How do you learn best?
By Kendall Hay
Many people do not know the difference between conditioning, social learning theory and information processing theory. While classical conditioning involved the response given with the exposure to a new stimuli, the social learning theory involves learning new information from watching others. With information processing theory, there are three main types that are more associated with it. They are, sensory, working and long-term memory.
What is learning?
Learning is when someone experiences something which causes a change in the person’s knowledge or changes the behavior of the person. Webster’s dictionary describes learning as, “the activity or process of gaining knowledge or skill by studying, practicing, being taught, or experiencing something” (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary). Not all learning is done consciously most learning is done unconsciously. We are constantly learning everyday weather we are going to class or work, or even going on a walk down the street. Warten psychology students say, “most of what we learn before, during, and after attending schools is learned without its being taught to us”. (The Objective of Education Is Learning, Not Teaching)
For example, a pre-schooler will end up learning more about butterflies by seeing them in person and then talking about it, than from looking at picture and hearing about them. Not all learning experiences are good ones. For example a child running with her shoes untied ends up tripping and scraping her knees. The child was hurt since both of her knees are scraped, and she then learns not to run around with her shoes untied. Learning for everyone is individualized and is perceived in different ways, but that is what makes each person unique.
Classical Conditioning
The classical conditioning is when you when you see, hear, or smell something and have an automatic response to it. Ivan Pavlov created the most famous classical condition experiment in the 1920’s. He was originally looking at the different levels of salivation from a dog. He noticed that the dog would start to salivate before it saw the food. Then it l the dog began salivating when he heard the footsteps of the scientist coming to his crate. Pavlov was not sure if this would work on humans, so he tried it on Little Albert. He used a white rat and a loud noise, so every time Little Albert saw the rat there would be a loud noise behind his head. Eventually after a few times Albert started to associate the loud noise with the rat and then cry when he saw the rat. After a few more experiments, Pavlov was able to put the information together to form a theory that he called it classical conditioning. There are many real life examples of classical conditioning in everyday life. One example in the SMU community is the “hot cookies” bell in the Umphrey Lee cafeteria. The lady who makes the cookies everyday rings a bell when they are fresh out of the oven. Once students hear that bell, most of us start to salivate. The reason that classical conditioning is important to our society is that it helps us to understand how human behavior works is affected by our environment.
Social learning theory
The social learning is the process of learning by watching others. Albert Bandura presented this theory in 1977. He found important contrasts between learning and performance and enactive and observational learning.
Bandura was able to find a difference between enactive learning and observational learning. Enactive learning is the concept of learning while doing. For example the best way to learn how to make a cake is by making it not by watching your mom doing it. This is seen as providing information and do not strengthen or weaken behavior. Observational learning is when you learn by watching what other people do. For example, if a child sees another child jump off the top of the monkey bars and falls and hurts itself, then hopefully the observing child will learn not to do that. If people are able to learn by watching, then people are better off when making a decision.
For the contrasts between learning and performing, Bandura first came to the realization that, “we all know more than we show” (300, Woolfolk). Learning and performance can best be explained in the “Bobo” doll experiment. Three groups of children who saw a video of someone kicking the doll, but the difference was one group saw the person being rewarded for the kicking, one group the person got scolded and in the last group there was no reaction. Then all the kids in the three groups were put into the room with the doll. The result, the kids who saw the person kicking the doll and got rewarded, went up and started kicking the doll while the other kids watched. This shows that the kids learned what was right, and then proceeded to do those actions by thinking they would be rewarded in the end.
Processing Theory
Craik and Lockhart first outlined the different levels of processing theory in 1972. The reason they created them was because it was used as an alternate for long and short-term memory. They were able to determine how long different information is remembered and how much of it is retained. The three main types of processing theory are sensory, working and long-term memory.
Longe Term Memory
Explicit Memory
Explicit memory is part of the long term memory that involves calculated recall. With Explicit memory, we know that we remembered the memory or information we are trying to recall, therefore it is referred to as cautious memory. There are two other categories that are found in the explicit memory; they are episodic memory and semantic memory. Episodic memory is a memory that a person has experienced, while a semantic memory is facts and other general knowledge. An example of a episodic memory is what you ate on your eighteenth birthday at your party. An example of semantic memory I knowing that in your freshman year of college, you had class Friday mornings at 8 first semester.
