1.1. Meaning, definition and characteristics of learning

Psychology:

Meaning of Psychology:

The term ‘psychology’ literally means the science of the soul. (Psyche—soul; logos =science). Formerly, psychology was a part of metaphysics, and dealt with the nature, origin, and destiny of the soul. It was called rational psychology. But modern psychology is empirical and does not deal with the problems relating to the soul. It deals with mental process apart from the soul or mental substance. It is the science of experience and behavior, which tells us how the mind works and behaves. It can predict the behavior of an individual and control it to a certain extent by putting him under proper conditions. It seeks to discover the laws of mind. Psychology is the study of mind and behavior. It encompasses the biological influences, social pressures, and environmental factors that affect how people think, act, and feel. Gaining a richer and deeper understanding of psychology can help people achieve insights into their own actions as well as a
better understanding of other people.

Some definitions of psychology:

Psychology, scientific discipline that studies mental states and processes and behaviour in humans and other animals. (Willam James)
Psychology is the positive science of behavior.(Watson)
Psychology is the science of human behavior and experience.(Cruze)
Psychology is the science of the activities of individual in relation to the environment (Woodworth).
Psychology is the science of mental activity of an organism (Guilford).
Psychology is defined as the science that deals with emotional and mental processes.
The emotional and behavioral characteristics of an individual, group, or activity.
Psychology is the summary of a person’ s characteristics including how they think, feel or behave
The science that deals with mental processes and behavior.
The scientific study of mental processes and behavior.

Uses

The most obvious application for psychology is in the field of mental health where psychologists use principles, research, and clinical findings to help clients manage and overcome symptoms of mental distress and psychological illness. Some of the additional applications for psychology include:

Developing educational programs
Ergonomics
Informing public policy
Mental health treatment
Performance enhancement
Personal health and well-being
Psychological research
Self-help
Social program design
Understanding child development

Concept of Learning

Concept of learning is of huge importance in human behavior. Human being goes on learning from birth till death. Albert Einstein in one of his quotes said that “Once you stop learning you start dying”. Learning is a natural phenomenon which is natural to all organisms including both humans and animals. Learning affects a child’s development. A child learns new habits only through the process of learning and through imitated traditions and customs. Intellectual skills are also developed through learning. The decision of right and wrong, the concepts of justice and aesthetic sense, etc. develop through learning. This process of learning continues throughout life. Learning is
the basis of maturation. Learning affects our,

Language
Customs and traditions
Attitudes and beliefs
personalities
goals

In fact, it would not be wrong to say that learning affects all aspects of our life. Learning is a key concept of Psychology. Learning phenomenon is very important for the development of human beings. Various psychologists have explained learning from a different point of views. According to behaviorists, Learning is the modification of behavior as a result of experience. The child brings changes in his behavior after gaining experiences from the environment. Everything a learner does or thinks is learning. Learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior of the learner it even brings changes in the personality traits of the learner.

Learning is the process of acquiring new understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is
immediate, induced by a single event (e.g. being burned by a hot stove), but much skill and knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences. The changes induced by learning often last a lifetime, and it is hard to distinguish learned material that seems to be "lost" from that which cannot be retrieved. Human learning starts at birth (it might even start before) and continues until death as a consequence of ongoing interactions, between people and their environment.

The meaning of learning

1. Learning is a broad term. Learning includes all activities which affect children. Along with the growing process, the mental development of the child occurs. As a result, changes take place in his behavior continuously. The child goes on learning through experiences.

2. From a psychological point of view, learning has been explained as a stimulus-response process. According to the point of view, the establishment of the stimulus-response relationship is known as leaning. Some other facts also come before us relating to the
learning, such as-

(i) Learning is a process through which the behavior of the child changes or modifies.

(ii) Learning is predicted on the basis of changes in behavior.

(iii) These changes can be negative or positive.

(v) Changes in the behavior are the results of experiences.

(vi) Leaning can be termed as a mental process.

What learning is not?

-Is learning results from being told?
– Is learning cramming?
– Is learning a process of accumulation of knowledge?
– Is learning the result of reward and punishment?
– Is process of all types of changes in behavior learning?
– Is learning always shows improvement?

Definitions of learning

Various psychologists and educationists have defined the concept and meaning of learning in their own way. Some define as a process, some as a change in performance and some define learning as acquisition and retention of knowledge.

