Learning

The One Thing

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour, knowledge, skill, or attitude resulting from experience, practice, or training. It is explained by interacting behavioural, observational, and cognitive processes, while learning difficulties may affect specific academic skills without implying generally low intelligence.

Who and What

• Learning: A relatively permanent change in behaviour, knowledge, skill, or attitude resulting from experience or practice. It differs from temporary changes caused by fatigue, illness, drugs, or natural maturation.
• Learning paradigm: A broad approach used to explain learning, including behavioural, cognitive, and observational approaches.
• Classical conditioning: Learning in which a previously neutral stimulus produces a response after repeated association with a stimulus that naturally produces that response.
• Unconditioned stimulus: A stimulus that naturally produces a response without prior learning, such as food causing salivation.
• Unconditioned response: A natural, unlearned response to an unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned stimulus: A previously neutral stimulus that produces a learned response after association with an unconditioned stimulus.
• Conditioned response: A learned response to a conditioned stimulus.
• Acquisition: The initial formation of an association between stimuli or between behaviour and consequence.
• Extinction: The gradual weakening and disappearance of a learned response when reinforcement or the expected association is no longer provided.
• Spontaneous recovery: The temporary return of an extinguished response after a rest period.
• Generalisation: Responding similarly to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus.
• Discrimination: Distinguishing between similar stimuli and responding only to the relevant one.
• Operant conditioning: Learning in which the consequences of behaviour influence the likelihood that it will occur again.
• Reinforcement: A consequence that increases the likelihood of a behaviour recurring.
• Positive reinforcement: Increasing behaviour by presenting a pleasant consequence, such as praise after completing homework.
• Negative reinforcement: Increasing behaviour by removing an unpleasant condition, such as stopping an irritating alarm when a task is completed.
• Punishment: A consequence that decreases the likelihood of a behaviour being repeated.
• Positive punishment: Decreasing behaviour by presenting an unpleasant consequence.
• Negative punishment: Decreasing behaviour by removing a pleasant consequence.
• Shaping: Teaching a complex behaviour by reinforcing successive steps towards the desired behaviour.
• Continuous reinforcement: Reinforcing a behaviour every time it occurs.
• Partial reinforcement: Reinforcing behaviour only on some occasions; this often increases resistance to extinction.
• Fixed-ratio reinforcement: Reinforcement after a set number of responses.
• Variable-ratio reinforcement: Reinforcement after an unpredictable number of responses.
• Fixed-interval reinforcement: Reinforcement for the first response after a fixed period.
• Variable-interval reinforcement: Reinforcement after unpredictable time periods.
• Observational learning: Learning by watching others and the consequences of their behaviour, without necessarily performing the behaviour immediately.
• Model: A person whose behaviour is observed and may be copied.
• Vicarious learning: Learning by observing rewards or punishments received by another person.
• Attention: Noticing the important features of a model’s behaviour.
• Retention: Remembering the observed behaviour.
• Reproduction: Having the ability to perform the observed behaviour.
• Motivation: Having a reason or incentive to reproduce the behaviour.
• Cognitive learning: Learning involving thinking, understanding, memory, reasoning, and problem-solving.
• Insight learning: A sudden understanding of the relationship between parts of a problem that produces a solution, rather than gradual trial-and-error improvement.
• Latent learning: Learning that occurs without obvious performance and becomes visible when a suitable opportunity or motivation arises.
• Learning set: The ability to learn from past problem-solving experiences and apply effective strategies to new problems.
• Cognitive map: A mental representation of the layout or relationships within an environment.
• Transfer of learning: The influence of previously learned knowledge or skills on performance in a new situation.
• Learning disability: A neurological difficulty affecting the acquisition or use of specific academic skills despite adequate opportunity and generally normal intelligence.
• Dyslexia: A learning disability involving difficulty with accurate or fluent reading and spelling.
• Dysgraphia: A learning disability involving handwriting, written expression, spelling, or organisation of written work.
• Dyscalculia: A learning disability involving numbers, quantities, calculations, or mathematical reasoning.
• ADHD: A neurodevelopmental condition involving persistent difficulties with attention, impulse control, and sometimes hyperactivity. It is not itself classified as a specific learning disability.

Causes and Consequences

• Experience, practice, and training produce relatively permanent changes in behaviour, knowledge, skill, or attitude. This distinguishes learning from temporary changes caused by fatigue, illness, drugs, or maturation.

• Classical conditioning begins when an unconditioned stimulus naturally produces an unconditioned response. A neutral stimulus is then paired with the unconditioned stimulus; through acquisition, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus that produces a conditioned response.

• Classical conditioning may change over time. If the expected association is no longer provided, extinction weakens the conditioned response. After a rest period, spontaneous recovery may temporarily restore it. Generalisation produces similar responses to resembling stimuli, whereas discrimination restricts responding to the relevant stimulus.

• Operant conditioning links behaviour to its consequences. Reinforcement makes behaviour more likely, while punishment makes it less likely. The terms positive and negative refer respectively to adding and removing a consequence, not to whether the consequence is pleasant or unpleasant.

• Reinforcement schedules influence persistence. Continuous reinforcement follows every response. Partial reinforcement follows only some responses and often makes behaviour more resistant to extinction. Fixed-ratio and variable-ratio schedules depend on the number of responses, while fixed-interval and variable-interval schedules depend on time.

• Shaping allows complex behaviour to be taught gradually by reinforcing successive steps that approach the desired behaviour.

• Observational learning demonstrates that direct reinforcement is not always necessary. A learner may observe a model and learn vicariously from the rewards or punishments received by that person. Attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation are the major processes determining whether observed behaviour is learned and reproduced.

• Cognitive learning shows that behaviour is not fully explained by external consequences. Insight learning involves a sudden solution; latent learning may remain unexpressed until an appropriate opportunity or motivation appears; a learning set enables strategies from previous problems to be applied to new problems; and a cognitive map represents environmental layouts and relationships.

• Learning is influenced by internal and external conditions, including motivation, attention, readiness, prior knowledge, practice, feedback, reinforcement, emotions, and the learning environment. Transfer of learning occurs when previous knowledge or skills influence performance in a new situation.

• Learning disabilities affect specific and persistent academic skills. Dyslexia mainly affects reading and spelling, dysgraphia affects handwriting and written work, and dyscalculia affects mathematical understanding and reasoning. These difficulties should not be explained only by lack of teaching, low motivation, sensory impairment, or intellectual disability.

• ADHD should be distinguished from specific learning disabilities. It involves attention, impulse-control, and sometimes hyperactivity difficulties, but it is not itself classified as a specific learning disability.

• Educational support can improve achievement and adjustment. Helpful measures include early assessment, individualised instruction, multisensory teaching, extra time, structured practice, assistive technology, encouragement, and collaboration among teachers, parents, and specialists.

What Gets Asked

• How does classical conditioning differ from operant conditioning in terms of the role of stimuli, behaviour, and consequences?
• How do reinforcement and punishment differ, and how do positive and negative consequences alter these distinctions?
• Compare continuous and partial reinforcement, including fixed-ratio, variable-ratio, fixed-interval, and variable-interval schedules.
• Why does observational learning show that people can learn without directly receiving reinforcement?
• How do insight learning, latent learning, learning sets, cognitive maps, and transfer of learning demonstrate the importance of cognitive processes?
• How should dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, and ADHD be distinguished, and what forms of educational support are appropriate?