Chapter 5: Learning

Nature of Learning

For a holistic understanding of learning, first we need to define learning and related concepts -terminology of the subject. After the terminological clarification, boundaries should be drawn between which behavior is a consequence of learning and which is not. Determining the influencing factors of learning is another task at this point. Finally, briefly summarizing the neurobiological aspects of behavior could extend our perception on nature of learning.

Learning and Related Concepts

Although the term ‘learning’ is associated with educational settings, it bears a whole other meaning within the realm of psychology. First of all, learning, as a matter of research in psychology, is not unique to humans. It actually refers to the adaptation process that an organism goes through to balance with the changing environmental conditions. Some animal behaviors and almost all human behaviors are formed as a result of learning processes. The most common definition states that learning is a relatively permanent change in the behavior of an organism due to experience.

Alternative definitions for learning:

1. the alteration of behavior as a result of individual experience.
2. a persisting change in human performance or potential depending on the individual’s experience and interaction with the world.

Organism in this definition refers to either humans or animals. Behavior , on the other hand, includes all the activities an organism performs.

Basically, there are two components of behavior – stimulus and response. Stimulus is either an external or internal change in state that induces a response from the organism. Feeling hungry and rapid heartbeat rate can be noted as examples of internal changes while others that relate to changes in lightning, heat, or sound are classified as external changes. Response , on the contrary, is the behavior that an organism displays based on a stimulus. For example, turning our head towards the sound of a plane is a response for the sound stimulus.

What is Learning, and What is Not?

We can pose our first question: What is learning?

1. Learning is a change in behavior. This change is relatively permanent and long lasting.
2. Since learning is a result of an individual’s experience, the individual assumes an active role and performs operant behavior (other than conditioning, which will be discussed later in the chapter).
3. Learning, itself, cannot be directly observed. What can be observed is an individual’s performance, meaning that what is observable is not an individual’s potential but her/his performance.
4. Learning directs an individual to respond differently to situations to be experienced later in life. In other words, learning, once achieved, can be transferred to various situations and settings.

Time for the second question: What is Not Learning?

1. Instantaneous and temporary changes in behavior are not considered learning. For example, if someone taking swimming classes during winter cannot swim in the sea during the summer holiday, then, we can conclude that there is no learning since changes are not permanent. Similarly, consider someone using her/his left hand because her/his right arm is broken and in a sling. Do you think learning has manifested in this example? If that particular individual still continues to use her/his left hand after her/his right arm heals, we can confidently say that learning has been determined due to permanent change in that individual’s hand-using behavior. However, if that individual shifts right back to using her/his right hand after the healing is complete, then no learning has been achieved because there is no permanent result.
2. Albeit permanent, congenital behaviors are not considered as learning. Congenital behaviors include reflexes and modal behaviors. Reflexes are rapid, consistent, and simple behaviors displayed against a stimulus – e.g. knee jerk, eye blinking. Modal behaviors, yet, refer to complicated behaviors observed among all the members of a species. Honey production by bees and spiders producing webs are among modal behaviors. Although both behaviors are permanent and goal oriented, they do not represent learning because they are innate.
3. If the change in behavior is not a result of an individual’s interaction with the environment, but instead is a by-product of an illness, fatigue, medication, or accident, then this change cannot be classified as learning. For instance, nonsense talk exhibited by a patient waking up from anesthesia is not learning since stimulus here is medication.
4. If the change in a behavior is dependent on growing, then it is not learning. For example, clumsiness displayed by a teenager during adolescence cannot be considered learning since it is a result of growing body parts.

Factors Influential over Learning

Species-Specific Readiness: This refers to being biologically equipped in line with species-specific layout so that the organism can display the desired behavior. For example, many animals cannot learn to talk because they biologically lack species- specific speaking equipment.

Maturation: An organism has to be mature enough in terms of both age and mental processes in order for effective learning to be achieved.

Arousal: Levels of arousal can vary across different organisms. Arousal indicates the capacity and skills an organism has to process external stimuli. If the level of external stimuli is low or high, the level of arousal will also be low or high, respectively.

Transfer: An organism needs to have completed some earlier learning, in other words some kind of prior information, in order to achieve learning. Positive or negative transfer is observed respectively if previous learning facilitates or debilitates current learning.

Motivation: Motivation helps an individual to move, to be open and eager for learning, and to feel the need for learning. Motivation consists of three cyclical components: (1) feeling the need, (2) acting to satisfy the need, and (3) satisfaction and relief.

Cognitive Readiness: Unlike intelligence, this factor points out that an individual is ready to pick up certain types of stimuli. An individual should focus her/his attention onto the subject matter to achieve learning. Stimulus has to be the focal point of attention, especially to attain learning together with a high level of awareness. Cognitively ready, the organism will be able to filter out unnecessary stimuli blocking the target stimulus.