“The basis of learning is to gain knowledge after observing the whole structure. Responding towards the full situation is learning.” Gestalt’s view

“The learning as the direct cognitive organization of a situation. Motivation has a significant role & place in learning.” Kurt Lewin

“The process of acquiring new knowledge and new responses is the process of learning. Woodworth,

“Learning is the process by which the individuals acquire various habits, knowledge, and attitudes that are necessary to meet the demands of life, in general” G.D. Boaz (1984)

“Leaning is shown by a change in behavior as a result of experience.” Cronbach

“Learning is habit formation resulting from conditioning.” Pavlov

“Learning is a process by which behavior is originated or change through practice or training.” Kingsley and Garry

“Learning is the process of progressive behavior adoption.” C.E.Skinner

As a result of studying and analysis of the above-mentioned definitions of learning in education, the following facts come to the light:

1. Learning is a modification in behavior.
2. Learning is the organization of behavior.
3. Learning is the confirmation of a new process.

Characteristics of learning:

Learning is lifelong process.
Learning is universal.
Learning is an essential process.
Learning is continuous.
Learning is development.
Learning is adjustment.
Learning is product of environment.
Learning is organization of experiences.
Learning is discovery.
Learning is based on maturation.
Learning is on active process.
Learning is purposive.
Learning is modification and permanent change in behavior.
Learning is fundamental process of life.
Learning is process as well as product.
Learning is change or modification of behavior through activities, experiences and conditions of learning.
Learning is the nature or tendency of human beings.
Learning is the process of mental development – cognitive, psychomotor and affective domain, i.e. structural learning.
Learning is psychological, social and problem-solving process.
Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge and attitudes.
Learning is the process of adjustment and conditioning.
Learning is both formal, non-formal and controlled or open process.
Learning is the permanent change in behavior and process of growth.

Types of Learning:

1. Motor learning:

Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these activities involve the muscular coordination.

2. Verbal learning:

This type of learning involves the language we speak, the communication devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc., are the tools used in such activities. We use words for communication.

3. Concept learning:

It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalization. This learning is very useful in recognizing, identifying things.

4. Discrimination learning:

Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is called discrimination learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc.

5. Learning of principles:

Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between two or more concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

6. Problem solving:

This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome difficult problems encountered by the people.

7. Attitude learning:

Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our behavior. We develop different attitudes from our childhood about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behavior may be positive or negative depending upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse towards her profession, patients, etc.

Theories of Learning:

Psychologists have tried to explain how people learn and why they learn. They have conducted many experiments on animals and children and come to certain definite conclusions which explain the modes of learning. These are called as theories of learning. In many books, these explanations are treated as kinds of learning. In a sense it is true. But the term learning is very comprehensive. It covers a wide range of activities which cannot be explained within a limited framework. There are many theories explaining modes of learning.

From the philosophical point of view, learning theories can be discussed under the heading of epistemology which concerns with the nature, origin, limits and the method of knowledge. In this regard, epistemology is a branch of philosophy which deals with the nature of the knowledge. Hergenhan and Olson assert that it also questions such as what is knowledge. What can we know? What are the limits of knowledge? What does it mean to know? What are the origins of knowledge? The questions of this kind go back at least as far as the early Greeks. Regarding the issue, epistemology concerns mostly on how the knowledge is acquired. It is questionable whether all knowledge is the results of experience. Like this, empiricism and rationalism are two sharply opposing traditions in epistemology. Therefore, learning theories emerged on this basis of these two philosophies, rationalism and empiricism.

Empiricism:

It is the philosophical belief that sensory experience is the basis of all knowledge. According to this philosophical notion senses are the gateway of knowledge. Empiricists deny that these are any concept that exists prior to experience, for empiricists our ideas are passive copies of sense data. They argue that our concepts or ideas are derived form sense impression (so called simple ideas) or they are combination of several complex ideas (Hildgard and Bower). They contend that all knowledge is the product of human learning in which perception plays the major role. Empiricists maintain that sensory information is the basis of all knowledge.

Empiricism, in philosophy, the view that all concepts originate in experience, that all concepts are about or applicable to things that can be experienced, or that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or knowable only through experience. The word empiricist comes from the Greek root meaning “experience” and appears to date from the middle seventeenth century. The emphasis on experience in the acquisition of any kind of knowledge, scientific or otherwise, became a basic pillar of epistemology, that philosophical
domain addressing such questions as what could people know, how could they know it, what do they know, and how do they know it. “Empirical” was thus reified into empiricism, traditionally the doctrine asserting that most, if not all, of what counts as knowledge results from experience. Although there were certainly antecedents, the development of empiricism into systematic philosophical positions by Locke, Berkeley, and Hume in the seventeenth and eighteenth century paralleled, indeed was spurred by, the development of modern science. John Locke opposes the notion of the innate ideas. For him, the mind is made up of the ideas and ideas come from experience.
He further says the mind that is not first in sense.

