different types of research on psychology and learning

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Ch 4: Psychology of Learning

The summer sun shines brightly on a deserted stretch of beach. Suddenly, a tiny grey head emerges from the sand, then another and another. Soon the beach is teeming with loggerhead sea turtle hatchlings (Figure 1). Although only minutes old, the hatchlings know exactly what to do. Their flippers are not very efficient for moving across the hot sand, yet they continue onward, instinctively. Some are quickly snapped up by gulls circling overhead and others become lunch for hungry ghost crabs that dart out of their holes. Despite these dangers, the hatchlings are driven to leave the safety of their nest and find the ocean.

Not far down this same beach, Ben and his son, Julian, paddle out into the ocean on surfboards. A wave approaches. Julian crouches on his board, then jumps up and rides the wave for a few seconds before losing his balance. He emerges from the water in time to watch his father ride the face of the wave.

Unlike baby sea turtles, which know how to find the ocean and swim with no help from their parents, we are not born knowing how to swim (or surf). Yet we humans pride ourselves on our ability to learn. In fact, over thousands of years and across cultures, we have created institutions devoted entirely to learning. But have you ever asked yourself how exactly it is that we learn? What processes are at work as we come to know what we know? This chapter focuses on the primary ways in which learning occurs.

In this section, you’ll learn about learning. It might not be “learning” as you typically think of the word, because we’re not talking about going to school, or studying, or even effortfully trying to remember something. Instead, you’ll see that one of the main types of behavioral learning that we do is simply through an automatic process of association, known as classical conditioning. In classical conditioning, organisms learn to associate events that repeatedly happen together, and researchers study how a reflexive response to a stimulus can be mapped to a different stimulus—by training an association between the two stimuli. Ivan Pavlov’s experiments show how stimulus-response bonds are formed. Watson, the founder of behaviorism, was greatly influenced by Pavlov’s work. He tested humans by conditioning fear in an infant known as Little Albert. His findings suggest that classical conditioning can explain how some fears develop. We will then explore operant conditioning and observational learning.

Learning Objectives

• Recognize and define three basic forms of learning—classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning

What is Learning?

Birds build nests and migrate as winter approaches. Infants suckle at their mother’s breast. Dogs shake water off wet fur. Salmon swim upstream to spawn, and spiders spin intricate webs. What do these seemingly unrelated behaviors have in common? They all are unlearned behaviors. Both instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors that organisms are born with. Reflexes are a motor or neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the environment. They tend to be simpler than instincts, involve the activity of specific body parts and systems (e.g., the knee-jerk reflex and the contraction of the pupil in bright light), and involve more primitive centers of the central nervous system (e.g., the spinal cord and the medulla). In contrast, instincts  are innate behaviors that are triggered by a broader range of events, such as aging and the change of seasons. They are more complex patterns of behavior, involve movement of the organism as a whole (e.g., sexual activity and migration), and involve higher brain centers.

Both reflexes and instincts help an organism adapt to its environment and do not have to be learned. For example, every healthy human baby has a sucking reflex, present at birth. Babies are born knowing how to suck on a nipple, whether artificial (from a bottle) or human. Nobody teaches the baby to suck, just as no one teaches a sea turtle hatchling to move toward the ocean.

Learning , like reflexes and instincts, allows an organism to adapt to its environment. But unlike instincts and reflexes, learned behaviors involve change and experience: learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. In contrast to the innate behaviors discussed above, learning involves acquiring knowledge and skills through experience. Looking back at our surfing scenario, Julian will have to spend much more time training with his surfboard before he learns how to ride the waves like his father.

Learning to surf, as well as any complex learning process (e.g., learning about the discipline of psychology), involves a complex interaction of conscious and unconscious processes. Learning has traditionally been studied in terms of its simplest components—the associations our minds automatically make between events. Our minds have a natural tendency to connect events that occur closely together or in sequence. Associative learning  occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment. You will see that associative learning is central to all three basic learning processes discussed in this module; classical conditioning tends to involve unconscious processes, operant conditioning tends to involve conscious processes, and observational learning adds social and cognitive layers to all the basic associative processes, both conscious and unconscious. These learning processes will be discussed in detail later, but it is helpful to have a brief overview of each as you begin to explore how learning is understood from a psychological perspective.

In classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning, organisms learn to associate events—or stimuli—that repeatedly happen together. We experience this process throughout our daily lives. For example, you might see a flash of lightning in the sky during a storm and then hear a loud boom of thunder. The sound of the thunder naturally makes you jump (loud noises have that effect by reflex). Because lightning reliably predicts the impending boom of thunder, you may associate the two and jump when you see lightning. Psychological researchers study this associative process by focusing on what can be seen and measured—behaviors. Researchers ask if one stimulus triggers a reflex, can we train a different stimulus to trigger that same reflex? In operant conditioning, organisms learn, again, to associate events—a behavior and its consequence (reinforcement or punishment). A pleasant consequence encourages more of that behavior in the future, whereas a punishment deters the behavior. Imagine you are teaching your dog, Hodor, to sit. You tell Hodor to sit, and give him a treat when he does. After repeated experiences, Hodor begins to associate the act of sitting with receiving a treat. He learns that the consequence of sitting is that he gets a doggie biscuit (Figure 3). Conversely, if the dog is punished when exhibiting a behavior, it becomes conditioned to avoid that behavior (e.g., receiving a small shock when crossing the boundary of an invisible electric fence).

Observational learning extends the effective range of both classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct experience, observational learning is the process of watching others and then imitating what they do. A lot of learning among humans and other animals comes from observational learning. To get an idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings, consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction. How might observation help Julian learn to surf, as opposed to learning by trial and error alone? By watching his father, he can imitate the moves that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure. Can you think of something you have learned how to do after watching someone else?

All of the approaches covered in this chapter are part of a particular tradition in psychology, called behaviorism. However, these approaches you’ll be introduced to do not represent the entire study of learning. Separate traditions of learning have taken shape within different fields of psychology, such as memory and cognition, so you will find that other chapters of this book will round out your understanding of the topic. Over time these traditions tend to converge. For example, in this chapter you will see how cognition has come to play a larger role in behaviorism, whose more extreme adherents once insisted that behaviors are triggered by the environment with no intervening thought.

For a sneak peak and overview of the main different types of learning, watch the CrashCourse psychology below. We’ll learn about each of these topics in greater depth throughout this module.

You can view the transcript for “How to Train a Brain: Crash Course Psychology #11” here (opens in new window) .

Think It Over

• What is your personal definition of learning? How do your ideas about learning compare with the definition of learning presented in this text?
• What kinds of things have you learned through the process of classical conditioning? Operant conditioning? Observational learning? How did you learn them?

Classical Conditioning

• Explain how classical conditioning occurs
• Identify the NS, UCS, UCR, CS, and CR in classical conditioning situations
• Describe the processes of acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization, and discrimination

Does the name Ivan Pavlov ring a bell? Even if you are new to the study of psychology, chances are that you have heard of Pavlov and his famous dogs.

Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian scientist, performed extensive research on dogs and is best known for his experiments in classical conditioning (Figure 4). As we discussed briefly in the previous section, classical conditioning  is a process by which we learn to associate stimuli and, consequently, to anticipate events.

Pavlov came to his conclusions about how learning occurs completely by accident. Pavlov was a physiologist, not a psychologist. Physiologists study the life processes of organisms, from the molecular level to the level of cells, organ systems, and entire organisms. Pavlov’s area of interest was the digestive system (Hunt, 2007). In his studies with dogs, Pavlov surgically implanted tubes inside dogs’ cheeks to collect saliva. He then measured the amount of saliva produced in response to various foods. Over time, Pavlov (1927) observed that the dogs began to salivate not only at the taste of food, but also at the sight of food, at the sight of an empty food bowl, and even at the sound of the laboratory assistants’ footsteps. Salivating to food in the mouth is reflexive, so no learning is involved. However, dogs don’t naturally salivate at the sight of an empty bowl or the sound of footsteps.

These unusual responses intrigued Pavlov, and he wondered what accounted for what he called the dogs’ “psychic secretions” (Pavlov, 1927). To explore this phenomenon in an objective manner, Pavlov designed a series of carefully controlled experiments to see which stimuli would cause the dogs to salivate. He was able to train the dogs to salivate in response to stimuli that clearly had nothing to do with food, such as the sound of a bell, a light, and a touch on the leg. Through his experiments, Pavlov realized that an organism has two types of responses to its environment: (1) unconditioned (unlearned) responses, or reflexes, and (2) conditioned (learned) responses.

In Pavlov’s experiments, the dogs salivated each time meat powder was presented to them. The meat powder in this situation was an un conditioned stimulus (UCS) : a stimulus that elicits a reflexive response in an organism. The dogs’ salivation was an unconditioned response (UCR) : a natural (unlearned) reaction to a given stimulus. Before conditioning, think of the dogs’ stimulus and response like this:

In classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus is presented immediately before an unconditioned stimulus. Pavlov would sound a tone (like ringing a bell) and then give the dogs the meat powder (Figure 5). The tone was the neutral stimulus (NS), which is a stimulus that does not naturally elicit a response. Prior to conditioning, the dogs did not salivate when they just heard the tone because the tone had no association for the dogs. Quite simply this pairing means:

When Pavlov paired the tone with the meat powder over and over again, the previously neutral stimulus (the tone) also began to elicit salivation from the dogs. Thus, the neutral stimulus became the conditioned stimulus (CS) , which is a stimulus that elicits a response after repeatedly being paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Eventually, the dogs began to salivate to the tone alone, just as they previously had salivated at the sound of the assistants’ footsteps. The behavior caused by the conditioned stimulus is called the conditioned response (CR) . In the case of Pavlov’s dogs, they had learned to associate the tone (CS) with being fed, and they began to salivate (CR) in anticipation of food.

View the following video to learn more about Pavlov and his dogs:

You can view the transcript for “Classical Conditioning – Ivan Pavlov” here (opens in new window) .

Real World Application of Classical Conditioning

Everyday Connection: Classical Conditioning at Stingray City

Kate and her husband Scott recently vacationed in the Cayman Islands, and booked a boat tour to Stingray City, where they could feed and swim with the southern stingrays. The boat captain explained how the normally solitary stingrays have become accustomed to interacting with humans. About 40 years ago, fishermen began to clean fish and conch (unconditioned stimulus) at a particular sandbar near a barrier reef, and large numbers of stingrays would swim in to eat (unconditioned response) what the fishermen threw into the water; this continued for years. By the late 1980s, word of the large group of stingrays spread among scuba divers, who then started feeding them by hand. Over time, the southern stingrays in the area were classically conditioned much like Pavlov’s dogs. When they hear the sound of a boat engine (neutral stimulus that becomes a conditioned stimulus), they know that they will get to eat (conditioned response).

As soon as Kate and Scott reached Stingray City, over two dozen stingrays surrounded their tour boat. The couple slipped into the water with bags of squid, the stingrays’ favorite treat. The swarm of stingrays bumped and rubbed up against their legs like hungry cats (Figure 7). Kate and Scott were able to feed, pet, and even kiss (for luck) these amazing creatures. Then all the squid was gone, and so were the stingrays.

Classical conditioning also applies to humans, even babies. For example, Sara buys formula in blue canisters for her six-month-old daughter, Angelina. Whenever Sara takes out a formula container, Angelina gets excited, tries to reach toward the food, and most likely salivates. Why does Angelina get excited when she sees the formula canister? What are the UCS, CS, UCR, and CR here?

So far, all of the examples have involved food, but classical conditioning extends beyond the basic need to be fed. Consider our earlier example of a dog whose owners install an invisible electric dog fence. A small electrical shock (unconditioned stimulus) elicits discomfort (unconditioned response). When the unconditioned stimulus (shock) is paired with a neutral stimulus (the edge of a yard), the dog associates the discomfort (unconditioned response) with the edge of the yard (conditioned stimulus) and stays within the set boundaries.

Link to Learning

Can you think of an example in your life of how classical conditioning has produced a positive emotional response, such as happiness or excitement? How about a negative emotional response, such as fear, anxiety, or anger?

Processes in Classical Conditioning

Of course, these processes also apply in humans. For example, let’s say that every day when you walk to campus, an ice cream truck passes your route. Day after day, you hear the truck’s music (neutral stimulus), so you finally stop and purchase a chocolate ice cream bar. You take a bite (unconditioned stimulus) and then your mouth waters (unconditioned response). This initial period of learning is known as acquisition, when you begin to connect the neutral stimulus (the sound of the truck) and the unconditioned stimulus (the taste of the chocolate ice cream in your mouth). During acquisition, the conditioned response gets stronger and stronger through repeated pairings of the conditioned stimulus and unconditioned stimulus. Several days (and ice cream bars) later, you notice that your mouth begins to water (conditioned response) as soon as you hear the truck’s musical jingle—even before you bite into the ice cream bar. Then one day you head down the street. You hear the truck’s music (conditioned stimulus), and your mouth waters (conditioned response). However, when you get to the truck, you discover that they are all out of ice cream. You leave disappointed. The next few days you pass by the truck and hear the music, but don’t stop to get an ice cream bar because you’re running late for class. You begin to salivate less and less when you hear the music, until by the end of the week, your mouth no longer waters when you hear the tune. This illustrates extinction. The conditioned response weakens when only the conditioned stimulus (the sound of the truck) is presented, without being followed by the unconditioned stimulus (chocolate ice cream in the mouth). Then the weekend comes. You don’t have to go to class, so you don’t pass the truck. Monday morning arrives and you take your usual route to campus. You round the corner and hear the truck again. What do you think happens? Your mouth begins to water again. Why? After a break from conditioning, the conditioned response reappears, which indicates spontaneous recovery.

Acquisition and extinction involve the strengthening and weakening, respectively, of a learned association. Two other learning processes—stimulus discrimination and stimulus generalization—are involved in distinguishing which stimuli will trigger the learned association. Animals (including humans) need to distinguish between stimuli—for example, between sounds that predict a threatening event and sounds that do not—so that they can respond appropriately (such as running away if the sound is threatening). When an organism learns to respond differently to various stimuli that are similar, it is called stimulus discrimination . In classical conditioning terms, the organism demonstrates the conditioned response only to the conditioned stimulus. Pavlov’s dogs discriminated between the basic tone that sounded before they were fed and other tones (e.g., the doorbell), because the other sounds did not predict the arrival of food. Similarly, Tiger, the cat, discriminated between the sound of the can opener and the sound of the electric mixer. When the electric mixer is going, Tiger is not about to be fed, so she does not come running to the kitchen looking for food.

