PSYC 102 PSYCHOLOGY FOR EVERYDAY LIVING

1. PSYC 102PSYCHOLOGY FOR EVERYDAY LIVING Session 2 – Learning Part II Lecturer: Dr. Paul Narh Doku, Dept of Psychology, UG Contact Information: pndoku@ug.edu.gh

2. Session Overview This session is a continuation of the broader topic learning. It follows from the previous session by introducing you to the other types of learning and their applications. The following topics will be reviewed: operant conditioning and its applications, observational learning and its applications, cognitive learning and its applications, transfer of learning and the factors that affect transfer of learning. As noted earlier, understanding these learning theories and principles is an integral part of psychology and other domains of human behavior, such as marketing, sports, health, education and relationships Slide 2

3. Session Outline The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows: Topic One – Operant Conditioning Topic Two – Observational learning Topic Three – Cognitive Learning Topic Four – Transfer of Learning Slide 3

4. Reading List Refer to students to relevant text/chapter or reading materials you will make available on Sakai Slide 4 Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS

5. TOPIC ONE: OPERANT CONDITIONING Classical conditioning forms an association between two stimuli. Operant conditioning forms an association between a behaviour and a consequence. It is also called response-stimulus or RS conditioning because it forms an association between the person’s response [behavior] and the stimulus that follows [consequence]

6. What is operant learning? Learning by which we associate responses OR behaviours with their consequences (reinforcement or punishment). Acts or responses that are reinforced or rewarded tend to be repeated. What follows our behaviours determine whether we shall do it again or not. Here learning is strengthened each time a response is followed by something that is satisfying.

7. Reinforcement A reinforcer is any event that strengthens or increases the behaviour it follows. There are two kinds of reinforcers: Positive Reinforcement: Occurs when a response is followed by a reward or other pleasant event. Negative reinforcement: Occurs when a response is followed by an end to discomfort or by the removal of an unpleasant event REMEMBER: In both cases (reinforcement) the desired behaviour increases

8. Primary and Secondary reinforcers A primary positive reinforcer is something that the animal does not have to learn to like. It comes naturally, no experience necessary. Primary R+s usually include food, water, rest, often include sex, the chance to engage in instinctive behaviours, and for social animals, the chance to interact with others. Non-learned reinforcers that often satisfy physiological needs A secondary positive reinforcer is something that the animal has to learn to like. The learning can be accomplished through Classical Conditioning or through some other method. A pay is a secondary reinforcer - just try writing a check to reward a young child for potty training! Learned reinforcers that gains reinforcing properties by association with a primary reinforcer

9. Something Good can start or be presented; Positive Reinforcement (R+) Something Good can end or be taken away; Negative Punishment (P-) Something Bad can start or be presented; Positive Punishment (P+) Something Bad can end or be taken away.Negative Reinforcement (R-) FOUR POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES TO ANY BEHAVIOUR

10. Schedules of Reinforcement A schedule of reinforcement determines how often a behaviour is going to result in a reward. There are five kinds: fixed interval – based on a constant time interval variable interval – based on varying/changing time interval fixed ratio – based on constant/fixed output variable ratio – based on varying/changing output Random - Neither is it based on time nor response. Reinforcement or reward is given just like that; whether a person shows correct response or not.

12. Comparison of classical and operant Conditioning

13. TOPIC TWO: OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING Albert Bandura believed that direct reinforcement could not account for all types of learning. He suggested that environment causes behaviour, true; but behaviour causes environment as well. He did some landmark experiments showing that children who watched adults behaving aggressively were more likely to behave aggressively themselves. His most famous experiment was the Bobo doll study. Bandura let a group of kindergarteners watch a film of an adult violently attacking an inflatable plastic toy shaped like Bobo the Clown by hitting it, sitting on it, hammering it, and so forth. He then let the children into a room with Bobo dolls. The children precisely imitated the adult’s behaviour, happily attacking Bobo. Their behaviour was a type of observational learning

14. Observational Learning This type of learning occurs when an observer’s behaviour changes after viewing the behaviour of a model. Observational learning is the process of learning to respond in a particular way by watching others, who are called models. An observer’s behaviour can be affected by the positive or negative consequences of a model’s behaviour. The consequence of the model’s behaviour is called vicarious reinforcement or vicarious punishment

15. Bandura identified three basic models of observational learning: A live model, which involves an actual individual demonstrating or acting out a behaviour. A verbal instructional model, which involves descriptions and explanations of a behaviour. A symbolic model, which involves real or fictional characters displaying behaviours in books, films, television programs, or online media.

