Cognitive and Behavioural Views of Learning - Essay Example

Cognitive and Behavioural Views of Learning 2007 Cognitive and Behavioural Views of Learning Learning is involved in literally all aspects of human life. From the cradle, we learn to crawl, then walk, and use our hands; by lapse of time we acquire more complex skills, such as reading or writing, or playing football; we learn how to persuade people, make them give us what we want; and during most part of our life we also learn how to learn. The essence of learning is that "a learner is changed as a result of past experience" (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002: 166). The major purpose of this change is to facilitate the process of adjusting to the circumstances that surround us: "Learning is a process whereby individual animals, human and others, are able to acquire knowledge or skills that equip them to cope better with the environment" (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002: 167). Representatives of behaviourism, cognitive psychology, psychoanalysis, and other perspectives demonstrate variety of views regarding the nature of learning. Learning as conditioning, learning as the formation and alteration of symbolic structures, learning as the adjustment of weights in a neural net - these are only some of them. The views of learning adopted by representatives of the most widely known schools - behaviourist and cognitive - provide a bright illustration to the origins and gravity of these differences. The concept of learning is the central axis of behaviourism. J. Watson B. Skinner and E. Thorndike, the founding fathers of behavioural approach in psychology, are concerned not with what is going on inside the brain but rather with establishing cause-effect relationship between the act of behaviour and observable causes produced by that act. The origins of behaviourist perspective are traced back to John Watson (1878 - 1958) whom was the first formulate the principles of modern behaviourism. His definition of this approach was highly practical. Thus, Watson believed psychology should be a purely objective field of knowledge used to accurately predict and control human behaviour. Introspection and self-analysis are useless if applied to psychology and there is no difference between humans and animals. In fact, Watson neglected the concept of the conscious as such (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002). Formulating his views Watson relied heavily on the Ivan Pavlov's discovery of the mechanism of classical conditioning. Pavlov's studies of dog's digestion transformed the common understanding of learning. The scientist carried out a series of experiments in order to test his initial conclusions. He provided a sound or light signal that was immediately followed by some food placed in the dog's moth. The dog started to perceive the signal in conjunction with the food and after several repetitions the dog salivated immediately after the signal even without any food. This fact made Pavlov introduce a new psycho-physiological concept of a conditional stimulus in distinction to an unconditioned stimulus (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002: 170-171). Although Pavlov revealed the phenomenon of classical conditioning during experimental studies, which involved animals, the key principle of this process is valid in human behaviour too. Watson described an example of the classical conditioning in human beings. Albert, an infant with a pet rat, was not afraid of it until once Watson banged a metal plate while the boy was reaching for his pet. Subsequently, Albert started to demonstrate fear of the rat (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002: 172). Another good example of the classical conditioning in humans is the bell-and-pad technique that is often used to cope with bed-wetting in children. Two perforated metal sheets connected to a low-tension battery are placed under the bed sheet. When a child moistens the bed urine short-circuits the sheets, and the battery produces a laud alarm making the child wake up. After several alarms the child is able to wake up without the alarm: the sensation of a full bladder is finally connected to the necessity of waking up (Fedorko, 1986: 27). Skinner further elaborated on the behaviourist conception of learning by paying attention not only to stimuli that cause certain behaviour of individual, but also exploring the stimuli affecting the actor after performance. In a series of experiments involving rats and pigeons that were rewarded with food for pressing a lever in the Skinner box, the scientist observed that positive stimuli led to more frequent repetition of the act that caused them; he called such stimuli "reinforcers" (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002: 175-176). By contrast, the main feature of cognitive approach is the principle of conscious information processing, i.e. people not simply receive information and react to it but also interpret it according to the prior experience. In fact, the cognitive theory of learning emerged in response to behavioural approach that focuses almost exclusively on the observable behavior and neglects the processes inside the brain. Cognitivists highlight the importance of these processes for successful learning. One of the key assumptions underlying the cognitive approach is the concept of 'category learning' pioneered by J. Bruner. In his classical study, Bruner offered the participants an array of 81 rectangular stimulus cards printed with a varying combinations of the following four properties: shape (square, circle or cross); number of each shape (I, 2 or 3 instances); shading of the shapes (plain, black or striped); and number of borders round the card (1, 2 or 3). The participants were asked to relate each of the cards to a certain category and explain their choice. Based on the data collected during the study Bruner suggested that human learn categories using different strategies the choice of which depended upon the situation of learning (Littleton, Toates, & Braisby, 2002: 190-191. The cognitive views of learning imply that human development and language are the main tools of learning. Before the child can master a certain behavioural pattern he should master language that helps correctly perceive the world around him. This aspect constitutes perhaps the most dramatic distinction between the behaviourist and cognitive views of learning. Social determination of the process of learning (Vygotsky), emphasis on the internal processes of learning (Piaget), and the role of teachers in organization of learning process (Bruner) represent other important foci points that contribute to the distinction between the two perspectives. Cognitive theories view learning and development of personality as a process of recognition; learning within the behaviourist approach is limited to mechanic accumulation of behavioural patterns. Cognitive learning is based on the human ability to receive, encode and retrieve information; behaviourist learning relies on the purely biological construct of stimuli-reactions and reinforcement. While the cognitive approach emphasises the huge potential of human in conscious process of obtaining knowledge and skills, the behaviourist perspective treats human personality as a mere set of behavioural templates. Evidently, extreme biologization and primitivization of human behaviour is the major drawback of behaviourism. The cognitive perspective avoids the serious drawbacks of behaviourism. Cognitive theories of learning underlie majority of pedagogical models that have been designed over the last several decades. Absence of agreement concerning the inner processes that take place inside the brain during learning, coupled with absence of reliable methods to explore them is a drawback of the cognitive theories of learning. References Fedorko, L. (1986). Understanding Psychology, Forth Edition. Random House. Frager, R and Fadiman, J. (2000). Personality and Personal Growth. Longman Gleitman, H., Friedlund, A., and Reisberg, D. (2000). Basic Psychology. W.W. Norton and Co. Littleton, K., F. Toates, & N. Braisby (2002). "Chapter 3: Three Approaches to Learning" in: Miell, D., A. Phoenix and K. Thomas (eds) Mapping Psychology. The Open University Read More