Physical Fit: Bearing certain physical characteristics may either hinder or ease certain types of learning. For instance, people with a certain set of muscle type are advantageous in terms of learning how to swim as opposed to others who do not have the same muscle layout. Likewise, it will turn out to be a nightmare to learn how to walk rhythmically for an individual with coordination problems.

Active Participation: The more active an organism is the higher the possibility will be for learning to occur. Being active, for an organism, means investing into learning and incorporating the learning process into its life.

Neurobiology of Learning

The learning process actually begins with sensory organs. The role of sensory organs, as part of the central nervous system, is to notice and transfer environmental stimuli to the brain to be processed. The neurobiology of learning refers to the structure and functions of the nervous system responsible for learning. There is a strong interaction between learning and the electrical and chemical activities of the brain. As the central nervous system helps us learn – in other words leads to permanent changes in our behaviors – the learning process also impacts the structure and functions of the central nervous system. Figure 5.1 depicts the fundamental structures of the central nervous system.

Though all sub-systems matter, the brain and brain cells within the central nervous system constitute the most fundamental biological structures regarding learning. The brain is the center for intelligence, conscience, and will. It is the director of our bodies. It analyzes stimuli coming from sensory organs and converts them into meaning. The brain looks like a fabric with lots of folds. The intensity of folds is considered to be a sign of intelligence. For instance, a fish brain is like a straight line whereas our brain is extremely folded.

Neurons – on the other hand – are the smallest building blocks of the central nervous system and are the individual cells of the brain (see Photo 5.1). They are the foundation for cognitive behaviors such as learning, remembering, thinking, and perceiving.

Another anatomical structure that learning can impact is the myelin sheath – a membrane covering some neurons. When cells are tubed within a myelin membrane and when this membrane gets thicker, interaction across neurons become faster, which eases learning. You can visualize the myelin membrane as plastic tubes around electric cables. Learning is known to have a direct impact on two structures in the brain:

• It influences both the number and function of glia cells.
• It determines the pace of myelin membrane formation, which eases learning.

Theories Of Learning

Learning theories should be viewed as different approaches on the path leading to an explanation of how learning actually happens. All learning theories can be grouped under three major perspectives: behaviorist, cognitive, and social learning theories. While the behaviorist approach mainly focuses on observable behaviors, cognitive understanding seeks to unravel what lies behind the observable behavior. Social learning theory, on the other hand, tries to explore how an individual learns within her/his social environment.

Behavioral Theories of Learning

In the late 19 ^th century, the Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov – designated with a Nobel Prize – marked the foundation of classical conditioning. Almost simultaneously, Thorndike, famous for his research into animal learning in the United states of America, documented the impact of reward and punishment on behavior. Thorndike’s experiments were advanced by Skinner’s operational conditioning studies in 1930s. Scientists adopting Pavlovian and Skinnerian schools of thought continued their experiments on dogs, cats, rats, and pigeons to scientifically analyze behavior within laboratory settings.

Behaviorist theoreticians regard learning as efforts to build links between stimulus (S) and response (R) (S-R). They claim that learning occurs only when an organism’s behaviors change. According to them, no change in an organism’s behaviors signify no learning. Principal assumptions of the behaviorist approach are as follows:

• Human learning is similar to learning in other organisms. People learn in the way dogs or pigeons do. Thus, behaviorists employ the term ‘organism’ to refer to both humans and animals.
• Learning can be analyzed only by focusing on observable and measurable behaviors. Any characteristic or behavior that cannot be measured should not be a field of interest for scientific analysis. For instance, it is not possible to scientifically study dreams and imagination.
• Humans’ characteristics such as emotions, opinions and motivation should be ignored if they cannot be measured. The organism is a black box. Whatever comes in (stimulus) and goes out (response) of this box must be observable and measurable. What happens inside the box, in other words, cognitive and emotional processes, can never be explained and understood.
• The rules of thumb for learning are based on the relation between stimulus and response. A response without a stimulus, or a response independent from its stimulus is not thinkable.
• “Conditioning” should be used instead of learning because an organism is conditioned by its environmental stimuli. Therefore, learning manifests without the control of the organism. To put it differently, the organism assumes a passive role, especially in classical conditioning.
• Learning should only be discussed if there is a change in the organism’s behaviors. If not, learning cannot be verified.