16. Process of Observational Learning Learning by observation involves four separate processes: attention, retention, production and motivation

17. Attention Observers cannot learn unless they pay attention to what’s happening around them. This process is influenced by characteristics of the model, such as how much one likes or identifies with the model, If the model is interesting, dramatic, colourful or there is a novel aspect to the situation, you are far more likely to dedicate your full attention to learning Also influenced by characteristics of the observer, such as the observer’s expectations or level of emotional arousal.

18. Retention: Observers must not only recognize the observed behaviour but also remember it at some later time. you must be able to retain -- remember -- what you have paid attention to.  This is where imagery and language come in:  we store what we have seen the model doing in the form of mental images or verbal descriptions.  When so stored, you can later “bring up” the image or description, so that you can reproduce it with your own behaviour. The ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning

19. Production Observers must be physically and/intellectually capable of producing the act. In many cases the observer possesses the necessary responses. But sometimes, reproducing the model’s actions may involve skills the observer has not yet acquired. It is one thing to carefully watch a dancer, but it is quite another to go home and repeat those acts. You have to translate the images or descriptions into actual behaviour.  Another important point about reproduction is that our ability to imitate improves with practice at the behaviours involved. 

20. Motivation Finally, in order for observational learning to be successful, you have to be motivated to imitate the behaviour that has been modelled. In general, observers will perform the act only if they have some motivation or reason to do so. The presence of reinforcement or punishment, either to the model or directly to the observer, becomes most important in this process. For example, if you see another student rewarded with extra credit for being to class on time, you might start to show up a few minutes early each day.

21. Principles of Observational Learning The observer will imitate the model’s behaviour if the model possesses characteristics– things such as talent, intelligence, power, good looks, or popularity–that the observer finds attractive or desirable. The observer will react to the way the model is treated and mimic the model’s behaviour. When the model’s behaviour is rewarded, the observer is more likely to reproduce the rewarded behaviour. When the model is punished, an example of vicarious punishment, the observer is less likely to reproduce the same behaviour.

22. TOPIC THREE - COGNITIVE LEARNING : latent learning insight learning cognitive maps

23. Cognitive Theory of Learning Tolman thought of learning as developing from bits of knowledge and cognitions about the environment and how the organism relates to it This was in contrast to the theories of Thorndike and others who thought of learning as a strict stimulus-response connection.

24. Paradigm of learning without reward Three groups of rats were trained to run a maze. The control group, Group 1, was fed upon reaching the goal. The first experimental group, Group 2, was not rewarded for the first six days of training, but found food in the goal on day seven and everyday thereafter. The second experimental group, Group 3, was not rewarded for the first two days, but found food in the goal on day three and everyday thereafter. Both of the experimental groups demonstrated fewer errors when running the maze the day after the transition from no reward to reward conditions. The marked performance continued throughout the rest of the experiment. This suggested that the rats had learned during the initial trials of no reward and were able to use a "cognitive map" of the maze when the rewards were introduced.

25. Human way-finding involves the recognition and appreciation of common representations and information obtained from other human beings and objects These internal representations are called cognitive maps It is a metaphor applied to an internal representation that may be composed of a number of things Cognitive maps store conscious perceptions, but also automatic (subconscious) encodings of spatial relations to help determine one's current position Cognitive maps are representations of sets of connected places, which are systematically related by groups of spatial transformation rules cognitive maps

27. A was the starting point and B was the goal. A hungry rat learned to run to B very quickly and without hesitation. Tolman wondered what was learned when this occurred. One explanation was that the rat had learned the response "turning right" which led to food. However, Tolman preferred the explanation that the rat had developed a cognitive map of the maze and where the place of the reward was located.

28. Testing the cognitive maps claim!! Once a rat had learned how to run from A to B, it was started at C The stimulus-response explanation predicted that the rat would turn right and reach D. The cognitive map explanation predicted that the rat would reach the reward in B. The test demonstrated that most of the rats reached B, thereby leading Tolman to conclude that a cognitive map was most likely developed by rats in maze running (Hothersall, 1995).

29. Latent Learning These experiments eventually led to the theory of latent learning which describes learning that occurs in the absence of an obvious reward (Barker, 1997). He argued that humans engage in this type of learning everyday as we drive or walk the same route daily and learn the locations of various buildings and objects. Only when we need to find a building or object does learning become obvious. Controversy developed from Tolman's theory of latent learning, but several investigators demonstrated that rats do learn in the absence of rewards (Hothersall, 1995).

30. " Latent Learning: The type of learning that occurs, but you don't really see it (it's not exhibited) until there is some reinforcement or incentive to demonstrate it. This may seem a bit silly, but it is important to understand that there is a difference between learning and performance.