On the other hand, when an organism demonstrates the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the condition stimulus, it is called stimulus generalization , the opposite of stimulus discrimination. The more similar a stimulus is to the condition stimulus, the more likely the organism is to give the conditioned response. For instance, if the electric mixer sounds very similar to the electric can opener, Tiger may come running after hearing its sound. But if you do not feed her following the electric mixer sound, and you continue to feed her consistently after the electric can opener sound, she will quickly learn to discriminate between the two sounds (provided they are sufficiently dissimilar that she can tell them apart).

Sometimes, classical conditioning can lead to habituation. Habituation  occurs when we learn not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change. As the stimulus occurs over and over, we learn not to focus our attention on it. For example, imagine that your neighbor or roommate constantly has the television blaring. This background noise is distracting and makes it difficult for you to focus when you’re studying. However, over time, you become accustomed to the stimulus of the television noise, and eventually you hardly notice it any longer.

Classical Conditioning and Behaviorism

John B. Watson, shown in Figure 9, is considered the founder of behaviorism. Behaviorism is a school of thought that arose during the first part of the 20th century, which incorporates elements of Pavlov’s classical conditioning (Hunt, 2007). In stark contrast with Freud, who considered the reasons for behavior to be hidden in the unconscious, Watson championed the idea that all behavior can be studied as a simple stimulus-response reaction, without regard for internal processes. Watson argued that in order for psychology to become a legitimate science, it must shift its concern away from internal mental processes because mental processes cannot be seen or measured. Instead, he asserted that psychology must focus on outward observable behavior that can be measured.

Watson’s ideas were influenced by Pavlov’s work. According to Watson, human behavior, just like animal behavior, is primarily the result of conditioned responses. Whereas Pavlov’s work with dogs involved the conditioning of reflexes, Watson believed the same principles could be extended to the conditioning of human emotions (Watson, 1919). Thus began Watson’s work with his graduate student Rosalie Rayner and a baby called Little Albert. Through their experiments with Little Albert, Watson and Rayner (1920) demonstrated how fears can be conditioned.

In 1920, Watson was the chair of the psychology department at Johns Hopkins University. Through his position at the university he came to meet Little Albert’s mother, Arvilla Merritte, who worked at a campus hospital (DeAngelis, 2010). Watson offered her a dollar to allow her son to be the subject of his experiments in classical conditioning. Through these ‘experiments,’ Little Albert was exposed to and conditioned to fear certain things. Initially he was presented with various neutral stimuli, including a rabbit, a dog, a monkey, masks, cotton wool, and a white rat. He was not afraid of any of these things. Then Watson, with the help of Rayner, conditioned Little Albert to associate these stimuli with an emotion—fear. For example, Watson handed Little Albert the white rat, and Little Albert enjoyed playing with it. Then Watson made a loud sound, by striking a hammer against a metal bar hanging behind Little Albert’s head, each time Little Albert touched the rat. Little Albert was frightened by the sound—demonstrating a reflexive fear of sudden loud noises—and began to cry. Watson repeatedly paired the loud sound with the white rat. Soon Little Albert became frightened by the white rat alone. [This to yourself… In this case, what are the UCS, CS, UCR, and CR?] Days later, Little Albert demonstrated stimulus generalization—he became afraid of other furry things: a rabbit, a furry coat, and even a Santa Claus mask (Figure 10). Watson had succeeded in conditioning a fear response in Little Albert, thus demonstrating that emotions could become conditioned responses. It had been Watson’s intention to produce a phobia—a persistent, excessive fear of a specific object or situation— through conditioning alone, thus countering Freud’s view that phobias are caused by deep, hidden conflicts in the mind. However, there is no evidence that Little Albert experienced phobias in later years. Little Albert’s mother moved away, ending the experiment, and Little Albert himself died a few years later of unrelated causes. While Watson’s research provided new insight into conditioning, it would be considered unethical by today’s standards.

View scenes from John Watson’s “experiment” in which Little Albert was conditioned to respond in fear to furry objects.

As you watch the video, look closely at Little Albert’s reactions and the manner in which Watson and Rayner present the stimuli before and after conditioning. Based on what you see, would you come to the same conclusions as the researchers?

Everyday Connection: Advertising and Associative Learning

Advertising executives are pros at applying the principles of associative learning. Think about the car commercials you have seen on television. Many of them feature an attractive model. By associating the model with the car being advertised, you come to see the car as being desirable (Cialdini, 2008). You may be asking yourself, does this advertising technique actually work? According to Cialdini (2008), men who viewed a car commercial that included an attractive model later rated the car as being faster, more appealing, and better designed than did men who viewed an advertisement for the same car minus the model.

Have you ever noticed how quickly advertisers cancel contracts with a famous athlete following a scandal? As far as the advertiser is concerned, that athlete is no longer associated with positive feelings; therefore, the athlete cannot be used as an unconditioned stimulus to condition the public to associate positive feelings (the unconditioned response) with their product (the conditioned stimulus).

Now that you are aware of how associative learning works, see if you can find examples of these types of advertisements on television, in magazines, or on the Internet.

Operant Conditioning

You’ve already learned about classical conditioning, or conditioning by association. This section will focus on operant conditioning, which emphasizes reinforcement for behaviors. In operant conditioning, the motivation for a behavior happens after the behavior is demonstrated. An animal or a human receives a consequence (reinforcer or punisher) after performing a specific behavior. You’ll learn that all types of reinforcement (positive or negative) increase  the likelihood of a behavioral response, while all types of punishment  decrease  the likelihood of a behavioral response.

Watch this video for a review of classical conditioning and an introduction of operant conditioning to help you differentiate between the two types of learning.

You can view the transcript for “The difference between classical and operant conditioning – Peggy Andover” here (opens in new window) .

• Define and give examples of operant conditioning
• Explain the difference between reinforcement and punishment (including positive and negative reinforcement and positive and negative punishment)
• Define shaping
• Differentiate between primary and secondary reinforcers
• Distinguish between reinforcement schedules

The previous section of this module focused on the type of associative learning known as classical conditioning. Remember that in classical conditioning, something in the environment triggers a reflex automatically, and researchers train the organism to react to a different stimulus. Now we turn to the second type of associative learning, operant conditioning. In operant conditioning , organisms learn to associate a behavior and its consequence (Table 1). A pleasant consequence makes that behavior more likely to be repeated in the future. For example, Spirit, a dolphin at the National Aquarium in Baltimore, does a flip in the air when her trainer blows a whistle. The consequence is that she gets a fish.

Psychologist B. F. Skinner saw that classical conditioning is limited to existing behaviors that are reflexively elicited, and it doesn’t account for new behaviors such as riding a bike. He proposed a theory about how such behaviors come about. Skinner believed that behavior is motivated by the consequences we receive for the behavior: the reinforcements and punishments. His idea that learning is the result of consequences is based on the law of effect , which was first proposed by psychologist Edward Thorndike. According to the law of effect, behaviors that are followed by consequences that are satisfying to the organism are more likely to be repeated, and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated (Thorndike, 1911). Essentially, if an organism does something that brings about a desired result, the organism is more likely to do it again. If an organism does something that does not bring about a desired result, the organism is less likely to do it again. An example of the law of effect is in employment. One of the reasons (and often the main reason) we show up for work is because we get paid to do so. If we stop getting paid, we will likely stop showing up—even if we love our job.

Working with Thorndike’s law of effect as his foundation, Skinner began conducting scientific experiments on animals (mainly rats and pigeons) to determine how organisms learn through operant conditioning (Skinner, 1938). He placed these animals inside an operant conditioning chamber, which has come to be known as a “Skinner box” (Figure 11). A Skinner box contains a lever (for rats) or disk (for pigeons) that the animal can press or peck for a food reward via the dispenser. Speakers and lights can be associated with certain behaviors. A recorder counts the number of responses made by the animal.

Watch the following clip to learn more about operant conditioning and to watch an interview with Skinner as he talks about conditioning pigeons.

You can view the transcript for “Operant conditioning” here (opens in new window) .

Reinforcement and Punishment

In discussing operant conditioning, we use several everyday words—positive, negative, reinforcement, and punishment—in a specialized manner. In operant conditioning, positive and negative do not mean good and bad. Instead, positive means you are adding something, and negative means you are taking something away. Reinforcement means you are increasing a behavior, and punishment means you are decreasing a behavior. Reinforcement can be positive or negative, and punishment can also be positive or negative. All reinforcers (positive or negative) increase the likelihood of a behavioral response. All punishers (positive or negative) decrease the likelihood of a behavioral response. Now let’s combine these four terms: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment (Table 2).

Reinforcement

The most effective way to teach a person or animal a new behavior is with positive reinforcement. In positive reinforcement , a desirable stimulus is added to increase a behavior.

For example, you tell your five-year-old son, Jerome, that if he cleans his room, he will get a toy. Jerome quickly cleans his room because he wants a new art set. Let’s pause for a moment. Some people might say, “Why should I reward my child for doing what is expected?” But in fact we are constantly and consistently rewarded in our lives. Our paychecks are rewards, as are high grades and acceptance into our preferred school. Being praised for doing a good job and for passing a driver’s test is also a reward. Positive reinforcement as a learning tool is extremely effective. It has been found that one of the most effective ways to increase achievement in school districts with below-average reading scores was to pay the children to read. Specifically, second-grade students in Dallas were paid $2 each time they read a book and passed a short quiz about the book. The result was a significant increase in reading comprehension (Fryer, 2010). What do you think about this program? If Skinner were alive today, he would probably think this was a great idea. He was a strong proponent of using operant conditioning principles to influence students’ behavior at school. In fact, in addition to the Skinner box, he also invented what he called a teaching machine that was designed to reward small steps in learning (Skinner, 1961)—an early forerunner of computer-assisted learning. His teaching machine tested students’ knowledge as they worked through various school subjects. If students answered questions correctly, they received immediate positive reinforcement and could continue; if they answered incorrectly, they did not receive any reinforcement. The idea was that students would spend additional time studying the material to increase their chance of being reinforced the next time (Skinner, 1961).

In negative reinforcement , an undesirable stimulus is removed to increase a behavior. For example, car manufacturers use the principles of negative reinforcement in their seatbelt systems, which go “beep, beep, beep” until you fasten your seatbelt. The annoying sound stops when you exhibit the desired behavior, increasing the likelihood that you will buckle up in the future. Negative reinforcement is also used frequently in horse training. Riders apply pressure—by pulling the reins or squeezing their legs—and then remove the pressure when the horse performs the desired behavior, such as turning or speeding up. The pressure is the negative stimulus that the horse wants to remove.

Many people confuse negative reinforcement with punishment in operant conditioning, but they are two very different mechanisms. Remember that reinforcement, even when it is negative, always increases a behavior. In contrast, punishment always decreases a behavior. In positive punishment, you add an undesirable stimulus to decrease a behavior. An example of positive punishment is scolding a student to get the student to stop texting in class. In this case, a stimulus (the reprimand) is added in order to decrease the behavior (texting in class). In negative punishment , you remove a pleasant stimulus to decrease a behavior. For example, when a child misbehaves, a parent can take away a favorite toy. In this case, a stimulus (the toy) is removed in order to decrease the behavior.

Punishment, especially when it is immediate, is one way to decrease undesirable behavior. For example, imagine your four year-old son, Brandon, hit his younger brother. You have Brandon write 50 times “I will not hit my brother” (positive punishment). Chances are he won’t repeat this behavior. While strategies like this are common today, in the past children were often subject to physical punishment, such as spanking. It’s important to be aware of some of the drawbacks in using physical punishment on children. First, punishment may teach fear. Brandon may become fearful of the hitting, but he also may become fearful of the person who delivered the punishment—you, his parent. Similarly, children who are punished by teachers may come to fear the teacher and try to avoid school (Gershoff et al., 2010). Consequently, most schools in the United States have banned corporal punishment. Second, punishment may cause children to become more aggressive and prone to antisocial behavior and delinquency (Gershoff, 2002). They see their parents resort to spanking when they become angry and frustrated, so, in turn, they may act out this same behavior when they become angry and frustrated. For example, because you spank Margot when you are angry with her for her misbehavior, she might start hitting her friends when they won’t share their toys.

While positive punishment can be effective in some cases, Skinner suggested that the use of punishment should be weighed against the possible negative effects. Today’s psychologists and parenting experts favor reinforcement over punishment—they recommend that you catch your child doing something good and reward her for it.

Make sure you understand the distinction between negative reinforcement and punishment in the following video:

You can view the transcript for “Learning: Negative Reinforcement vs. Punishment” here (opens in new window) .

In his operant conditioning experiments, Skinner often used an approach called shaping. Instead of rewarding only the target behavior, in shaping , we reward successive approximations of a target behavior. Why is shaping needed? Remember that in order for reinforcement to work, the organism must first display the behavior. Shaping is needed because it is extremely unlikely that an organism will display anything but the simplest of behaviors spontaneously. In shaping, behaviors are broken down into many small, achievable steps. The specific steps used in the process are the following: Reinforce any response that resembles the desired behavior. Then reinforce the response that more closely resembles the desired behavior. You will no longer reinforce the previously reinforced response. Next, begin to reinforce the response that even more closely resembles the desired behavior. Continue to reinforce closer and closer approximations of the desired behavior. Finally, only reinforce the desired behavior.

Shaping is often used in teaching a complex behavior or chain of behaviors. Skinner used shaping to teach pigeons not only such relatively simple behaviors as pecking a disk in a Skinner box, but also many unusual and entertaining behaviors, such as turning in circles, walking in figure eights, and even playing ping pong; the technique is commonly used by animal trainers today. An important part of shaping is stimulus discrimination. Recall Pavlov’s dogs—he trained them to respond to the tone of a bell, and not to similar tones or sounds. This discrimination is also important in operant conditioning and in shaping behavior.