According to this perspective, our senses are gateway to knowledge. Our five senses collect different sensory data related to an object about its taste, smell, texture, size and color, sound etc. By the tongue, nose, skin, eye and ear. Since all these experiences take place in a close succession, they are integrated in the form of simple ideas related to that object. The association of simple ideas can further develop into complex ideas. For example, when we experience an apple, we get information related to its taste, size and color, texture, smell and name via five senses. In this way, the primary idea related to an apple develops. This primary idea related to an apple can be extended into complex idea such as apple is a fruit. It is an edible fruit etc.

On the basis of the above explanations, it can be concluded that empiricism involves two learning mechanism:

– Internal representation of simple ideas developed by accumulations of sensory data.
– Complex ideas formed by the association of simple ideas.

According to Hilgard and Bowe, these beginning remarks suffice to characterize empiricism by the following features:

a) Sensationalism: it is the hypothesis that all knowledge is derived through the sensory experience: sense is the major aspect of constructing the reality.
b) Reductionism: it is the thesis that all complex ideas are built up out of basic stock of simple ideas that are reducible to these primitive elements.
c) Associationism: this thesis that ideas or mental elements are connected through the action of association by contiguity in experience.
d) Mechanism: the belief that the mind is like machine built out or simple elements with no mysterious components; simple assistive rules will serve to characterize the properties of the complex associative configuration by sole use of the properties of the underlying simple ideas.

Behaviorism:

Behaviorism as the learning perspective is a philosophy of learning based on the proposition that all things that organisms do including acting, thinking and feelings should be regarded as behaviors. The behaviorist school of thought maintains that behaviors can be described without considering internal physiological event or hypothetical constructs such as the mind. Behaviorism comprises the position that there are no philosophical differences between publicly observable process such as actions and privately observable process such as thinking and feeling. From early psychology in the 19 th century, the behaviorist school of thought ran concurrently and shared commonalities with the psychoanalytic and Gestalt movements in psychology the 20 th century; but also differs from the mental philosophy of the Gestalt psychologists in critical ways.

Behaviorism originated with the work of John B. Watson, and American psychologist. Watson believes in environment and further says that environment shapes children behavior. He focuses conditioning. These theories explain learning as the relation between stimulus in their environment and connecting these responses to these stimuli. For example, a child fears with fire after being burnt by it. Herman Ebbinghaus is the first psychologist who presented this view. Other propagators of this view are John Watson, Ivan P. Pavlov, Edward Lee Thorndike, Burrhus Fredrick, Skinner, E.R. Guthrie, C.H. Hull, Robert M. Gagne etc. Watson, Pavlov, Thorndike, Skinner etc. also conducted many experiments to justify their theories. All these theorists presented their specific notions for explaining the process of learning, which may differ from one another to some extents. However, as a behaviorist, they have some common premises. The major premises of learning theories according to behaviorism are presented as below.

Distinctive features of behaviorist learning theory:

 Behaviorism is naturalistic and objective. This means that the material world is the ultimate reality, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws. Man has no soul and no mind, only a brain that responds to external stimuli.
 Behaviorism teaches that man is nothing more than a machine that responds to conditioning. Our behavior is the product of our conditioning. We are biological machines and do not consciously act, rather we react to stimuli.
 Consistently, behaviorism teaches that we are not responsible for our actions. If we are mere machines, without minds or souls, reacting to stimuli and operating on our environment to attain certain ends, then anything we do is inevitable.
Behaviorism is manipulative. It seeks not merely to understand human behavior, but also to predict and control it.
This theory believes senses as the gateway, of knowledge. Individual learn by experiences.
They change their behavior based on associating their behavior with a new experience related to a specific stimulus.
Learning is the process of pairing the response with a stimulus which is strengthened by contiguity among them along with a reoccurring practice.
Practice strengthens learning. It strengthens the association between a stimulus and response.
Learners develop association between those stimuli and responses for which they receive positive reinforcement. In the presence of negative reinforcement, they abstain from a specific response for a specific stimulus.

Learning Psychology