Theories of Learning

Stimulus Response  Theory

Stimulus Response Theory is a concept in psychology that refers to the belief that behavior manifests as a result of the interplay between stimulus and response. In particular, the belief is that a subject is presented with a stimulus, and then responds to that stimulus, producing "behavior" (the object of psychology's study, as a field). In other words, behavior cannot exist without a stimulus of some sort, at least from this perspective. 

Classical conditioning (also Pavlovian or respondent conditioning, Pavlovian reinforcement) is a form of conditioning that was first demonstrated by Ivan Pavlov (1927).The typical procedure for inducing classical conditioning involves presentations of a neutral stimulus along with a stimulus of some significance, the "unconditioned stimulus." The neutral stimulus could be any event that does not result in an overt behavioral response from the organism under investigation. Conversely, presentation of the significant stimulus necessarily evokes an innate, often reflexive, response. Pavlov called these the unconditioned stimulus (US) and unconditioned response (UR), respectively. If the neutral stimulus presented along with the unconditioned stimulus, it would become a conditioned stimulus (CS). If the CS and the US are repeatedly paired, eventually the two stimuli become associated and the organism begins to produce a behavioral response to the CS. Pavlov called this the conditioned response (CR).

Popular forms of classical conditioning that are used to study neural structures and functions that underlie learning and memory include fear conditioning, eyebling conditioning, and the foot contraction conditioning of Hermissenda Crassicornis.

The original and most famous example of classical conditioning involved the salivary conditioning of Pavlov's dogs. During his research on the physiology of digestion in dogs, Pavlov noticed that, rather than simply salivating in the presence of meat powder (an innate response to food that he called the unconditioned response), the dogs began to salivate in the presence of the lab technician who normally fed them. Pavlov called these psychic secretions. From this observation he predicted that, if a particular stimulus in the dog's surroundings were present when the dog was presented with meat powder, then this stimulus would become associated with food and cause salivation on its own. In his initial experiment, Pavlov used a bell to call the dogs to their food and, after a few repetitions, the dogs started to salivate in response to the bell.

                                                                         Ivan Pavlov

      

Behaviorism 

 

Behaviorism is described as a developmental theory that measures observable behaviors produced by a learner’s response to stimuli. Responses to stimuli can be reinforced with positive or negative feedback to condition desired behaviors. Punishment is sometimes used in eliminating or reducing incorrect actions, followed by clarifying desired actions. Educational effects of behaviorism are key in developing basic skills and foundations of understanding in all subject areas and in classroom management.
 

The term behaviorism refers to the school of psychology founded by John B. Watson based on the belief that behaviors can be measured, trained, and changed. Behaviorism was established with the publication of Watson's classic paper Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It (1913). Behaviorism holds that only observable behaviors should be studied, as cognition and mood are too subjective. According to behaviorist theory, our responses to environmental stimuli shapes our behaviors. Important concepts such as classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and reinforcement have arisen from behaviorism.

Gestalt Theory 

Gestalt theory was the outcome of concrete investigations in psychology, logic, and epistemology. The prevailing situation at the time of its origin may be briefly sketched as follows. We go from the world of everyday events to that of science, and not unnaturally assume that in making this transition we shall gain a deeper and more precise understanding of essentials. The transition should mark an advance. And yet, though one may have learned a great deal, one is poorer than before. It is the same in psychology. Here too we find science intent upon a systematic collection of data, yet often excluding through that very activity precisely that which is most vivid and real in the living phenomena it studies. Somehow the thing that matters has eluded us.

What happens when a problem is solved, when one suddenly "sees the point"? Common as this experience is, we seek in vain for it in the textbooks of psychology. Of things arid, poor, and inessential there is an abundance, but that which really matters is missing. Instead we are told of formation of concepts, of abstraction and generalization, of class concepts and judgments, perhaps of associations, creative phantasy, intuitions, talents - anything but an answer to our original problem. And what are these last words but names for the problem? Where are the penetrating answers? Psychology is replete with terms of great potentiality - personality, essence, intuition, and the rest. But when one seeks to grasp their concrete content, such terms fail.

This is the situation and it is characteristic of modern science that the same problem should appear everywhere. Several attempts have been made to remedy the matter. One was a frank defeatism preaching the severance of science and life: there are regions which are inaccessible to science. Other theories established a sharp distinction between the natural and moral sciences: the exactitude and precision of chemistry and physics are characteristic of natural science, but "scientific" accuracy has no place in a study of the mind and its ways. This must be renounced in favour of other categories.

