INTRODUCTION OF LEARNING IN EXPERIMENTAL

PSYCHOLOGY
Definition of Learning:
Learning may be defined as any relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral
potential produced by experience. All changes caused through practice or experience and that
are relatively permanent fall under learning.
Its characteristics are:
(i) Learning always involves some form of experience. For example, a child loses his way
somewhere while leaving the hands of parents, would learn not to leave the hand of elders the
next time.
(ii) These changes in behaviour due to learning are relatively long-lasting and differentiation
of short-term change induced due to habituation, drugs, or fatigue. Feeling exhausted after
studying is short-term and does not involve learning.
(iii) The process of learning can only be inferred as it is a set of psychological events. It is
also not a performance.

Theories of learning:
1. Behaviourism (Classical and Operant Conditioning):
Some Important People: B.F. Skinner, John Watson, and Ivan Pavlov
Idea: Behaviourism rejects any mental activity and emphasizes observable behaviour. This
theory actually claims that learning is basically a conditioning process, or the relationship
between inputs and reactions. Pavlov's theory for classical conditioning was through learning
by association: a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus are associated to produce a
conditioned response (picture some of Pavlov's dogs as examples).
Operant Conditioning (Skinner): Reinforcement, or rewards, and punishment have an effect
on learning. Positive outcomes from a behaviour are rewarded, whereas negative outcomes
from the same behaviour are discouraged.

2. Cognitive Learning Theory:

Some Important People: Edward Tolman and Jean Piaget
Idea: This theory focuses on the role mental processes take in explaining the fact that people
learn. Cognitive theory, unlike behaviourism, is about inside functioning such as thinking,
remembering, problem-solving, and the feeling of learning.
According to Piaget's theory of cognitive development, the child passes through four phases
of cognitive development, during which he or she actively constructs an understanding of the
world: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational.
Tolman Cognitive Maps Tolman, through the maze experiments where rats were involved,
proved that learning is neither simply a stimulus-response association nor without cognitive
mappings.

3. Social Learning Theory (Observational Learning):

Important Figure: Albert Bandura
Thus, social learning theory has to observe and imitate and even mimic what others feel, do,
and behave. Learning can be achieved through imitation and observation- this process can
even occur without specific reinforcements.
Motivation, retention, attention, and reproduction are important components.
Well-known Experiment: Bandura's Bobo doll experiment showed how young persons can
learn to act violently by watching how other people act.

4. Constructivism:
Major Figures: Lev Vygotsky and Jean Piaget
Concept Idea: Constructionism depends on the assumption that learning by experience and
reflection over experience depend on the students' own constructions of knowledge and
understanding of reality.
According to the theory of Individual Constructivism propounded by Piaget, children "learn
through an active process of interacting with their environment in order to build up their
cognitive frameworks". Vygotsky's Social Constructivism: draws attention to the role of
culture and social interaction for learning. Of course, one should not forget the notion of the
"zone of proximal development" (ZPD)-the suggestion that it is the process guided by others
that allows more optimal mastering of the cognitive activity.

5. Humanistic Learning Theory:

Important Figures: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow's Concept: Actualization of one's
potential besides human development and self-actualization forms the heart of humanistic
conceptions. Learning is seen as a means for self-development and self-discovery.
Maslow's Hierarchy of needs: Assumes that there is a hierarchy of human needs governing
behaviour, from the very high of self-actualization to the lowest order of basic existence-
safety needs-food and safety.
This is according to experiential learning theory by Rogers that people learn when they are
experiencing and experimenting and learning through information matched to their interest
and experience.

Uses of Theories of Learning in Psychology:

1.Behaviourism (Classical and Operant Conditioning)

Therapy and Behaviour Modification:
Techniques of Classical Conditioning and Exposure Therapy: systematic desensitization,
can assume the form of a therapeutic process for anxiety, phobias, and PTSD by generating
new associations of stimuli and responses of relaxation.
Operant Conditioning is a popular behaviour modification program within schools,
hospitals, and prisons. Specifically, encouragement of certain behaviour is through positive
reinforcement in the form of rewards whereby punishment or negative reinforcement is used
to discourage unwanted behaviour.
Education: Teachers apply reinforcement to modify the behaviour of students (e.g., praise
for good work, consequences for disruptive behaviour).
Parenting and Training: Children's behaviours are controlled by the operant principle-based
methods: either use token economies or time-out strategy.

