LearningClass 11 Psychology NCERT Solutions
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Q1Review Questions
What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?
Solution
Based on the chapter, learning is defined as "any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience". It is a key process in human behaviour that allows us to adapt and solve problems.
The distinguishing features of learning are:
- Experience-Based: Learning always involves some form of experience. This can be a single, impactful event (like a child getting burnt by a matchstick) or repeated experiences (like learning that a bell in the hostel signals dinner).
- Relatively Permanent Change: The behavioural changes that result from learning are lasting. This distinguishes learning from temporary changes caused by factors like fatigue, habituation, or the effects of drugs and alcohol.
- Inferred Process: Learning itself is a sequence of psychological events that cannot be directly observed. It is an inferred process. We infer that learning has occurred by observing a person's performance, which is their observable behaviour or action. For example, a teacher infers a student has learned a poem when the student is able to successfully recite it (performance).
Q1Review Questions
What is learning? What are its distinguishing features?
Solution
Learning is defined as "any relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience". It is a key process in human behaviour that allows us to adapt and solve problems.
The distinguishing features of learning are:
- Experience is Necessary: Learning always involves some form of experience. This can be a single event, such as a child getting burnt by a matchstick and learning to be careful, or repeated events, like hearing a bell before dinner is served.
- Relatively Permanent Change: The behavioural changes that occur due to learning are long-lasting. This distinguishes learning from temporary changes caused by fatigue, drugs, or habituation (a decreased response to a repeated stimulus).
- It is an Inferred Process: Learning itself is a sequence of psychological events (processing and acquiring knowledge) that cannot be directly observed. We infer that learning has taken place by observing a person's performance, which is their observable behaviour or action. For example, a teacher infers a student has learned a poem based on their performance of reciting it.
Q2Review Questions
How does classical conditioning demonstrate learning by association?
Solution
Classical conditioning, first investigated by Ivan Pavlov, demonstrates learning by association through a process of pairing stimuli. It is a form of S-S learning, where one stimulus becomes a signal for another.
The process involves the following:
- Initial State: An Unconditioned Stimulus (US), such as food, naturally and reflexively elicits an Unconditioned Response (UR), such as salivation in a dog.
- Conditioning Process: A neutral stimulus, which does not initially cause the response, is repeatedly presented just before the US. This neutral stimulus is called the Conditioned Stimulus (CS). In Pavlov's experiment, the CS was the sound of a bell.
- Learning by Association: Through repeated pairings, the organism learns to associate the CS (bell) with the US (food). The bell becomes a signal that food is about to appear.
- Result: After conditioning, the CS (bell) alone is sufficient to elicit the response, which is now called the Conditioned Response (CR), in this case, salivation. The dog salivates to the bell because it has learned the association between the bell and the impending arrival of food.
Thus, classical conditioning shows how a new response can be acquired by associating a neutral stimulus with one that already elicits a reflexive response.
Q2Review Questions
How does classical conditioning demonstrate learning by association?
Solution
Classical conditioning, first investigated by Ivan Pavlov, demonstrates learning by association by showing how a neutral stimulus can come to elicit a reflexive response after being repeatedly paired with a stimulus that naturally elicits that response.
In Pavlov's experiment:
- Initial State: Food is an Unconditioned Stimulus (US) that naturally and automatically causes a dog to salivate, which is the Unconditioned Response (UR). A bell is a Neutral Stimulus (NS) that initially does not cause salivation.
- The Association Process: The bell (NS) is repeatedly sounded just before the food (US) is presented. Through this contiguous presentation, the dog begins to associate the sound of the bell with the arrival of food.
- Result of Learning: After several pairings, the bell alone is sufficient to make the dog salivate. The bell has now become a Conditioned Stimulus (CS), and the salivation in response to the bell is a Conditioned Response (CR).
This process shows that learning has occurred through association. The dog has learned that one stimulus (the bell) signals the occurrence of another stimulus (food). The chapter refers to this as S-S learning, where one stimulus becomes a signal for another, creating a new, learned response.
