How We Learn

How We Learn

1. What Is Learning?

   • the process of acquiring the ability to respond adequately to a situation which may or may not have been previously encountered it is relatively permanent change in behaviour as a result of prior experiences
   • What Are The Three Types of Learning?
     • Observational learning, Insight learning, and Conditional
       • Observational Learning
         • Learning through observation and/or imitation
           • Attention: the individual notices something in the environment Retention: the individual remembers what was noticed Reproduction: the individual produces an action that is a copy of what is noticed Motivation: the environment delivers a consequence that changes the probability the behaviour will be emitted again
       • Insight Learning
         • Insight learning occurs when a new behaviour is learned through cognitive processes rather than through interactions with the outside world.
           • 1. Experience - Past experiences help in the insightful solution of the problems 2. Intelligence – Insightful solution depends upon the basic intelligence of the learner. 3. Learning Situation – How insightfully the organism will react depends upon the situation in which he has to act. 4. Initial Efforts or Trial and Error – Insightful learning has to pass through the process of trial and error. 5. Repetition and Generalization – After having an insightful solution of a particular type of problem, the organism tries to repeat it in another situation, demanding similar type of solution.
       • Conditional Learning
         • a learning procedure in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell).
           • Classical Conditioning
             • A learning process by which a subject comes to respond in a specific way to a previously neutral stimulus after the subject repeatedly encounters the neutral stimulus together with another stimulus that already elicits the response.
               • Unconditioned stimulus - a stimulus that invariable causes an organism to respond in a specific way Unconditioned response - a response that takes place in an organism whenever an unconditioned stimulus occurs Conditioned stimulus - an originally neutral stimulus that is paired with an unconditional stimulus and eventually produces the desired response in an organism when presented alone, Conditioned response - after conditioning, the response an organism produces when a conditioned stimulus is presented
           • Operant Conditioning
             • a learning process in which the likelihood of a specific behaviour is increased or decreased through positive or negative reinforcement
               • Positive Renforcement - giving candy to a child who does something good. Negative Reinforcement - getting in trouble for doing something bad
   • Memory
     • Three Types
       • Episodic - Ability to remember events from the past, e.g. a younger birthday Semantic - Knowledge of how the world works, e.g. answering the phone Procedural - How to do things, e.g. brush your teeth
     • Three Levels
       • Sensory - Receives information from the environment from each of the senses and records for only a few seconds. Short-term - Refers to what is going on in your conscious mind. Holds information for 15-20 seconds. You will either discard or store the information in long-term memory. Long-term - Items that are important and have meaning to you.
     • Memory Loss
       • Anterograde Amnesia
         • This is when new events are not transferred to long-term memory. The result of this disorder is that the sufferer will not be able to recall events which occurred moments earlier, once their attention has shifted to something else.
       • Is a loss of memory-access to events that occurred, or information that was learned, before an injury or the onset of a disease. Causes of retrograde amnesia include brain injuries, surgeries, traumatic events, nutrition issues, infections, or electroconvulsive therapy, commonly known as shock therapy. Usually affects episodic memory (the collection of past personal experiences that occurred at a particular time and place.