2.Cognitive Theory of Learning

Education: It is realized that the cognitive theories influence the modern education approach,
showing how a student learns. Techniques such as scaffolding allow complex tasks to be
broken up into definable steps, which eventually allows students to build their skills.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT): Cognitive theoretical frames that are applied and
attuned to the behavioural approach are used in the cure of mental illness, specifically
adaptive thinking in the treatment process related to depression and anxiety.
Memory and Learning: Cognitive learning informs strategies to improve retention of
memory and solving problems by using mnemonics or mind mapping.
Problem-Solving Training: Cognitive learning theory could be applied to train employees in
critical thinking and problem-solving strategies in and out of the classroom.

3.Social Learning Theory (Observational Learning)

Therapy: Modelling Techniques can be applied in therapy, especially the cognitive-
behavioural approach, in which the patient learns to exhibit healthier behaviours by observing
others. It can actively or passively include strategies for coping with anxiety, anger, or social
interaction skills; the therapists model them so that their patients learn to exhibit healthy
behaviours by observing others.
Media and Aggression: Much of the work considering the impact of the media on behaviour,
such as video game violence, stems from social learning theory. How people imitate
behaviours they see in the media informs what will be created into media guidelines and
policies.
Parenting and Education: A parent and a teacher take the principles of social learning to
guide learning by good examples. The role models play a very important role in leading the
children to right behaviour and moral development.
Workplace Training: This is how employees learn new skills in organizational psychology
through vicarious observation as proposed by social learning theory

4. Constructivism
Education: Modern education has been student-centred learning, where a learner actively
constructs his understanding rather than receiving information passively. Techniques such as
project-based learning, inquiry-based learning, and collaborative learning are all based on
constructivism.
Piaget's Influence: Piaget's stages of cognitive development teach curriculum development
so that whatever is taught should correspond to the appropriate cognitive stage that a learner
is at.
Vygotsky's ZPD and Scaffolding: Teachers support students on tasks they could not solve
independently for some time, known as scaffolding, which enables them to finally be able to
accomplish the task by themselves. Peer learning and mentoring use Vygotsky's concepts as
well.
Therapy: Constructivist approaches have been used in the context of counselling and therapy
while interpreting helping rebuild a worldview and experiences for the clients particularly in
regard to narrative therapy and constructivist cognitive therapy.

5. Humanistic Learning Theory

Therapy: The work of Carl Rogers introduced person-centred therapy. This is based on the
theory of humanistic principles and the individual's ability to heal and grow on their own. A
therapeutic environment is created with a therapist where a client can explore and understand
themselves.
Education: Humanistic approaches embrace students' autonomies and self-directed learning
leading to meaningful and involved learning since they are facilitated to follow their interests.
Teachers emphasize a caring and non-threatening environment.
Workplace and Leadership: Humanistic imperatives guide the leadership and employee
development practices in organizational psychology that foster employees' needs, from
meaningful work to motivation and actualization (Maslow's hierarchy of needs).

Brief History of Learning

1. Philosophical Roots (17th-19th Century)

Learning theories in psychology are grounded in philosophical debates about knowledge
and behaviour. Two key philosophical movements influenced early ideas:
 Empiricism (e.g., John Locke): Emphasized the idea that knowledge comes from
experience. Locke famously described the mind as a "tabula rasa" (blank slate),
suggesting that humans are born without innate ideas, and learning occurs through
sensory experience.
 Rationalism (e.g., René Descartes): Stressed the role of reason and innate structures
in shaping human knowledge. Descartes posited that certain aspects of learning are
inherent and shaped by internal mental processes.

2. Behaviourism (Late 19th-20th Century)

Behaviourism became the dominant paradigm for understanding learning in psychology
during the early and mid-20th century. It emphasized observable behaviours and discounted
mental processes.
 Ivan Pavlov (Classical Conditioning): Pavlov's experiments with dogs in the early
1900s demonstrated that behaviours could be learned through association. This form
of learning, known as classical conditioning, involves learning through the
association of stimuli.
 John B. Watson: Often considered the father of behaviourism, Watson promoted the
idea that psychology should focus on observable behaviour. His famous "Little
Albert" experiment demonstrated how emotional responses (such as fear) could be
conditioned.
 B.F. Skinner (Operant Conditioning): Skinner expanded on Thorndike’s work with
his theory of operant conditioning. Skinner proposed that learning is a function of
change in overt behaviour, driven by rewards (reinforcements) and punishments.
Behaviourists rejected introspection and focused on how behaviour could be shaped by
external stimuli.
3. Cognitive Revolution (1950s-1970s)
In the mid-20th century, psychology experienced a cognitive revolution, shifting the focus
from behaviour alone to include mental processes like memory, perception, and problem-
solving in the study of learning.
 Edward Tolman (Cognitive Maps): Tolman’s experiments with rats in mazes led to
the discovery of cognitive maps—mental representations of physical spaces. This
indicated that learning was not just a result of stimulus-response associations but also
involved internal processes.
 Jean Piaget: Piaget’s theory of cognitive development proposed that children go
through a series of stages as they develop cognitive abilities. His work showed how
learning is tied to cognitive growth and mental representation of the world.
 Albert Bandura (Social Learning Theory): Bandura introduced the idea that people
can learn through observation, imitation, and modelling, in contrast to the
behaviourist focus on direct reinforcement. His Bobo doll experiment demonstrated
how children could learn aggressive behaviours simply by observing others.

