Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Cognitive Views
of Learning
These traditions in learning theory have existed for decades.
They give different answers to the fundamental question,
“What is learned” when learning takes place?
For example, in a
“Skinner Box”, a rat may
receive a food reward
every time he presses the
bar. He presses faster
and faster. What has he
learned?
Behavioral vs. Cognitive Views
of Learning
These traditions in learning theory have existed for decades.
They give different answers to the fundamental question,
“What is learned” when learning takes place?
For example, in a
“Skinner Box”, a rat may
receive a food reward
every time he presses the
bar. He presses faster
and faster. What has he
learned?
Behavioral vs. Cognitive Views
of Learning
Behaviorism
(“learns to”)
1. Learning involves the formation of associations between
specific actions and specific events (stimuli) in the
environment. These stimuli may either precede or follow the
action (antecedents vs. consequences).
2. Many behaviorists use intervening variables to explain
behavior (e.g., habit, drive) but avoid references to mental
states.
3. RADICAL BEHAVIORISM (operant conditioning/behavior
modification/behavior analysis): avoids any intervening
variables and focuses on descriptions of relationships between
behavior and environment (“functional analysis”).
Behavioral vs. Cognitive Views
of Learning
Cognitivism
(“learns that”)
1. Learning takes place in the mind, not in behavior. It
involves the formation of mental representations of the
elements of a task and the discovery of how these elements
are related.
2. Behavior is used to make inferences about mental states
but is not of interest in itself (“methodological behaviorism”).
Start 1
GROUP R GROUP P
Goal 2 Goal 1
Start 1
GROUP R GROUP P
Group P learned faster.
GROUP R GROUP P
Group P learned faster.
Goal 2 Goal 1
Both response and place learning
occur. Which type is faster depends
on what cues are available. So both
the cognitive and behavioral views
turned out to be right! Start 1