Classical Conditioning

Classical Conditioning, so-called Pavlovian conditioning, was discovered and developed by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) almost as a result of coincidence. Aphysiologist, Pavlov was carrying out experiments on the digestive system of dogs together with his assistant. He noticed something interesting during these experiments. The dog in the laboratory used to start salivation whenever the assistant walked into the lab. Intrigued, Pavlov directed his attention to figure out why the dog was salivating upon seeing the assistant in the lab. He tried to explore the relation between the assistant and the dog’s response via systematic observations. Eventually, he cracked the mechanism. One of the responsibilities of the assistant was to feed meat to the dog upon arriving at the lab. Thus, the dog used to salivate not because of the assistant but because of the meat. In other words, the real relation was not between the assistant and the dog’s response, but the assistant and the meat. So, the dog built a link between the assistant and the meat and responded to the arrival of the assistant assuming meat would be presented. In a sense, the dog dug out a relationship between the assistant and the meat. Based on his initial observations, Pavlov decided to design another experiment to comprehensively understand the nature of conditioning. The experimental process is depicted in Figure 5.2.

Desensitization should be developed against negative stimuli. Habituation , on the other hand, is developed for desired stimuli. For instance, children get systematically desensitized against corporal punishment and habituated for rewards. Stimulus generalization is to respond to stimuli similar to the original CS. Stimulus discrimination occurs when a learned response occurs to a specific stimulus, which is the original CS but not to other similar stimuli.

Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning –another behaviorist learning style– we learn about the link between a behavior and the consequence of that behavior. The idea that learning occurs as a result of an action/activity was supported by Thorndike’s (1874-1949) pioneering research. In one of Thorndike’s experiments, a hungry cat was placed in a cage that could be unlocked with a little effort to see if the cat would make it to the other cage for food. Thorndike observed that the cat was able to open the cage through accidental/coincidental trials. As the number of experimental sessions increased, the cat’s behavior turned out to be more purposeful. In addition, the number of trials exhibited by the cat decreased with every experimental session. This way of behaving is called learning through trial and error . Then, Thorndike proposed that appropriate behaviors become stronger depending on the cat’s success and failure. The decrease in the number of trails and errors in time indicated that the animal was learning.

In operant conditioning, an organism experiences either of the two consequences depending on the behavior: reinforcement or punishment. In classical conditioning, there is first the stimulus and then the response (S-R). In operant conditioning, however, reinforcement or punishment processes can be deemed as stimuli either increasing or decreasing the frequency of a particular behavior, which means a behavior or response is followed by a stimulus (R-S). Figure 5.4 depicts the operant conditioning process.

Now, let’s use Figure 5.4 to examine types of reinforcement and punishment. Reinforcement is anything that immediately follows a desired behavior and increases the possibility of future repetitions of that specific behavior. Stimuli serving to this end are called reinforcers . There are two kinds of reinforcement: positive reinforcement can be considered rewarding. The existence of a pleasant stimulus in the learning environment raises the odds for the recurrence of the same behavior in the future. In negative reinforcement , the withdrawal of an aversive stimulus from the learning environment amplifies the possibility of recurrence for a desired behavior in the future. In both types of reinforcement, the only constant is the boost in the frequency of a desired behavior.

Examples for two different reinforcement types:

1. Positive reinforcement: Praising a child (‘well done’) (S) when s/he makes her/his bed (R)
2. Negative reinforcement: Taking a pain killer (S) for a headache (R)

The desired behavior is exhibited more often through both positive and negative reinforcements.

Punishment is anything that immediately follows an undesired behavior and decreases the possibility for that specific behavior to occur again in the future. In positive punishment , an organism is exposed to an aversive stimulus as a consequence of its behavior. On the contrary, in negative punishment, an organism is deprived of a desired stimulus as a consequence of its behavior. Both punishment types aim to lessen the undesired behavior.

Examples for two different punishment types:

1. Positive punishment: Using rolled paper to hit the cat (S) when it wets the carpet (R).
2. Negative punishment: Losing your allowance (S) as a result of arguing with your father (R)

Things to consider about reinforcement and punishment in operant conditioning:

1. Reinforcement, either positive or negative, increases the possibility of recurrence for a desired behavior.
2. Punishment, either positive or negative, decreases the possibility of recurrence for an undesired behavior.
3. Negative reinforcement should not be confused with punishment due to the word “negative” in its name.
4. There is an exposure to an aversive stimulus in positive reinforcement and deprivation of a pleasant stimulus in negative punishment.

Cognitive Theories of Learning

The most important factors in learning are the cognitive processes behind an observable behavior such as attention, memory, comprehension, grasping, reasoning, and abstraction. Cognitive theorists regard learning as a consequence of effort people exert to make sense of the world. Learning approaches based on cognitive theories of learning are as follows: purposive behaviorism, insight learning, and information processing.

Purposive Behaviorism

Developed by Tolman (1886-1959), who disagreed with Thorndike’s ideas, purposive behaviorism is mainly a cognitive learning theory. Tolman suggested that an organism can learn without any reinforcement process. According to him, if a behavior serves a goal, it can be learned; if not, it cannot. Tolman supported this view of his via labyrinth experiments he conducted with rats.

