Class 11 Psychology Chapter 5 Learning Solutions

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential produced by experience or practice. It is inferred from performance and is not the same as temporary change due to fatigue, drugs, or habituation. Concept used. Learning means change through experience. The change may be seen in actual behaviour, or it may remain as behavioural potential.

1. Learning is a key psychological process. It helps a person adapt, solve problems, acquire habits, and build skills.
2. It occurs through experience and practice. A child learns to handle a matchbox carefully after being burnt once.
3. The change produced by learning is relatively permanent. It lasts longer than a momentary change in mood or body state.
4. Learning is different from temporary changes caused by fatigue, drugs, alcohol, or illness. Such changes disappear when the cause is removed.
5. Habituation also differs from learning in this chapter's sense. It is a weakening of response after repeated exposure to the same stimulus.
6. Learning is inferred from performance. Performance is the observed behaviour, response, or action.
7. For example, a teacher infers that a student has learned a poem when the student recites it correctly.
8. Learning involves a sequence. There may be a pre-test, presentation of material, processing, acquisition, and later recall or performance.

Learning is a relatively permanent change in behaviour or behavioural potential due to experience or practice. Its features are experience, relative permanence, inference from performance, and difference from temporary bodily changes.

Classical conditioning shows learning by association because a neutral stimulus becomes linked with an unconditioned stimulus. After repeated pairing, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus and produces a conditioned response. Concept used. Classical conditioning is stimulus-stimulus learning. One stimulus becomes a signal for another stimulus.

1. Pavlov first studied this type of learning while examining digestion in dogs.
2. Food naturally produces salivation in a dog. Food is the unconditioned stimulus, and salivation to food is the unconditioned response.
3. The sound of a bell is initially neutral. It does not naturally produce salivation.
4. During conditioning, the bell is sounded just before food is presented.
5. After many pairings, the dog learns an association between bell and food.
6. Now the bell alone produces salivation. The bell has become the conditioned stimulus.
7. Salivation to the bell is the conditioned response.
8. This demonstrates learning by association because the dog responds to the bell as a signal for food.
9. The learning is not based on voluntary action. It is based on the connection between two stimuli.

Classical conditioning demonstrates learning by association because a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus and later produces a conditioned response by itself.

Operant conditioning is learning in which voluntary behaviour is strengthened, weakened, or changed by its consequences. Its course is influenced by type, number, amount, quality, schedule, and delay of reinforcement, as well as by the response being learned. Concept used. An operant is a voluntary response emitted by an organism. Reinforcement increases the probability of the response that came before it.

1. Operant conditioning was studied in detail by B.F. Skinner.
2. Skinner studied voluntary responses in which the organism operates on the environment.
3. In a Skinner box, a hungry rat presses a lever and receives a food pellet.
4. Lever pressing is the operant response, and food is the consequence.
5. With repeated reinforcement, the rat presses the lever more quickly.
6. The first factor is type of reinforcement. Positive reinforcement gives pleasant consequences, such as food, praise, money, or status.
7. Negative reinforcement removes or avoids unpleasant stimulation, such as cold, pain, danger, or a fine.
8. The second factor is number of reinforcements. More reinforced trials usually speed acquisition up to a point.
9. The third factor is amount and quality. Better or larger reinforcement can strengthen learning, though very large rewards may affect extinction patterns.
10. The fourth factor is schedule. Continuous reinforcement gives reinforcement every time; partial reinforcement gives it only sometimes.
11. Partial reinforcement often produces responses that resist extinction strongly.
12. The fifth factor is delay. Immediate reinforcement is more effective than delayed reinforcement.
13. The nature of the response also matters. Simple and naturally possible responses are learned more easily than difficult responses.

Operant conditioning is consequence-based learning of voluntary responses. Its course depends on the kind, number, amount, quality, schedule, and delay of reinforcement, plus the response being conditioned.

A good role model is important because children learn many social behaviours through observational learning. They observe, imitate, and model adults or admired persons, especially when the model's behaviour is rewarded. Concept used. Observational learning is learning by watching others. It is also called imitation, modeling, or social learning.

