
• Stimulus generalisation: once conditioning is established, a stimulus similar to the CS (for example, a telephone ring instead of the bell) also produces the conditioned response.
• Stimulus discrimination: when only one stimulus is followed by the US or reinforcer and similar stimuli are not, the organism learns to respond to that stimulus alone and not to the others.

How did Thorndike explain learning through trial and error?

Edward Thorndike studied learning by placing hungry cats inside a puzzle box from which they could escape, and reach food outside, only by performing a particular act such as pulling a loop or pressing a lever.

On the first attempts the cat made many random, unsuccessful movements before stumbling on the correct response by chance.

Over repeated trials, the time taken to escape became shorter as the ineffective movements were gradually dropped and the successful one was repeated, producing a gradual learning curve rather than a sudden solution.

From these observations Thorndike proposed the law of effect: responses that are followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated and strengthened, while responses followed by discomfort tend to be weakened and eliminated.

This way of learning by making mistakes, discarding unsuccessful responses and gradually settling on the successful one is called trial and error learning, and it is regarded as an early forerunner of the idea, developed further by Skinner, that the consequence of a response determines whether it is learned.

How did Skinner explain learning through operant conditioning?

Definition: Operant conditioning. A form of learning in which a voluntary response (an operant), emitted by the organism and under its own control, is strengthened, maintained or changed through its consequences.

A closed chamber in which a hungry rat can move but not escape; a lever is connected to a food container above; pressing the lever drops a food pellet onto a plate next to the lever. Label the rat, lever, food container and food plate.

1. A hungry rat is placed alone in the chamber, which it can move inside but cannot leave.
2. The rat explores the chamber, pawing the walls (exploratory behaviour).
3. While exploring, the rat accidentally presses the lever and a food pellet drops onto the plate.
4. The hungry rat eats the pellet, and on the next trial exploratory behaviour starts again.
5. With increasing trials the rat takes less and less time to press the lever, until it presses the lever immediately on being placed in the chamber, showing that conditioning is complete.

Because the lever-pressing response is instrumental in getting food, this learning is also called instrumental conditioning. Everyday examples include children learning to locate a jar of hidden sweets, learning to say "please" to get favours, and learning to operate gadgets such as a radio or camera.

A reinforcer is any stimulus or event that increases the probability of a desired response occurring again. Positive reinforcement involves pleasant stimuli, such as food, praise, money or status, that strengthen the response producing them.

Negative reinforcement involves unpleasant stimuli; responses that let an organism avoid or escape them are strengthened, as when drivers wear seat belts to avoid injury or a fine.

Negative reinforcement is not punishment: punishment reduces or suppresses a response, while negative reinforcement increases the probability of the avoidance or escape response.

No punishment suppresses a response permanently; mild and delayed punishment has no effect, and the stronger the punishment, the more lasting (though still not permanent) the suppression.

Other features of reinforcement that influence operant conditioning include its number (trials on which reinforcement occurred), amount and quality, all of which usually accelerate conditioning as they increase.

A reinforcement schedule is the arrangement of delivery of reinforcement: in continuous reinforcement every correct response is reinforced; in intermittent (partial) reinforcement only some responses are reinforced.

Partial reinforcement produces greater resistance to extinction than continuous reinforcement, a finding called the partial reinforcement effect.

Delayed reinforcement leads to poorer performance than immediate reinforcement, which is why children generally prefer a smaller reward given at once over a bigger one given after a long gap.

How do classical and operant conditioning differ?

Although both forms of conditioning produce learning, they differ in the type of response conditioned and in how that response comes to be connected with its consequences. In classical conditioning the response is a reflex, automatically elicited by an appropriate stimulus; this is why Pavlovian conditioning is also called respondent conditioning. In operant conditioning the response is a voluntary operant, emitted by the organism and under its own control.

The two forms also differ in how clearly the key stimuli can be identified, and in who controls the course of learning. In classical conditioning both the CS and the US are well-defined and can be directly observed; in operant conditioning there is no defined CS, it can only be inferred and is not directly known. In classical conditioning the experimenter controls the occurrence of the US while the organism remains passive, whereas in operant conditioning the occurrence of the reinforcer depends on the organism's own behaviour, so the organism has to be active in order to be reinforced.

