Final Paper for Class

Introduction

In the study of learning there three perspectives that try to describe the components of learning. The three perspectives include the cognitive, behavioral and neuroscience approaches. Behavioral approach describes learning as a behavior which can be observed and measured while cognitive approach describes learning as knowledge acquisition and information processing. The two approaches illustrate the Greek philosophies on learning. They attempt to answer various questions in the field of learning theory. Some of the questions include:

(i) How does learning take place?

(ii) What is the purpose of memory?

(iii) What is the purpose of motivation?

(iv) What are the procedures involved in self-regulation?

(v) How does transfer take place?

The neuroscience approach bases its argument on neurobiology whereby learning entails transforming the brain. The approach indicates that stress can be advantageous for learning but mild and extreme stress is disadvantageous to learning. The approach also indicates that adequate sleep and good nutrition can significantly boost the ability of one to learn. Transforming the brain means that the brain requires conditions whereby it’s able to effectively respond to stimuli to facilitate optimal learning.

Body

There four main components of learning that are associated with the three approaches to learning. The four components include cue stimuli, responses, reinforcement and retention. Cue stimuli refers to the factors that are present in the environment as the individual perceives. The idea in this component is to determine the conditions which a specific stimulus will lead to a specific response. This component is classified into two main types of stimuli based on their response. The two include stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination. Generalization takes place when a response is elicited by a new stimulus which is similar to the old one. Discrimination refers to a process whereby a firm learns to respond to a specific stimulus but avoids making the same response to a similar stimulus that is a bit different from the previous one. Behavioral approach focuses on the importance of the environment in learning and behaviorists stress on the importance of stimulus response. Behaviorists indicate that each and every person should act in a similar manner when faced with a similar stimulus (Koush, 2015). Cognitive approach agrees that the environment influences learning but underestimates its role. The approach describes learning as the ability to encode, store and transfer learning within their mind.

The stimulus leads to a response which is the second component of learning. The response may be in physical form or in other phenomena such as familiarity and perception. The third component which is reinforcement is very important for learning and without it modification of behavior cannot take place. According to cognitive and neuroscience approaches, reinforcement can be defined as the events in the environment that affect the probability of responses occurring. Retention is the forth component and is defined as the ability to retain what is learnt. Some learning can be retained for a long time while others are retained for a short time. Behavioral approach indicates that one remembers something because the connection was reinforced due to the stimulus response. The approach indicates that forgetting is caused by a lack of response over a certain period of time (Turner, 2017). This means that a teacher should constantly review the learnt material to ensure that the connections students have developed are maintained. The cognitive approach sees memory as information encoding within the mind. It is similar to storing information in a hard drive. This perspective therefore indicates that forgetting is caused by the inability to recover memory. Generally, this can be caused by memory loss or inadequate mental triggers. Teachers should therefore help students to organize the concepts that they learn with what they already know to facilitate retention.

An example of cognitive approach to learning is a teacher who is demonstrating a concept to the students by projecting the information to the board through his laptop. Students have different learning habits and some will understand better by watching, others by writing and others by listening. It is therefore very important for a teacher to evaluate his/her students before deciding on which method to incorporate in teaching the students (Hayes, 2018).

Conclusion

Behavioral approach describes learning as a behavior which can be observed and measured while cognitive approach describes learning as knowledge acquisition and information processing. The approaches attempt to answer various questions for example how learning takes place. The neuroscience approach bases its argument on neurobiology whereby learning entails transforming the brain. The four main components of learning which are associated with the approaches include cue stimuli, responses, reinforcement and retention. Both cognitive and behavioral approaches agree that the environment influences learning but cognitive approach undermines its role. The approach describes learning as the ability to encode, store and transfer learning within their mind. Cognitive and neuroscience approaches define reinforcement as the events in the environment that affect the probability of responses occurring. Behavioral approach indicates that one remembers something because the connection was reinforced due to the stimulus response while cognitive approach sees memory as information encoding within the mind which is similar to storing information in a hard drive.

References

Hayes, S. C., & Hofmann, S. G. (Eds.). (2018). Process-based CBT: The science and core clinical competencies of cognitive behavioral therapy. New Harbinger Publications.

Koush, Y., Meskaldji, D. E., Pichon, S., Rey, G., Rieger, S. W., Linden, D. E., ... & Scharnowski, F. (2015). Learning control over emotion networks through connectivity-based neurofeedback. Cerebral cortex, 27(2), 1193-1202.

Turner, B. M., Forstmann, B. U., Love, B. C., Palmeri, T. J., & Van Maanen, L. (2017). Approaches to analysis in model-based cognitive neuroscience. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 76, 65-79.