1. Observational learning occurs when a person learns by observing another person's behaviour.
2. The person being observed is called a model.
3. Children often do not know how to behave in a new social situation.
4. They observe parents, teachers, older children, public figures, and media characters.
5. Then they imitate or emulate the observed behaviour.
6. Bandura's Bobo doll study showed that children can learn aggression by observing an aggressive model.
7. Children who saw the aggressive model being rewarded showed more aggressive behaviour.
8. Children who saw the model being punished showed less aggression.
9. This means children acquire knowledge by observing the model, but performance depends on whether the model is rewarded or punished.
10. A good role model supports healthy behaviour such as courtesy, diligence, politeness, cooperation, and pro-social conduct.
11. A poor model may teach aggression, indolence, or rude behaviour.

The learning supported by a good role model is observational learning or modeling. It helps children acquire social behaviour by watching and imitating rewarded or admired models.

Verbal learning is studied through paired-associates learning, serial learning, and free recall. These procedures examine how people connect words, learn ordered lists, and organise recalled material. Concept used. Verbal learning deals with learning words and their relations. It is mainly studied in human beings.

1. In paired-associates learning, a list of word pairs is prepared.
2. The first word is used as the stimulus term, and the second word is used as the response term.
3. The learner first sees both words together and later gives the response word when the stimulus word is shown.
4. Trials continue until all response terms are given without error.
5. This method is useful for studying foreign word learning and stimulus-response verbal links.
6. In serial learning, the learner studies a list and reproduces the items in the same order.
7. The serial anticipation method presents one item, and the learner tries to give the next item.
8. Trials continue until the whole list is correctly anticipated in order.
9. In free recall, a list of words is presented at a fixed rate.
10. After presentation, the learner recalls the words in any order.
11. Free recall is used to study organisation in memory, such as category clustering and subjective organisation.

The main procedures for verbal learning are paired-associates learning, serial learning, and free recall. Together they show association, ordered recall, and self-organised recall.

A skill is the ability to perform a complex task smoothly and efficiently. Fitts described three stages of skill learning: cognitive, associative, and autonomous. Concept used. Skill learning is learning a complex sequence of perceptual and motor responses through practice.

1. A skill is the ability to perform a complex task smoothly and efficiently.
2. Examples include driving a car, piloting an airplane, writing shorthand, reading, and writing.
3. Skills are learned by practice and exercise.
4. A skill consists of a chain of perceptual and motor responses.
5. In the cognitive phase, the learner understands the instructions and the task.
6. The learner has to keep cues, rules, steps, and response outcomes in conscious awareness.
7. In the associative phase, sensory inputs become linked with appropriate responses.
8. Practice reduces errors, improves performance, and reduces the time taken.
9. In the autonomous phase, attention demands reduce.
10. The performance becomes smooth and almost automatic with little conscious effort.
11. A performance plateau may occur between phases, where improvement pauses for some time.

A skill is efficient performance of a complex task. Skill learning develops through cognitive, associative, and autonomous stages with increasing practice.

Generalisation means giving a learned response to a new stimulus because it is similar to the original stimulus. Discrimination means responding differently because the new stimulus is different. Concept used. Generalisation is based on similarity, while discrimination is based on difference.

1. Generalisation occurs after a response has been learned to one stimulus.
2. If a similar new stimulus produces the same learned response, generalisation has occurred.
3. For example, a dog conditioned to salivate to a bell may salivate to a similar ringing sound.
4. A child who learns the location of one sweets jar may search another similar jar.
5. Discrimination is the opposite process.
6. It occurs when the organism responds differently to different stimuli.
7. For example, a child afraid of a person in black clothes with a moustache may not fear a clean-shaven person in grey clothes.
8. Generalisation shows failure of discrimination because similar stimuli are treated alike.
9. Discrimination shows that the organism can notice the relevant difference between stimuli.

Generalisation is responding similarly to similar stimuli. Discrimination is responding differently to different stimuli.

Motivation is a prerequisite for learning because it arouses and directs the organism toward a goal. It gives energy, persistence, and purpose to learning activity. Concept used. Motivation is a mental and physiological state that arouses action for fulfilling a need or attaining a goal.