The terminology used for the two forms of conditioning also differs. What is called the reinforcer in operant conditioning is called the US in classical conditioning, and the US actually performs two functions there: at first it elicits the unconditioned response directly, and later it reinforces the association that lets the CS go on eliciting a similar response on its own.

How does insight learning occur?

Definition: Insight learning. The process by which the solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear, rather than being arrived at through gradual trial and error.

Wolfgang Köhler placed chimpanzees in an enclosed play area with food kept out of reach and tools such as poles and boxes placed in the enclosure.

The chimpanzees would roam about for some time with no apparent progress, and then suddenly stand on a box, grab a pole and strike down a banana that was out of normal reach.

Köhler called this insight learning: a problem is presented, there is a period when no progress is apparent, and finally a solution emerges suddenly.

Once the solution has appeared it can be repeated immediately the next time the same problem occurs, and what is learned is not a specific stimulus-response connection but a cognitive relationship between a means and an end, so insight learning can be generalised to other similar problem situations.

How does observational learning occur?

Definition: Observational learning. Learning that takes place by observing others and emulating their behaviour; also called imitation, modelling or social learning.

Albert Bandura and his colleagues investigated this form of learning in a series of experimental studies. In many situations individuals do not know how to behave, so they observe others and emulate their behaviour; this is called modelling.

1. Children were shown a five-minute film in which a grown-up boy (the model) enters a room full of toys, including a large "Bobo" doll, and behaves aggressively towards the doll by hitting, throwing, kicking and sitting on it.
2. One group of children saw the boy being rewarded and praised by an adult for his aggressive behaviour.
3. A second group of children saw the boy being punished for the same aggressive behaviour.
4. A third group of children saw neither reward nor punishment follow the boy's behaviour.
5. After viewing their version of the film, each group of children was secretly placed in a room with similar toys, and their behaviour was observed and recorded.

Children who had seen the model rewarded for aggression were the most aggressive themselves, while those who had seen the model punished were the least aggressive.

This shows that observers acquire knowledge simply by watching the model's behaviour, but their own performance of that behaviour is influenced by whether the model was rewarded or punished.

Children acquire many social behaviours, such as dress, conduct, aggressiveness, politeness or diligence, by observing and emulating adults in this way.

What are learning styles?

A learning style is the preferred way in which an individual takes in and processes information most comfortably. Recognising which style a learner prefers can help a teacher or parent decide how best to present material, since information given in a learner's preferred style is usually grasped with less effort and retained better.

Three commonly described learning styles are the auditory style, in which a learner grasps material best by listening, such as through lectures, discussion or reading aloud; the visual style, in which a learner grasps material best through pictures, diagrams, charts and written text; and the kinesthetic style, in which a learner grasps material best through movement, touch and hands-on activity, such as practical work or role play.

An auditory learner, for example, may find it easier to remember a poem after hearing it read aloud several times, repeating it to themselves and discussing its meaning, rather than only reading it silently. A visual learner, by contrast, may prefer to see the same material set out as a diagram, a timeline or a written summary with headings and highlighted terms, so that the structure of the material can be taken in at a glance. A kinesthetic learner tends to understand a process, such as a science experiment or a map-reading exercise, best by actually carrying it out rather than by only hearing or reading about it.

Most learners use a combination of all three styles rather than relying on only one, though one style is often preferred over the others for a given kind of task. A classroom that mixes explanation, demonstration, diagrams and hands-on activity is therefore likely to suit a wider range of learners than one that relies on a single style alone.

What are learning disabilities?

Definition: Learning disability. A general term for a heterogeneous group of disorders manifested in difficulty in the acquisition of learning, reading, writing, speaking, reasoning and mathematical activities, whose source is presumed to lie in problems with the functioning of the central nervous system.

Learning disabilities may occur together with physical handicaps, sensory impairment or intellectual disability, or entirely without them.

Importantly, they are observed as a distinct handicapping condition even in children of average to superior intelligence, with adequate sensory-motor systems and adequate learning opportunities.

If not remedied, a learning disability may continue throughout life and affect self-esteem, vocation, social relations and daily living activities.

Children with learning disabilities often show difficulties in writing letters, words and phrases, reading text aloud and speaking, along with listening problems even without any auditory defect.

