The Process of Learning

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Learning

Learning is more than a person sitting at a desk and studying off a book. Everything that we do is a result of what we have learned. We respond to things that happen to us, we act and experience consequences from our behavior, and we observe what others say and do. Psychologists explain our many experiences with basic learning processes.

“Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior that occurs through experience (Santrock, p.146).” By learning how to use a computer you will change from being someone who could not operate a computer to being one who can. Learning anything new involves change. You learned how to use a computer through experience with the machine. Once you have learned to use a computer, the skill usually does not leave you. Similar to learning how to drive a car, you do not have to go through the process again at a later time. There are three main types of learning are classical conditioning (responding), operant conditioning (acting), and observational learning (observing).

It is a nice spring day. A father takes his baby out for a walk. The baby reaches over to touch a pink flower and is badly stung by the bumblebee sitting on the petals. The next day, the baby’s mother brings home some pink flowers. She removes a flower from the arrangement and takes it over for her baby to smell. The baby cries loudly as soon as she sees the pink flower. The baby’s panic at the sight of the pink flower illustrates the learning process of classical conditioning. “Classical conditioning is when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with a meaningful stimulus and acquires the capacity to elicit a similar response (Santrock, p.147).”

Pavlov’s dog salivates in response to a number of stimuli related with food, such as the sight of the food dish, the sight of the individual who brought the food into the room, and the sound of the door closing when the food arrives. Pavlov recognized that the dog’s association of these sights and sounds with the food was an important type of learning, which came to be called classical conditioning. Pavlov wanted to know why the dog salivated to different sights and sounds before eating their food. He observed that the dog’s behavior included both learned and unlearned components. “The “unlearned” part of classical conditioning is based on the fact that some stimuli automatically produce certa...

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...or does, retain the information in memory, and possess the motor capabilities to perform the action, but we might fail to repeat the behavior because of inadequate reinforcement (Santrock, p.167). For example, you take an art class; the instructor chooses one of your art pieces that you made during the class for display. This reinforcement encourages you to keep drawing. Bandura’s view about observational learning is an “information-processing activity.”

We focused on three main forms of learning; classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. In classical conditioning, we focused on Pavlovian conditioning. Operant conditioning described the aspects of B.F. Skinner. In observation learning, we centered on Bandura’s four main ideas. Leaning is how we respond, act, and observe what is going on around us.

Work Cited:

Blake, Toni. Enduring Issues in Psychology. San Diego: Greenhaven Press Inc, 1995.

Calvin, William H. How Brains Think?. New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 1996.

James, William. The Principles of Psychology. New York: Dove Publication Inc, 1918.

Santrock, John W. Psychology. San Francisco: The McGraw-Hill Inc, 2000.

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