Cortical and Limbic Systems Process - Term Paper Example

Learning by human beings may be a result of training, education, schooling, or personal growth. Psychology studies how learning occurs in various contexts of life. Additionally, learning may be a result of observation, classical conditioning, and operant conditioning. This paper will look at how amateur soccer players learn to be better players than they are regarding the three learning approaches.

Three students, John, Peter, and James, had just joined high school. The three were extremely passionate about soccer and had the desire to join the school soccer team. John, Peter, and James frequently attended the team’s training sessions. The level of skill and performance of the team was greater than what the three students had, but they were still eager to join. John improved as a player through observational learning, Peter improved through classical conditioning and James through operant conditioning. Observational learning occurs as a result of observation, retention, and replication of another person’s behavior, in most cases a role model. For behavior to be imitated, the observer should pay attention to the behavior of his or her role model. Additionally, the observer should retain the behavior in the memory and finally replicate what he or she had learned from the model. The observer should have the skill to reproduce the model’s action.

While watching soccer matches, John observed his role model’s style of play, and whenever he was practicing, he could try doing what he had learned from his model. His motivation to do all these was to improve. Classical conditioning involves learning through contact with the surrounding. It involves an unconditioned stimulus, which brings forth an expected response; an unconditioned response, which is a natural response to the unconditioned stimulus; a conditioned stimulus formed after the association between a neutral stimulus and unconditioned stimulus; and a conditioned response, the learned response to the earlier stimulus that was neutral.

Whenever Peter saw soccer balls (Unconditioned Stimulus) during the training sessions, his urge to practice would increase (Unconditioned Response). Moreover, when he would hear a whistle (Conditioned Stimulus) being blown, he would feel like going (Conditioned Response) to the pitch to play. On the other hand, operant conditioning entails increasing or decreasing the probability of behavior due to the outcome. It involves a stimulus, response, and reinforcement (Ormrod 123). James attended every training session to improve and get a place on the team. Whenever he completed tasks (response) in training, the coach would praise (reinforce) him. This made him improve his skills and general performance.

Several brain parts assist in the process of learning. Some control learning parts and those involved in the same learning parts. Storage of information is a must for learning to be conducted. The temporal lobe organizes information, speech, and memory. It helps in retrieving memory, images, and accurate information. The amygdala helps in the organization and storage of emotion-related memories. It also determines the memories to be stored and organizes all the memories stored. The hippocampus helps in creating new memories. It makes concepts and fits experiences into the concepts. The frontal lobe solves problems, judgment, memory, language, and personality control. Skills to solve problems and think critically may be affected if damaged.

Several areas of the cortical and limbic systems process and store semantic memory and memory of events in the brain. In addition, the anterior cingulate cortex, a component of the cerebral cortex attached to the prefrontal cortex, helps in the retention of unpleasant memories. The cerebellum stores the memory that enables one to do something. Sensation refers to the situation where we gather information through our senses and send it to the brain. At any given time, there is a large number of information, but we only pay attention to the ones that we can. Each has a different threshold from the other. Conversely, perception involves recognizing stimuli in the environment and actions regarding the stimuli. Perception enables us to take action within our surroundings (Ormrod 325). The senses of sight, smell, taste, hearing, and touch are included in perception.

The process of perceiving is a series of phases that start with the surroundings, perception, and action regarding the stimulus. Insight, light hits an object and then the light is reflected into the retina and turns into a definite image. The smell is attained through the special cells via the odor molecules. Taste is acquired through the tongue’s contact with the stimulus and onto the tongue cells. The sense of touch is achieved through physical contact with an individual’s skin and actual stimulus. Hearing entails the pressure waves passing through the ear. Sensors in body parts alter environmental signals into encoded neural signals. The signals are passed from the receptor cells to the brain through the neurons found all over the body. Read More