This experiment (Graph 5.2) is of significant value in terms of three major points. First of all, learning can be achieved without reinforcement. A behavior is learned as long as it serves a purpose. Secondly, internal representation is true for even rats, and they are able to solve problems via cognitive maps . Thirdly, Tolman – unlike those who primarily focused on the observable behaviors – was more interested in hidden mental processes. This experiment, in the meantime, was noted as evidence for the existence of latent learning , which means that potential learning has occurred, but it is not still observable through behaviors. The fact that rats were easily able to find the shortcut to the exit during the second stage of the experiment is the result of cognitive maps formed through hidden learning during the first stage.

Latent learning is a type of learning which is not apparent in the learner’s behavior at the time of learning, but which manifests later when suitable motivation and circumstances appear.

Insight Learning

Discovered by Köhler (1887-1967) based on Gestalt psychology, insight learning is an approach for learning or problem solving. In Gestalt psychology, the critical component of perception is the relation between the whole and its parts. Experiments that Köhler conducted on chimpanzees during the First World War outlined the characteristics of this learning type.

In the experiment that Köhler designed with the famous chimp Sultan, the researcher put the chimp in a room with a high ceiling. A bunch of bananas was hung from the ceiling which the hungry Sultan was not able to reach. In the first scenario, Köhler placed two billiard cues that were attachable to each other into the room. Sultan first tried to reach bananas by climbing or jumping but was not successful. After sitting in one of the corners of the room for five minutes, Sultan suddenly got up, attached the cues to each other and reached the bunch of bananas. In the second scenario, all conditions were the same, except for the fact that there were empty orange boxes this time, not the cues. Hungry Sultan, this time, got to the bananas by placing the boxes on top of each other. In insight learning, problems are solved via four stages:

1. Preparation to solve the problem (Sultan’s thinking to reach the bananas)
2. Conducting mental and kinetic trials to solve the problem (Sultan’s trial jumps to get the bananas)
3. Incubation (Sultan’s sitting and thinking in one of the corners of the room)
4. Sudden illumination of the solution (Sultan’s sudden movement to attach the cues and reach the bananas)

Information Processing

Information processing is not a learning theory per se. Yet, it is one of the most widespread cognitive models developed recently to understand the cognitive dynamics of human learning. One of the features underlined in the definition of learning that we mentioned in the introduction was “relatively permanent change in behavior.” According to the information processing model that focuses more on human learning, an individual is capable of transferring a piece of information that s/he learns at some point to different contexts. This proves that an individual is able to store what s/he learns in her/his mind. Right at this point, the information processing model aims to explain how information is acquired, stored, and retrieved.

For permanent learning to take place, transitions across the components of the information processing model has to be smooth. What matters the most for learning here is to transfer information from WM to LTM, and to make it permanent. Factors influential over the transition of information from WM to LTM are as follows:

1. Association
2. Awarenes
3. Necessity
4. Significance
5. Originality
6. Organization
7. Rehearsal

Social Learning Theory

Bandura’s social learning theory is based on the Bobo Doll experiment he conducted in 1961. A very brief summary of this highly complicated experiment is as follows. At a kindergarten, 72 children of 3-to-6 years of age were placed in three different groups with equal number of boys and girls in each group. (24-24- 24). The first group of children were shown a video where an adult aggressively attacked a Bobo Doll while the second group watched another video where an adult treated a Bobo Doll with affection. No videos of any sort were assigned to those in the third group. The children in the second group were placed in a room full of toys one by one, and there stood a Bobo Doll among the toys. The children were not allowed to play with any toys but the Bobo Doll. At the end of the experiments, those in the first, second, and third groups were determined to treat the Bobo Doll aggressively, with affection, and with no major difference, respectively. This model clearly depicted that children do not learn in line with reward-punishment systems but through observing a role model.

1. Attention: Attention should be directed towards the model’s behavior. Interests, needs, goals, and expectations of the role model are effective in attracting an individual’s attention. The student watches the teacher’s clinical practice carefully.
2. Retention: This refers to remembering a behavior that the individual stored in her/his memory after attending to it. The student mentally visualizes her/his teacher’s behaviors when s/he has to examine a patient.
3. Production: In this stage, what is learned is transferred into performance. The individual who attended the role model and retained her/his behaviors mentally can now exhibit the behavior. The student applies how her/ his teacher behaved after customizing it with her/his own characteristics. 4. Motivation: In this final stage of the theory, the individual’s behavior is reinforced, and s/he gets satisfied. When the individual feels satisfied after displaying a certain behavior, the observed behavior is reinforced and becomes highly probable to recur.