LEARNING: PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS

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LEARNING PRINCIPLES AND APPLICATIONS

• Dr. R. Kannappan, Ph.D., D.Litt.
• Department of psychiatry,
• Vinayaka Mission University,
• Salem, Tamilnadu.

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Definition

• Learning is defined as a relatively permanent
  change in behavior. This occurs due to practice
  and /or experience.

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Objectives

• To know the principles of types of learning
• Classical conditioning
• Operant conditioning
• Trial and error learning
• Insight learning
• Sign learning
• Observational learning
• Limitations in learning
• Fast, slow, and extremely slow learners

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Factors

• Three factors in involved in learning
• Learning brings a change in behavior
• Change takes place through practice or
  experience, not due to maturation
• The change in behavior is relatively a permanent
  one for a year, months, or weeks.
• Examples 1. practice writing a name or a
  letter A
• 2.Experience- Little girl- injection pain-
  cries- seeing the doctor cries.

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Pavlov experiment
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Photo Ivan pavlov

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CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• Classical conditioning (CC) is a process of
  learning in which a previously neutral stimulus
  (bell) elicits the response (saliva) without
  food.
• - Ivan Pavlov - Russian physiologist- Nobel price
  (1904) winner,

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• The experiment

• Pavlov kept a hungry dog on an experimental
  table. The dog was comfortable and distractions
  were excluded. He attached a capsule to a dogs
  salivary gland to measure salivary flow. A bell
  was rung first time and food was given to the dog
  immediately. This was repeated several times.
  Later on, the dog salivated at the mere sound of
  the bell, with out food. Thus the dog was
  conditioned to respond to the new stimulus, bell.
  

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contd

• The food is the unconditioned stimulus- UCS the
  bell is the conditioned stimulus CS the
  salivation for the food is the unconditioned
  response UCR and the salivation for the bell is
  the conditioned response CR.

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Four sub-principles

• Extinction When bell is rung without the food
  for a number of trails, the strength of the CS
  gradually decreases. The dog salivation totally
  and this process is called Extinction.
• Spontaneous recovery After the response of
  salivation has been extinguished, it increases
  its strength again when food is given. This
  reconditioning is more rapid than the original
  conditioning of the salivation to the bell.

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contd

• Generalization It is the tendency to give a
  conditioned response of salivation to some way
  similar to the stimulus of CS. There has been no
  pairing with UCS. Stimulus generalization occurs
  and it is responsible for developing phobia in
  psychiatric patients.
• Discrimination It is a process of complimentary
  to generalization. This occurs when one learners
  to distinguish between similar stimuli and to
  respond differently to each stimulus.

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Learning by CC(APPLICATION)

• 1. Developing good habit, punctuality
• cleanliness, respecting,
• 2. elimination of bad habits and fear
• 3. Training animal and
• 4. Developing favorable attitude towards
  learning, teacher and college.
• Language Skills

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OPARENT CONDITIONING (OC)

• OC is process in which a desirable response is
  reinforced. This desirable response is likely to
  reoccur because of a reward or punishment.
• Experiment B.F.Skinner

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Skinner
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Skinners experiment
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Experiment

• Skinner put a rat inside a glass box, called
  Skinner box. This box contained a lever and a
  food tray. Whenever the liver in the box was
  pressed by the rat, automatically a pellet of
  food was dropped on the tray and it was eaten by
  the rat. A mechanical device recorded the number
  of times that the rat pressed on the lever.
  Pressing on the liver was the target response to
  be learned. The rat learned to operate the
  instrument and got the reinforcement.

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• Shaping

• It refers to the reinforcement of closer
  approximation for performing a desired response.
  This encompasses graded steps and each step has a
  resemblance to the desired performance. This is
  known as the method of successive approximation.
• A child utters the word, mother. E.g. ma ma amma
  (amma) mother

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Behavior modification

• Slow learner (SL) self help skills
• study skills training
• Behavior therapy

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Schedules of Reinforcement

• a) Contionuous Reinforcement every desirable
  behavior is rewarded
• b)Fixed Ratio (FR) - reinforcement given after
  every N th responses, where N is the size of the
  ratio (i.e., a certain number of responses have
  to occur before getting reinforcement).

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contd

• c) Fixed Interval (FI) - a designated amount of
  time must pass, and then a certain response must
  be made in order to get reinforcement.
• d) Variable Ratio (VR) - the variable ration
  schedule is the same as the FR except that the
  ratio varies, and is not stable like the FR
  schedule. Reinforcement is given after every N th
  response, but N is an average.