4. Information Processing and Constructivism (Late 20th Century)

With the rise of the information age and developments in computer science, learning theories
began to conceptualise the human mind as a processor of information.
 Information Processing Models: These models liken the brain to a computer,
focusing on how information is encoded, stored, and retrieved. Key concepts include
working memory, long-term memory, and the processes involved in attention and
perception.
 Constructivist Theories (e.g., Lev Vygotsky): Vygotsky introduced the idea that
learning is a social and collaborative process. His concept of the zone of proximal
development emphasized that children learn best when guided by more
knowledgeable others (teachers or peers).

5. Modern Approaches (21st Century)

Modern theories of learning in psychology integrate cognitive, behavioral, and social
perspectives, and incorporate insights from neuroscience.
 Cognitive Neuroscience: Advances in brain imaging and neuroscience have deepened
our understanding of how learning is represented in the brain. For instance, studies on
neuroplasticity have shown that the brain's structure can change in response to
learning experiences.
 Embodied Cognition: This theory posits that learning and cognition are deeply tied
to physical actions and the environment. Learning is not confined to mental processes
alone but also involves the body’s interaction with the world.
  Motivational and Emotional Factors: Contemporary research emphasizes the role
of motivation, emotions, and attitudes in learning, suggesting that cognitive processes
alone are insufficient for explaining learning outcomes.

Conclusion
The history of learning in psychology reflects the broader evolution of the field itself—from
the early philosophical debates, through the behaviorist focus on observable behavior, to the
cognitive revolution and modern neuroscientific approaches. Today, learning is understood as
a complex interaction of cognitive, emotional, social, and biological processes.

Limitations
Limitations of learning in the perspective of experimental psychology include the following:
Controlled Settings:
Psychological experiments are usually conducted in the most controlled settings, such as
laboratories, to isolate specific variables and perhaps to control most effects in order to ensure
more reliable results. However, this type of control may not really depict how learning occurs
in real-life settings.
For example, lab experiments on learning memory or the way people solve problems in a
quiet laboratory do not include the disturbances and emotional involvement that characterize
learning in actual classrooms or workplaces. This is what makes it extremely difficult to
apply direct lab results to learning in the real world.

Simplified Tasks:
Experimental psychology research tends to concentrate these tasks of learning to a minimum
and very basic activities so that the experiments are easier to measure and analyze. Examples
include experiments where one learns through pressing certain buttons in response to stimuli
or simply memorizes word lists. Such tasks might explain small specific learning aspects-
such as reaction time or recall-but not real-world learning complexity, such as mastering a
language or possibly playing an instrument, or problem-solving in a group.
This simplification may then limit our understanding of how learning really works in more
dynamic or multifaceted contexts.

Generalization:
Most of the learning research, especially earlier on, have used animals (like rats, pigeons or
monkeys) or special human groups (such as college students). Though these experiments give
a very interesting look at basic learning mechanisms such as classical conditioning or operant
conditioning, the results may not necessarily hold in broader, more representative
populations.
For example, however much we may learn about behavior from animal studies, human
learning embraces more complex factors than those examined in studies on animals, such as
culture, language, and the reasoning power that animal studies cannot grasp at a higher level.

Ethical Constraints:
Ethical guidelines in psychology protect participants from harm, but they limit the scope of
learning research. For example, the way fear or trauma is learned will never be able to be
studied experimentally in humans due to ethical considerations. By ethical standards,
researchers could not create conditions to intentionally place people into danger to study how
they learn to avoid it or how they cope with stress.
This limits the scope of experimentation that can be made, and so some aspects of learning-
especially involving negative or harmful experiences-can only be indirectly addressed or
through less refined methodology, such as self-reports or case studies.

Focus on Behaviour:
Traditional views of learning, such as behaviorism, primarily focus on observable behaviors
and actions or responses. They tend to neglect interior processes like emotions, thoughts, or
motivations. Behaviorism provides clear insight into just how outer stimuli shape behaviors,
but it doesn't explain why different people might learn differently in the same situation.
For example, two students may have received different exposures to the material yet perform
differently on a test due to things such as anxiety, interest in the material or motivation. In
general, the internal processes are harder to measure and are often the most neglected in
studies purely focused on behavior.