Here is a brief video of Skinner’s pigeons playing ping pong.

You can view the transcript for “BF Skinner Foundation – Pigeon Ping Pong Clip” here (opens in new window) .

It’s easy to see how shaping is effective in teaching behaviors to animals, but how does shaping work with humans? Let’s consider parents whose goal is to have their child learn to clean his room. They use shaping to help him master steps toward the goal. Instead of performing the entire task, they set up these steps and reinforce each step. First, he cleans up one toy. Second, he cleans up five toys. Third, he chooses whether to pick up ten toys or put his books and clothes away. Fourth, he cleans up everything except two toys. Finally, he cleans his entire room.

Primary and Secondary Reinforcers

Rewards such as stickers, praise, money, toys, and more can be used to reinforce learning. Let’s go back to Skinner’s rats again. How did the rats learn to press the lever in the Skinner box? They were rewarded with food each time they pressed the lever. For animals, food would be an obvious reinforcer.

What would be a good reinforce for humans? For your daughter Sydney, it was the promise of a toy if she cleaned her room. How about Joaquin, the soccer player? If you gave Joaquin a piece of candy every time he made a goal, you would be using a primary reinforcer. Primary reinforcers are reinforcers that have innate reinforcing qualities. These kinds of reinforcers are not learned. Water, food, sleep, shelter, sex, and touch, among others, are primary reinforcers . Pleasure is also a primary reinforcer. Organisms do not lose their drive for these things. For most people, jumping in a cool lake on a very hot day would be reinforcing and the cool lake would be innately reinforcing—the water would cool the person off (a physical need), as well as provide pleasure.

A secondary reinforcer  has no inherent value and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with a primary reinforcer. Praise, linked to affection, is one example of a secondary reinforcer, as when you called out “Great shot!” every time Joaquin made a goal. Another example, money, is only worth something when you can use it to buy other things—either things that satisfy basic needs (food, water, shelter—all primary reinforcers) or other secondary reinforcers. If you were on a remote island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and you had stacks of money, the money would not be useful if you could not spend it. What about the stickers on the behavior chart? They also are secondary reinforcers.

Sometimes, instead of stickers on a sticker chart, a token is used. Tokens, which are also secondary reinforcers, can then be traded in for rewards and prizes. Entire behavior management systems, known as token economies, are built around the use of these kinds of token reinforcers. Token economies have been found to be very effective at modifying behavior in a variety of settings such as schools, prisons, and mental hospitals. For example, a study by Cangi and Daly (2013) found that use of a token economy increased appropriate social behaviors and reduced inappropriate behaviors in a group of autistic school children. Autistic children tend to exhibit disruptive behaviors such as pinching and hitting. When the children in the study exhibited appropriate behavior (not hitting or pinching), they received a “quiet hands” token. When they hit or pinched, they lost a token. The children could then exchange specified amounts of tokens for minutes of playtime.

Everyday Connection: Behavior Modification in Children

Parents and teachers often use behavior modification to change a child’s behavior. Behavior modification uses the principles of operant conditioning to accomplish behavior change so that undesirable behaviors are switched for more socially acceptable ones. Some teachers and parents create a sticker chart, in which several behaviors are listed (Figure 12). Sticker charts are a form of token economies, as described in the text. Each time children perform the behavior, they get a sticker, and after a certain number of stickers, they get a prize, or reinforcer. The goal is to increase acceptable behaviors and decrease misbehavior. Remember, it is best to reinforce desired behaviors, rather than to use punishment. In the classroom, the teacher can reinforce a wide range of behaviors, from students raising their hands, to walking quietly in the hall, to turning in their homework. At home, parents might create a behavior chart that rewards children for things such as putting away toys, brushing their teeth, and helping with dinner. In order for behavior modification to be effective, the reinforcement needs to be connected with the behavior; the reinforcement must matter to the child and be done consistently.

Time-out is another popular technique used in behavior modification with children. It operates on the principle of negative punishment. When a child demonstrates an undesirable behavior, she is removed from the desirable activity at hand (Figure 13). For example, say that Sophia and her brother Mario are playing with building blocks. Sophia throws some blocks at her brother, so you give her a warning that she will go to time-out if she does it again. A few minutes later, she throws more blocks at Mario. You remove Sophia from the room for a few minutes. When she comes back, she doesn’t throw blocks.

There are several important points that you should know if you plan to implement time-out as a behavior modification technique. First, make sure the child is being removed from a desirable activity and placed in a less desirable location. If the activity is something undesirable for the child, this technique will backfire because it is more enjoyable for the child to be removed from the activity. Second, the length of the time-out is important. The general rule of thumb is one minute for each year of the child’s age. Sophia is five; therefore, she sits in a time-out for five minutes. Setting a timer helps children know how long they have to sit in time-out. Finally, as a caregiver, keep several guidelines in mind over the course of a time-out: remain calm when directing your child to time-out; ignore your child during time-out (because caregiver attention may reinforce misbehavior); and give the child a hug or a kind word when time-out is over.

• Explain the difference between negative reinforcement and punishment, and provide several examples of each based on your own experiences.
• Think of a behavior that you have that you would like to change. How could you use behavior modification, specifically positive reinforcement, to change your behavior? What is your positive reinforcer?

Reinforcement Schedules

Remember, the best way to teach a person or animal a behavior is to use positive reinforcement. For example, Skinner used positive reinforcement to teach rats to press a lever in a Skinner box. At first, the rat might randomly hit the lever while exploring the box, and out would come a pellet of food. After eating the pellet, what do you think the hungry rat did next? It hit the lever again, and received another pellet of food. Each time the rat hit the lever, a pellet of food came out. When an organism receives a reinforcer each time it displays a behavior, it is called continuous reinforcement . This reinforcement schedule is the quickest way to teach someone a behavior, and it is especially effective in training a new behavior. Let’s look back at the dog that was learning to sit earlier in the module. Now, each time he sits, you give him a treat. Timing is important here: you will be most successful if you present the reinforcer immediately after he sits, so that he can make an association between the target behavior (sitting) and the consequence (getting a treat).

Now let’s combine these four terms. A fixed interval reinforcement schedule  is when behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time. For example, June undergoes major surgery in a hospital. During recovery, she is expected to experience pain and will require prescription medications for pain relief. June is given an IV drip with a patient-controlled painkiller. Her doctor sets a limit: one dose per hour. June pushes a button when pain becomes difficult, and she receives a dose of medication. Since the reward (pain relief) only occurs on a fixed interval, there is no point in exhibiting the behavior when it will not be rewarded.

With a variable interval reinforcement schedule , the person or animal gets the reinforcement based on varying amounts of time, which are unpredictable. Say that Manuel is the manager at a fast-food restaurant. Every once in a while someone from the quality control division comes to Manuel’s restaurant. If the restaurant is clean and the service is fast, everyone on that shift earns a $20 bonus. Manuel never knows when the quality control person will show up, so he always tries to keep the restaurant clean and ensures that his employees provide prompt and courteous service. His productivity regarding prompt service and keeping a clean restaurant are steady because he wants his crew to earn the bonus.

With a fixed ratio reinforcement schedule , there are a set number of responses that must occur before the behavior is rewarded. Carla sells glasses at an eyeglass store, and she earns a commission every time she sells a pair of glasses. She always tries to sell people more pairs of glasses, including prescription sunglasses or a backup pair, so she can increase her commission. She does not care if the person really needs the prescription sunglasses, Carla just wants her bonus. The quality of what Carla sells does not matter because her commission is not based on quality; it’s only based on the number of pairs sold. This distinction in the quality of performance can help determine which reinforcement method is most appropriate for a particular situation. Fixed ratios are better suited to optimize the quantity of output, whereas a fixed interval, in which the reward is not quantity based, can lead to a higher quality of output.

In a variable ratio reinforcement schedule , the number of responses needed for a reward varies. This is the most powerful partial reinforcement schedule. An example of the variable ratio reinforcement schedule is gambling. Imagine that Sarah—generally a smart, thrifty woman—visits Las Vegas for the first time. She is not a gambler, but out of curiosity she puts a quarter into the slot machine, and then another, and another. Nothing happens. Two dollars in quarters later, her curiosity is fading, and she is just about to quit. But then, the machine lights up, bells go off, and Sarah gets 50 quarters back. That’s more like it! Sarah gets back to inserting quarters with renewed interest, and a few minutes later she has used up all her gains and is $10 in the hole. Now might be a sensible time to quit. And yet, she keeps putting money into the slot machine because she never knows when the next reinforcement is coming. She keeps thinking that with the next quarter she could win $50, or $100, or even more. Because the reinforcement schedule in most types of gambling has a variable ratio schedule, people keep trying and hoping that the next time they will win big. This is one of the reasons that gambling is so addictive—and so resistant to extinction.

Review the schedules of reinforcement in the following video.

You can view the transcript for “Learning: Schedules of Reinforcement” here (opens in new window) .

In operant conditioning , extinction of a reinforced behavior occurs at some point after reinforcement stops, and the speed at which this happens depends on the reinforcement schedule. In a variable ratio schedule, the point of extinction comes very slowly, as described above. But in the other reinforcement schedules, extinction may come quickly. For example, if June presses the button for the pain relief medication before the allotted time her doctor has approved, no medication is administered. She is on a fixed interval reinforcement schedule (dosed hourly), so extinction occurs quickly when reinforcement doesn’t come at the expected time. Among the reinforcement schedules, variable ratio is the most productive and the most resistant to extinction. Fixed interval is the least productive and the easiest to extinguish (Figure 14).

Everyday Connections: Gambling and the Brain

Skinner (1953) stated, “If the gambling establishment cannot persuade a patron to turn over money with no return, it may achieve the same effect by returning part of the patron’s money on a variable-ratio schedule” (p. 397).

Skinner uses gambling as an example of the power and effectiveness of conditioning behavior based on a variable ratio reinforcement schedule. In fact, Skinner was so confident in his knowledge of gambling addiction that he even claimed he could turn a pigeon into a pathological gambler (“Skinner’s Utopia,” 1971). Beyond the power of variable ratio reinforcement, gambling seems to work on the brain in the same way as some addictive drugs. The Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery (n.d.) reports evidence suggesting that pathological gambling is an addiction similar to a chemical addiction (Figure 15). Specifically, gambling may activate the reward centers of the brain, much like cocaine does. Research has shown that some pathological gamblers have lower levels of the neurotransmitter (brain chemical) known as norepinephrine than do normal gamblers (Roy, et al., 1988). According to a study conducted by Alec Roy and colleagues, norepinephrine is secreted when a person feels stress, arousal, or thrill; pathological gamblers use gambling to increase their levels of this neurotransmitter. Another researcher, neuroscientist Hans Breiter, has done extensive research on gambling and its effects on the brain. Breiter (as cited in Franzen, 2001) reports that “Monetary reward in a gambling-like experiment produces brain activation very similar to that observed in a cocaine addict receiving an infusion of cocaine” (para. 1). Deficiencies in serotonin (another neurotransmitter) might also contribute to compulsive behavior, including a gambling addiction.

It may be that pathological gamblers’ brains are different than those of other people, and perhaps this difference may somehow have led to their gambling addiction, as these studies seem to suggest. However, it is very difficult to ascertain the cause because it is impossible to conduct a true experiment (it would be unethical to try to turn randomly assigned participants into problem gamblers). Therefore, it may be that causation actually moves in the opposite direction—perhaps the act of gambling somehow changes neurotransmitter levels in some gamblers’ brains. It also is possible that some overlooked factor, or confounding variable, played a role in both the gambling addiction and the differences in brain chemistry.

Other Types of Learning

Classical and operant conditioning are responsible for a good bit of the behaviors we learn and develop, but certainly there are other things we learn simply through observation and thought. Latent learning is a form of learning that occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the behavior or associations that are learned.

According to Albert Bandura, learning can occur by watching others and then modeling what they do or say. This is known as observational learning. There are specific steps in the process of modeling that must be followed if learning is to be successful. These steps include attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. Through modeling, Bandura has shown that children learn many things both good and bad simply by watching their parents, siblings, and others. What have you learned by observation?

• Explain latent learning and cognitive maps
• Explain observational learning and the steps in the modeling process

Latent Learning

Although strict behaviorists such as Skinner and Watson refused to believe that cognition (such as thoughts and expectations) plays a role in learning, another behaviorist, Edward C. Tolman, had a different opinion. Tolman’s experiments with rats demonstrated that organisms can learn even if they do not receive immediate reinforcement (Tolman & Honzik, 1930; Tolman, Ritchie, & Kalish, 1946).

Latent learning  is a form of learning that is not immediately expressed in an overt response. It occurs without any obvious reinforcement of the behavior or associations that are learned. Latent learning is not readily apparent to the researcher because it is not shown behaviorally until there is sufficient motivation. This type of learning broke the constraints of behaviorism, which stated that processes must be directly observable and that learning was the direct consequence of conditioning to stimuli.

Latent learning also occurs in humans. Children may learn by watching the actions of their parents but only demonstrate it at a later date, when the learned material is needed. For example, suppose that Ravi’s dad drives him to school every day. In this way, Ravi learns the route from his house to his school, but he’s never driven there himself, so he has not had a chance to demonstrate that he’s learned the way. One morning Ravi’s dad has to leave early for a meeting, so he can’t drive Ravi to school. Instead, Ravi follows the same route on his bike that his dad would have taken in the car. This demonstrates latent learning. Ravi had learned the route to school, but had no need to demonstrate this knowledge earlier.

Everyday Connection: This Place Is Like a Maze

Observational learning.

Previous sections of this chapter focused on classical and operant conditioning, which are forms of associative learning. In observational learning , we learn by watching others and then imitating, or modeling, what they do or say. The individuals performing the imitated behavior are called models. Research suggests that this imitative learning involves a specific type of neuron, called a mirror neuron (Hickock, 2010; Rizzolatti, Fadiga, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2002; Rizzolatti, Fogassi, & Gallese, 2006).