1. All living organisms have needs.
2. Motivation arises when a need or goal energises the organism to act.
3. The action continues until the goal is reached or the need is satisfied.
4. In learning, motivation helps the learner attend to the task.
5. It also helps the learner continue practice despite errors or delay.
6. A hungry rat explores the Skinner box because it needs food.
7. When lever pressing gives food, the rat learns the response.
8. A child searches the kitchen for sweets because the child wants to eat them.
9. A student studies Psychology to get good marks, understand behaviour, or enjoy the subject.
10. Motivation may be intrinsic, when the learner enjoys the activity.
11. It may be extrinsic, when the activity helps the learner reach another goal.

Motivation is necessary because it energises, directs, and sustains learning until the goal is reached.

Preparedness for learning means that organisms are biologically ready to learn some associations more easily than others. Species differ in sensory capacities, response abilities, and associative mechanisms. Concept used. Preparedness refers to biological readiness for certain kinds of learning.

1. Members of different species have different sensory capacities and response abilities.
2. They also differ in the mechanisms needed to form stimulus-stimulus or stimulus-response associations.
3. Because of these differences, species have biological constraints on learning.
4. Some associations are easy for a species because the organism is prepared for them.
5. Some associations are extremely difficult or impossible because the organism is unprepared for them.
6. Other associations fall in the middle. They can be learned only with difficulty and persistence.
7. The concept is best understood as a continuum.
8. One end has tasks the species can learn easily.
9. The other end has tasks the species cannot learn.
10. The middle has tasks that can be learned with repeated effort.

Preparedness means inherited readiness or constraint that makes some learning easy, some difficult, and some nearly impossible for a particular species.

The chapter explains two forms of cognitive learning: insight learning and latent learning. Insight gives a sudden solution; latent learning appears later, and Tolman explains it through cognitive maps. Concept used. Cognitive learning focuses on change in what the learner knows, not only on a visible stimulus-response connection.

1. Cognitive learning explains learning through mental processes.
2. It studies what the learner knows and understands.
3. Insight learning was demonstrated by Kohler in experiments with chimpanzees.
4. The chimpanzee first seems to make no progress.
5. Then the solution suddenly becomes clear.
6. For example, a chimpanzee may use a box to stand on or a pole to pull food closer.
7. The solution can be repeated immediately after it is discovered.
8. This shows a cognitive relation between means and end.
9. Latent learning was explained by Tolman.
10. In latent learning, new learning occurs but is not displayed until reinforcement is available.
11. Tolman's rats explored a maze without reward and later performed efficiently when reward was given.
12. This suggested that they had formed a cognitive map, a mental representation of spatial locations and directions.

The forms of cognitive learning explained here are insight learning and latent learning. Insight involves sudden understanding; latent learning remains hidden until reinforcement, and Tolman explains it through cognitive maps.

Students with learning disabilities can be identified through persistent difficulties in reading, writing, speaking, attention, space orientation, motor coordination, following directions, social understanding, perception, and dyslexia-related errors. Concept used. Learning disability is a group of disorders that make acquisition of reading, writing, speaking, reasoning, or mathematical learning difficult.

1. Learning disability is a general term for a heterogeneous group of disorders.
2. These disorders create difficulty in acquiring reading, writing, speaking, reasoning, or mathematical skills.
3. The source is presumed to lie in problems with functioning of the central nervous system.
4. Such students may show difficulty in writing letters, words, and phrases.
5. They may have trouble reading out text and speaking clearly.
6. They may have listening problems even when there is no auditory defect.
7. Attention problems are common. The student may be easily distracted and unable to sustain attention.
8. Hyperactivity may also appear, with constant movement and manipulation of objects.
9. Poor space orientation and weak sense of time may be present.
10. The student may confuse right, left, up, and down, or get lost in new surroundings.
11. Poor motor coordination may appear in balance, pencil sharpening, handling doorknobs, or learning to ride a bicycle.
12. The student may fail to follow oral directions.
13. Social relationship judgment may be weak, including difficulty understanding body language.
14. Perceptual disorders may affect visual, auditory, tactual, or kinesthetic performance.
15. Dyslexia may appear through confusion between b and d, p and q, P and 9, or words such as was and saw.

Students with learning disabilities are identified through repeated, pattern-like difficulties in academic skills, attention, orientation, coordination, perception, directions, and dyslexia-type errors, despite adequate intelligence and opportunity.