These limitations suggest that although the learning perspective in experimental psychology
has significantly contributed to revealing how people and animals learn, it does not capture
how people and animals really learn in real situations with all their complexity or differences.

About The Test

There are various tests and techniques that are used to study learning in experimental
psychology. They are:
Classical Conditioning Tests
1. Ivan Pavlov's Salivary Conditioning Experiment
 2. Fear Conditioning
Operant Conditioning Tests
1. Skinner Box Experiment
2. Variable Interval Schedule (VI)
Social Learning Tests
1. Bandura's Bobo Doll Experiment
2. Observational Learning Task
3. Modelling Task
Memory and Forgetting Tests
1. Paired-Associate Learning Task
2. Memory Span Task
And so on…
These tests and techniques help researchers and psychologists understand various aspects of
learning. The main test that will be discussed here is the BILATERAL TRANSFER OF
LEARNING.

BILATERAL TRANSFER OF LEARNING

Introduction:
Bilateral transfer, also known as cross-education or intermanual transfer, is the phenomenon
where enhancing a skill with one limb leads to improvements in the opposite, untrained limb.
This concept has been explored for over a century, with one of the earliest studies conducted
by Volkmann in 1858. It refers to the process where skills or knowledge gained on one side of
the body or in one area are applied or transferred to the other side of the body or to a different
but related area. This concept is essential for understanding how learning and training in one
context can affect performance in another, especially in tasks that involve motor skills or
cognitive functions.

History:
The study of bilateral transfer of learning has been ongoing for over a century. Research into
motor learning and skill transfer began in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Pioneering
psychologists such as Edward Thorndike and Robert Woodworth explored how learning in
one situation could impact performance in another, laying the foundation for the concept of
bilateral transfer.
Thorndike’s “identical elements theory” (1901) suggested that the transfer of learning is
influenced by the similarity between the original and new learning environments. Although
Thorndike's focus was more on cognitive and intellectual transfer, his work contributed to the
broader understanding of skill transfer, including bilateral transfer.
In the mid-20th century, researchers like Richard Schmidt furthered our understanding of
motor learning and transfer, investigating how skills learned with one hand or side of the
body could be applied to the other side. Empirical studies involving tasks such as typing,
playing musical instruments, and sports activities provided evidence supporting bilateral
transfer.
Various theories have been proposed to explain the neural mechanisms behind bilateral
transfer:
1. Callosal Access Model: This theory suggests that motor skills developed in the
dominant hemisphere are transferred to the opposite hemisphere through the corpus
callosum, aiding performance with the untrained limb.
2. Proficiency Model: According to this theory, motor programs are developed and
stored in the hemisphere opposite the trained limb.
3. Cross-Activation Hypothesis: This hypothesis posits that performing a task with one
limb activates cortical areas in both the contralateral and ipsilateral hemispheres.

Uses and Applications of Bilateral Transfer of Learning:

Bilateral transfer of learning has several important applications:
1. Motor Rehabilitation
Patients recovering from strokes or spinal cord injuries can use bilateral training to regain
motor function.
Physical therapy may involve exercises for the unaffected limb to aid recovery in the injured
limb.
2. Sports and Motor Skills
Athletes can enhance their performance by training their non-dominant limb, benefiting
sports such as baseball, golf, and tennis.

3. Neuroplasticity and Brain Development

Research into bilateral transfer enhances our understanding of how the brain adapts and
reorganizes itself.
Insights from this research can lead to improved rehabilitation techniques.
4. Education and Skill Acquisition
Training both hands can boost skills in activities like playing musical instruments or typing,
improving overall dexterity and coordination.
5. Neuroscience Research
Studying bilateral transfer helps uncover the neural mechanisms behind motor control and
learning, potentially leading to new treatments for motor disorders.
6. Prosthetics and Orthotics
Principles of bilateral transfer can aid in the control and adaptation of prosthetic limbs,
making training more effective.
7. Cognitive Training
Bilateral transfer has implications for cognitive training programs that aim to improve
cognitive flexibility and executive functions.

Limitations:
 The effectiveness of transfer depends on the specific performance parameter and
whether the transfer is from the dominant to the non-dominant limb or vice versa.
 Factors such as the nature of the initial learning, the similarity of tasks, and the
associations formed during learning can influence the transfer process.
 Personal factors like self-efficacy, motivation, and individual circumstances, along
with external factors like the training environment and available resources, can impact
the success of transfer.

Conclusion:
In summary, bilateral transfer is a well-researched phenomenon with important applications
in rehabilitation, motor learning, sports training, and therapy. Understanding its underlying
mechanisms and the factors affecting it can help optimize skill acquisition and performance.