They frequently have disorders of attention, getting easily distracted, which often leads to hyperactivity. Poor space orientation, an inadequate sense of time, confusion of direction (right, left, up, down), poor motor coordination and manual dexterity, and difficulty following oral directions are also common.

They may misjudge social relationships and fail to read body language, and they often show perceptual disorders across visual, auditory, tactual and kinesthetic senses, even though their basic sensory acuity is not impaired; the problem lies in using the sensory information in performance.

Learning disabilities are not incurable, and remedial teaching methods go a long way in helping affected children learn.

Dyslexia

Definition: Dyslexia. A learning disability affecting the ability to read and process written language accurately.

Children with dyslexia quite often fail to copy letters and words correctly; for example, they fail to distinguish between b and d, p and q, P and 9, "was" and "saw", and "unclear" and "nuclear". They also fail to organise verbal material properly when reading or writing.

Dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia

Dyscalculia is a learning disability that affects a child's ability to understand numbers and perform basic mathematical calculations; such children typically find it hard to grasp number concepts, remember mathematical facts and sequences, or follow the steps of arithmetic procedures.

Dysgraphia is a learning disability that affects a child's handwriting and written expression; such children typically produce poorly formed, irregular or illegible handwriting, write very slowly, and find it hard to organise their thoughts on paper.

Dyspraxia is a learning disability affecting motor coordination and the planning of physical movements; such children typically appear clumsy, have difficulty with tasks requiring fine or gross motor coordination, such as using scissors, tying shoelaces or catching a ball, and may also have trouble with organisation and sequencing of everyday tasks.

What remedial measures help a child with dyslexia?

Remedial teaching for dyslexia aims at strengthening the connection between letters, sounds and meaning through structured, repeated and multisensory practice, so that the child gradually becomes able to read and write without confusing similar-looking letters and words.

1. Teach letter-sound relationships systematically and in small steps, moving from simple to more complex patterns, rather than expecting the child to grasp whole-word reading at once.
2. Use multisensory methods that combine seeing, hearing, saying and tracing a letter or word together, so that the child builds the association through more than one sense at a time.
3. Give the child extra, focused practice in telling apart commonly confused letters and words, such as b and d or "was" and "saw", with immediate correction and repetition.
4. Allow extra time for reading and writing tasks, and break long passages into shorter, more manageable sections.
5. Use assistive aids, such as coloured overlays, larger or well-spaced print, or audio recordings of text, to reduce the strain of reading.

Consistent, patient and individually paced practice of this kind, continued over time, allows most children with dyslexia to improve their reading and writing considerably.

Going beyond the syllabus

The interaction between classical and operant conditioning can produce an interesting phenomenon called learned helplessness, which has been linked to persistent depression.

In a classic demonstration, dogs were first subjected to a sound (CS) paired repeatedly with an inescapable electric shock (US), using a classical conditioning procedure in which the animal had no scope at all to escape or avoid the shock. After this pairing had been repeated a number of times, the same dogs were put through an operant conditioning procedure in which they could now escape the shock simply by pressing their heads against a wall. Having already learned, in the earlier classical phase, that nothing they did changed the outcome, the dogs made no attempt to escape in the operant task; they simply suffered the shock through without trying to press against the wall. This failure to attempt escape, after an earlier experience of inescapable shock, is what is called learned helplessness.

The same pattern has also been demonstrated in humans. In such studies, participants are first given an experience of failure at a set of tasks regardless of how they actually perform, and are then given a further task in a second phase. Learned helplessness is measured by how persistent participants are, and how quickly they give up, on this second task. Continuous failure in the first phase is found to produce little persistence and poor performance in the second phase, and a number of studies have shown that persistent depression is often linked to this kind of learned helplessness.

