1. Describe the major principles associated with each theory.
2. Explain the contributions of the major theorists who worked to develop each theory.
3. Explain how each theory accounts for the mental processes associated with learning.
4. Summarize how each theory makes use of prior experience in explaining how people learn.
5. Describe how each theory explains how permanent change in behavior takes place.
6. Apply each theory to a real-world learning environment (e.g., schools, treatment facilities, businesses, social activities).
Learning-be a change in behavior due to experience. A more elaborate form of learning occurs when two events occur together and we learn about the relationship between them. associative learning we learn about the association or relationship between the two events
Learning-Most Psychologists agree that the process of learning is usually permanent and is credited to past experience. However, they differ greatly in their belief as to what mechanisms are actually involved in learning to make changes occur and what kinds of past experiences are involved.
Mental process associated w/ Learning-Hence, certain individuals are more equipped to learn some things easier than others are. This ability is known as preparedness. In Pavlov’s experiment the tone was the neutral stimulus that was associated with the unconditioned stimulus of food. The unconditioned response of salivation became a conditioned response to the newly conditioned stimulus of the tone.
Classical conditioning- theorist that have contributed to this theory, Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson and BF Skinner. Principles of classical conditioning-in classical conditioning, an organism learns to associate one stimulus with another. The organism learns that the first stimulus is a cue for the second stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiment above, the tuning fork cued the dogs that food might be coming. Following is an example of classical conditioning. –What is classical conditioning?
Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are different learning methods. The two methods have the word conditioning in common. What is conditioning? Conditioning is the acquisition of specific patterns of behavior in the presence of well-defined stimuli. Classical conditioning is a type of learning in which an organism learns to transfer a natural response from one stimulus to another, previously neutral stimulus. Manipulating reflexes does this
Classical conditioning is basically learning through simple association and reinforcement (Class notes, (2001/2002), with the leading theorist being Ivan Pavlov, (1927) who studied how animals responded to conditioning.
In Pavlov's best-known experiment, he rang a bell as he fed some dogs several meals. Each time the dogs heard the bell they knew that a meal was coming, and they would begin to salivate. Pavlov then rang the bell without bringing food, but the dogs still salivated. He concluded that the animals had learned an association between the noise and the food and had been ‘conditioned’ to salivate at the sound of a bell. Pavlov noted as well there were two stimuli’s – food (Unconditional Stimuli or US) and the buzzer (Conditioned Stimuli or CS) there were two responses – the reflexive salivation (Unconditional Response or UR) and the learned salivation (Conditioned Response or CR). This can be viewed more clearly in Appendix A. Further experiments went on to reveal that the animals also learnt to discriminate between sounds that produced food and those that didn’t (Discrimination). It was also noted that, after several trials, if food was not presented after the bell had been rung then salivation would cease if not occasionally reinforced. Pavlov believed, as Watson was