Concept of Learning - Essay Example

The changes associated with learning may not be conscious and often the person may not be aware of them until they are pointed out. Often, these changes occur gradually, but sometimes they can occur rapidly (Hardy & Heyes, 2000). Learning is a broad term and encompasses procedures, concepts, facts and opinions. The mechanisms that are involved in learning to complete a set of complex tasks are different from the ones associated with learning about concepts and facts, and it is important to understand each of these mechanisms well in order to understand how complex the process of learning can be.

Traditional means of exploring learning in humans and animals involves the study of conditioning (Brown, 2006). Classical conditioning as discussed by Pavlov and operant conditioning as described by Thorndike provide the most well explored theories of learning. These theories explore how individuals are able to associate valuable cues with useful responses to form ideas and opinions. Besides these, social learning theories like the one given by Bandura also provide valuable insights into who people learning the social context (Brown, 2006).

Most research on learning is based on how well people and animals can remember the things that they have learnt. But it is important to distinguish between the ability to learn something and to recall / recognize it. Toleman found in his 1930 studies that rats that were taught to negotiate a maze would only do so when they had access to food as an incentive to solve the maze (Hardy & Heyes, 2000). When there was no incentive, they did not successfully navigate the maze. Thus, it is important to distinguish between learning and performance.

Learning refers to the process of encoding information and storing it safely (Brown, 2006). When learning occurs without any external proof of it, it is known as latent learning (Hardy & Heyes, 2000). Performance of the other hand, involves actual behavior that is observable and describable. Performance is an objective measurement of the learning that occurs when the correct motivating factors are available to the individual (Hardy & Heyes, 2000). Just because a person does not demonstrate learning cannot be considered as evidence of lack of learning, since the change in observable cues may only occur when there are motivating factors present.

This difference is particularly apparent in studies that evaluate social learning. The research done by Bandura as well as that by Toleman provides evidence for the fact that reinforcement and motivation are valuable mediators to performance, but not to the same extent for learning (Hardy & Heyes, 2000). Most of the popular theories to understanding learning are behavioral in their approach. These include the conditioning theories discussed before (Kayes & Kayes, 2011). These theories are focused on collecting observable units of behavior and with the practical application of the understanding of how people learn.

The other popular approaches are the cognitive and the social approach. The cognitive approach emphasizes the internal changes that occur due to learning, and focuses on who information is acquired and stored. Thus, it focuses of the development of schemas, thoughts and ideas in themselves (Kayes & Kayes, 2011). There are neuro-biological studies that have provided evidence for cognitive theories, and thus, these are becoming more valuable. Neuro-biological models