Cognitive Psychology
February 12, 2025
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The process of learning is continuous which starts right from the time of birth of an individual and continues till the death. We all are engaged in the learning endeavours in order to develop our adaptive capabilities as per the requirements of the changing environment.
For a learning to occur, two things are important:
A person keeps on learning across all the stages of life, by constructing or reconstructing experiences under the influence of emotional and instinctual dispositions.
Psychologists in general define Learning as relatively permanent behavioural modifications which take place as a result of experience. This definition of learning stresses on three important elements of learning:
John B Watson is one amongst the first thinkers who has proven that behavioural changes occur as a result of learning. Watson is believed to be the founder of Behavioural school of thought, which gained its prominence or acceptability around the first half of the 20th century.
Gales defined Learning as the behavioural modification which occurs as a result of experience as well as training.
Crow and Crow defined learning as the process of acquisition of knowledge, habits and attitudes.
According to E.A, Peel, Learning can be described as a change in the individual which takes place as a result of the environmental change.
H.J. Klausmeir described Learning as a process which leads to some behavioural change as a result of some experience, training, observation, activity, etc.
The key characteristics of the learning process are:
The Behavioural School of Thought which was founded by John B Watson which was highlighted in his seminal work, “Psychology as the Behaviorist View It”, stressed on the fact that Psychology is an objective science, hence mere emphasis on the mental processes should not be considered as such processes cannot be objectively measured or observed.
Watson tried to prove his theory with the help of his famous Little Albert Experiment, by way of which he conditioned a small kid to be scared of a white rat. The behavioural psychology described three types of learning: Classical Conditioning, Observational Learning and Operant Conditioning.
Classical Conditioning theory has been explained with the help of Pavlov’s Classic Experiment, in which the food was used as the natural stimulus which was paired with the previously neutral stimuli that’s a bell in this case. By establishing an association between the natural stimulus (food) and the neutral stimuli (sound of the bell), the desired response can be elicited. This theory will be discussed in detail in the next few articles.
The theory explains that the intensity of a response is either increased or decreased as a result of punishment or reinforcement. Skinner explained how with the help of reinforcement one can strengthen behaviour and with punishment reduce or curb behaviour. It was also analyzed that the behavioural change strongly depends on the schedules of reinforcement with focus on timing and rate of reinforcement.
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