Without pausing for further examples, let us consider rather a question naturally underlying the whole discussion: Is "science" really the kind of thing we have implied? The word science has often suggested a certain outlook, certain fundamental assumptions, certain procedures and attitudes - but do these imply that this is the only possibility of scientific method? Perhaps science already embodies methods leading in an entirely different direction, methods which have been continually stifled by the seemingly necessary, dominant ones. It is conceivable, for instance, that a host of facts and problems have been concealed rather than illuminated by the prevailing scientific tradition. Even though the traditional methods of science are undoubtedly adequate in many cases, there may be others where they lead us astray. Perhaps something in the very nature of the traditional outlook may have led its exponents at times to ignore precisely that which is truly essential.

 

    One of the co-founders of Gestalt therapy was Fritz Perls and it reflects partially the spirit of times when he lived. Having received the M.D. degree in 1926, Perls left for Frankfurt-am-Main to become an assistant of Kurt Goldstein. They worked at the Institute for Brain Damaged Soldiers and Professors Goldstein and Adhemar Gelb influenced him much there. He also got acquainted with Laura who became his wife later. At that point in time Frankfurt-am-Main can be called a center of intellectual life and Perls was subjected to influence of psychologists, psychoanalysts and existential philosophers, who had a leading role in Gestalt therapy in direct and indirect manner.

Fritz Perls started career of a psychoanalyst. He was under the direct influence of Karen Horney and Wilhelm Reich, Otto Rank and other specialists, who influenced his work indirectly. But Wilhelm Reich influenced Perls more than others. Wilhelm Reich was Perls' analyst in the beginning of the 1930s. Perls said that he was the first who drew his attention to the essential aspect of psychosomatic medicine - to the motoric system function of being an armor. (F. Perls, 1947, p. 3).

It is worthwhile mentioning three major influences on Perls' academic development. One of them was Sigmund Friedlander, a philosopher. Fritz Perls took up the notions of differential thinking from his philosophy as well as of creative indifference, which Perls mentions in his 1^st book, Ego, Hunger and Aggression, written in 1947. The prime minister of South Africa, Jan Smuts, also exerted influence upon Perls when he moved to Africa together with his from Nazi Germany and then Holland was occupied by Nazi. Prior to career of politician, Smuts had written a book about holism and evolution which actually scrutinized the wider ecological "whole" from a Gestalt perspective. Smuts devised the word holism. And the third person, the semanticist, Alfred Korzybski, also affected Perls' thinking and development.

Laura Posner Perls cofounded Gestalt therapy together with her husband. Laura's influence upon husband was widely known. She also contributed to the book Ego, Hunger and Aggression. One chapter in it was written by her. When she met Fritz Perls, she was a student and studied psychology. In 1932 she received the D.Sc. degree in the Frankfurt University. She was also influenced by Martin Buber and Paul Tillich, who were existential theologians. Her contribution to Gestalt therapy is great, though there is little she wrote about the subject under her name (Rosenfeld, 1978).

In spite of the fact, that Fritz Perls became a training psychoanalyst, he was irritated by dogmas coming from established Freudian psychoanalysis. The 20s, 30s, and the 40s of the last century were times of protest against Newtonian positivism. It was so for all spheres of life and not only science (Einstein's field theory, for instance), was permeated by a phenomenological-existential influence, but art too in addition to theater and dance, architecture and so forth. Afterwards, phenomenological-existential influence on Gestalt therapy was also big. (Kogan, 1976). Here we can mention, for instance, acknowledgment of responsibility and alternative to create personal existence, the dominance of existence over essence, in addition to the existential dialogue.

Gestalt psychology gives Fritz Perls integrating framework principle for Gestalt therapy. Gestalt belongs to the pattern or model of a set of elements and Gestalt psychologists consider that organisms unconsciously perceive whole models or patterns and not some pieces of it. Full patterns have different characteristics and they are not noticed when you analyze parts. Perception is not a passive process. It is not an outcome of sense organs stimulation received in a passive way. Integral organization of everything about the person should be considered. Organisms have the capability for correct perception when native ability of immediate experience in point of here and now is used. The assignment of phenomenological research and therapy is to use this capability to achieve insight into the studied structure. People logically perceive the whole patterns when they happen, real awareness can be believed more than dogma and interpretation.