Q3Review Questions
Define operant conditioning. Discuss the factors that influence the course of operant conditioning.
Solution
Operant or instrumental conditioning, first investigated by B.F. Skinner, is a form of learning in which a voluntary behaviour (an operant) is learned, maintained, or changed through its consequences. The organism 'operates' on the environment, and the consequences of its actions determine the likelihood of that action being repeated.
The factors that influence the course of operant conditioning are:
- Types of Reinforcement:
- Positive Reinforcement: Involves presenting a pleasant stimulus (e.g., food, praise, money) after a response, which strengthens the response and increases the probability of its occurrence.
- Negative Reinforcement: Involves removing an unpleasant or painful stimulus after a response, which also strengthens the response. This leads to learning avoidance or escape behaviours (e.g., putting on a coat to avoid the cold).
- Number, Amount, and Quality of Reinforcement: The course of conditioning is generally accelerated as the number of reinforced trials, the amount of the reinforcer (e.g., quantity of food), and the quality of the reinforcer (e.g., cake vs. bread) increases.
- Schedules of Reinforcement: This refers to the pattern of delivering reinforcement.
- Continuous Reinforcement: The desired response is reinforced every time it occurs.
- Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement: The response is reinforced only sometimes. This schedule produces greater resistance to extinction.
- Delayed Reinforcement: The effectiveness of reinforcement is reduced by delay. A smaller, immediate reward is often more effective than a larger reward that is delayed.
Q3Review Questions
Define operant conditioning. Discuss the factors that influence the course of operant conditioning.
Solution
Operant or instrumental conditioning, first investigated by B.F. Skinner, is a form of learning in which behaviour is learned, maintained, or changed through its consequences. It involves voluntary responses, called operants, which an organism emits to 'operate' on the environment. The core principle is that a response is strengthened if it is followed by reinforcement.
Several factors influence the course of operant conditioning:
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Types of Reinforcement:
- Positive Reinforcement: Involves presenting a pleasant stimulus (e.g., food, praise, money) after a response, which increases the probability of that response occurring again.
- Negative Reinforcement: Involves removing an unpleasant or painful stimulus after a response (e.g., putting on woollen clothes to escape the cold). This strengthens avoidance or escape behaviours. It is different from punishment, which aims to suppress a response.
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Number, Amount, and Quality of Reinforcement: The course of conditioning is generally accelerated as the number of reinforced trials, the amount of the reinforcer (e.g., quantity of food), and the quality of the reinforcer (e.g., cake vs. bread) increases.
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Schedules of Reinforcement: This refers to the pattern of delivering reinforcement.
- Continuous Reinforcement: The desired response is reinforced every time it occurs. This leads to fast learning but also fast extinction when reinforcement stops.
- Partial (Intermittent) Reinforcement: The response is reinforced only sometimes. This produces greater resistance to extinction.
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Delayed Reinforcement: The effectiveness of reinforcement is reduced if there is a delay between the response and the delivery of the reinforcer. Immediate reinforcement is generally more effective.
Q4Review Questions
A good role model is very important for a growing up child. Discuss the kind of learning that supports it.
Solution
The importance of a good role model for a growing child is supported by the principles of observational learning, also known as social learning or modeling. This type of learning occurs when an individual acquires new behaviours by observing others (the models) and emulating their actions.
As explained by Albert Bandura's studies, observational learning involves several key aspects:
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Observation and Acquisition: Children learn a wide range of social behaviours, such as politeness, aggressiveness, diligence, and courtesy, by watching parents, teachers, peers, and figures in the media. They observe how a role model behaves in various situations and acquire knowledge about those behaviours.
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Influence of Consequences: A child's performance of the observed behaviour is heavily influenced by the consequences the model receives. Bandura's Bobo doll experiment demonstrated this:
- Children who saw a model being rewarded for aggressive behaviour were more likely to imitate that aggression.
- Children who saw the model being punished for the same behaviour were the least likely to be aggressive.
