LEARNING

& MEMORY
LEARNING
What is learning?
• Defined as relatively permanent changes in
behavior that result from exposure or practice,
provided that the behavioral change is not caused
by native-response tendencies, maturation or
temporary states. (Mc Connell, 1983)
• A permanent change in behavior as a result of
experience or practice.
• A process by which behavior is
changed, shaped or controlled.
• To gain knowledge of, or skill in,
something through study, teaching,
instruction or experience.
•Learning is a process
•Learning is a product
 THEORIES OF LEARNING
• Classical Conditioning (The Conditioned
Reflex)
• Trial and Error Learning (Connectionism) –
Operant Conditioning
• Learning by Observation (Social Learning)
Classical Conditioning: History – E.B. Twitmyer

E.B. Twitmyer, a doctoral student who was doing dissertation on knee-

jerk reflex. And later decided on giving them a signal (ringing of a bell)
before striking the knee of his subjects. He later gave up his discovery
due to people he talked to did not pay much attention to his findings.
Classical Conditioning: History – Ivan
Pavlov
• The honor of discovering the conditioned reflex
went to a Russian psychologist named Ivan
Pavlov.
• While studying the physiological process of
digestion and his subject was a dog to
measure the flow of saliva as the start of the
digestive process by placing the dog in
harness and giving meat powder.
The dog was placed in a harness and gave meat powder.
• But encountered some problems like the dog started to
salivate at the sight of its food dish or the person carrying it
without the food in his mouth. The result of his discovery by
accident is what is now known as Classical Conditioning.

• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING – a form of associative

learning; a learned reflex/response that you do when
evoked by stimulus.
3 STAGES OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

• STAGE 1 – before conditioning

• STAGE 2 – during conditioning (the number of
trials in this stage will be influenced by the
physiological state of the subject (in this case
state of hunger).
• STAGE 3 – after conditioning
 Pavlov’s terms to simplify his theory of Classical
Conditioning:
• Neutral stimulus –THE BELL at the start of conditioning; NO
RESPONSE from the subject.
• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) –THE FOOD which automatically
causes the salivation response.
• Unconditioned response (UCR) –THE SALIVATION REFERED TO
THE RESPONSE OF REPRESENTATION OF FOOD or the
unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned stimulus (CS) –THE BELL at the initial phase of
conditioning which is being paired with the food.
• Conditioned response (CR) – THE SALIVATION REFERED TO
LEARNED RESPONSE TO THE BELL or the conditioned stimulus.
 After learning had taken place,
• Stimulus Generalization - the dogs would also salivate to the
sound of a similar bell (playing a slightly different tone).
• Stimulus Discrimination - presenting food in the presence of a
particular tone of a bell but never in the presence of a second
(different) tone, the dogs to only salivate to the first tone.
• Extinction - ringing a bell without ever presenting food, the
dogs will stop salivating to the sound of the bell.
• Spontaneous recovery – after extinction occurred, the dogs
would display salivation or CR again after a day or two. This
indicated that the conditioning had not completely disappeared.
SIMPLE EXAMPLE OF CLASSICAL CONDITIONING

In the classroom,
WATSON AND “LITTLE ALBERT”
• Pavlov was being able to conditioned a dog and later,
Watson conducted an experiment using humans.
• This experiment proves that phobia can be learned.
• Watson did to Little Albert was unethical based on the
Code of Ethics Psychologists and should never be
done again to another human being
TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING
(connectionism)
TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING
(connectionism)

• Thorndike’s Law of effect

- states that if a response to a stimulus is followed by
a satisfier (reinforcement) , the response will most likely
be repeated when presented with the same stimulus.
- is the theoretical basis of rewards and
reinforcement
- particularly used in the field of education
• Operant Conditioning (instrumental conditioning)
- type of learning in which behaviour is strengthened if
followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by
punishment
- is largely based on Thorndike’s Law of effect
- discriminative stimulus ( gives the organism the
option of whether to respond to it or not)
- Reinforcement ( which increases the probability of
response to the same stimulus)
TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING
(connectionism)
Two kinds of reinforcement
• Positive reinforcement
- which when given increases the probability of a
response
• Negative reinforcement
- which when removed increases response probability
 Example:
• Blasting the Car Horn
When the light goes green at a traffic light, the car in front
of Sarah doesn’t move. She hates when this happens and
from experience knows that blasting her car horn gets
cars that are in front of her out of her way. She dutifully
blasts the horn and the car moves out of her way.
(Negative reinforcement)
Example

• A mother gives her son praise (positive

stimulus) for doing homework (behavior).
• The little boy receives $5.00 (positive
stimulus) for every A he earns on his report
card (behavior).
(Positive reinforcement)
 Skinner box
-Chamber with a bar or
key that an animal
manipulates to obtain a
food or water reinforcer
-contains devices to
record responses

Operant Chamber
TRIAL AND ERROR LEARNING
(connectionism)
Shaping behaviour is the operant conditioning procedure
in which reinforcers guide behaviour towards the desired
target behaviour through successive approximations. For
the trainee to be able to perform the behaviour, the
following procedures need to be undertaken:
• Determine the terminal response or goal of the training
• Take note of the natural behaviour of the subject
• Schedule of reinforcement
LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
(SOCIAL LEARNING)

