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Running head: LEARNING AND COGNITIVE PHYSCHOLOGY ANALYSIS 1
LEARNING AND COGNITIVE PHYSCHOLOGY ANALYSIS 2
Learning and Cognitive Psychology Analysis
Lana Eliot
Ashford University
Psychology 620
Professor Jackson
January 08, 201
Learning and Cognitive Psychology Analysis
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface ……………………………………………………………………………………………3
Introduction to the major topics
Traditional and learning theories …………………………………………………………………4
Operant conditioning ……………………………………………………………………………..4
Classical conditioning ……………………………………………………………………………4
Behaviorism and social learning theory ………………………………………………………….5
Attention and memory ……………………………………………………………………………6
Decision-making ………………………………………………………………………………….6
Language acquisition ……………………………………………………………………………..7
Organizational and lifelong learning ……………………………………………………………..7
Major topics
Operant and classical conditioning ………………………………………………………………8
Behaviorism and social learning theory …………………………………………………………10
Attention and memory …………………………………………………………………………..12
Decision-making ………………………………………………………………………………..14
Language acquisition ……………………………………………………………………………16
Organizational and long life learning …………………………………………………………...17
Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………………………19
References ……………………………………………………………………………………….20
Preface
To integrate the theories of learning and cognition to the psychological world, there is the need to come up with a handbook that tries to define the interconnection between the different disciplines while connecting with future careers. Learning and cognition are two words that go hand in hand and which are inter-related in what they mean and how they are used. Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge despite the situation while cognition is the technique of acquiring the same knowledge through senses, experiences, or one`s thoughts. The handbook will bring into meaning the connection between learning and cognition in psychology and how the different topics are of importance to future careers in the psychological discipline. The interaction between the different topics will also be outlined while attributing them to the future career goals. The chosen audience will be the students and other scholars interested in the discipline and those who intend to explore more in the field of learning psychology.
Introduction to the major topics
Traditional and learning theories: operant and classical conditioning
Operant conditioning
Operant conditioning is a learning behavior or process that involves modifying the strength of behavior through a reward or punishment. In most situations, people tend to believe that their actions will bring about consequences. The consequences will either be good or bad depending on the actions the person did. For instance, if a child does well in class, they will be rewarded by their parent or teachers. The action will strengthen the behavior of the child whereby the child will continue working hard, so they receive the reward yet another time. The same case applies if the child would be indiscipline (Sternberg et al. 2016). The teacher or the parent will take the action of punishing the child so that they stop doing the wrong. The action by the parent or the teacher will weaken the behavior of the child since they will fear being punished another time. The operant condition learning process, therefore, entails more of strengthening the behavior by a reward or a punishment. With my future career goals being an applied behavior analyst, operant conditioning will be essential to determine the behaviorism and other related techniques which affect the people`s behaviors.
Classical conditioning
Classical conditioning is a learning process which entails a biologically potent stimulus being paired with a previously neutral stimulus. The learning process involves the two environments which are the environmental stimulus and the naturally occurring stimulus. Classical conditioning has a tremendous influence on behaviorism. The technique of behaviorism has some theories which include; all the learning that takes place happens through the interactions with the environment and that the behavior of the organism is shaped by the environment. The basic principles of the classical conditioning include three different phases before conditioning, during conditioning, and after conditioning (Dunlosky et al. 2013). Classical conditioning is essential in the applied behavior analysts’ career as it gives the different attributes of the individual in the different stages of development.
Behaviorism and social learning theory
Behaviorism
The theory of behaviorism outlines those behaviors that are acquired from the surrounding without having to involve the mind. It’s the norm of every organism to be affected by the things that are happening in their vicinity. Most of the behaviors will be impacted to the people through reinforcement or punishment. There is no organism including the human being who likes or wants to be punished. The behavior therefore of avoiding the issues that will lead to punishment be it positive or negative is what behaviorism aims to address. Behaviorism can be classified into three types including methodological behaviorism, logical behaviorism, and psychological behaviorism (Ormrod, 2013). As the word of my future career suggests, applied behavior analyst will use much of the behaviorism to define how well an individual behaves and why they do so.
Social learning theory
The theory of social learning outlines that people learn the behaviors from their peers or one another through imitation, modeling, and observation. In most cases, people tend to take the behaviors of the people around them. Children will take after what their parent do be it good or bad. They will not be determining the good or the bad in action at that point as long as their parent is doing it. The learning process, therefore, happens through imitating what the others are doing and wanting to be like them. The things that the children will see their peers on the TVs doing can also impact their behaviors. The TV in the situation will play a part in the environment since that is what the children have and will learn from.