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Thorndike s learning
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The experiment

• He put a hungry cat in a box. There was a door
  for exit which could be opened by correctly
  manipulating the latch. A fish was placed outside
  the box and the smell could make the cat to come
  out of the box.
• The cat made every possible effort to come out.
  He tried to claw, bite, and thrust his paws
  through opening. He made a number of random
  movements. One such movement, by chance, the
  latch was manipulated, and he came out and ate
  the fish.
• Next day, he cat made fewer errors. In due
  course, he manipulated the latch, came out and
  got the reward of fish. The cat learned the art
  of opening the door without committing any error.

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The three laws of effective learning

• 1. Law of effect A response will be strengthened
  if it is followed by a reward and any response
  will be weakened if it is unsuccessful/ not
  rewarded.
• 2. Law of exercise There is a direct
  relationship between repetition and the
  strengthening of the stimulus - response bond.
  Some examples are type writing, drawing, and
  dancing.
• 3. Law of readiness Learning takes place only
  when a person is ready. The readiness includes
  motivation, attitude and mind set.

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COGNITIVE LEARNING (Insight learning)

• Cognition- includes knowledge, thinking,
  planning, interference and purpose.
• Definition The mental processes include
  perception, memory and reasoning, by which one
  acquires knowledge, solves problem and makes
  plans.

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Kohlers experiment- I
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• The experiment

• Kohler put the hungry chimpanzee, Sultan, inside
  a gage and a bunch of bananas was hung from the
  roof of the cage. There were three wooden boxes
  in different sizes. He tried by jumping and
  jumping from the floor and the boxes but he could
  not get the bananas. Suddenly he got an idea and
  placed one box over the other this required a
  specific arrangement of the boxes.

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Kohlers experiment- II
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Another experiment (Cont)

• Kohler put the hungry chimpanzee in a cage. Some
  bananas were placed outside the cage. Two sticks,
  one longer than the other, were placed inside the
  cage. The bananas were kept at a distance and
  they could not be picked up by any one of the
  sticks. One was hollow at one end so that the
  other stick could be thrust into it to form a
  longer stick. He tried these sticks one after the
  other but he failed. Then he got tired and
  started to play with the sticks. Incidentally,
  the sticks joined together and became a lengthy
  one. He used this stick to pull the bananas and
  ate them. This is a bright idea the chimpanzee
  had after few trails.

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Sign learning

• Tolman (1930) has stated that learning is a total
  process. It takes place by cognition. He argued
  that one follows certain signs and clues to reach
  a goal. The learner learns his way by following a
  sort of mental map. He learns certain movements
  and their significance and meanings.

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Tolman
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SIGN LEARNING

• The experiment A comparison was made between two
  groups of hungry rats in a maze. In one group,
  each subject received food each time when it ran
  the maze and its study improvement was noticed.
  In other group, each subject was given access to
  the maze without finding a food reward and each
  had a little improvement. When food was
  introduced at the 9th trail, the performance soon
  approximated to the first group. The rat acquired
  the information, mental map, but he did not
  utilize it for a while.

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SOCIAL LEARNING

• Albert Bandura Richard Walter (1963) focused on
  highly efficient form learning known as
  observational learning or imitation. The
  imitation is the response that a stimulus
  triggers similar response when a person watches
  or hears another does.
• Giving an injection, or dressing a wound
• - Maladaptive behavior like - aggression is
  learned. Watching TV has good and bad effects. It
  provides information of how of behavior and
  specific step by which others are able to perform
  it.

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Bandura
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STUDENTS PROBLEMS IN THE LANGUAGE

• inaccurate grammar
• lack fluency
• limited vocabularies
• imperfect pronunciation
• lack of listening
• lack of confidence
• lack of exposure and practice
• fear of making mistakes

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contd

• fear of expressing views
• shyness
• lack of group skill
• fear of speaking in public
• lack of interpersonal skills
• thinking in mother tongue and doing
• attitude

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LIMITATIONS OF LEARNERS

• THREE TYPES OF LEARNERS
• Fast learner- IQ high less time more quality
  of any work
• Slow learner IQ moderate more time more
  quality of any work
• Extremely slow learner - IQ low very high time
  poor quality of any work

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Intelligence Quoient(IQ) Levels

• lt-20 Profound Mental retardation (MR)
• 21-35 Severe MR
• 36-50 Moderate MR
• 51-70 Mild MR
• 70-80 Borderline intellectual function
• 80-90 Below average
• 90-110 Average
• 110-120 Superior
• lt140 Geneous

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Study skills for students

• Try not to do too much studying at one time.Plan
  specific times for studying. 
• Try to study at the same times each day. 
• Set specific goals for their study times.
• Start studying when planned. 
• Work on the assignment they find most difficult
  first. 

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contd

• Review their notes before beginning an
  assignment. 
• Tell their friends not to call them during their
  study times. 
• Call another student or ask your teacher when you
  have difficulty with an assignment.  This is a
  case where two heads may be better than one.
• Review their college work over the weekend. 

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• Thank you