Humans and other animals are capable of observational learning. As you will see, the phrase “monkey see, monkey do” really is accurate (Figure 18). The same could be said about other animals. For example, in a study of social learning in chimpanzees, researchers gave juice boxes with straws to two groups of captive chimpanzees. The first group dipped the straw into the juice box, and then sucked on the small amount of juice at the end of the straw. The second group sucked through the straw directly, getting much more juice. When the first group, the “dippers,” observed the second group, “the suckers,” what do you think happened? All of the “dippers” in the first group switched to sucking through the straws directly. By simply observing the other chimps and modeling their behavior, they learned that this was a more efficient method of getting juice (Yamamoto, Humle, and Tanaka, 2013).

Imitation is much more obvious in humans, but is imitation really the sincerest form of flattery? Consider Claire’s experience with observational learning. Claire’s nine-year-old son, Jay, was getting into trouble at school and was defiant at home. Claire feared that Jay would end up like her brothers, two of whom were in prison. One day, after yet another bad day at school and another negative note from the teacher, Claire, at her wit’s end, beat her son with a belt to get him to behave. Later that night, as she put her children to bed, Claire witnessed her four-year-old daughter, Anna, take a belt to her teddy bear and whip it. Claire was horrified, realizing that Anna was imitating her mother. It was then that Claire knew she wanted to discipline her children in a different manner.

Like Tolman, whose experiments with rats suggested a cognitive component to learning, psychologist Albert Bandura’s ideas about learning were different from those of strict behaviorists. Bandura and other researchers proposed a brand of behaviorism called social learning theory , which took cognitive processes into account. According to Bandura, pure behaviorism could not explain why learning can take place in the absence of external reinforcement. He felt that internal mental states must also have a role in learning and that observational learning involves much more than imitation. In imitation, a person simply copies what the model does. Observational learning is much more complex. According to Lefrançois (2012) there are several ways that observational learning can occur: You learn a new response. After watching your coworker get chewed out by your boss for coming in late, you start leaving home 10 minutes earlier so that you won’t be late. You choose whether or not to imitate the model depending on what you saw happen to the model. Remember Julian and his father? When learning to surf, Julian might watch how his father pops up successfully on his surfboard and then attempt to do the same thing. On the other hand, Julian might learn not to touch a hot stove after watching his father get burned on a stove. You learn a general rule that you can apply to other situations.

Bandura identified three kinds of models: live, verbal, and symbolic. A live model demonstrates a behavior in person, as when Ben stood up on his surfboard so that Julian could see how he did it. A verbal instructional model does not perform the behavior, but instead explains or describes the behavior, as when a soccer coach tells his young players to kick the ball with the side of the foot, not with the toe. A symbolic model can be fictional characters or real people who demonstrate behaviors in books, movies, television shows, video games, or Internet sources (Figure 19).

Steps in the Modeling Process

Of course, we don’t learn a behavior simply by observing a model. Bandura described specific steps in the process of modeling that must be followed if learning is to be successful: attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. First, you must be focused on what the model is doing—you have to pay attention. Next, you must be able to retain, or remember, what you observed; this is retention. Then, you must be able to perform the behavior that you observed and committed to memory; this is reproduction. Finally, you must have motivation. You need to want to copy the behavior, and whether or not you are motivated depends on what happened to the model. If you saw that the model was reinforced for her behavior, you will be more motivated to copy her. This is known as vicarious reinforcement . On the other hand, if you observed the model being punished, you would be less motivated to copy her. This is called vicarious punishment . For example, imagine that four-year-old Allison watched her older sister Kaitlyn playing in their mother’s makeup, and then saw Kaitlyn get a time out when their mother came in. After their mother left the room, Allison was tempted to play in the make-up, but she did not want to get a time-out from her mother. What do you think she did? Once you actually demonstrate the new behavior, the reinforcement you receive plays a part in whether or not you will repeat the behavior.

Bandura researched modeling behavior, particularly children’s modeling of adults’ aggressive and violent behaviors (Bandura, Ross, & Ross, 1961). He conducted an experiment with a five-foot inflatable doll that he called a Bobo doll. In the experiment, children’s aggressive behavior was influenced by whether the teacher was punished for her behavior. In one scenario, a teacher acted aggressively with the doll, hitting, throwing, and even punching the doll, while a child watched. There were two types of responses by the children to the teacher’s behavior. When the teacher was punished for her bad behavior, the children decreased their tendency to act as she had. When the teacher was praised or ignored (and not punished for her behavior), the children imitated what she did, and even what she said. They punched, kicked, and yelled at the doll.

Watch the following to see a portion of the famous Bobo doll experiment, including an interview with Albert Bandura.

What are the implications of this study? Bandura concluded that we watch and learn, and that this learning can have both prosocial and antisocial effects. Prosocial (positive) models can be used to encourage socially acceptable behavior. Parents in particular should take note of this finding. If you want your children to read, then read to them. Let them see you reading. Keep books in your home. Talk about your favorite books. If you want your children to be healthy, then let them see you eat right and exercise, and spend time engaging in physical fitness activities together. The same holds true for qualities like kindness, courtesy, and honesty. The main idea is that children observe and learn from their parents, even their parents’ morals, so be consistent and toss out the old adage “Do as I say, not as I do,” because children tend to copy what you do instead of what you say. Besides parents, many public figures, such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi, are viewed as prosocial models who are able to inspire global social change. Can you think of someone who has been a prosocial model in your life?

The antisocial effects of observational learning are also worth mentioning. As you saw from the example of Claire at the beginning of this section, her daughter viewed Claire’s aggressive behavior and copied it. Research suggests that this may help to explain why abused children often grow up to be abusers themselves (Murrell, Christoff, & Henning, 2007). In fact, about 30% of abused children become abusive parents (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2013). We tend to do what we know. Abused children, who grow up witnessing their parents deal with anger and frustration through violent and aggressive acts, often learn to behave in that manner themselves. Sadly, it’s a vicious cycle that’s difficult to break.

Some studies suggest that violent television shows, movies, and video games may also have antisocial effects (Figure 20) although further research needs to be done to understand the correlational and causational aspects of media violence and behavior. Some studies have found a link between viewing violence and aggression seen in children (Anderson & Gentile, 2008; Kirsch, 2010; Miller, Grabell, Thomas, Bermann, & Graham-Bermann, 2012). These findings may not be surprising, given that a child graduating from high school has been exposed to around 200,000 violent acts including murder, robbery, torture, bombings, beatings, and rape through various forms of media (Huston et al., 1992). Not only might viewing media violence affect aggressive behavior by teaching people to act that way in real life situations, but it has also been suggested that repeated exposure to violent acts also desensitizes people to it. Psychologists are working to understand this dynamic.

Putting It Together: Learning

In this chapter, you learned to

• explain learning and the process of classical conditioning
• explain operant conditioning, reinforcement, and punishment
• describe latent learning and observational learning

Are you superstitious? If so, you are definitely not alone. There are quite a few famous athletes who have reported a long list of superstitious behaviors (see DeLessio (2015)). Michael Jordan wore his University of North Carolina basketball shorts under his Chicago Bulls uniform, tennis superstar Serena Williams is known to bounce the ball five times before her first serve and two times before her second, basketballer Kevin Garnett (and many others since him) insist on eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before games. How might these behaviors be linked to the concepts you learned about conditioning in this module?

Curiously, even B.F. Skinner began to see signs of superstitious behavior in pigeons during his experiments. Pigeons, like humans, associate rewards with superstitious rituals when they see positive results. When pigeons looked over their left shoulder (operant conditioning), they were hopeful that a reward would come, just as an athlete who wears the same lucky socks comes to associate the special socks with superior performance.

Research into superstition has shown that, even if the behaviors seem silly, they can be effective in improving performance, most likely due to the increased confidence and security people feel when they engage in these rituals.

You can  view the transcript for “Superstitious Behavior – Pidgin Reward” here (opens in new window) .

Hopefully, you can continue to see and find examples of all types of conditioning in your life. From classically conditioned food aversions, operantly conditioned rewards, or surprising latent learning, there are applications of learning all around you.

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unlearned, automatic response by an organism to a stimulus in the environment

unlearned knowledge, involving complex patterns of behavior; instincts are thought to be more prevalent in lower animals than in humans

durable change in behavior or knowledge that is the result of experience

form of learning that involves connecting certain stimuli or events that occur together in the environment (classical and operant conditioning)

learning in which the stimulus or experience occurs before the behavior and then gets paired or associated with the behavior

stimulus that elicits a response due to its being paired with an unconditioned stimulus

natural (unlearned) behavior to a given stimulus

stimulus that does not initially elicit a response

response caused by the conditioned stimulus

(also, second-order conditioning) using a conditioned stimulus to condition a neutral stimulus

period of initial learning in classical conditioning in which a human or an animal begins to connect a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus so that the neutral stimulus will begin to elicit the conditioned response

decrease in the conditioned response when the unconditioned stimulus is no longer paired with the conditioned stimulus

return of a previously extinguished conditioned response

ability to respond differently to similar stimuli

demonstrating the conditioned response to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus

learning not to respond to a stimulus that is presented repeatedly without change

form of learning in which the stimulus/experience happens after the behavior is demonstrated

behavior that is followed by consequences satisfying to the organism will be repeated and behaviors that are followed by unpleasant consequences will be discouraged

implementation of a consequence in order to increase a behavior

implementation of a consequence in order to decrease a behavior

adding a desirable stimulus to increase a behavior

taking away an undesirable stimulus to increase a behavior

adding an undesirable stimulus to stop or decrease a behavior

taking away a pleasant stimulus to decrease or stop a behavior

rewarding successive approximations toward a target behavior

has innate reinforcing qualities (e.g., food, water, shelter, sex)

has no inherent value unto itself and only has reinforcing qualities when linked with something else (e.g., money, gold stars, poker chips)

rewarding a behavior every time it occurs

rewarding behavior only some of the time

behavior is rewarded after a set amount of time

behavior is rewarded after unpredictable amounts of time have passed

set number of responses must occur before a behavior is rewarded

number of responses differ before a behavior is rewarded

learning that occurs, but it may not be evident until there is a reason to demonstrate it

mental picture of the layout of the environment

type of learning that occurs by watching others

process where the observer sees the model rewarded, making the observer more likely to imitate the model’s behavior

process where the observer sees the model punished, making the observer less likely to imitate the model’s behavior

Psychological Science: Understanding Human Behavior Copyright © by Karenna Malavanti is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Psychological Research Methods: Types and Tips

Categories Research Methods

Psychological research methods are the techniques used by scientists and researchers to study human behavior and mental processes. These methods are used to gather empirical evidence.

The goal of psychological research methods is to obtain objective and verifiable data collected through scientific experimentation and observation. 

The research methods that are used in psychology are crucial for understanding how and why people behave the way they do, as well as for developing and testing theories about human behavior.

Table of Contents

Reasons to Learn More About Psychological Research Methods

One of the key goals of psychological research is to make sure that the data collected is reliable and valid.

• Reliability means that the data is consistent and can be replicated
• Validity refers to the accuracy of the data collected

Researchers must take great care to ensure that their research methods are reliable and valid, as this is essential for drawing accurate conclusions and making valid claims about human behavior.

High school and college students who are interested in psychology can benefit greatly from learning about research methods. Understanding how psychologists study human behavior and mental processes can help students develop critical thinking skills and a deeper appreciation for the complexity of human behavior.

Having an understanding of these research methods can prepare students for future coursework in psychology, as well as for potential careers in the field.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Psychological Research Methods

Psychological research methods can be broadly divided into two main types: quantitative and qualitative. These two methods differ in their approach to data collection and analysis.

Quantitative Research Methods

Quantitative research methods involve collecting numerical data through controlled experiments, surveys, and other objective measures.

The goal of quantitative research is to identify patterns and relationships in the data that can be analyzed statistically.

Researchers use statistical methods to test hypotheses, identify significant differences between groups, and make predictions about future behavior.

Qualitative Research Methods

Qualitative research methods, on the other hand, involve collecting non-numerical data through open-ended interviews, observations, and other subjective measures.

Qualitative research aims to understand the subjective experiences and perspectives of individuals and groups.

Researchers use methods such as content analysis and thematic analysis to identify themes and patterns in the data and to develop rich descriptions of the phenomenon under study.

How Quantitative and Qualitative Methods Are Used

While quantitative and qualitative research methods differ in their approach to data collection and analysis, they are often used together to gain a more complete understanding of complex phenomena.

For example, a researcher studying the impact of social media on mental health might use a quantitative survey to gather numerical data on social media use and a qualitative interview to gain insight into participants’ subjective experiences with social media.

Types of Psychological Research Methods

There are several types of research methods used in psychology, including experiments, surveys, case studies, and observational studies. Each method has its strengths and weaknesses, and researchers must choose the most appropriate method based on their research question and the data they hope to collect.

Case Studies

A case study is a research method used in psychology to investigate an individual, group, or event in great detail. In a case study, the researcher gathers information from a variety of sources, including:

• Observation
• Document analysis

These methods allow researchers to gain an in-depth understanding of the case being studied.

Case studies are particularly useful when the phenomenon under investigation is rare or complex, and when it is difficult to replicate in a laboratory setting.

Surveys are a commonly used research method in psychology that involve gathering data from a large number of people about their thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and attitudes.

Surveys can be conducted in a variety of ways, including:

• In-person interviews
• Online questionnaires
• Paper-and-pencil surveys

Surveys are particularly useful when researchers want to study attitudes or behaviors that are difficult to observe directly or when they want to generalize their findings to a larger population.

Experimental Psychological Research Methods

Experimental studies are a research method commonly used in psychology to investigate cause-and-effect relationships between variables. In an experimental study, the researcher manipulates one or more variables to see how they affect another variable, while controlling for other factors that may influence the outcome.

Experimental studies are considered the gold standard for establishing cause-and-effect relationships, as they allow researchers to control for potential confounding variables and to manipulate variables in a systematic way.

Correlational Psychological Research Methods

Correlational research is a research method used in psychology to investigate the relationship between two or more variables without manipulating them. The goal of correlational research is to determine the extent to which changes in one variable are associated with changes in another variable.

In other words, correlational research aims to establish the direction and strength of the relationship between two or more variables.

Naturalistic Observation

Naturalistic observation is a research method used in psychology to study behavior in natural settings, without any interference or manipulation from the researcher.

The goal of naturalistic observation is to gain insight into how people or animals behave in their natural environment without the influence of laboratory conditions.

