Key Points

Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior or behavioral potential that is produced by experience. It is an inferred process, distinct from performance, which is the observable action.

First investigated by Ivan Pavlov, classical conditioning is a type of learning where an organism learns to associate a neutral stimulus with a stimulus that naturally produces a response. It is a form of stimulus-stimulus (S-S) learning.

The Unconditioned Stimulus (US) elicits a natural Unconditioned Response (UR). A neutral stimulus, when paired with the US, becomes a Conditioned Stimulus (CS) that elicits a learned Conditioned Response (CR).

First investigated by B.F. Skinner, operant conditioning is a type of learning where behavior is strengthened if followed by a reinforcer or diminished if followed by a punisher. The organism operates on the environment to produce a consequence.

Reinforcement is any event that increases the probability of a response occurring again. Punishment is any event that decreases the probability of a response occurring again.

Positive reinforcement involves adding a pleasant stimulus to increase a behavior. Negative reinforcement involves removing an unpleasant stimulus to increase a behavior; it is not punishment.

Continuous reinforcement rewards every desired response, leading to rapid learning but also rapid extinction. Partial reinforcement rewards responses only sometimes, which produces greater resistance to extinction.

Studied by Albert Bandura, this form of learning occurs by observing and imitating the behavior of others, known as models. It is also called social learning.

Common processes in learning include extinction (disappearance of a learned response), generalization (responding similarly to similar stimuli), and discrimination (responding differently to different stimuli).

This is the reappearance of a learned response after it has been extinguished and a period of rest has passed. It shows that the learned response was suppressed, not completely forgotten.

This approach to learning focuses on the role of mental processes like insight and mental representation, rather than just stimulus-response connections.

Demonstrated by Wolfgang Kohler, insight learning is the sudden understanding of the solution to a problem. It does not involve trial-and-error.

Studied by Edward Tolman, latent learning is acquired knowledge that is not demonstrated until reinforcement is provided. It involves the formation of a mental representation, or a cognitive map, of the environment.

This involves learning verbal material. Common methods used to study it are paired-associates learning (stimulus-response pairs), serial learning (learning in a specific order), and free recall (recalling in any order).

According to Fitts, skill acquisition occurs in three phases: the cognitive phase (understanding the task), the associative phase (linking inputs with responses), and the autonomous phase (performance becomes automatic).

Motivation, which is the internal state that energizes behavior, is a prerequisite for learning. Preparedness refers to the biological constraints that make it easier for a species to learn certain associations.

This phenomenon occurs when an organism, after repeated exposure to unavoidable negative events, learns to be helpless and does not attempt to escape in new situations where escape is possible.

Learning disabilities are a group of disorders that manifest as difficulty in acquiring and using skills such as reading (dyslexia), writing, or reasoning, despite having average or above-average intelligence.