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Modeling in Everyday Life: Children constantly observe and enact what they see. They learn how to dress, conduct themselves in society, and even develop personality characteristics by emulating adults and other role models. A positive role model demonstrates desirable behaviours (like honesty and hard work) and is often seen receiving positive outcomes for these actions, which encourages a child to adopt similar behaviours. Conversely, a negative role model can lead to the learning of undesirable behaviours.
Q4Review Questions
A good role model is very important for a growing up child. Discuss the kind of learning that supports it.
Solution
The importance of a good role model for a growing child is supported by the concept of observational learning, also known as social learning or modeling. This form of learning, investigated by Albert Bandura, explains how individuals, especially children, acquire new behaviours by observing others (models) and emulating their actions.
Key aspects of observational learning that highlight the importance of role models are:
- Acquisition of Social Behaviours: Children learn a vast range of social behaviours, such as courtesy, politeness, diligence, and even aggression, by observing adults and peers. They learn how to dress, conduct themselves in social situations, and develop personality characteristics by watching others.
- Vicarious Reinforcement and Punishment: Performance of an observed behaviour is significantly influenced by the consequences the model receives. In Bandura's Bobo doll experiment, children who saw a model being rewarded for aggressive behaviour were more likely to be aggressive themselves. Conversely, children who saw the model being punished were the least aggressive. This shows that children learn not only the behaviour but also whether it is 'good' or 'bad' based on the outcomes for the role model.
- Modeling in Everyday Life: Children frequently enact what they observe in their games and play, such as playing 'house' or 'thief and policeman'. They observe superiors and likeable people and emulate their behaviour in new situations.
Therefore, a good role model is crucial because children are constantly observing and learning from them. Positive, prosocial behaviours demonstrated by a role model are likely to be learned and imitated, contributing to the healthy development of the child.
Q5Review Questions
Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.
Solution
Verbal learning involves acquiring knowledge and associations in terms of words. Psychologists use several specific laboratory methods to study it:
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Paired-Associates Learning: This method is used to study how people associate pairs of items, similar to S-S or S-R learning.
- A list of pairs is created, where the first word is the stimulus and the second is the response (e.g., GEN-LOOT, BEM-TIME).
- The learner is shown the stimulus word and must recall the corresponding response word.
- Trials continue until the learner can recall all response words correctly. The number of trials taken is the measure of learning.
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Serial Learning: This method investigates how people learn a list of verbal items in a specific order.
- A list of words or nonsense syllables is prepared.
- Using the serial anticipation method, the first item is shown, and the participant must produce the second. If they fail, the second item is shown, which then becomes the stimulus for the third, and so on.
- Learning is considered complete when the participant can correctly anticipate all the items in the correct sequence.
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Free Recall: This method is used to study how participants organize verbal material for storage in memory.
- A list of words is presented to the participant, one at a time.
- Immediately after the presentation, the participant is asked to recall as many words as they can, in any order.
- Studies using this method show that participants often recall words in clusters or categories (category clustering), even if they were presented randomly, revealing the organizational processes in memory.
Q5Review Questions
Explain the procedures for studying verbal learning.
Solution
Verbal learning involves the acquisition of knowledge in the form of words and the associations between them. Psychologists use several methods to study this process in a laboratory setting:
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Paired-Associates Learning: This method is used to study how associations are formed between pairs of items. A list of pairs is created, where the first item is the stimulus and the second is the response (e.g., GEN - LOOT). The learner is first shown the pairs together. Then, during learning trials, only the stimulus word is presented, and the participant must recall the correct response word. Trials continue until the participant can recall all response words correctly. This method is similar to learning foreign language vocabulary.
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Serial Learning: This method investigates how a list of verbal items (e.g., nonsense syllables, words) is learned in a specific order. Using the 'serial anticipation method', the first item is shown, and the participant must anticipate and produce the second item. If they fail, the second item is shown, which then becomes the stimulus for the third, and so on. This process continues until the participant can correctly anticipate all the items in the list in their original serial order.