Meta-Analysis

A meta-analysis is a research method commonly used in psychology to combine and analyze the results of multiple studies on a particular topic.

The goal of a meta-analysis is to provide a comprehensive and quantitative summary of the existing research on a topic, in order to identify patterns and relationships that may not be apparent in individual studies.

Tips for Using Psychological Research Methods

Here are some tips for high school and college students who are interested in using psychological research methods:

Understand the different types of research methods: 

Before conducting any research, it is important to understand the different types of research methods that are available, such as surveys, case studies, experiments, and naturalistic observation.

Each method has its strengths and limitations, and selecting the appropriate method depends on the research question and variables being investigated.

Develop a clear research question: 

A good research question is essential for guiding the research process. It should be specific, clear, and relevant to the field of psychology. It is also important to consider ethical considerations when developing a research question.

Use proper sampling techniques: 

Sampling is the process of selecting participants for a study. It is important to use proper sampling techniques to ensure that the sample is representative of the population being studied.

Random sampling is considered the gold standard for sampling, but other techniques, such as convenience sampling, may also be used depending on the research question.

Use reliable and valid measures:

It is important to use reliable and valid measures to ensure the data collected is accurate and meaningful. This may involve using established measures or developing new measures and testing their reliability and validity.

Consider ethical issues:

It is important to consider ethical considerations when conducting psychological research, such as obtaining informed consent from participants, maintaining confidentiality, and minimizing any potential harm to participants.

In many cases, you will need to submit your study proposal to your school’s institutional review board for approval.

Analyze and interpret the data appropriately : 

After collecting the data, it is important to analyze and interpret the data appropriately. This may involve using statistical techniques to identify patterns and relationships between variables, and using appropriate software tools for analysis.

Communicate findings clearly: 

Finally, it is important to communicate the findings clearly in a way that is understandable to others. This may involve writing a research report, giving a presentation, or publishing a paper in a scholarly journal.

Clear communication is essential for advancing the field of psychology and informing future research.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 5 methods of psychological research.

The five main methods of psychological research are:

• Experimental research : This method involves manipulating one or more independent variables to observe their effect on one or more dependent variables while controlling for other variables. The goal is to establish cause-and-effect relationships between variables.
• Correlational research : This method involves examining the relationship between two or more variables, without manipulating them. The goal is to determine whether there is a relationship between the variables and the strength and direction of that relationship.
• Survey research : This method involves gathering information from a sample of participants using questionnaires or interviews. The goal is to collect data on attitudes, opinions, behaviors, or other variables of interest.
• Case study research : This method involves an in-depth analysis of a single individual, group, or event. The goal is to gain insight into specific behaviors, attitudes, or phenomena.
• Naturalistic observation research : This method involves observing and recording behavior in natural settings without any manipulation or interference from the researcher. The goal is to gain insight into how people or animals behave in their natural environment.

What is the most commonly used psychological research method?

The most common research method used in psychology varies depending on the research question and the variables being investigated. However, correlational research is one of the most frequently used methods in psychology.

This is likely because correlational research is useful in studying a wide range of psychological phenomena, and it can be used to examine the relationships between variables that cannot be manipulated or controlled, such as age, gender, and personality traits. 

Experimental research is also a widely used method in psychology, particularly in the areas of cognitive psychology , social psychology , and developmental psychology .

Other methods, such as survey research, case study research, and naturalistic observation, are also commonly used in psychology research, depending on the research question and the variables being studied.

How do you know which research method to use?

Deciding which type of research method to use depends on the research question, the variables being studied, and the practical considerations involved. Here are some general guidelines to help students decide which research method to use:

• Identify the research question : The first step is to clearly define the research question. What are you trying to study? What is the hypothesis you want to test? Answering these questions will help you determine which research method is best suited for your study.
• Choose your variables : Identify the independent and dependent variables involved in your research question. This will help you determine whether an experimental or correlational research method is most appropriate.
• Consider your resources : Think about the time, resources, and ethical considerations involved in conducting the research. For example, if you are working on a tight budget, a survey or correlational research method may be more feasible than an experimental study.
• Review existing literature : Conducting a literature review of previous studies on the topic can help you identify the most appropriate research method. This can also help you identify gaps in the literature that your study can fill.
• Consult with a mentor or advisor : If you are still unsure which research method to use, consult with a mentor or advisor who has experience in conducting research in your area of interest. They can provide guidance and help you make an informed decision.

Scholtz SE, de Klerk W, de Beer LT. The use of research methods in psychological research: A systematised review . Front Res Metr Anal . 2020;5:1. doi:10.3389/frma.2020.00001

Palinkas LA. Qualitative and mixed methods in mental health services and implementation research . J Clin Child Adolesc Psychol . 2014;43(6):851-861. doi:10.1080/15374416.2014.910791

Crowe S, Cresswell K, Robertson A, Huby G, Avery A, Sheikh A. The case study approach . BMC Med Res Methodol . 2011;11(1):100. doi:10.1186/1471-2288-11-100

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• Published: 12 January 2017

Individual differences in the learning potential of human beings

• Elsbeth Stern 1  

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• Human behaviour

To the best of our knowledge, the genetic foundations that guide human brain development have not changed fundamentally during the past 50,000 years. However, because of their cognitive potential, humans have changed the world tremendously in the past centuries. They have invented technical devices, institutions that regulate cooperation and competition, and symbol systems, such as script and mathematics, that serve as reasoning tools. The exceptional learning ability of humans allows newborns to adapt to the world they are born into; however, there are tremendous individual differences in learning ability among humans that become obvious in school at the latest. Cognitive psychology has developed models of memory and information processing that attempt to explain how humans learn (general perspective), while the variation among individuals (differential perspective) has been the focus of psychometric intelligence research. Although both lines of research have been proceeding independently, they increasingly converge, as both investigate the concepts of working memory and knowledge construction. This review begins with presenting state-of-the-art research on human information processing and its potential in academic learning. Then, a brief overview of the history of psychometric intelligence research is combined with presenting recent work on the role of intelligence in modern societies and on the nature-nurture debate. Finally, promising approaches to integrating the general and differential perspective will be discussed in the conclusion of this review.

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The development of human causal learning and reasoning

Sleep quality, duration, and consistency are associated with better academic performance in college students

Two common and distinct forms of variation in human functional brain networks

Human learning and information processing.

In psychology textbooks, learning is commonly understood as the long-term change in mental representations and behavior as a result of experience. 1 As shown by the four criteria, learning is more than just a temporary use of information or a singular adaption to a particular situation. Rather, learning is associated with changes in mental representations that can manifest themselves in behavioral changes. Mental and behavioral changes that result from learning must be differentiated from changes that originate from internal processes, such as maturation or illness. Learning rather occurs as an interaction with the environment and is initiated to adapt personal needs to the external world.

From an evolutionary perspective, 2 living beings are born into a world in which they are continuously expected to accomplish tasks (e.g., getting food, avoiding threats, mating) to survive as individuals and as species. The brains of all types of living beings are equipped with instincts that facilitate coping with the demands of the environment to which their species has been adapted. However, because environments are variable, brains have to be flexible enough to optimize their adaptation by building new associations between various stimuli or between stimuli and responses. In the case of classical conditioning, one stimulus signals the occurrence of another stimulus and thereby allows for the anticipation of a positive or negative consequence. In the case of operant conditioning, behavior is modified by its consequence. Human beings constantly react and adapt to their environment by learning through conditioning, frequently unconsciously. 1

However, there is more to human learning than conditioning, which to the best of our knowledge, makes us different from other species. All living beings must learn how to obtain access to food in their environment, but only human beings cook and have invented numerous ways to store and conserve their food. While many animals run faster than humans and are better climbers, the construction and use of vehicles or ladders is unique to humans. There is occasional evidence of tool use among non-human species passed on to the next generation, 3 , 4 but this does not compare to the tools humans have developed that have helped them to change the world. The transition from using stonewedges for hunting to inventing wheels, cars, and iPhones within a time period of a few thousand years is a testament to the unique mental flexibility of human beings given that, to the best of our knowledge, the genes that guide human brain development have not undergone remarkable changes during the last 50,000 years. 5 This means that as a species, humans are genetically adapted to accomplish requirements of the world as it existed at approximately 48,000 BC. What is so special about human information processing? Answers to this question are usually related to the unique resource of consciousness and symbolic reasoning abilities that are, first and foremost, practiced in language. Working from here, a remarkable number of insights on human cognition have been compiled in the past decades, which now allow for a more comprehensive view of human learning.

Human learning from a general cognitive perspective

Learning manifests itself in knowledge representations processed in memory. The encoding, storage, and retrieval of information have been modeled in the multi-store model of human memory depicted in Fig.  1 . 6 Sensory memory is the earliest stage of processing the large amount of continuously incoming information from sight, hearing, and other senses. To allow goal-directed behavior and selective attention, only a fractional amount of this information passes into the working memory, which is responsible for temporarily maintaining and manipulating information during cognitive activity. 7 , 8 Working memory allows for the control of attention and thereby enables goal-directed and conscious information processing. It is the gatekeeper to long-term memory, which is assumed to have an unlimited capacity. Here, information acquired through experience and learning can be stored in different modalities as well as in symbol systems (e.g., language, script, mathematical notation systems, pictorials, music prints).

A model of human information processing, developed together with Dr. Lennart Schalk

The multi-store model of human information processing is not a one-way street, and long-term memory is not to be considered a storage room or a hard-disk where information remains unaltered once it has been deposited. A more appropriate model of long-term memory is a self-organizing network, in which verbal terms, images, or procedures are represented as interlinked nodes with varying associative strength. 9 Working memory regulates the interaction between incoming information from sensory memory and knowledge activated from long-term memory. Very strong incoming stimuli (e.g., a loud noise or a harsh light), which may signal danger, can interrupt working memory activities. For the most part, however, working memory filters out irrelevant and distracting information to ensure that the necessary goals will be achieved undisturbed. This means that working memory is continuously selecting incoming information, aligning it with knowledge retrieved from long-term memory, and preparing responses to accomplishing requirements demanded by the environment or self-set goals. Inappropriate and unsuitable information intruding from sensory as well as from long-term memory has to be inhibited, while appropriate and suitable information from both sources has to be updated. 8 The strength with which a person pursues a particular goal has an impact on the degree of inhibitory control. In case of intentional learning, working memory guards more against irrelevant information than in the case of mind wandering. Less inhibitory control makes unplanned and unintended learning possible (i.e., incidental learning).

These working memory activities are permanently changing the knowledge represented in long-term memory by adding new nodes and by altering the associative strength between them. The different formats knowledge can be represented in are listed in Fig.  1 ; some of them are more closely related to sensory input and others to abstract symbolic representations. In cognitive psychology, learning is associated with modifications of knowledge representations that allow for better use of available working memory resources. Procedural knowledge (knowing how) enables actions and is based on a production-rule system. As a consequence of repeated practice, the associations between these production rules are strengthened and will eventually result in a coordinated series of actions that can activate each other automatically with a minimum or no amount of working memory resources. This learning process not only allows for carrying out the tasks that the procedural knowledge is tailored to perform more efficiently, but also frees working memory resources that can be used for processing additional information in parallel. 10 , 11 , 12

Meaningful learning requires the construction of declarative knowledge (knowing that), which is represented in symbol systems (language, script, mathematical, or visual-spatial representations). Learning leads to the regrouping of declarative knowledge, for instance by chunking multiple unrelated pieces of knowledge into a few meaningful units. Reproducing the orally presented number series “91119893101990” is beyond working memory capacity, unless one detects two important dates of German history: the day of the fall of the Berlin Wall: 9 November 1989 and the day of reunification: 3 October 1990. Individuals who have stored both dates and can retrieve them from long-term memory are able to chunk 14 single units into two units, thereby freeing working memory resources. Memory artists, who can reproduce dozens of orally presented numbers have built a very complex knowledge base that allows for the chunking of incoming information. 13

Learning also manifests itself in the extension of declarative knowledge using concept formation and inferential reasoning. Connecting the three concepts of “animal, produce, milk” forms a basic concept of cow. Often, concepts are hierarchically related with superordinate (e.g., animal) and subordinate (e.g., cow, wombat) ordering. This provides the basis for creating meaningful knowledge by deductive reasoning. If the only thing a person knows about a wombat is that it is an animal, she can nonetheless infer that it needs food and oxygen. Depending on individual learning histories, conceptual representations can contain great variations. A farmer’s or a veterinarian’s concept of a cow is connected to many more concepts than “animal, produce, milk” and is integrated into a broader network of animals. In most farmers’ long-term memory, “cow” might be strongly connected to “pig”, while veterinarians should have particularly strong links to other ruminants. A person’s conceptual network decisively determines the selection and representation of incoming information, and it determines the profile of expertise. For many academic fields, first and foremost in the STEM area (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics), it has been demonstrated that experts and novices who use the same words may have entirely different representations of their meaning. This has been convincingly demonstrated for physics and particularly in the area of mechanics. 14 Children can be considered universal novices; 15 therefore, their everyday concepts are predominantly based on characteristic features while educated adults usually consider defining features, 16 , 17 , 18 as the example of “island” demonstrates. For younger children, it primarily refers to a warm place where one can spend ones’ holidays. In contrast, adults’ concept of island does refer to a tract of land that is completely surrounded by water but not large enough to be considered a continent.

The shift from characteristic to defining features is termed “conceptual change”, 16 and promoting this kind of learning is a major challenge for school education. Students’ understanding of central concepts in an academic subject can undergo fundamental changes (e.g., the concept of weight in physics). Younger elementary school children often agree that a pile of rice has weight, but they may also deny that an individual grain of rice has weight at all. This apparently implausible answer is understandable given that younger children consider the concepts of “weight” and “being heavy” as equivalent. As such, children tend to agree that a grain of rice has weight if it is put on an ant’s back. 16 As a consequence of their education, students usually understand that an object’s weight is determined with the assistance of scales and not necessarily by personal sensation. However, representing weight as the property of an object is still not compatible with scientific physics in the Newtonian sense by which weight is conceptualized as a relation between objects. Understanding weight in this sense requires an interrelated network of knowledge, including the concepts of force, gravity, and mass (among others).