Attention and memory
Attention
The principle of attention explains that people will learn when they focus on the task that they are performing. When a child or even an adult is doing a certain task, they are able to accomplish it out of the attention they generate (Sternberg, 2016). If in case they are distracted they will shift their attention to the distractor. The mind of the human being, therefore, shifts with the attention, and therefore the learning process is affected.
Memory
The principle of memory draws its technique from maintaining information overtime which sticks in the mind of the human being, and they develop it as a behavior. The information that we will draw from the past will be used continually in the future and the present becoming the behavior. If a child remembers of what their parent required them to do when they were young, they will tend to follow that to avoid being punished (Estes, W2014). The past has been brought to the future through the act of remembering. The memory learning process has three stages; encoding, storage, and retrieval.
Decision-making
Decision-making can be defined as the cognitive process which results in the selection of a course of action or a belief which is from a pool of alternative possibilities. Organisms tend to choose from a pool of alternatives based on the best one which will favor the situation they are in. For example, if one wants to reach the town faster, they will choose an alternative route which they are sure does not have traffic congestion at that time (Dunlosky et al. 2013). There may be many roads leading to town, but because they are in a hurry, they will avoid traffic and take the road with less traffic. The decision-making process is characterized by the needs, preferences, and the values that guide the individual.
Language acquisition
The language acquisition theory defines that the human being will acquire the art of using a particular language or symbols out of the environment they are in. The process of learning a particular language is influenced by the people around and the rewards present. For example, if a child says ‘milk’ and the mother smiles giving them a cup of milk, they will keep on repeating the same out of the reward they get. The child will, therefore, continue learning the specific language if the mother continues rewarding anytime they pronounce the words correctly. The theory can be termed as the behaviorist theory of language acquisition.
Organizational and lifelong learning
Organizational learning is defined as the process of creating, retaining, and transferring insights and knowledge from one person to another in an organization. Organizational learning theory outlines the process through which the organization will create knowledge which is through experience. With several years of experience, the organization will be able to determine the best thing to do. There are four different units where knowledge is created in an organization including individual, group, organizational, and inter-organizational. The technique that is used to measure the organizational learning is the use of a learning curve.
Lifelong learning is defined as the ongoing self-motivated and voluntary pursuit of knowledge by a person for various reasons which may be personal or professional. The lifelong learning process, therefore, can be seen to be gradual. Behavior wise the lifelong process can be seen as the gradual behaviors that one learns as they interact with people or in their daily activities that are optional and voluntary (Estes, W2014). The behavior changes may be in a way impacted by the environment they are in, but if the person is not willing, they will not adopt such behaviors. In organizations, the trend is common where there are some who may change out of the situations they face while others will change willingly since they want to learn new things in their career.
Major topics
Traditional learning theories
Operant and classical conditioning
Both operant and classical conditioning are seen to derive their behavior features from the environment one is around. The operant conditioning mostly deals with bringing or coming up with behavior out of the surrounding happenings as opposed to the mental feelings. Operant conditioning means the process where an individual or an organism changes their behaviors or adapts to new ones by the use of reinforcement which is given after the desired response be it a rewards or punishment. There are three types of responses that can follow the operant conditioning. The neutral operant is a response from the environment that will neither increase nor decrease the probability of the behavior being repeated (Gormezano, Prokasy, & Thompson, 2014). The second one is reinforced which is a response that increases the probability of the behavior bring repeated and can either be positive or negative. Punishers are the last response which reduces the probability of the action or the behavior from being repeated.
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Classical conditioning, on the other hand, involves the individual learning through the environment which will shape their behaviors. Classical conditioning works in three phases the first one being before conditioning which requires a naturally occurring stimulus which will automatically elicit a response. The best example will be salivating from the smell of a sweet aroma from a restaurant. During conditioning involves the previously neutral stimulus being repeatedly paired with the unconditioned stimulus (Sternberg, 2016). For instance, if the sweet smell was accompanied by a unique sound, every time one hears the sound they will the problem get hungry. After conditioning is the last phase which is the learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. The individual, in this case, will associate the sweet smell with the sound, and therefore the behavior will develop a habit. In my future career of applied behavior analyst, there will be more of defining the different conditions and the environments that will trigger a certain behavior from developing (Ormrod, 2013). Behaviorism will be more incorporated into the research and determination process that will help define why people develop certain trends and how effectively they may apply them in life. The behavior shaping will be attributed to the successive approximation.
