Factors Affecting Learning
Transfer Transfer Previously learned tasks play a role in learning new tasks Positive Transfer Previously learned responses help learn a new task Ex: Knowing Spanish can help you learn French Low-Road Transfer Learned skill used in a new, but similar setting Ex: Driving someone else’s car Negative Transfer Previously learned responses obstructs learning Ex: Grammar rules, “I before E except after C” Species. High-Road Transfer Learned skill used in a new, and different setting Ex: Learning to drive a manual transmission having only driven automatic
Learning to Learn Harry Harlow Animals can learn to learn Monkey had to find a raisin underneath a lid Always under the same lid Monkey learned this Changed lids, still under the same one
Learned Behaviors Learned Helplessness Pain comes no matter the effort Major cause of depression College kids and loud music Learned Laziness Rewards come without effort Never learn to work
Learned Helplessness Seligman sees 3 important elements Stability: helplessness comes from permanent characteristic Believing there is nothing you can do to get good grades Globality: specificity of the helplessness Believing you are no good at psychology, or no good in school Internality: “where” the problem is Believing you are no good at psychology, or I am not a good teacher
Shaping Reinforcement is used to sculpt new responses out of old ones Rewarding small actions to build up to larger ones. Educational uses
Practice The repetition of a task Helps to bind responses together Causes smooth, fluent movement from response to response Better to practice over a period of time Mental practice
Learning Complicated Skills Most activities are more than single stimulus and response Shaping shows us what responses are needed Must be able to put new responses together Response Chains: responses that follow one another in sequence Brushing your teeth Response Patterns: combining several response chains Getting ready for bed
Response Chains
Modeling Group learning – behavior of others increases our chance of joining in on that behavior Standing ovation Observational Learning – we watch someone perform a behavior and then later we do it ourselves Learning to talk Disinhibition – watch someone engage in threatening activity with no punishments, lose fear of activity Public speaking