As a result of classroom instruction, students are expected to acquire procedural and conceptual knowledge of the subjects they were taught. While procedures emerge as a function of repetition and practice, the acquisition of advanced concepts, which are consistent with state of the art science, is less straightforward. 14 , 19 To support this kind of conceptual learning, insights from cognitive learning research have been integrated into educational research and are increasingly informing classroom practice. Several instructional methods have been developed and evaluated that support students in restructuring and refining their knowledge and thereby promote appropriate conceptual understanding, including self-explanations, 20 contrasting cases, 21 , 22 and metacognitive questions. 23 Cognitive research has also informed the development of the “taxonomy of learning objects”. 24 This instrument is widely employed for curriculum development and in teacher training programs to support the alignment of content-specific learning goals, means of classroom practice, and assessment. The taxonomy acknowledges the distinction between procedural and conceptual knowledge and includes six cognitive processes (listed in Fig.  1 ) that describe how knowledge can be transformed into observable achievement.

How core knowledge innate to humans can meet with academic learning

What makes humans efficient learners, however, goes beyond general memory functions discussed so far. Similar to other living beings, humans do not enter the world as empty slates 2 but are equipped with so-called core knowledge (Fig.  1 ). Evidence for core knowledge comes from preferential looking experiments with infants who are first habituated to a particular stimulus or scenario. Then, the infant is shown a second scenario that differs from the first in a specific manner. If the time he or she looks at this stimulus exceeds the looking-time at the end of the habituation phase of the first stimulus, this suggests that the infant can discriminate between the stimuli. This paradigm helps to determine whether infants detect violations of principles that underlie the physical world, such as the solidity of objects, where an object cannot occupy the same space as another object. 25 , 26 Core knowledge, which allows privileged learning and behavioral functioning with little effort, also guides the unique human ability of symbolic communication and reasoning, first and foremost, langue learning. 27 , 28 It is uncontested that humans are born with capacities for language learning, which includes the awareness of phonological, grammatical, and social aspects of language. 4 , 29 , 30

Core knowledge can serve as a starting point for the acquisition of content knowledge that has emerged as a result of cultural development. This has been examined in detail for numerical and mathematical reasoning. Two core systems have been detected in infants. As early as at 6 months of age, infants show an ability for the approximate representations of numerical magnitude, which allow them to discriminate two magnitudes depending on their ratio. 31 At the same age, the system of precise representations of distinct individuals allows infants to keep track of changes in small sets of up to three elements. 32 Mathematical competencies emerge as a result of combining both core systems and linking them to number words provided by the respective culture. 33 The Arabic place value number system, which is now common in most parts of the world, was only developed a few 100 years ago. Only after the number “0” had made its way from India via the Arabic countries to Europe were the preconditions for developing our decimal system available. 34 The Arabic number system opened up the pathway to academic mathematics. Cultural transformations based on invented symbol systems were the key to advanced mathematics. Today’s children are expected to understand concepts within a few years of schooling that took mankind centennials to develop. Central content areas in mathematics curricula of high schools, such as calculus, were only developed less than three centuries ago. 35 Given the differences between the Arabic and the Roman number systems, children born 2000 years ago could not make use of their numerical core knowledge in the same way today’s children can.

Core knowledge about navigation is meant to guide the acquisition of geometry, an area involved in numerous academic fields. 36 , 37 The cornerstone of cultural development was the invention of writing, in which language is expressed by letters or other marks. Script is a rather recent cultural invention, going back approximately 5,000 years, whereas the human genome emerged approximately 50,000 years ago. 38 Clearly, unlike oral language, humans are not directly prepared for writing and reading. Nonetheless, today, most 6-year-old children become literate during their 1st years of schooling without experiencing major obstacles. Human beings are endowed with the many skills that contribute to the ability to write and read, such as, first and foremost, language as well as auditory and visual perception and drawing. These initially independent working resources were coopted when script was invented, and teaching children to write and read at school predominantly means supporting the development of associations among these resources. 39

Part of the core knowledge innate to humans has also been found in animals, for instance numerical knowledge and geometry, but to the best of our knowledge, no other animals have invented mathematics. 40 Only humans have been able to use core knowledge for developing higher order cognition, which serves as a precondition for culture, technology, and civilization. Additionally, the unique function of human working memory is the precondition for the integration of initially independent representational systems. However, the full potential of working memory is not in place at birth, but rather matures during childhood and undergoes changes until puberty. 41 Children under the age of two are unable to switch goals 42 and memorize symbol representations appropriately. 43

To summarize what has been discussed so far, there are two sources for the exceptional learning capacity of humans. The first is the function of working memory as a general-purpose resource that allows for holding several mental representations simultaneously for further manipulation. The second is the ancient corpus of the modularized core knowledge of space, quantities, and the physical and social world. Working memory allows for the connection of this knowledge to language, numerals, and other symbol systems, which provides the basis for reasoning and the acquisition of knowledge in academic domains, if appropriate learning opportunities are provided. Both resources are innate to human beings, but they are also sources of individual differences, as will be discussed in the following sections.

Learning potentials are not alike among humans: the differential perspective

In the early twentieth century, a pragmatic need for predicting the learning potential of individuals initiated the development of standardized tests. The Frenchman Alfred Binet, who held a degree in law, constructed problems designed to determine whether children who did not meet certain school requirements suffered from mental retardation or from behavioral disturbances. 44 He asked questions that still resemble items in today’s intelligence tests; children had to repeat simple sentences and series of digits forwards and backwards as well as define words such as “house” or “money”. They were asked in what respect a fly, an ant, a butterfly and a flea are alike, and they had to reproduce drawings from memory. William Stern, an early professor of psychology at the newly founded University of Hamburg/Germany, intended to quantify individual differences in intelligence during childhood and adolescence by developing the first formula for the intelligence quotient (IQ): 45 IQ = Mental age/chronological age*100. Mental age refers to the average test score for a particular age group; this means that a 6-year-old child would have an IQ = 133 if their test score was equivalent to the mean score achieved in the group of 8-year-olds. From adolescence on, however, the average mental age scores increasingly converge, and because of the linear increase in chronological age, the IQ would decline—a trend that obviously does not match reality.

Psychologists from the United States, specifically headed by the Harvard and later Yale professor Robert Yerkes, decided to look at a person’s score relative to other people of the same age group. The average test score was assigned to an IQ = 100 by convention, and an individual’s actual score is compared to this value in terms of a standard deviation, an approach that has been retained to this day. World War I pushed the development of non-verbal intelligence tests, which were used to select young male immigrants with poor English language skills for military service. 46 In the UK, the educational psychologist Cyril Burt promoted the use of intelligence tests for assigning students to the higher academic school tracks. 47 Charles Spearman from the University College London was among the first to focus on the correlations between test items based on verbal, numerical, or visual-spatial content. 48 The substantial correlations he found provided evidence for a general intelligence model (factor-g), which has been confirmed in the following decades by numerous studies performed throughout the world. 49

The high psychometric quality of the intelligence tests constructed in different parts of the world by scientists in the early decades of the twentieth century have influenced research ever since. In 1923, Edward Boring, a leading experimental psychologist concluded, “Intelligence is what the tests test. This is a narrow definition, but it is the only point of departure for a rigorous discussion of the tests. It would be better if the psychologists could have used some other and more technical term, since the ordinary connotation of intelligence is much broader. The damage is done, however, and no harm need result if we but remember that measurable intelligence is simply what the tests of intelligence test, until further scientific observation allows us to extend the definition.”(ref. 50 , p. 37). More than 70 years later, psychologists widely agreed on a definition for intelligence originally offered by Linda Gottfredsonin 1997: “Intelligence is a very general mental capability that, among other things, involves the ability to reason, plan, solve problems, think abstractly, comprehend complex ideas, learn quickly, and learn from experience. It is not merely book learning, a narrow academic skill, or test-taking smarts. Rather, it reflects a broader and deeper capability for comprehending our surroundings—‘catching on,’ ‘making sense’ of things, or ‘figuring out’ what to do” (ref. 51 , p. 13). This definition is in line with the substantial correlations between intelligence test scores and academic success, 52 whereas correlations with measures of outside-school success, such as income or professional status, are lower but still significant. 53 , 54 Numerous longitudinal studies have revealed that IQ is a fairly stable measure across the lifespan, which has been most convincingly demonstrated in the Lothian Birth Cohorts run in Scotland. Two groups of people born in 1921 and 1936 took a test of mental ability at school when they were 11 years old. The correlation with IQ tests taken more than 60 years later was highly significant and approached r  = .70 (ref. 55 ). The same data set also demonstrated a substantial long-term impact of intelligence on various factors of life success, among them career aspects, health, and longevity. 56

Intelligence tests scores have proven to be objective, reliable, and valid measures for predicting learning outcome and more general life success. At the same time, the numerous data sets on intelligence tests that were created all over the world also contributed to a better understanding of the underlying structure of cognitive abilities. Although a factor g could be extracted in almost all data sets, correlations between subtests varied considerably, suggesting individual differences beyond general cognitive capabilities. Modality factors (verbal, numerical, or visual spatial) have been observed, showing increased correlations between tests based on the same modality, but requiring different mental operations. On the other hand, increased correlations were also observed between tests based on different modalities, but similar mental operations (e.g., either memorizing or reasoning). The hierarchical structure of intelligence, with factor g on the top and specific factors beneath, was quite obvious from the very beginning of running statistical analyses with intelligence items. Nonetheless, it appeared a major challenge for intelligence researchers to agree on a taxonomy of abilities on the second and subsequent levels. In 1993, John Carroll published his synthesis of hundreds of published data sets on the structure of intelligence after decades of research. 57 In his suggested three-stratum model, factor g is the top layer, with the middle layer encompassing broader abilities such as comprehension knowledge, reasoning, quantitative knowledge, reading and writing, and visual and auditory processing. Eighty narrower abilities, such as spatial scanning, oral production fluency, and sound discrimination, are located in the bottom layer. To date, Carroll’s work is considered the most comprehensive view of the structure of individual variations in cognitive abilities. 58 However, the interpretation of factor g is still under discussion among scientists. Factor g could be a comprehensive characteristic of the brain that makes information processing generally more or less efficient (top-down-approach). Existing data sets, however, are also compatible with a model of intelligence according to which the human brain is comprised of a large number of single abilities that have to be sampled for mental work (bottom-up approach). In this case, factor g can be considered a statistical correlate that is an emerging synergy of narrow abilities. 59

Genetic sources of individual differences in intelligence

From studies with identical and fraternal twins, we know that genetic differences can explain a considerable amount of variance in IQ. The correlation between test scores of identical twins raised together approaches r  = .80 and thereby is almost equal to the reliability coefficient of the respective test. On the other hand, IQ-correlations between raised-together same-sex fraternal twins are rarely higher than .50, a value also found for regular siblings. Given that the shared environment for regular siblings is lower than for fraternal twins, this result qualifies the impact of environmental factors on intelligence. The amount of genetic variance is judged in statistical analyses based on the difference between the intra-pair correlations for identical and fraternal twins. 60 High rates of heritability, however, do not mean that we can gauge a person’s cognitive capabilities from his or her DNA. The search for the genes responsible for the expression of cognitive capabilities has not yet had much success, despite the money and effort invested in human genome projects. It is entirely plausible that intelligence is formed by a very large number of genes, each with a small effect, spread out across the entire genome. Moreover, these genes seem to interact in very complicated ways with each other as well as with environmental cues. 61

An entirely false but nonetheless still widespread misunderstanding is to equate “genetic sources” with “inevitability” because people fail to recognize the existence of reaction norms, a concept invented in 1909 by the German biologist, Richard Woltereck. Reaction norms depict the range of phenotypes a genotype can produce depending on the environment. 62 For some few physiological individual characteristics (e.g., the color of eyes) the reaction norm is quite narrow, which means gene expression will rarely be affected by varying environments. Other physiological characteristics, such as height, have a high degree of heritability and a large reaction norm. Whether an individual reaches the height made possible by the genome depends on the nutrition during childhood and adolescence. In a wealthy country with uniform access to food, average height will be larger than in a poor country with many malnourished inhabitants. However, within both countries, people vary in height. The heritability in the wealthy country can be expected to approach 100% because everybody enjoyed sufficient nutrition. In contrast, in the poor country, some were sufficiently nourished and, therefore, reached the height expressed by their genome, while others were malnourished and, therefore, remained smaller than their genes would have allowed under more favorable conditions. For height, the reaction norm is quite large because gene expression depends on nutrition during childhood and adolescence. This explains the well-documented tendency for people who have grown up in developed countries to become progressively taller in the past decades.

The environment regulates gene expression, which means that instead of “nature vs. nurture”, a more accurate phrase is “nature via nurture”. 63 The complex interaction between genes and environment can also explain the fact that heritability of intelligence increases during the lifespan. 61 This well-established finding is a result of societies in which a broad variety of cognitive activities available in professional and private life enable adults more than children to actively select special environments that fit their genes. People who have found their niche can perfect their competencies by deliberate learning.

