Learning: Definition, Characteristics and Types of Learning in

Psychology
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:

1. The presence of a stimulus in the environment and

2. The innate dispositions like emotional and instinctual dispositions.
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:
 Learning involves a behavioural change which can be better or worse.
 This behavioural change should take place as a result of practice and
experience. Changes resulting from maturity or growth cannot be considered
as learning
 This behavioural change must be relatively permanent and last for a
relatively long time enough.

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:

When described in the simplest possible manner, learning is described as an

experience acquisition process.
 In the complex form, learning can be described as process of acquisition,
retention and modification of experience.
 It re-establishes the relationship between a stimulus and response.
 It is a method of problem solving and is concerned about making
adjustments with the environment.
 It involves all those gamut of activities which may have a relatively
permanent effect on the individual.
 The process of learning is concerned about experience acquisition, retention
of experiences, and experience development in a step by step manner,
synthesis of both old and new experiences for creating a new pattern.
 Learning is concerned about cognitive, conative and affective aspects.
Knowledge acquisition process is cognitive, any change in the emotions is
affective and conative is acquisition of new habits or skills.

Types of Learning:

i. Motor Learning: Our day to day activities like walking, running, driving,
etc, must be learnt for ensuring a good life. These activities to a great extent
involve muscular coordination.
ii. Verbal Learning: It is related with the language which we use to
communicate and various other forms of verbal communication such as
symbols, words, languages, sounds, figures and signs.
iii. Concept Learning: This form of learning is associated with higher order
cognitive processes like intelligence, thinking, reasoning, etc, which we learn
right from our childhood. Concept learning involves the processes of
abstraction and generalization, which is very useful for identifying or
recognizing things.
iv. Discrimination Learning: Learning which distinguishes between
various stimuli with its appropriate and different responses is regarded as
discrimination stimuli.
v. Learning of Principles: Learning which is based on principles helps in
managing the work most effectively. Principles based learning explains the
relationship between various concepts.
vi. Attitude Learning: Attitude shapes our behaviour to a very great extent,
as our positive or negative behaviour is based on our attitudinal
predisposition.

3 Types of Behavioural Learning

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.

1. Classical Conditioning: In case of Classical Conditioning, the process of

learning is described as a Stimulus-Response connection or association.
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.

2. Operant Conditioning: Propounded by scholars like Edward Thorndike

firstly and later by B.F. Skinner, this theory stresses on the fact that the
consequences of actions shape the behaviour.
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.

3. Observational Learning: The Observational Learning process was

propounded by Albert Bandura in his Social Learning Theory, which focused on
learning by imitation or observing people’s behaviour. For observational
learning to take place effectively, four important elements will be essential:
Motivation, Attention, Memory and Motor Skills.

Learning Theories: Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning

and Learning by Observation
The concept of learning is quite comprehensive as it covers a broad range of
activities. In many books, the theories of learning are also regarded as kinds of
learning. The theories of learning are an organized set of principles that explain
how individuals attain, retain or recall the learnt knowledge. Learning theories
establish the conceptual framework for explaining how information absorption,
processing and retention take place during learning. Human learning is
influenced by a gamut of factors like Emotional, Cognitive, Past Experiences and
Environmental factors. Learning theories prescribe the right format or
methodologies of learning for making the learning effective and more impactful.

During early 20th century, many psychologists became increasingly interested in

understanding the relevance of learning from a scientific perspective. For a
scientific orientation, the study of psychology gave importance to only those
variables which were quantifiable and measurable. Environmental influences
like, reinforcements, associations, observations and punishments influence the
learning process. The key learning theories are Classical Conditioning, Operant
Conditioning and Social Learning. Let’s have a closer look at all these three major
theories of learning.

Classical Conditioning Theory and Learning

The key premises of Classical Conditioning theory was established by Russian
Physiologist named Ivan Pavlov, who first discovered the crucial principles of
classical learning theory with the help of an experiment done on dogs to study
their digestive processes. The Nobel Prize laureate of 1904, while studying the
digestive processes in dogs came across a very interesting observation during his
experimentation. He noticed that his subject would begin to salivate by seeing
the lab assistant with white lab coats entering into the room before being fed.
Though Pavlov’s discovery is originally an accidental discovery, but later with
the help of his experiments the classical conditioning theory came into existence.
His Classical conditioning theory played a crucial role in explaining the
important psychological concepts like learning and equally established the
foundation for the behavioural school of thought. Behaviourism is based on two
major assumptions:
 Learning takes place as a result of the interactions with the environmental
forces.
 The environmental forces play a key role in shaping the behaviour.
According to Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning theory, learning takes place because
of association which is established between a previously neutral stimulus and a
natural stimulus. It should be noted, that Classical Conditioning places a neutral
stimulus before the naturally occurring reflexes. In his experiment, he tried to
pair the natural stimulus that is food with a bell sound. The dogs would salivate
with the natural occurrence of food, but after repeated associations, the dogs
salivated just by hearing the sound of the bell alone. The focus of Classical
Conditioning theory is on automatic and naturally occurring behaviours.