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Free Recall: In this procedure, participants are presented with a list of words, one at a time. Immediately after the presentation, they are asked to recall as many words as they can, in any order. This method is used to study how participants organize information for storage and retrieval in memory. Studies using this method show that items at the beginning and end of a list are recalled better than those in the middle, and participants often recall words in clusters based on semantic categories (category clustering) or their own individual methods (subjective organisation).
Q6Review Questions
What is a skill? What are the stages through which skill learning develops?
Solution
A skill is defined as the ability to perform a complex task smoothly and efficiently. It consists of a chain of perceptual-motor responses learned through practice and exercise. Examples include car driving, writing, and piloting an airplane.
According to Fitts, skill learning develops through three distinct phases or stages:
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Cognitive Phase: This is the initial stage where the learner's primary goal is to understand the task. They must understand and memorize the instructions and figure out how the task needs to be performed. In this phase, every external cue and response outcome requires conscious attention.
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Associative Phase: In this stage, the learner begins to link different sensory inputs (stimuli) with the appropriate motor responses. Through practice, errors decrease, performance becomes smoother, and the time taken to perform the skill is reduced. While performance improves and becomes more error-free, the learner still needs to be attentive and concentrate on the task.
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Autonomous Phase: This is the final stage of skill acquisition. Here, the performance becomes highly proficient and automatic. Two key changes occur: the attentional demands required in the associative phase decrease significantly, and the performance becomes less susceptible to interference from external factors. The skill can now be executed with minimal conscious effort, which is the hallmark of an expert.
Q6Review Questions
What is a skill? What are the stages through which skill learning develops?
Solution
A skill is defined as the ability to perform a complex task smoothly and efficiently. Skills, such as driving a car, writing, or piloting an airplane, are learned through practice and exercise and consist of a chain of perceptual-motor responses.
According to Fitts, skill learning develops through three distinct phases or stages:
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Cognitive Phase: This is the initial stage where the learner focuses on understanding the task.
- They must understand and memorize the instructions.
- They concentrate on what to do, how to do it, and what cues are important.
- Performance is slow, and the learner must consciously think about every step of the action.
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Associative Phase: In this stage, the different sensory inputs or stimuli are linked with the appropriate responses.
- With practice, errors decrease, and performance becomes smoother and faster.
- The learner still needs to be attentive and concentrate on the task, but the individual components of the skill begin to be integrated into a coordinated pattern.
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Autonomous Phase: This is the final stage where the skill becomes automatic.
- The performance of the skill requires minimal conscious effort or attention.
- External factors cause less interference.
- The skill can often be performed while the individual is doing something else. At this stage, practice has made the performance smooth, efficient, and largely error-free.
Q7Review Questions
How can you distinguish between generalisation and discrimination?
Solution
Generalisation and discrimination are two complementary processes in learning that relate to how an organism responds to different stimuli.
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Generalisation: This is the phenomenon of responding similarly to stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus. Generalisation is a response based on similarity. For example, if a child is conditioned to fear a person with a long moustache and black clothes (CS), they might also show fear towards another person with a beard and black clothes because the new stimulus is similar to the original one.
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Discrimination: This is the process of learning to respond differently to different stimuli. Discrimination is a response based on difference. It is the ability to distinguish between a reinforcing stimulus and other, non-reinforcing stimuli. Using the same example, if the child meets a clean-shaven person wearing grey clothes and shows no fear, the child is demonstrating discrimination. They have learned to differentiate between the fear-inducing stimulus and other, dissimilar stimuli.
In essence, the distinction is that generalisation involves broadening a learned response to a wider set of similar stimuli, while discrimination involves narrowing the response to a specific stimulus. As the text states, "Occurrence of generalisation means failure of discrimination."
Q7Review Questions
How can you distinguish between generalisation and discrimination?
Solution
Generalisation and discrimination are two complementary processes in learning, particularly in conditioning. They can be distinguished based on whether the response is due to similarity or difference between stimuli.
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Generalisation:
- Definition: Generalisation is the phenomenon of responding in a similar way to stimuli that are similar to the original conditioned stimulus (CS).