In the first decades of developing intelligence tests, researchers were naive to the validity of non-verbal intelligence; so-called culture-free or culture-fair tests, based on visual-spatial material such as mirror images, mazes or series and matrices of geometric figures, were supposed to be suitable for studying people of different social and cultural levels. 64 This is now considered incorrect because in the meantime, there has been overwhelming evidence for the impact of schooling on the development of intelligence and the establishment and stabilization of individual differences. Approximately 10 years of institutionalized education is necessary for the intelligence of individuals to approach its maximum potential. 65 , 66 , 67

Altogether, twin and adoption studies suggest that 50–80% of IQ variation is due to genetic differences. 61 This relatively large range in the percentage across different studies is due to the heritability of intelligence in the population studied, specifically, the large reaction norm of the genes giving rise to the development of intelligence. Generally, the amount of variance in intelligence test scores explained by genes is higher the more society members have access to school education, health care, and sufficient nutrition. There is strong evidence for a decrease in the heritability of intelligence for children from families with lower socioeconomic status (SES). For example, lower SES fraternal twins resembled each other more than higher SES ones, indicating a stronger impact of shared environment under the former condition. 68 In other words, because of the less stimulating environment in lower SES families, the expression of genes involved in the development of intelligence is likely to be hampered. Although it may be counterintuitive at first, this suggests that a high heritability rate of intelligence in a society is an indicator of economic and educational equity. Additionally, this means that countries that ensure access to nutrition, health care, and high quality education independent of social background enable their members to develop their intelligence according to their genetic potential. This was confirmed by a meta-analysis on interactions between SES and heritability rate. While studies run in the United States showed a positive correlation between SES and heritability rate, studies from Western Europe countries and Australia with a higher degree of economic and social equality did not. 69 , 70

Cognitive processes behind intelligence test scores: how individuals differ in information processing

In the first part of this paper, cognitive processes were discussed that, in principle, enable human beings to develop the academic competencies that are particularly advantageous in our world today. In the second part, intelligence test scores were shown to be valid indicators of academic and professional success, and differences in IQ were shown to have sound genetic sources. Over many decades, research on cognitive processes and psychometric intelligence has been developing largely independently of one another, but in the meantime, they have converged. Tests that were developed to provide evidence for the different components of human cognition revealed large individual differences and were substantially correlated with intelligence tests. Tests of memory function were correlated with tests of factor g. Sensory memory tests have shown that the exposure duration required for reliably identifying a simple stimulus (inspection time) is negatively correlatedwith intelligence. 71 For working memory, there is a large body of research indicating substantial relationships between all types of working memory functions and IQ, with average correlations >.50 (refs 72 , 73 , 74 ). In these studies, working memory functions are measured by speed tasks that require goal-oriented active monitoring of incoming information or reactions under interfering and distracting conditions. Neural efficiency has been identified as a major neural characteristic of intelligence; more intelligent individuals show less brain activation (measured by electroencephalogram or functional magnetic resonance imaging) when completing intelligence test items 75 , 76 as well as working memory items. 77 Differences in information-processing efficiency were already found in 4-month-old children. Most importantly, they could predict psychometric intelligence in 8-year-old children. 78

These results clearly suggest that a portion of individual differences can be traced back to differences in domain-general cognitive competencies. However, psychometric research also shows that individual differences do exist beyond factor g on a more specific level. Differences in numerical, language, and spatial abilities are well established. Longitudinal studies starting in infancy suggest that sources of these differences may be traced back to variations in core knowledge. Non-symbolic numerical competencies in infancy have an impact on mathematical achievement. 79 Similar long-term effects were found for other areas of core knowledge, 80 particularly language. 81

Endowed with general and specific cognitive resources, human beings growing up in modern societies are exposed to informal and formal learning environments that foster the acquisition of procedural as well as declarative knowledge in areas that are part of the school curriculum. Being endowed with genes that support efficient working memory functions and that provide the basis for usable core knowledge allows for the exploitation of learning opportunities provided by the environment. This facilitates the acquisition of knowledge that is broad as well as deep enough to be prepared for mastering the, as of yet, unknown demands of the future. 18 Regression analyses based on longitudinal studies have revealed that the confounded variance of prior knowledge and intelligence predicts learning outcome and expertise better than each single variable. 82 , 83 , 84 Importantly, no matter how intelligent a person is, gaining expertise in a complex and sophisticated field requires deliberate practice and an immense investment of time. 85 However, intelligence differences will come into play in the amount of time that has to be invested to reach a certain degree of expertise. 86 Moreover, intelligence builds a barrier to content areas in which a person can excel. As discussed in the first part of this paper, some content areas—first and foremost from STEM fields—are characterized by abstract concepts mainly based on defining features, which are themselves integrated into a broader network of other abstract concepts and procedures. Only individuals who clearly score above average on intelligence tests can excel in these areas. 84 , 87 For individuals who were fortunate enough to attend schools that offered high-quality education, intelligence and measures of deep and broad knowledge are highly correlated. 88 , 89 A strong impact of general intelligence has also been shown for university entrance tests such as the SAT, which mainly ask for the application of knowledge in new fields. 90 , 91 Societies that provide uniform access to cognitively stimulating environments help individuals to achieve their potential but also bring to bear differences in intelligence. Education is not the great equalizer, but rather generates individual differences rooted in genes.

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33 What Is Learning?

[latexpage]

Learning Objectives

By the end of this section, you will be able to:

• Explain how learned behaviors are different from instincts and reflexes
• Define learning
• Recognize and define three basic forms of learning—classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning

Birds build nests and migrate as winter approaches. Infants suckle at their mother’s breast. Dogs shake water off wet fur. Salmon swim upstream to spawn, and spiders spin intricate webs. What do these seemingly unrelated behaviors have in common? They all are unlearned behaviors. Both instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors that organisms are born with. Reflexes are a motor or neural reaction to a specific stimulus in the environment. They tend to be simpler than instincts, involve the activity of specific body parts and systems (e.g., the knee-jerk reflex and the contraction of the pupil in bright light), and involve more primitive centers of the central nervous system (e.g., the spinal cord and the medulla). In contrast, instincts are innate behaviors that are triggered by a broader range of events, such as aging and the change of seasons. They are more complex patterns of behavior, involve movement of the organism as a whole (e.g., sexual activity and migration), and involve higher brain centers.

Both reflexes and instincts help an organism adapt to its environment and do not have to be learned. For example, every healthy human baby has a sucking reflex, present at birth. Babies are born knowing how to suck on a nipple, whether artificial (from a bottle) or human. Nobody teaches the baby to suck, just as no one teaches a sea turtle hatchling to move toward the ocean. Learning, like reflexes and instincts, allows an organism to adapt to its environment. But unlike instincts and reflexes, learned behaviors involve change and experience: learning is a relatively permanent change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. In contrast to the innate behaviors discussed above, learning involves acquiring knowledge and skills through experience. Looking back at our surfing scenario, Julian will have to spend much more time training with his surfboard before he learns how to ride the waves like his father.

Learning to surf, as well as any complex learning process (e.g., learning about the discipline of psychology), involves a complex interaction of conscious and unconscious processes. Learning has traditionally been studied in terms of its simplest components—the associations our minds automatically make between events. Our minds have a natural tendency to connect events that occur closely together or in sequence. Associative learning occurs when an organism makes connections between stimuli or events that occur together in the environment. You will see that associative learning is central to all three basic learning processes discussed in this chapter; classical conditioning tends to involve unconscious processes, operant conditioning tends to involve conscious processes, and observational learning adds social and cognitive layers to all the basic associative processes, both conscious and unconscious. These learning processes will be discussed in detail later in the chapter, but it is helpful to have a brief overview of each as you begin to explore how learning is understood from a psychological perspective.

In classical conditioning, also known as Pavlovian conditioning, organisms learn to associate events—or stimuli—that repeatedly happen together. We experience this process throughout our daily lives. For example, you might see a flash of lightning in the sky during a storm and then hear a loud boom of thunder. The sound of the thunder naturally makes you jump (loud noises have that effect by reflex). Because lightning reliably predicts the impending boom of thunder, you may associate the two and jump when you see lightning. Psychological researchers study this associative process by focusing on what can be seen and measured—behaviors. Researchers ask if one stimulus triggers a reflex, can we train a different stimulus to trigger that same reflex? In operant conditioning, organisms learn, again, to associate events—a behavior and its consequence (reinforcement or punishment). A pleasant consequence encourages more of that behavior in the future, whereas a punishment deters the behavior. Imagine you are teaching your dog, Hodor, to sit. You tell Hodor to sit, and give him a treat when he does. After repeated experiences, Hodor begins to associate the act of sitting with receiving a treat. He learns that the consequence of sitting is that he gets a doggie biscuit ( [link] ). Conversely, if the dog is punished when exhibiting a behavior, it becomes conditioned to avoid that behavior (e.g., receiving a small shock when crossing the boundary of an invisible electric fence).

Observational learning extends the effective range of both classical and operant conditioning. In contrast to classical and operant conditioning, in which learning occurs only through direct experience, observational learning is the process of watching others and then imitating what they do. A lot of learning among humans and other animals comes from observational learning. To get an idea of the extra effective range that observational learning brings, consider Ben and his son Julian from the introduction. How might observation help Julian learn to surf, as opposed to learning by trial and error alone? By watching his father, he can imitate the moves that bring success and avoid the moves that lead to failure. Can you think of something you have learned how to do after watching someone else?

All of the approaches covered in this chapter are part of a particular tradition in psychology, called behaviorism, which we discuss in the next section. However, these approaches do not represent the entire study of learning. Separate traditions of learning have taken shape within different fields of psychology, such as memory and cognition, so you will find that other chapters will round out your understanding of the topic. Over time these traditions tend to converge. For example, in this chapter you will see how cognition has come to play a larger role in behaviorism, whose more extreme adherents once insisted that behaviors are triggered by the environment with no intervening thought.

Instincts and reflexes are innate behaviors—they occur naturally and do not involve learning. In contrast, learning is a change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience. There are three main types of learning: classical conditioning, operant conditioning, and observational learning. Both classical and operant conditioning are forms of associative learning where associations are made between events that occur together. Observational learning is just as it sounds: learning by observing others.

Review Questions

Which of the following is an example of a reflex that occurs at some point in the development of a human being?

• child riding a bike
• teen socializing
• infant sucking on a nipple
• toddler walking

Learning is best defined as a relatively permanent change in behavior that ________.

• occurs as a result of experience
• is found only in humans
• occurs by observing others

Two forms of associative learning are ________ and ________.

• classical conditioning; operant conditioning
• classical conditioning; Pavlovian conditioning
• operant conditioning; observational learning
• operant conditioning; learning conditioning

In ________ the stimulus or experience occurs before the behavior and then gets paired with the behavior.

• associative learning
• observational learning
• operant conditioning
• classical conditioning

Critical Thinking Questions

Compare and contrast classical and operant conditioning. How are they alike? How do they differ?

Both classical and operant conditioning involve learning by association. In classical conditioning, responses are involuntary and automatic; however, responses are voluntary and learned in operant conditioning. In classical conditioning, the event that drives the behavior (the stimulus) comes before the behavior; in operant conditioning, the event that drives the behavior (the consequence) comes after the behavior. Also, whereas classical conditioning involves an organism forming an association between an involuntary (reflexive) response and a stimulus, operant conditioning involves an organism forming an association between a voluntary behavior and a consequence.

What is the difference between a reflex and a learned behavior?

A reflex is a behavior that humans are born knowing how to do, such as sucking or blushing; these behaviors happen automatically in response to stimuli in the environment. Learned behaviors are things that humans are not born knowing how to do, such as swimming and surfing. Learned behaviors are not automatic; they occur as a result of practice or repeated experience in a situation.

Personal Application Questions

What is your personal definition of learning? How do your ideas about learning compare with the definition of learning presented in this text?

What kinds of things have you learned through the process of classical conditioning? Operant conditioning? Observational learning? How did you learn them?

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Kolb’s Learning Styles and Experiential Learning Cycle

Saul Mcleod, PhD

Editor-in-Chief for Simply Psychology

BSc (Hons) Psychology, MRes, PhD, University of Manchester

Saul Mcleod, PhD., is a qualified psychology teacher with over 18 years of experience in further and higher education. He has been published in peer-reviewed journals, including the Journal of Clinical Psychology.

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Olivia Guy-Evans is a writer and associate editor for Simply Psychology. She has previously worked in healthcare and educational sectors.

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David Kolb published his learning styles model in 1984, from which he developed his learning style inventory.

Kolb’s experiential learning theory works on two levels: a four-stage learning cycle and four separate learning styles. Much of Kolb’s theory concerns the learner’s internal cognitive processes.

Kolb states that learning involves the acquisition of abstract concepts that can be applied flexibly in a range of situations. In Kolb’s theory, the impetus for the development of new concepts is provided by new experiences.

“Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 1984, p. 38).

The Experiential Learning Cycle

Kolb’s experiential learning style theory is typically represented by a four-stage learning cycle in which the learner “touches all the bases”:

The terms “Reflective Cycle” and “Experiential Learning Cycle” are often used interchangeably when referring to this four-stage learning process. The main idea behind both terms is that effective learning occurs through a continuous cycle of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation.

• Concrete Experience – the learner encounters a concrete experience. This might be a new experience or situation, or a reinterpretation of existing experience in the light of new concepts.
• Reflective Observation of the New Experience – the learner reflects on the new experience in the light of their existing knowledge. Of particular importance are any inconsistencies between experience and understanding.
• Abstract Conceptualization – reflection gives rise to a new idea, or a modification of an existing abstract concept (the person has learned from their experience).
• Active Experimentation – the newly created or modified concepts give rise to experimentation. The learner applies their idea(s) to the world around them to see what happens.

Effective learning is seen when a person progresses through a cycle of four stages: of (1) having a concrete experience followed by (2) observation of and reflection on that experience which leads to (3) the formation of abstract concepts (analysis) and generalizations (conclusions) which are then (4) used to test a hypothesis in future situations, resulting in new experiences.

Kolb (1984) views learning as an integrated process, with each stage mutually supporting and feeding into the next. It is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow it through its logical sequence.

However, effective learning only occurs when a learner can execute all four stages of the model. Therefore, no one stage of the cycle is effective as a learning procedure on its own.

The process of going through the cycle results in the formation of increasingly complex and abstract ‘mental models’ of whatever the learner is learning about.

Learning Styles

Kolb’s learning theory (1984) sets out four distinct learning styles, which are based on a four-stage learning cycle (see above). Kolb explains that different people naturally prefer a certain single different learning style.

Various factors influence a person’s preferred style. For example, social environment, educational experiences, or the basic cognitive structure of the individual.

Whatever influences the choice of style, the learning style preference itself is actually the product of two pairs of variables, or two separate “choices” that we make, which Kolb presented as lines of an axis, each with “conflicting” modes at either end.

A typical presentation of Kolb’s two continuums is that the east-west axis is called the Processing Continuum (how we approach a task), and the north-south axis is called the Perception Continuum (our emotional response, or how we think or feel about it).

Kolb believed that we cannot perform both variables on a single axis simultaneously (e.g., think and feel). Our learning style is a product of these two choice decisions.

It’s often easier to see the construction of Kolb’s learning styles in terms of a two-by-two matrix. Each learning style represents a combination of two preferred styles.

