Sunday, March 4, 2018

Learning


The definition for learning in the world of psychology is the modification of behavior through practice, training, or experience. There are 3 types of learning in the field of behavioral psychology: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning.

Classical Conditioning

This type of learning is in which an association is made between a neutral stimulus and a stimulus that evokes a response. Ivan Pavlov conducted an experiment to see how much the dog would salivate when it came to food. The smell of food would make the dog salivate so this was the neutral stimulus. Then later he paired the sound of the bell with the food. At first the bell had no effect, but the dog began to learn that the sound of the bell signaled food. So then the bell produced a response, which was salivation. 

Operant Conditioning

This is the process in which the probability of the response occurring is either decreased or increased due to punishment, or reinforcement. Edward Thorndike was the first to study this and later B.F. Skinner. They discussed that reinforcement led to increases of behaviors and punishment led to decreases in behaviors.

Observational Learning

The process in which learning occurs from observing or the imitation of others. There are four important things that are vital to effective observational learning: attention, motor skills, motivation, and memory. Albert Bandura was the first to suggest this process. Bandura conducted the "Bobo Doll" experiment. First he showed an adult using violence on the doll. Later he showed the children and based on what they saw from the adults they began to express violence towards the doll. 

Personal Learning

I think the type of learning that stood out to me the most was observational learning. I think this is one of the most understood ways to learn. I believe this is very important when it comes to raising a child. Children are constantly observing the world around them whether they know it or not, so it is natural for them to imitate certain actions, whether they are good or bad. 

Sources


1 comment:

  1. This blog provided a lot of insight into the factors of learning. It was such an awesome thing to read and just have a lot of good information. Thank you so much and i can’t wait to read next weeks blog.

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