Key Principles of Classical Conditioning Theory

1. Acquisition: This is the starting stage of learning during which a response

is established firstly and then gradually strengthened. During the acquisition
phase, a neutral stimulus is paired with an unconditioned stimulus which
can automatically or naturally trigger or generate a response without any
learning. Once this association is established between the neutral stimulus
and unconditioned stimulus, the subject will exhibit a behavioural response
which is now known as conditioned stimulus. Once a behavioural response is
established, the same can be gradually strengthened or reinforced to make
sure that the behaviour is learnt.
2. Extinction: Extinction is expected to take place when the intensity of a
conditioned response decreases or disappears completely. In classical
conditioning, this occurs when a conditioned stimulus is no longer
associated or paired with the unconditioned stimulus.
3. Spontaneous Recovery: When a learnt or a conditioned response
suddenly reappears after a brief resting period or suddenly re-emerges after
a short period of extinction, the process is considered as a spontaneous
recovery.
4. Stimulus Generalization: It is the tendency of the conditioned stimulus
to evoke the similar kind of responses once the responses have been
conditioned, which occurs as a result of stimulus generalization.
5. Stimulus Discrimination: Discrimination is the ability of the subject to
discriminate between stimuli with other similar stimuli. It means, not
responding to those stimuli which is not similar, but responding only to
certain specific stimuli.
The theory of Classical Conditioning has several applications in the real-world. It
is helpful for various pet trainers for helping them train their pets. Classical
conditioning techniques can also be beneficial in helping people deal with their
phobias or anxiety issues. The trainers or teachers can also put to practise the
Classical Conditioning theory by building a positive or a highly motivated
classroom environment for helping the students to overcome their phobias and
deliver their best performance.

Operant Conditioning Theory and Learning

Renowned Behavioural Psychologist B.F. Skinner was the main proponent of
Operant conditioning theory. It is for this reason that the Operant Conditioning is
also known as Skinnerian Conditioning and Instrumental Conditioning. Just like
Classical Conditioning, Instrumental/Operant Conditioning lays emphasis on
forming associations, but these associations are established between behaviour
and behavioural consequences. The theory stressed on the role of punishment or
reinforcements for increasing or decreasing the probability of the same
behaviour to be repeated in the future. But the condition is that the
consequences must immediately follow a behavioural pattern. The focus of
operant conditioning is on voluntary behavioural patterns.

Key Components of Operant Conditioning

1. Reinforcement: Reinforcements strengthen or increase the intensity of

behaviour. This can be Positive and Negative.
Positive Reinforcement: When a favourable event or an outcome is associated
with behaviour in the form of a reward or praise, it is called as positive
reinforcement. For example, a boss may associate bonus with outstanding
achievements at work.
2. Negative Reinforcement: This involves removal of an unfavourable or an
unpleasant event after a behavioural outcome. In this case, the intensity of a
response is strengthened by removing the unpleasant experiences.
3. Punishment: The objective of punishment is to decrease the intensity of a
behavioural outcome, which may be negative or positive.
4. Positive Punishment: This involves application of punishment by
presenting an unfavourable event or outcome in response to a behaviour.
Spanking for an unacceptable behaviour is an example of positive punishment.
5. Negative Punishment: It is associated with the removal of a favourable
event or an outcome in response to a behaviour which needs to be weakened.
Holding the promotion of an employee for not being able to perform up to the
expectations of the management can be an example of a negative punishment.
6. Reinforcement Schedules: According to Skinner, the schedule of
reinforcement with focus on timing as well as the frequency of reinforcement,
determined how quickly new behaviour can be learned and old behaviours can
be altered.

Learning by Observation
According to Albert Bandura, learning cannot simply be based merely on
associations or reinforcements which he has mentioned in his writings in his
book Social Learning Theory which was published in 1977. Instead, his focus was
on learning based on observation, which he has proven through his well known
Bobo Doll experiment. He reckoned that children keenly observe their
surroundings and the behaviour of people around them particularly their
caregivers, teachers and siblings and try to imitate those behaviours in their day
to day life. He also tried proving through his experiment that children can easily
imitate the negative behaviours or actions.

Another important principle of Bandura’s Social Learning Theory was that

learning something by way of observation, need not necessarily mean that it
would lead to a change in the behaviour. This behavioural change is entirely
influenced by the felt need or motivation of a person to endorse and adopt a
behavioural change.

Key Steps involved in Observational Learning

1. Attention: Attention is very important for learning to take place effectively

by following observational techniques. A novel concept or a unique idea is
expected to attract the attention far more strongly than those which are routine
or mundane in nature.
2. Retention: It is the ability to store the learnt information and recall it later,
which is equally affected by a number of factors.
3. Reproduction: It involves practising or emulating the learnt behaviour,
which will further lead to the advancement of the skill.
4. Motivation: Motivation to imitate the learnt behaviour of a model depends a
lot on the reinforcement and punishment. For example, an office-goer may be
motivated to report to office on time by seeing his colleague being rewarded for
his punctuality and timeliness.