Implicit Memory
Implicit memory is knowledge that we did not know we have, but it influences our behavior in a incautious way. For example riding a bike. Once you learn how to ride it once, every other time you get on, you don’t have to think about it. There are three different sub categories in the implicit memory, classical conditioning effects, procedural memory and priming. The classical conditioning effect for example, is crying when you fall down. For most children, even if they didn’t get hurt when they fell, they still naturally cry. Procedural memory is a habit, for example it like when a person leaves the room and automatically turns the lights off. They were taught when leaving a room they need to turn off the lights, so now it has become a habit. Priming is when one stimulus affects other stimuli later on in life. For example, learning the alphabet first helps children learn to spell and read later in life.
Sensory Memory
The sensory memory is the first step in developing new sights, smells, and tastes. It is a place in the brain that holds the sensory information for a period of time, while it is being processed to develop understanding. The sensory memory is very large and can hold a lot of information, but the information is only kept there for three seconds. When the information is in the sensory memory and it is assigned a meaning it is known as perception (316, Woolfolk). That processes is called the bottom up theory, which means our body is able to recognize something based on finding details and characteristics, that form a pattern. For example, if you quickly see a sketch that looks like a penguin, then your eyes will tell your brain that you saw a penguin. This is because your mind perceived the sketches to be a penguin based on the picture you saw.
Working Memory
The working memory is the part of the brain that holds and processes challenging information, which is the information a person is focusing on at the moment. While the sensory memory has a large space to hold information, the working memory is smaller and the information is combined with previous knowledge. There are four sub-parts to a working memory; they are, central executive, phonological loop, episodic buffer, and Visuospatial
Central Executive
The central executive is where are the mental resources are located. It decides what information a person needs in order to solve what’s at hand. For example, you are talking to your friend, and texting at the same time you are going on a walk. It is hard to not text what you are saying, so it is preferable to finish your conversation and then send the text when you stop walking, or if able to text while walking, then do it when the conversation with your friend is at a pause.
Phonological Loop
The phonological loop is where all the sounds and speech are kept. In order for a person to remember them, this part of the memory keeps the information going on a loop. Baddeley says that, “we can hold as much in the phonological loop as we can rehearse (say to ourselves) in 1.5 to 2 seconds” (320, Woolfolk).
Episodic Buffer
The episodic buffer combines all the information from all the parts in the working memory and combines all the information and memories. This is where the mind makes sense of the information and then stores it in the correct area of the memory. It is the final stop to all the information.
Visuospatial Sketchpad
The visuospatial sketchpad is the place the memory works an image to get the result needed. When a person's visuospatial sketchpad is working, it is the same as a person looking at the picture. For example you look at a picture of star and then are told to rotate it 180 degrees. Your visuospatial sketchpad rotates the picture inside your mind and then you are able to realize that the picture will look exactly the same.
Sources
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/learning
Dog photo: http://www.dog-training-excellence.com/classical-conditioning.html
http://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/the-objective-of-education-is-learning-not-teaching/
Cake picture: http://www.mamajeanius.co.uk/news/category/your-toddler/
"Bobo" doll picture: http://www.storyboardthat.com/userboards/chillychaz/bandura's-bobo-doll-study
Elephant cartoon: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/l/long-term_memory.asp
Walking dog photo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ayS1VA6WZE
People on bikes photo: http://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/implicit-memory
Senses picture: https://www.emaze.com/@AOIORQIO/The-case-of-Clive-Wearing-and-Herry-Molaison
Working memory: http://wmp.education.uci.edu
Guy at Desk picture: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/c/central_executive_officer.asp
Phonological Loop picture: http://www.simplypsychology.org/working%20memory.html
Buffering photo: https://pekoeblaze.wordpress.com/2013/07/23/creating-articlecomic-buffers-for-blogs-and-webcomics/
Education Psychology: Active learning edition By Anita Woolfk