Theories of Learning Notes

Chapter 1 (introduction)

• psychology - the science that studies human behavior and thinking

  • looks at how experience affects thought and action

  • explores roles of biology of heredity

  • examines consciousness and dreams (generally, not in learning)

  • development from infancy to adulthood

  • investigates social influences

• epistemology - branch of philosophy concerned with questions about the nature of knowledge and knowing

  • “how do we know what we know?”

  • Aristotle - theorized that whatever is in the world is copied onto our mind

    • know because of reason, not senses

    • better ability to reason means you can see reality more clearly

  • Plato - believed we only know ideas

  • Idealism - reality only exists in our minds

  • Materialism - everything that actually exists is physical

  • Rene Descartes

    • mind-body problem - asks about the relationship between the mind and body

    • “I think, therefore I am”

    • ideas come from God because humans are not perfect enough to come up with them on their own

    • material/immaterial world

    • mind and body are separate - dualism

      • pineal gland holds the soul

• learning - relatively permanent changes in potential behaviors that result from experience but are not caused by fatigue, maturation, drugs, injury, or disease

  • changes in behavior are evidence that learning has occured

  • involve changes in capacity or disposition

  • evidence that learning has occurred may depend on the opportunity to preform

• theory

  • main task of a learning psychologist is to understand behavior and behavioral change

  • understanding creates the ability to predict and control

  • theory - collection of related statements whose main function is to summarize and explain observation

  • hypothesis - an educated guess, often based on theory, which can be tested

  • principles - statements that relate to some predictability in nature or behavior

  • laws - statements whose accuracy is beyond reasonable doubt

  • beliefs - describe statements that are more private and more personal than principles or laws

  • theories simplify and organize observastions

    • provide basis for making predictions

  • characteristics of a good theory

    • summarize and organize

    • clear and understandable

    • occam’s razor - when there are 2 competing theories that both explain or summarize the observations, the least complex is better (parsimony)

    • useful for predicting or explaining

    • falsifiable

    • internally consistent

    • should not be based on a large number of assumptions

    • should be thought provoking and satisfying

• science

  • science of psychology is a collection of in formation related to the nature and properties of human thought and behavior

  • scientific method

    • ask the question

    • develop a hypothesis

    • collect relevant observations

    • test the hypothesis

    • reach and share a conclusion

  • experiment - tool to determine the validity of hypotheses

    • deliberately controlled arrangement of circumstances

    • independent variable is manipulated

    • dependent variable is the effect of manipulation on independent variable

    • first step is define the abstract involved (in order to define them)

      • definitions are called operational definitions

    • groups

      • sample - individuals or small groups from larger populations

      • comparison groups:

        • experimental - receives the treatment

        • control - no treatment

  • evaluating research

    • nominal fallacy - the assumption that names are explanations

    • representative samples - samples whose characteristics are much the same as those of the general population

    • subject believability - factors of memory, honesty, distortion, etc.

    • subject bias - a subjects response ot being studied

    • experimenter bias - experimenter subjectivity may skew research interpretations

    • these fallacies are why we use blind studies (double or single blind)

Chapter 2 (early behaviorism)

• beginnings of scientific psychology

  • founded in 1879, Wilhelm Wundt

  • Structuralism in full swing in europe

  • William James brings functionalism to US

    • human experience and consciousness as a whole

  • primary methodology was introspection

    • personal experience

• Psychophysics

  • seeking through psychophysical measurements the least amount of stimulation required for sensation

  • measured absolute threshold and just noticeable difference (JND)

    • JND - the least amount of change in stimulation that would be noticeable

    • Weber’s Law

• Behaviorists

  • Ivan Petrovich Pavlov

    • 1849-1936

    • physiologist that discovered classical conditioning

      • repeating pairing of 2 stimulus so that a previously neutral (conditioned) stimulus eventually elicits a response (conditioned response) similar to the originally elicited by a non-neutral (unconditioned) stimulus

    • learning begins with an unlearned response (UR) that can be elicited by a specific stimulus (US)