The matrix also highlights Kolb’s terminology for the four learning styles; diverging, assimilating, and converging, accommodating:

Knowing a person’s (and your own) learning style enables learning to be orientated according to the preferred method.

That said, everyone responds to and needs the stimulus of all types of learning styles to one extent or another – it’s a matter of using emphasis that fits best with the given situation and a person’s learning style preferences.

Here are brief descriptions of the four Kolb learning styles:

Diverging (feeling and watching – CE/RO)

These people are able to look at things from different perspectives. They are sensitive. They prefer to watch rather than do, tending to gather information and use imagination to solve problems. They are best at viewing concrete situations from several different viewpoints.

Kolb called this style “diverging” because these people perform better in situations that require ideas-generation, for example, brainstorming. People with a diverging learning style have broad cultural interests and like to gather information.

They are interested in people, tend to be imaginative and emotional, and tend to be strong in the arts. People with the diverging style prefer to work in groups, to listen with an open mind and to receive personal feedback.

Assimilating (watching and thinking – AC/RO)

The assimilating learning preference involves a concise, logical approach. Ideas and concepts are more important than people.

These people require good, clear explanations rather than a practical opportunity. They excel at understanding wide-ranging information and organizing it in a clear, logical format.

People with an assimilating learning style are less focused on people and more interested in ideas and abstract concepts.  People with this style are more attracted to logically sound theories than approaches based on practical value.

This learning style is important for effectiveness in information and science careers. In formal learning situations, people with this style prefer readings, lectures, exploring analytical models, and having time to think things through.

Converging (doing and thinking – AC/AE)

People with a converging learning style can solve problems and will use their learning to find solutions to practical issues. They prefer technical tasks, and are less concerned with people and interpersonal aspects.

People with a converging learning style are best at finding practical uses for ideas and theories. They can solve problems and make decisions by finding solutions to questions and problems.

People with a converging learning style are more attracted to technical tasks and problems than social or interpersonal issues. A converging learning style enables specialist and technology abilities.

People with a converging style like to experiment with new ideas, to simulate, and to work with practical applications.

Accommodating (doing and feeling – CE/AE)

The Accommodating learning style is “hands-on,” and relies on intuition rather than logic. These people use other people’s analysis, and prefer to take a practical, experiential approach. They are attracted to new challenges and experiences, and to carrying out plans.

They commonly act on “gut” instinct rather than logical analysis. People with an accommodating learning style will tend to rely on others for information than carry out their own analysis. This learning style is prevalent within the general population.

Educational Implications

Both Kolb’s (1984) learning stages and the cycle could be used by teachers to critically evaluate the learning provision typically available to students, and to develop more appropriate learning opportunities.

Educators should ensure that activities are designed and carried out in ways that offer each learner the chance to engage in the manner that suits them best.

Also, individuals can be helped to learn more effectively by the identification of their lesser preferred learning styles and the strengthening of these through the application of the experiential learning cycle.

Ideally, activities and material should be developed in ways that draw on abilities from each stage of the experiential learning cycle and take the students through the whole process in sequence.

Kolb, D. A. (1976). The Learning Style Inventory: Technical Manual . Boston, MA: McBer.

Kolb, D.A. (1981). Learning styles and disciplinary differences, in: A.W. Chickering (Ed.) The Modern American College (pp. 232–255). San Francisco, LA: Jossey-Bass.

Kolb, D. A. (1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development (Vol. 1). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Kolb, D. A., & Fry, R. (1975). Toward an applied theory of experiential learning. In C. Cooper (Ed.), Studies of group process (pp. 33–57). New York: Wiley.

Kolb, D. A., Rubin, I. M., & McIntyre, J. M. (1984). Organizational psychology: readings on human behavior in organizations . Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Further Reading

• How to Write a Psychology Essay
• David Kolb’s Website
• Pashler, H., McDaniel, M., Rohrer, D., & Bjork, R. (2008). Learning styles: Concepts and evidence. Psychological science in the public interest, 9(3) , 105-119.

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Major Branches of Psychology

18 Psychological Areas You Can Study

Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."

Verywell / Ran Zheng

Abnormal Psychology

Behavioral psychology, biopsychology, clinical psychology, cognitive psychology, comparative psychology, counseling psychology, cross-cultural psychology, developmental psychology, educational psychology, experimental psychology, forensic psychology, health psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, personality psychology, school psychology, social psychology, sports psychology.

Psychology is such a broad field that conveying its depth and breadth can be difficult. As a result, a number of unique and distinctive branches of psychology have emerged, each one dealing with specific psychological areas within the study of the mind, brain, and behavior.

The major areas of psychology include:

• Abnormal psychology
• Behavioral psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Comparative psychology
• Counseling psychology
• Cross-cultural psychology
• Developmental psychology
• Educational psychology
• Experimental psychology
• Forensic psychology
• Health psychology
• Industrial-organizational psychology
• Personality psychology
• School psychology
• Social psychology
• Sports psychology

Understanding what these subtopics represent can help you decide where your interests may lie. Here is more information about these 18 major types of psychology if you are interested in studying, earning your degree, or creating a career in this expansive field.

Overview of the Branches of Psychology

Each of these psychological areas looks at questions and problems from a different  perspective . While they all have their own focus, they still share a common goal of studying and explaining human thought and behavior.

Because human behavior is so varied, the number of subfields in psychology is constantly growing and evolving. Some of these subfields have been firmly established as areas of interest, and many colleges and universities offer courses and degree programs in these topics. 

Each type of psychology represents a specific area of study focused on a particular topic. Oftentimes, psychologists specialize in one of these as a career. The following are just some of the major branches of psychology. For many of these, working in that specific area requires graduate study in that particular field.

2 Main Areas of Psychology

Psychology can be roughly divided into two major areas:

• Research,  which seeks to increase our knowledge base
• Practice , through which our knowledge is applied to solving problems in the real world

Abnormal psychology looks at psychopathology and abnormal behavior. It involves the study of people's emotional, thought, and behavior patterns to identify, understand, and potentially resolve any issues that may be negatively affecting a person's life.

Mental health professionals in this branch of psychology assess, diagnose, and treat a wide variety of psychological disorders , including anxiety and depression. Counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychotherapists often work directly in this field.

Behavioral psychology, also known as behaviorism , is a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviors are acquired through conditioning. Behavioral strategies such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning are often utilized to teach or modify behaviors.

For example, a teacher might use a rewards system to teach students to behave during class. When students are good, they receive gold stars, which can then be turned in for some sort of special privilege.

While this type of psychology dominated the field during the first part of the twentieth century, it became less prominent during the 1950s. However, behavioral techniques remain a mainstay in therapy, education, and many other areas.

Biopsychology is a psychological area focused on how the brain, neurons, and nervous system influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. This field draws upon many different disciplines, including basic psychology, cognitive psychology, experimental psychology, biology, physiology, and neuroscience.

People who work in this type of psychology often study how brain injuries and brain diseases impact human behavior.

Biopsychology is also sometimes referred to as physiological psychology, behavioral neuroscience, or psychobiology. So, if you are interested in studying or earning a degree in this psychology branch, you may want to look for courses or programs with these names.

Clinical psychology  is the branch of psychology concerned with the assessment and treatment of mental illness, abnormal behavior, and psychiatric disorders. Clinicians often work in private practices, but many also work in community centers or at universities and colleges.

You can even find clinical psychology professionals in hospital settings and mental health clinics. In these organizations, they often work as part of a collaborative team that may include physicians, psychiatrists , and other mental health professionals.

Cognitive psychology is a psychological area that focuses on internal mental states. This area has continued to grow since it emerged in the 1960s and is centered on the science of how people think, learn, and remember.

Professionals who work in this type of psychology typically study cognitive functions such as perception, motivation , emotion, language, learning, memory, attention , decision-making , and problem-solving .

Cognitive psychologists often use an information-processing model to describe how the mind works, suggesting that the brain stores and processes information much like a computer.

Comparative psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the study of animal behavior. This is important because the study of how animals behave can lead to a deeper and broader understanding of human psychology.

This psychology subtype has its roots in the work of researchers such as Charles Darwin and George Romanes and has grown into a highly multidisciplinary subject. In addition to psychologists contributing to this field, so do biologists, anthropologists, ecologists, geneticists, and several others.

Counseling psychology is one of the largest areas of psychology. It is centered on treating clients in mental distress who may be experiencing a wide variety of psychological symptoms.

The Society of Counseling Psychology explains that professionals working in this type of psychology can improve their clients' interpersonal functioning throughout life. They do this by improving the client's social and emotional health, as well as addressing concerns about health, work , family , marriage , and more.

Cross-cultural psychology is a branch of psychology that looks at how cultural factors influence human behavior. This may involve looking at differences between collective and individualist cultures , for instance. Cross-cultural psychologists might also look at how cultures vary in terms of emotion, personality, or child development.

The International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP) was established in 1972. This type of psychology has continued to grow and develop since that time, with increasing numbers of psychologists investigating how behavior differs among cultures throughout the world.

Developmental psychology focuses on how people change and grow throughout life. This area of psychology seeks to understand and explain how and why people change. Developmental psychologists study physical growth, intellectual development, emotional changes, social growth, and perceptual changes that occur over the course of the lifespan.

These types of psychologists may specialize in infant, child, adolescent, or geriatric development, while others might primarily study the effects of developmental delays. This psychology branch covers a huge range of topics, ranging from  prenatal development  to Alzheimer's disease .

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with schools, teaching psychology, educational issues, and student concerns. Educational psychologists often study how students learn. They may also work directly with students, parents, teachers, and administrators to improve student outcomes.

Professionals in this type of psychology sometimes study how different variables influence individual students. They may also study learning disabilities, giftedness, and the instructional process.

8 Things to Know About Educational Psychology

Experimental psychology is the psychological area that utilizes scientific methods to research the brain and behavior. Many of these techniques are also used in other psychology areas to study everything from childhood development to social issues.

This type of psychology is often viewed as a distinct subfield, but experimental techniques and methods are used extensively throughout every branch. Some of the methods used include experiments, correlational studies , case studies , and naturalistic observation .

Experimental psychologists work in a wide variety of settings, including colleges, universities, research centers, government, and private businesses. They utilize the scientific method to study a range of human behaviors and psychological phenomena.

Forensic psychology deals with issues related to psychology and the law. Those who work in this branch apply psychological principles to legal issues. This may involve studying criminal behavior and treatment or working directly in the court system.

Forensic psychologists perform a wide variety of duties, including providing testimony in court cases, assessing children in suspected child abuse cases, preparing children to give testimony, and evaluating the mental competence of criminal suspects.

In many cases, people working in forensic psychology aren't necessarily "forensic psychologists." These individuals might be clinical psychologists, school psychologists, neurologists, or counselors who lend their psychological expertise to provide testimony, analysis, or recommendations in legal or criminal cases.

Health psychology (also sometimes called medical psychology or behavioral medicine) focuses on how biology, psychology, behavior, and social factors influence health and illness. This area of psychology involves the promotion of health across a wide variety of domains, as well as the prevention and treatment of disease and illness.

Health psychologists often deal with health-related issues such as weight management, smoking cessation , stress management , and nutrition . They might also research how people cope with illnesses, helping patients learn more effective coping strategies .

Some professionals in this type of psychology assist with the design of disease prevention and public awareness programs, while others work within the government to improve health care policies.

Industrial-organizational psychology applies psychological principles to workplace issues. This psychological area, often referred to as I/O psychology, seeks to improve productivity and efficiency in the workplace while maximizing the well-being of employees. It includes areas such as human factors.

Human factors psychology focuses on human error, product design, ergonomics, human capability, and human-computer interaction. Its goal is to improve how people interact with products and machines. This might involve helping to design products intended to minimize injury or creating workplaces that promote greater accuracy and safety.

Research in I/O psychology is known as  applied research  because it seeks to solve real-world problems. These types of psychologists study topics such as worker attitudes, employee behaviors, organizational processes, and leadership.

Personality psychology is the branch of psychology that focuses on the study of thought patterns, feelings, and behaviors that make each individual unique. Classic theories of personality include Freud's psychoanalytic theory of personality and Erikson's theory of psychosocial development.

Personality psychologists might look at how different factors (such as genetics, parenting, and social experiences) influence personality development and change. They may also be involved in the creation or administration of personality tests .

School psychology is a type of psychology that involves working in schools to help kids deal with academic, emotional, and social issues. School psychologists also collaborate with teachers, students, and parents to help create a healthy learning environment.

Most school psychologists work in elementary and secondary schools, but others can be found in private clinics, hospitals, state agencies, and universities. Some go into private practice and serve as consultants—especially those with a doctoral degree in school psychology.

Social psychology seeks to understand and explain social behavior. It looks at diverse topics including group behavior, social interactions and perceptions, leadership , nonverbal communication , and social influences on decision-making.

Social influences on behavior are a major interest in social psychology, but these types of psychologists are also focused on how people perceive and interact with others. This branch of psychology also includes topics such as conformity , aggression, and prejudice .

Sports psychology is the study of how psychology influences sports, athletic performance, exercise, and physical activity. Individuals may work with a sports psychologist to improve their focus, develop mental toughness, increase motivation, or reduce sports-related anxiety.

Some sports psychologists work with professional athletes such as pro sports players and top Olympians. Others utilize exercise and sports to enhance the health and well-being of non-athletes throughout their lifespan.

A Word From Verywell

Psychology is always evolving and new fields and branches continue to emerge. It is important to remember that no single branch of psychology is more important or better than any other. Each area contributes to our understanding of the many different psychological factors that influence who we are, how we behave, and how we think.

By conducting research and developing new applications for psychological knowledge, professionals working in all psychological areas are able to help people better understand themselves, confront the problems they may face, and live better lives.

Miller GA. Mistreating Psychology in the Decades of the Brain . Perspect Psychol Sci. 2010;5(6):716-43. doi:10.1177/1745691610388774

Gray PO, Bjorklund, D. Psychology .

Hockenbury SE, Nolan SA. Psychology .

By Kendra Cherry, MSEd Kendra Cherry, MS, is a psychosocial rehabilitation specialist, psychology educator, and author of the "Everything Psychology Book."