Glossary

• Learning — any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience.
• Performance — a person's observed behaviour, response or action, from which learning is inferred.
• Classical conditioning — learning in which a neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response originally produced only by another stimulus, through repeated pairing.
• Unconditioned stimulus (US) — a stimulus that automatically produces a response without prior learning, such as food producing salivation.
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) — a previously neutral stimulus that, after pairing with a US, comes to elicit a learned response.
• Law of effect — Thorndike's principle that responses followed by satisfaction are strengthened, and those followed by discomfort are weakened.
• Trial and error learning — learning by gradually discarding unsuccessful responses and repeating the successful one.
• Operant conditioning — learning in which a voluntary response is strengthened, maintained or changed through its consequences.
• Reinforcer — any stimulus or event that increases the probability of a desired response occurring again.
• Negative reinforcement — strengthening of a response that lets an organism avoid or escape an unpleasant stimulus.
• Insight learning — the process by which the solution to a problem suddenly becomes clear.
• Observational learning — learning by observing and emulating a model's behaviour; also called modelling or social learning.
• Learning style — an individual's preferred way of taking in and processing information, such as auditory, visual or kinesthetic.
• Learning disability — a heterogeneous group of disorders causing difficulty in acquiring reading, writing, speaking, reasoning or mathematical skills.
• Dyslexia — a learning disability affecting the ability to read and process written language accurately.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Negative reinforcement is the same as punishment. Correct: Negative reinforcement strengthens a response by removing or avoiding something unpleasant; punishment suppresses a response.
• Misconception: Learning always needs repeated practice. Correct: A single strong experience, such as getting one's fingers burnt by a matchstick, can also produce learning.
• Misconception: Changes due to fatigue or drugs count as learning. Correct: Only relatively permanent changes produced by experience count as learning; temporary changes do not.
• Misconception: In Pavlov's experiment, the bell is the US. Correct: Food is the US; the bell becomes the CS only after repeated pairing with food.
• Misconception: In Skinner's experiment, the rat is taught the lever-pressing response directly by the experimenter. Correct: The rat discovers lever pressing on its own through exploratory behaviour, and the response is then strengthened by the food reinforcer.
• Misconception: Insight learning happens through gradual trial and error, like Thorndike's cats. Correct: Insight learning involves a sudden flash of solution after a period of no apparent progress, not a gradual reduction of errors.
• Misconception: Learning disabilities always occur with low intelligence. Correct: Learning disabilities can occur in children of average to superior intelligence with adequate learning opportunities.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. Define learning. [2 marks]

1. Learning is any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience.
2. It excludes temporary changes caused by fatigue, habituation or drugs, and is distinguished from performance, which is the observed behaviour from which learning is inferred.

Q2. State the law of effect proposed by Thorndike. [2 marks]

1. Responses followed by a satisfying state of affairs tend to be repeated and strengthened.
2. Responses followed by discomfort tend to be weakened and eliminated, so trial and error gradually gives way to the successful response.

Q3. In Pavlov's experiment, identify the US, UR, CS and CR, and explain how conditioning was established. [4 marks]

1. Food is the Unconditioned Stimulus (US), because it automatically produces salivation.
2. Salivation to food is the Unconditioned Response (UR).
3. A bell, paired repeatedly with food just before it was served, became the Conditioned Stimulus (CS).
4. Salivation produced by the bell alone, after repeated pairing, is the Conditioned Response (CR); on a test trial with no food, the dog still salivated to the bell, showing conditioning had occurred.

Q4. Distinguish between positive and negative reinforcement, giving one example of each. [4 marks]

1. Positive reinforcement involves a pleasant stimulus, such as food, praise or money, that strengthens the response that produced it.
2. Negative reinforcement involves an unpleasant stimulus; the response that allows the organism to avoid or escape it is strengthened.
3. Example of positive reinforcement: a rat is given a food pellet for pressing a lever, which strengthens lever pressing.
4. Example of negative reinforcement: a person wears a seat belt to avoid the unpleasant consequence of injury or a fine, which strengthens seat-belt wearing.

Q5. Explain Köhler's experiment on insight learning in chimpanzees and state what it shows about the nature of learning. [5 marks]

1. Köhler placed chimpanzees in an enclosed play area with food kept out of reach, and tools such as poles and boxes placed in the enclosure.
2. The chimpanzees roamed about for a time with no apparent progress towards the food.
3. Suddenly, a chimpanzee would stand on a box, grab a pole, and strike down a banana that was otherwise out of reach.
4. This sudden solution, rather than gradual trial and error, is what Köhler called insight learning.
5. It shows that what is learned is a cognitive relationship between means and end, which can then be generalised immediately to similar problems, rather than a specific stimulus-response connection built up slowly.