• Higher animals especially

humans, learning through
observing and imitating
others.
• Learning by observation
begins early in life.
LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
(SOCIAL LEARNING)

• Observational learning
- learning by observing others
• Modelling
- process of observing and imitating a specific
behaviour
 LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
(SOCIAL LEARNING)

Factors in Observational Learning

• Observational learning depends on these:
1. Attention – the extent to which we focus on others’ behaviour
2. Retention – our ability to retain a representation of others’
behaviour in memory
3. Production Process – our ability to act on these memory
representations
4. Motivation – the usefulness to us of the information acquired
Observational
Learning
• Bobo doll
•We look and we learn
 LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
(SOCIAL LEARNING)

The Bobo beatdown

•Learning aggression
through observation
LEARNING BY OBSERVATION
(SOCIAL LEARNING)

Aside from the factors given, three important

variables should be kept in mind for
observational learning to occur:
1. The characteristic of the model
2. The characteristic of the learner
3. The situation the person is in
Modelling
Violence
MEMORY
 Memory
• An active system that receives, stores, organizes,
alters and recovers information.
 Incoming Selective
Senses STM Rehearsal
Information Process

Forgotten Forgotten LTM

Short Term memory
• How many bits of information can reach the short term memory
before they’re forgotten?

4 6 8 2 5 9 7
Digit – span test
• is used by psychologist to measure short – term memory.
George Miller
• Psychologist
• Found that short – term memory is limited to only 7 bits of information.
• Has seven “slots” or “bins”.

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• The number series is beyond STM’s capacity.
• When all the slots are filled there is no room for new data.
• Ex. Mom ask you to buy items from grocery.
 RSE FNIS PC OTK
Recoding
information is recognized into groups.

Encoding
Converting sensory input into a form able to be processed
and deposited in the memory.
RECODING
• The process that lets you overcome the limited capacity of
working (short-term) memory
Example:
You read can read "ice hockey," even though working memory
can hold only seven items at a time. You can do so because
you don't treat "ice hockey" as nine letters and a space; you
treat it as two words, or, more likely, a single idea.
2 types:

•Automatic Processing
•An enormous amount of information processed effortlessly by us.
•Effortful Processing
•Novel information committed to the memory requires effort.
Maintenance Rehearsal
•Silently repeating the information until it is needed.
Elaborative Rehearsal
• An encoding strategy to facilitate information of memory linking new
information to that already known.
LONG TERM MEMORY

• As new long term memories are formed,

older memories are often updated,
changed, lost or revised.
• Constructive Processing
• Is how we update memories.
• Referring to retrieval of memories in which those
memories are altered, revised, or influenced by
newer information.

• 2 types of LTM
-Skill Memory
- Doing learned task like driving, riding a bike,
using the computer.
-Declarative Memory
- Facts like names, data, addresses, places, dates
2 TYPES

• Semantic Memory
- Is our mental dictionary of basic knowledge.
- like days of the week or months of the year or the
basic math operations.

• Episodic Memory
- Is a record of personal experiences and life events.
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
FORGETTING
 Forgetting

- refers to apparent loss or modification of

information already encoded and stored in an
individual's long term memory. It is a spontaneous or
gradual process in which old memories are unable to
be recalled from memory storage.
Why Do we Forget?
From forgetting where you left your keys to forgetting to return a
phone call, memory failures are an almost daily occurrence.
Forgetting is so common that you probably rely on numerous
methods to help you remember important information such as jotting
down notes in a daily planner or scheduling important events on
your phone's calendar.
However, forgetting is generally not about actually losing or erasing
this information from your long-term memory. Forgetting typically
involves a failure in memory retrieval. While the information is
somewhere in your long-term memory, you are not able to actually
retrieve and remember it.
Here are some causes of Forgetting:
•Neural Decay- proposes that memory fades due to the mere
passage of time.
•Interference- It was assumed that memory can be disrupted
or interfered with by what we have previously learned or by
what we will learn in the future.
•Forgetting is cue dependent- Cues has the power to trigger
memories. Once positive cues are present, recall happens
smoothly. In the absence of cues, forgetting just cannot be
avoided.
Mnemonics
• are memory aids that can help you
remember data accurately. Mnemonic
techniques are ways to avoid rote
learning or learning by repetition.
 Here are examples of Mnemonic Techniques:

• Use Mental Pictures- visual pictures or images are easier

to remember than words, converting data into mental
pictures will help a lot. Also, make the picture as clear as
possible.
• Make things meaningful- data can easily be
remembered if you make it significant for you. Give
information some meaning and you will remember it
better.
 Here are examples of Mnemonic Techniques:

• Make information familiar- Find a connection between new

information and what you already know (old information),
This is a good way of getting information into long term
memory.
• Form bizarre, unusual, or exaggerated mental
associations- when associating ideas, form mental images
and make them outrageous, exaggerated or particularly
funny, and you will easily remember them.