- Basis: It is a response based on similarity.
- Example: A child who is conditioned to fear a person with a long moustache (CS) might also show fear towards another person with a beard. The fear response has been generalised from one stimulus to a similar one.
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Discrimination:
- Definition: Discrimination is the process of learning to respond differently to different stimuli. The organism learns to respond to one specific stimulus but not to other, similar stimuli.
- Basis: It is a response based on difference.
- Example: The same child who fears the man with a moustache (generalisation) does not show fear when meeting a stranger who is clean-shaven and wearing different clothes. The child has learned to discriminate between the fear-inducing stimulus and other, non-threatening stimuli.
In essence, generalisation is the failure to discriminate. When an organism makes a discriminative response, it is demonstrating that it can tell the difference between the reinforcing stimulus and other non-reinforcing stimuli.
Q8Review Questions
Why is motivation a prerequisite for learning?
Solution
Motivation is considered a prerequisite for learning because it is the mental and physiological state that energises an organism to act vigorously to attain a goal. Without motivation, the drive to engage in the behaviours necessary for learning is absent.
Here is why motivation is essential:
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Energises Action: Motivation provides the energy and impetus for an organism to act. For learning to occur, an individual must actively engage with the environment or the learning material. For example, a hungry rat (motivated by the need for food) actively explores its environment, which leads to it accidentally pressing a lever and learning the connection between the lever and food.
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Directs Behaviour: Motivation directs behaviour towards a specific goal. A student who is motivated to pass an exam with good marks will direct their efforts towards studying, attending classes, and completing assignments. This focused activity is what leads to learning.
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Sustains Effort: Learning often requires persistence and hard work. Motivation helps sustain this effort until the goal is achieved and the need is satisfied. The more motivated a person is, the more likely they are to persevere through challenges and practice until a skill or concept is mastered.
Motivation can be of two types: intrinsic (learning for enjoyment) and extrinsic (learning to attain some other goal). In both cases, it is the driving force that initiates and sustains the actions that result in learning.
Q8Review Questions
Why is motivation a prerequisite for learning?
Solution
Motivation is a prerequisite for learning because it is the internal state that energises an organism to act vigorously to attain a goal and fulfill a need. Without motivation, an organism lacks the drive to engage in the behaviours necessary for learning to occur.
The chapter highlights this in several ways:
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Energises Action: Motivation provides the energy for action. A hungry rat in a box is motivated by its need for food to explore its environment. This exploration leads it to accidentally press a lever, which results in a food reward, and thus learning begins. Similarly, a student motivated to get good grades will put in the hard work required to study and learn the material.
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Directs Behaviour: Motivation directs behaviour towards a specific goal. A child's need for sweets motivates them to forage in the kitchen, during which they learn the location of the sweet jar. The goal-directed behaviour is the vehicle through which learning takes place.
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Sustains Effort: Learning often requires persistent effort. Motivation helps sustain this effort until the goal is achieved. A highly motivated individual is more likely to persist through challenges and practice until a skill is mastered or knowledge is acquired.
Motivation can be intrinsic (learning for enjoyment) or extrinsic (learning to achieve another goal, like good marks). In either case, it provides the fundamental 'why' for engaging in a learning activity, making it an essential prerequisite.
Q9Review Questions
What does the notion of preparedness for learning mean?
Solution
The notion of preparedness for learning means that members of different species have biological constraints on their learning capacities. It suggests that an organism can easily acquire certain types of associations because it is genetically endowed with or 'prepared' for that specific kind of learning. Conversely, an organism may be 'unprepared' to learn other associations, making them extremely difficult or impossible to acquire.
The concept can be understood as a continuum:
- Prepared Associations: At one end are the learning tasks that are easy for a species to learn because they align with its natural tendencies and evolutionary history.
- Unprepared Associations: At the other end are tasks that a species is not prepared for at all and cannot learn, regardless of the training method.
- Contraprepared Associations: In the middle fall those tasks that the species is neither prepared nor unprepared for. These tasks can be learned, but only with great difficulty and persistence.