Functionalism 

Functionalism is a theory of the mind in contemporary philosophy, developed largely as an alternative to both the identity theory of mind and behaviourism. Its core idea is that mental states (beliefs, desires, being in pain, etc.) are constituted solely by their functional role — that is, they are causal relations to other mental states, sensory inputs, and behavioral outputs. Functionalism is a theoretical level between the physical implementation and behavioural output. Therefore, it is different from its predecessors of Cartesian dualismbehaviourism and physicalism (declaring only physical substances) because it is only concerned with the effective functions of the brain, through its organization or its ‘software programs’. (advocating discrete mental and physical substances) and Skinnerian

Since mental states are identified by a functional role, they are said to be realized on multiple levels; in other words, they are able to be manifested in various systems, even perhaps computers, so long as the system performs the appropriate functions. While computers are physical devices with electronic substrate that perform computations on inputs to give outputs, so brains are physical devices with neural substrate that perform computations on inputs which produce behaviours.

While functionalism has its advantages, there have been several arguments against it, claiming that it is an insufficient account of the mind.

 Functionalism is the oldest, and still the dominant, theoretical perspective in sociology and many other social sciences. This perspective is built upon twin emphases: application of the scientific method to the objective social world and use of an analogy between the individual organism and society.

 Darwin and Functionalism 

 Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection was tremendously influential on the establishment of functionalism.  After his famous voyage on The HMS Beagle, Darwin labored many years to produce the book responsible for a dramatic paradigm shift:  The Origin of Species.  Darwin’s argued that the environment forces a natural selection upon its inhabitants and favors those inhabitants that have adaptive characteristics.  The members within a species who have adaptive characteristics pass on this survival component to their offspring while those members without the adaptive characteristics begin to disappear.

The theory of a mechanistic universe proposed by Descartes seemed to be crumbling under the weight of a chaotic and impersonal force of evolution.  The function of mind and behavior was now looked upon as adaptive rather than innate.  Individual differences rather than universal laws of the mind and behavior became the center of creative and scientific energy.  William James became a major proponent of this changing scientific focus.

 

Humanistic

The focus of the humanistic perspective is on the self, which translates into "YOU", and "your" perception of "your" experiences. This veiw argues that you are free to choose your own behavior, rather than reacting to environmental stimuli and reinforcers. Issues dealing with self-esteem, self-fulfillment, and needs are paramount. The major focus is to facilitate personal development. Two major theorists associated with this view are Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow.

Carl Rogers feels that each person operates from a unique frame of reference in terms of buliding Self Regard or their self concept. Self Concept is one's own belief about themselves. These beliefs stem, in part, from the notion of Unconditional Postive Regard and Conditional Positive Regard. Unconditional positive regard occurs when individuals, especially parents, demonstrate unconditional love. Conditioned positive regard is when that love seems to only come when certain condtions are met. Rogers theory states that psychologically healthy people enjoy life to the fullest, hence, they are seen as fully functioning people.

Abraham Maslow feels that indivduals have certain needs that must be met in an hierarchical fashion, from the lowest to highest. These include basic needs, safety needs, love and belonging needs, achievement needs, and ultimately, Self-Actualization.

According to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, the needs must be achieved in order. For instance, one would be unable to fulfill their safety needs if their physiological needs have not been met.

Maslow's Hierarchy Triangle is as follows:

 

 

Social Learning Theory 

        Social learning theory is the view that people learn by observing others. Associated with Albert    Bandura's work in the 1960s, social learning theory explains how people learn new behaviors, values, and attitudes. For example, a teenager might learn slang by observing peers. Social learning requires attention to the person(s) observed, remembering the observed behavior, the ability to replicate the behavior, and a motivation to act the same way. For example, a child might see a sibling receive a lollipop for behaving politely and imitate the sibling in the hope of getting a treat, too. Not all learning is acted on (as when someone learns to pick a lock but never does, for example). Sociologists have used social learning to explain aggression and criminal behavior especially.

Albert Bandura

 

General principles of social learning theory follows: 

1. People can learn by observing the behavior is of others and the outcomes of those behaviors.

2. Learning can occur without a change in behavior. Behaviorists say that learning has to be represented by a permanent change in behavior, in contrast social learning theorists say that because people can learn through observation alone, their learning may not necessarily be shown in their performance. Learning may or may not result in a behavior change.

 

3. Cognition plays a role in learning. Over the last 30 years social learning theory has become increasingly cognitive in its interpretation of human learning. Awareness and expectations of future reinforcements or punishments can have a major effect on the behaviors that people exhibit.

 

4. Social learning theory can be considered a bridge or a transition between behaviorist learning theories and cognitive learning theories.

The social learning theory proposed by Albert Bandura has become perhaps the most influential theory of learning and development. While rooted in many of the basic concepts of traditional learning theory, Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning.

His theory added a social element, arguing that people can learn new information and behaviors by watching other people. Known as observational learning (or modeling), this type of learning can be used to explain a wide variety of behaviors.