      • unlearned stimulus response is a reflex

    • reflexes - simple, non-intentional, unlearned behaviors

    • contiguity - the occurence of things both simultaneously and in the same space

      • simultaneous pairing - the CS starts and ends at the exact same time as the US

      • delayed pairing - the CS is presented before the US and continues during presentation of the US

      • trace pairing - the CS starts and ends before the US so that there is a very brief time lapse between the two

      • Backward pairing - the US has already been presented and removed before presentation of the CS

    • reinforcement - more complex and having to do with the effects of the stimulus

    • Findings in classical conditioning

      • acquisition - the formation of the stimulus-response association typically requires a number of pairings of CS and US

      • extinction - the cessation of a response following the repeated presentation of the CS without the US

      • spontaneous recovery - CS presented later and the CR reoccurs (after extinction)

      • stimulus generalization - the transfer of a response from one stimulus to a similar stimulus

      • stimulus discrimination - making different responses to related but distinctly different stimuli

      • higher order conditioning - responses, stimuli, and reinforcers linked in complex ways

      • second-order conditioning - the forming of associations between the CS and other stimuli that take the place of the US

Chapter 3 (the effects of behavior)

• E.L. Thorndike (connectionism)

  • educational psychology

  • puzzle box

    • locked cats in box

    • can only escape if it does three things

  • cats learn through trial instead and error, not insight

    • trial and error - in a given situation the organism makes a number of responses, one or more leads to a solution

    • connection formed between the response and the situation

  • Principal Laws

    • emphasis on experimentation and behavior

    • considered himself a connectionist

    • learning

      • formation of bonds between stimuli and responses - bonds that take the form of neural connections

      • learning is the stamping in of stimulus response (SR) connections

      • forgetting is the stamping out of connections

  • three main laws

    • law of exercise: bonds between stimuli and responses are strengthened through being exercised frequently, recently, and vigorously

      • exercising SR connections encourages the repetitive drill approach to learning

    • law of effect: responses just before a satisfying state of affairs are more likely to be repeated

      • opposite responses before an annoying state of affairs are more likely not to be repeated

      • instrumental learning

    • law of readiness: a pleasant state of affairs results when a learner is ready to learn and is allowed to do so

      • being forced to learn when not ready leads to an annoying state of affairs

  • subsidiary laws

    • law of multiple responses: in any given situation, the organism will respond in a variety of ways if its first response foes not lead immediately to a more satisfying state of affairs

    • law of set or attitude: applies to satisfiers and annoyers and to the nature of the responses that will be emitted by a person

    • law of prepotency of elements: it is possible for a learner to react only to the significant elements in a problem situation and be undistracted by irrelevant aspects of the situation

    • law of response by analogy: a person placed in a new situation may respond with reactions used in other situations

    • law of associative shifting: it is possible to shift a response from one stimulus to another

Chapter 5

• biofeedback and neurofeedback

  • biofeedback: procedure where individuals are given information about their biological functions and are trained to control/change their functioning

  • neurofeedback: specific kind of biofeedback that involves feedback about neurological functioning

  • practical functions

    • alleviate migraines

    • reduce blood pressure and heart rate

    • control asthma

    • treat ADD and learning disabilities

• learning and the brain

  • cerebral cortex: responsible for sensation, language, speech, thinking, motor activity

  • limbic system: thalamus (relay system, sensory input except for smell),

  • hypothalamus: regulation of endocrine gland activity relating to growth

  • hindbrain, midbrain, forebrain

    • hindbrain: the lower brain stem responsible for basic physiological functions like respiration and heart rain, cerebellum is centraly involved in locomotion and balance

    • midbrain:the upper brain stem responsible for regulating waking up and sleeping and for controlling general arousal, nerve fibers associated with movement

    • forebrain: largest and most complex brain structure, most important structures include: thalamus/limbic system, cerebellum, and cerebral cortex

  • role of the brain in human learning

    • learning depends on formation and connects of neurons in brain

    • all information enters brain through senses

    • all information through thalamus and then to the appropriate sections of the brain

chapter 6 (transition to modern cognitivism)

• hebb’s theory (higher mental processes)

  • higher mental processes - thinking or thought processes