In essence, preparedness implies that learning is not just a matter of experience; it is also influenced by the biological and genetic makeup of the organism, which determines which S-S or S-R connections can be formed easily.
Q9Review Questions
What does the notion of preparedness for learning mean?
Solution
The notion of 'preparedness for learning' refers to the idea that different species have biological constraints on their learning capacities. It means that an organism is genetically endowed with mechanisms that make it easy to learn certain associations, while making other associations extremely difficult or even impossible to learn.
This concept can be understood as a continuum:
- Prepared Associations: At one end are the learning tasks or associations that a species is biologically 'prepared' to learn. These are acquired easily and quickly. For example, humans are prepared to learn language.
- Unprepared Associations: In the middle of the continuum are tasks that a species is neither prepared nor unprepared for. These tasks can be learned, but only with great difficulty and persistent effort.
- Contra-prepared Associations: At the other end are tasks for which a species is 'contra-prepared'. The organism's biology acts against learning these associations, making them virtually impossible to acquire.
In essence, preparedness implies that one can learn only those associations for which one is genetically equipped. The specific sensory capacities and response abilities of a species determine what kind of S-S or S-R learning it can easily acquire.
Q10Review Questions
Explain the different forms of cognitive learning?
Solution
Cognitive learning focuses on the mental processes that underlie learning, emphasizing a change in what the learner knows rather than just what they do. The chapter discusses two main forms of cognitive learning:
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Insight Learning: This form of learning was demonstrated by Wolfgang Kohler in his experiments with chimpanzees. Insight learning is characterized by the sudden emergence of a solution to a problem, rather than a gradual process of trial and error. In Kohler's experiments, chimpanzees, after a period of seemingly no progress, would suddenly have a flash of insight and use tools like poles or boxes to reach food that was out of reach. What is learned is not a specific response but a cognitive relationship between a means and an end. This learning can be repeated immediately and generalized to similar problems.
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Latent Learning: This concept, associated with Edward Tolman, refers to learning that occurs but is not demonstrated in behaviour until reinforcement is provided. In his experiments, one group of rats was rewarded with food for navigating a maze and quickly learned the route. A second group was not rewarded and showed no signs of learning. However, when this second group later began to receive rewards, they navigated the maze just as efficiently as the first group. Tolman argued that the unrewarded rats had learned the layout of the maze and formed a 'cognitive map'—a mental representation of the space—but did not display this learning until they were motivated by reinforcement to do so.
Q11Review Questions
How can we identify students with learning disabilities?
Solution
A learning disability is a heterogeneous group of disorders related to difficulties in acquiring skills like reading, writing, speaking, and reasoning. According to the chapter, students with learning disabilities can be identified through several characteristic symptoms, which may appear in various combinations:
- Academic Difficulties: They show significant difficulty in writing letters and words, reading text aloud, and speaking. They often struggle to develop effective learning strategies.
- Attentional Problems: Students with learning disabilities often have disorders of attention. They are easily distracted, cannot sustain attention for long, and may exhibit hyperactivity, constantly moving and manipulating objects.
- Poor Spatial and Temporal Orientation: They may have a poor sense of time, often being late or too early for routine work. They can get easily disoriented in new surroundings and show confusion with directions (right/left, up/down).
- Motor Coordination Issues: Poor motor coordination and manual dexterity are common. This can be seen in a lack of balance or difficulty with tasks like sharpening a pencil, handling doorknobs, or learning to ride a bicycle.
- Difficulty with Oral Directions: They often fail to understand and follow spoken instructions.
- Social Perception Problems: They may misjudge social relationships, failing to understand body language and distinguish between friendly and indifferent peers.
- Perceptual Disorders: They may show visual, auditory, or tactual misperceptions, such as failing to differentiate between the sound of a call-bell and a telephone, despite having normal sensory acuity.
- Dyslexia: A significant number of these children have dyslexia. They fail to copy letters and words correctly, often confusing similar characters like 'b' and 'd', 'p' and 'q', or words like 'was' and 'saw'.