31. Insight Learning: Wolfgang Kohler said that insight learning is a type of learning or problem solving that happens all-of-a-sudden through understanding the relationships between various parts of a problem rather than through trial and error. A type of learning that uses reason, especially to form conclusions, inferences, or judgments, to solve a problem. Unlike learning by trial-and-error, insight learning is solving problems not based on actual experience (like trial and error steps) but on trials occurring mentally. Often the solution is learned suddenly, such as when a person is in a problem for a period of time and suddenly learns the way to solve it.

32. TOPIC FOUR: TRANSFER OF LEARNING The ability to apply knowledge or procedures learned in one context to new contexts. Information or skills related to one topic can sometimes either help or hinder the acquisition of information or skills related to another topic. When learning from one situation assists learning in another, this is referred to as positive transfer. This positive transfer is most likely to occur when the learner: recognizes common features among concepts, principles, or skills; consciously links the information in memory; and sees the value of using what was learned in one situation in another (Schunk, 1996b).

33. Positive transfer is a very important part of learning. In addition to helping learners acquire specific information more easily, positive transfer helps learners function effectively in situations for which they have no previously acquired information. It enables learners to solve problems they have never seen before. A major goal of education is to facilitate positive transfer and to minimize negative transfer.

34. When learning from one situation interferes with learning in another situation, this is referred to as negative transfer. This negative transfer is most likely to occur when the learner: incorrectly believes there are common features, improperly links the information while encoding it, or incorrectly sees some value in using information from one setting in another.

35. Factors Affecting Transfer of Learning

36. 1. Meaningfulness of the Material Meaningfulness effect – the tendency that highly meaningful words are easier to learn and remember than less meaningful words. Remember in Ebbinghaus’ experiment it was very difficult recalling the non-sense syllabus (nonsense words) than meaningful ones. An implication is that retention will be improved to the extent that the user can make meaning of the material.

37. 2. Serial position effects Serial position effects result from the particular placement of an item within a list. Memory is better for items placed at beginning or end of list rather than in the middle. During training or learning, important points must be taught first and highlighted at the last part of class or session An exception to these serial positions is the distinctiveness effect - an item that is distinctively different from the others will be remembered better, regardless of serial position.

38. 3. Practice effects Active practice or rehearsal improves retention, and distributed practice is usually more effective than massed practice. The advantage to distributed practice is especially noticeable for lists, fast presentation rates or unfamiliar stimulus material. The advantage to distributed practice apparently occurs because massed practice allows the learner to associate a word with only a single context, but distributed practice allows association with many different contexts.

39. 4. Mnemonic effects Mnemonics - strategies for elaborating on relatively meaningless input by associating the input with more meaningful images or semantic context Short-cuts!! Mnemonics rely on associations between easy-to-remember constructs which can be related back to the data that is to be remembered

40. 5. Abstraction effects Abstraction is the tendency of learners to pay attention to and remember the gist of a passage rather than the specific words of a sentence. In general, to the extent that learners assume the goal is understanding rather than verbatim memory and the extent that the material can be analyzed into main ideas and supportive detail

41. 6. Levels-of-Processing effects The more deeply a word is processed, the better it will be remembered. Semantic encoding of content is likely to lead to better memory. Elaborative encoding, improves memory by making sentences more meaningful.

42. 7. Context/Mood-Dependent effects Context-dependent effects occur because learning takes place within a specific context that must be accessible later, at least initially, within the same context. For example, school materials are more easily remembered when the test situation more closely resembles the leaning situation, apparently due to contextual cues available to aid in information retrieval. Mood-dependent effects occur when there is an agreement between one’s mood at the time of learning and during the time of retrieval; and this leads to enhanced performance. For example if you learned a material at a time when you were happy, you are more likely to perform better in an example if during the exams you happened to be in a happy mood too.

43. 8. Feedback Providing a response on whether a learner is right or wrong makes a useful guideline for subsequent actions on the part of the learner Corrective feedback (You are wrong; correct answer is C) are much effective than confirmatory feedback (You are wrong) Immediate feedback is also preferred to delay feedback in improving positive transfer of learning

44. 9. Motivation and Reinforcement People are more likely to perform better if they have are rewarded for their behaviours.

45. References Coon, D. and Mitterer, O. J (2013). Introduction to Psychology (13th ed). Wadsworth Cengage learning. Pp. 206-232 Feldman, S. R, Collins, J. E. and Green, M. J (2005). Essentials of understanding psychology (2nd ed). McGraw-Hill Ryerson. pp. 154-179 Kosslyn, M. S, and Rosenberg, R. (2006). Psychology in context. pearson. Pp. 235-271 Weiten, W. (2009). Psychology: Themes and variations (8th ed). cengage learning. Pp. 232-259 Slide 45 Dr. Richard Boateng, UGBS