Behaviorism and social learning theory
Behaviorism theory looks into the observable behaviors that are acquired from the environment without involving the mind. The assumption that the theory is based on is that the behaviors will be impacted by the surroundings either through the reinforcement process or punishment. The theory of behaviorism looks into the characters using three techniques (Lachman et al. 2015). The first one is the methodological behaviorism which is concerned with the psychology of the human beings and other organisms to define their behaviors and look into why they behave in such a way.
The subtopics that can be attributed to this theory include problem-solving and mentorship. With methodological behaviorism, one is able to define why people make the decisions they make and what triggers them to choose others as compared to the alternatives (Estes, W2014). The mentorship attribute will also be affected by trying to define why the people tend to follow certain characters as compared to others. Is it on the basis of punishment or reinforcement? The other behaviorism theory is the analytical behaviorism which defines that every mental sentence can be translated into behavior. Psychological behaviorism, on the other hand, attempts to explain the person’s behavior with regards to the external stimuli, reinforcements, learning histories, and responses. These attributes are believed to have an impact on what the person does and how well or badly they do it.
Social learning theory attributes to the behavior of the people in that they learn things from others through imitation, observation, and modeling. Many are the situations where people will follow what others are doing if they see them being rewarded (Dunlosky, et al. 2013). In a situation where a student is always rewarded for being position one in class, his fellows will follow so they also are awarded. Individual and group learning can be associated with the social learning theory since it brings in the sense of learning from other people to avoid punishment or to be rewarded. Lifelong learning is another topic that can be attributed to the social learning theory since it’s all about looking into what others do to define what best to follow. For instance, children will follow the behaviors of their parent be it good or bad. However, if they see the parents are being punished or are suffering out of certain behaviors, they will avoid them so they do not suffer. The career of applied behavior analysts will require the analysis of why people do what they do and what possible causes would have led them to do so.
Attention and memory
The principle of attention explains that people will learn when they focus on the task that they are performing. Putting in mind that we all have the same allocation of time, there is the need to create a distraction if we need to get other people`s attention. The distractions can either be positive or negative. With a positive distraction, the person will draw their attention from what they have been doing and take it to what new has come up (Solso, et al. 2013). Their repeated distraction will continuously shift the attention and this will develop as a habit and eventually a behavior. An opportunity arises if the distraction caused will be of benefit. However, there are those distractions that come as threats. The human mind will register that there is a distraction but if they are not benefiting through it they will develop a habit of ignoring it (Gormezano, Prokasy, & Thompson, 2014). They will be reluctant to pay attention as they are assured of less or no benefits out of the distractions. Behaviorism can be attributed to the attention theory since there are behaviors that are developed out of what is presented to the person which registers in their minds. They will develop a habit of either responding or ignoring it depending on the benefits they get. As an applied behavior analyst there is the need to define the degree to which the people create attention on certain matters and what makes them do so.
Memory The principle of memory draws its technique from maintaining information overtime which sticks in the mind of the human being, and they develop it as a behavior. Every time a thing happens the mind of the human being, or any organism records it. Some situations will always be remembered when something comes up. For instance, in the case of a child, they will always remember what their parent told them to do when they were young. They will remember what they were told to do and to avoid punishment they will do the thing out of the memory they had.
The behavior of the human being is highly attributed to the memory created and retrieved. The stages of memory theory are encoding storage and retrieval. Effects of demographic differences in learning can be applied whereby people tend to remember what they were taught for instance by their religion and will end up acting as required. It’s their behavior to do certain things according to religion, and their memory will remind them to do so.
Decision-making
Decision-making can be defined as the cognitive process which results in the selection of a course of action or a belief which is from a pool of alternative possibilities. Every organism tends to make a decision on the basis of their needs. There are those that will make a decision to do something to avoid punishment while others will do it to ensure they get rewarded. The preferences and the needs of the person will, therefore, make them decide on the best move to take. Decision-making is highly attributed to the sub-topic of problem-solving. When solving a specific problem, there are certain issues that one may tend to consider. If one wants to pass their exams, they must decide what to forego and what to concentrate on. One may decide to avoid the play station for the few months they will be studying to ensure they invest all their time in learning (Sternberg, 2016). The decision they have made was as a result of wanting to pass their exams. The problem they have solved here is failing the examinations, and therefore the two are seen to be interrelated. Memory development and retention is another sub-topic that can be attributed to decision-making. If one decides to retain certain things in mind because they are useful to him or her, he must have made a decision. The mind, however, has the ability to remember everything that one sees or hears, but it’s the person to decide on what to continuously remember without a struggle (Klein, & Mowrer, 2014). As an applied behavior analysts, there is the need to define what people want to remember and what caused them to do so as to define the reasons they acquire the specific behaviors.