Q6. Describe Bandura's Bobo doll experiment and explain what it demonstrates about observational learning. [6 marks]

1. Children were shown a five-minute film of a boy behaving aggressively towards toys, including a large Bobo doll, by hitting, throwing, kicking and sitting on it.
2. One group saw the boy being rewarded and praised for this aggressive behaviour.
3. A second group saw the boy being punished for the same behaviour.
4. A third group saw neither reward nor punishment follow the behaviour.
5. Each group was then secretly observed playing with similar toys, and their aggressive behaviour was recorded.
6. Children who had seen the model rewarded were the most aggressive, and those who had seen the model punished were the least aggressive, showing that observers acquire knowledge of a behaviour merely by watching, but their performance of it depends on whether the model was rewarded or punished.

Q7. What is a learning disability? Give the characteristics of dyslexia. [5 marks]

1. A learning disability is a heterogeneous group of disorders causing difficulty in acquiring reading, writing, speaking, reasoning or mathematical skills, presumed to arise from problems in central nervous system functioning.
2. It can occur in children of average to superior intelligence with adequate sensory-motor systems and learning opportunities.
3. A child with dyslexia often fails to copy letters and words correctly, such as confusing b and d, p and q, or "was" and "saw".
4. Such a child fails to organise verbal material properly when reading or writing.
5. If not remedied, dyslexia can continue throughout life and affect self-esteem and daily functioning, though it is not incurable and responds to remedial teaching.

Q8. Suggest four remedial measures for helping a child with dyslexia. [4 marks]

1. Teach letter-sound relationships systematically in small, graded steps.
2. Use multisensory methods that combine seeing, hearing, saying and tracing letters or words together.
3. Give focused, repeated practice in distinguishing commonly confused letters and words, with immediate correction.
4. Allow extra time for reading and writing tasks, and use aids such as coloured overlays or audio recordings of text.

Key takeaways

• Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour produced by experience, and is inferred from performance.
• Pavlov's classical conditioning turns a neutral stimulus (CS) into a signal for an unconditioned stimulus (US) through repeated pairing.
• Delayed conditioning is the most effective time relation between CS and US; backward conditioning rarely produces a learned response.
• Thorndike's puzzle-box experiments on cats led to the law of effect: satisfying responses are strengthened, uncomfortable ones weakened.
• Skinner's operant conditioning shows that voluntary responses (operants) are strengthened by their consequences, called reinforcers.
• Negative reinforcement strengthens avoidance or escape responses and is different from punishment, which suppresses behaviour.
• Köhler's chimpanzee studies show insight learning: a sudden solution after a period of no progress, generalisable to similar problems.
• Bandura's Bobo doll studies show that observational learning depends on seeing a model rewarded or punished.
• Learning styles describe a learner's preferred mode of taking in information: auditory, visual or kinesthetic.
• Learning disabilities such as dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia and dyspraxia can occur even in children of average to superior intelligence and respond to remedial teaching.

Test yourself

What distinguishes learning from a temporary behavioural change due to fatigue?

Learning is relatively permanent, while a change due to fatigue disappears once the person rests, so it is not considered learning.

In Pavlov's experiment, what does the bell become after repeated pairing with food?

The bell becomes the Conditioned Stimulus (CS), since it alone comes to produce salivation, the Conditioned Response (CR).

What is the law of effect?

Thorndike's principle that responses followed by satisfaction are strengthened, while responses followed by discomfort are weakened and gradually dropped.

Why is lever pressing in Skinner's box called an operant?

Because it is a voluntary response emitted by the rat itself, under its own control, rather than an automatic reflex.

What did Köhler's chimpanzees show that trial-and-error learning does not?

They showed a sudden flash of insight rather than a gradual reduction of errors, and could apply the solution immediately to similar problems.

In Bandura's Bobo doll study, which group of children was least aggressive afterwards?

The group that had seen the model being punished for aggressive behaviour was the least aggressive.

Name the three commonly described learning styles.

Auditory, visual and kinesthetic learning styles.

Give one characteristic each of dyslexia and dyspraxia.

Dyslexia often shows as confusing similar letters, such as b and d; dyspraxia often shows as clumsiness and difficulty with motor coordination tasks.