Language acquisition
The theory of language acquisition defines that the human being will acquire the art of learning a specific language and the use of words and symbols from the environment they are in. There are many situations that people can learn languages from. There are however those specific issues that will make one learn a language with ease. In our example of the child mentioning the world ‘milk’ correctly and the mother smiles, while giving them milk, we can see a developmental aspect exhibited. The child may at first not be able to say the word correctly (Dunlosky et al. 2013). However, the mother will keep on mentioning the word ‘milk’ and gives it to her son. The learning process will be gradual, and the child will learn the language with time.
Social learning theory is a sub-topic that can be associated psychologically with the language acquisition theory on the basis of the surroundings. The child will be able to learn the language from what the mother tells them. Memory development and retention also play a major role since the child must remember what he was told yesterday and pronounce it today (Gormezano, Prokasy, & Thompson, 2014). Without the correct pronunciation, the child may fear they will not be rewarded what they want. If they pronounce the word milk incorrectly, the mother may not know what they want and may end up giving them the wrong specification. Language acquisition is seen to be affected by the environment one grows in. Their behaviors will also affect the behavior of the person learning the language. As an applied behavior analyst, the behaviorism the people will acquire will help me decide on the possibility of the child learning or not learning the language with ease.
Organizational and long-life learning
Organizational learning is defined as the process of creating, retaining, and transferring insights and knowledge from one person to another in an organization. In an organization, there is the need to develop the employees as well as the management depending on the changes in the industry (Estes, W2014). The behavior that people have in an organization to change may either be voluntary or for professional reasons. Every organization requires that their employees develop career-wise for their benefit and that of the company. There are those who may be developing their skills for the sake of retaining their jobs while others are willing to explore the career world. All these behaviors will be determined by the kind of environment that the employees are in and what motivates them to do so. There are companies that reward employees who do well in their positions and also those with better skills. The motivation will affect everyone in the company since they all want to be rewarded. It’s a triggering option that sees everyone wanting to learn out of the rewards available. Behaviorism can be attributed to the organizational learning since the environment can require them to learn to remain in the company.
Lifelong learning is defined as the ongoing self-motivated and voluntary pursuit of knowledge by a person for various reasons which may be personal or professional. Lifelong learning can be in organizations or real life. To determine the behavior of people and why they do so, we can consider the reasons why one will want to learn (Klein, & Mowrer, 2014). Problem-solving can be one of the reasons why people would want to learn. We learn so we can solve certain problems. To determine the behaviors, therefore, it’s wise to consider the problem-solving techniques.
Conclusion
In the process of learning and cognition, there are different theories that try to bring out why people behave the way they do and what triggers them to avoid the alternatives. From the above analysis, most of the issues that lead to behavior changes are the environment, rewards, and punishments. Most of the learning and cognition theories lie among the three but not limited to it. Both children and adults will prefer to be rewarded as opposed to being punished. The reinforcements available will trigger them to remember and apply all that they have seen and learned from others to be rewarded. The different topics are interrelated whereby one theory borrows from the other. There are different theories that can be used in the same situation to bring out a similar conclusion. The behaviorist theory shows how willing people are to do certain things out of the consequences that will follow (Gormezano, Prokasy, & Thompson, 2014). In the psychology field, there is the need to define the different behaviors of the people and what makes them think it’s the best option to take. To define why people, learn differently also will be affected by the rewards or the punishments. The punishments will either be positive or negative and therefore will also have an impact on the person`s behavior.
References
Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques: Promising directions from cognitive and educational psychology. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4-58.
Estes, W. K. (Ed.). (2014). Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes (Volume 4): Attention and Memory. Psychology Press.
Gormezano, I., Prokasy, W. F., & Thompson, R. F. (Eds.). (2014). Classical conditioning. Psychology Press.
Klein, S. B., & Mowrer, R. R. (Eds.). (2014). Contemporary Learning Theories: Volume II: Instrumental Conditioning Theory and the Impact of Biological Constraints on Learning. Psychology Press.
Lachman, R., Lachman, J. L., & Butterfield, E. C. (2015). Cognitive psychology and information processing: An introduction. Psychology Press.
Ormrod, J. E. (2013). Educational psychology: Pearson new international edition: Developing learners. Pearson Higher Ed.
Solso, R. L., MacLin, O. H., & MacLin, M. K. (2013). Cognitive Psychology: Pearson New International Edition. Pearson Higher Ed.
Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2016). Cognitive psychology. Nelson Education.