Video Transcript: Learning Theory

Learning. Learning is complex, dynamic and necessary for the human  experience to progress and to be especially as we come into relationship with  God, our Father, through our Lord, Jesus Christ, and especially learning how we learn, as I shared the previous video, oh, teacher. Teacher, I know the answer  Tom. Tell us more about Pavlov. I don't want to. Don't touch the hot stove. Ow.  Yeah, learning. Learning is fundamental, foundational. As we become more and  more, connected with God and with others, it's what God has given us. God  given us this god given innate mechanism in the brain and therefore all  throughout our body, physically and also, of course, to begin with, spiritually,  mentally, emotionally, learning, the ability to learn, to retain and to apply what it  is that We learn in the course of psychology, we then learn how we learn. The  previous video, we looked at BF Skinner before him, Dr Thorndike, both  proponents of what we call operant conditioning, in other words, how  punishment and reward, as well as reinforcement, as well as to partial  reinforcement, can be used to guide and direct a human being and how they  learn. For example, we talked about how if I do the task, then I'm given that  great cup of coffee. That is how I learn that that task will bring me that reward,  and just the opposite if I don't do the task, no coffee. Learning is dynamic.  Today, we're going to be looking at other types of learning. We'll review some of  Skinner along with Dr Watson. Sounds like Sherlock Holmes, but Dr Watson  with Skinner, who were contemporaries, as well as how that connects with  Thorndike, how that connects us to understanding more of our operant  conditioning is truly that, that that mechanism that's necessary for us to to  continue to retain what we learn. But then we have other theorists, such as  Kohler and others like him, who said, Okay, I understand that. Skinner, yes,  Watson, but we are not just made up of or that's not beings that there are  conditioned all the time when it comes to punishment reward. We are more than  that. Let's take a look learning. Learning is full of many different components. As I mentioned, Skinner and Watson looked at operant conditioning, and we  discussed this plenty already, and they focused their research entirely on  behavior to the exclusion of any kind of mental processes, even to the point of  saying spirituality really is just a matter of well, if I worship God, for example,  then I get the blessing or the reward from the pastor or from the priest or or the  bishop. It's just a matter of punishment reward. If I sin, then I'm punished. But of  course, we know from the biblical worldview that God has created us already  with that propensity, that that the mechanisms to respond to punishment and  reward respectfully and so punishment, reward, respectively, then brings  different results and different responses. Skinner and Watson only saw half of  the equation coming from the biblical worldview. Well, they continued to prove to promote this, and really didn't stray away from this. All the research tended to  reinforce what they then concluded. And so Skinner Watson, then, of course,  helped us understand conditioning, to review, there's the ability to connect 

stimuli, the changes that occur in the environment, such as projectiles are  thrown by your your two year old, from the from the the high chair, if you ever  had that, where they the two year old or the one year old, even if they're they're  able to Do it, yet they see the cheerio and say, Oh, what's this? And they chuck  it across the kitchen table, and you get it in your face. That's a change of stimuli. Or, of course, you cross the street and you see a car coming, and to change in  the status quo, where you thought, when you look there was no car, but all of a  sudden the car pulls out is coming right at you. You need to run conditioning.  Conditioning changes and how we interact and respond to them. So the  responses are the behaviors or other actions, depending on what that stimuli is,  the car or the Cheerio. And so from there, as we've talked about conditioning, as we've talked about operant conditioning, and of course, the laws that Thorndike  brought up about law of readiness and exercise and effect, we then look at how  the human being is shaped, because, as you know, Skinner had a Skinner box.  He looked at rats and sorry, but we are not rats. We are human beings. We are  not like the pigeons and the other animals have been used to understand  behavior, or the dogs like Pavlov. Now, understandably, they could not use  human beings in the experiments that they did, but they were able to give us  principles, give us labels, give us evidence to put to understand and confirm  that, yes, this is these are similar behaviors that we do, but we need to  understand the motivation, and that's where Skinner and Watson fall short,  because they really don't turn to the God of the Bible. They turn the God of  science. Hence, we then redeem this. We then say, Okay. Skinner Watson,  thank you very much. Thank you for the research. Thank you for the  understanding of operant conditioning, or conditioning in general, because then  we can then understand, observe how human beings then learn fact this, that's  truly how we are now going into next, the path now is into other types of  learning. But first of all, let's look at how conditioning shapes the human as we  look at realistically how human beings are formed in their behaviors. For so  Skinner and Watson, they then again, there's the pigeon, but they looked at how to achieve a desired behavior step by step. Trials are used to direct the  participant towards the end goal. There's always an end goal in mind. Skinner  noticed that the pigeons in the Skinner box were not accidentally pushing the  button that would release food. How could he teach the pigeon that pressing the button would result in a positive outcome? In other words, breaking down  behavior into small steps and giving positive reinforcement along the way can  result in the learning of more complex behaviors, as I mentioned earlier, how  does this apply to humans? We learn in steps, not all at once. Skinner confirmed this with the help of our friendly neighborhood pigeon, and so the pigeon gives  us this insight in terms of shaping. Here are the steps that that Skinner used.  Step one, give the pigeon food when it turns toward the button. Step two, give  the pigeon food when it walks toward the button. The third step was to give the 

pigeon food when raised it raises its head to the height of the button, and  therefore. There's a conditioned response. Finally, step four, give the pigeon  food when it taps the button with its beak. And therefore there's positive  reinforcement, and there's the conditioning, there's that that scheduling, there's  okay if I do this, and this pigeon will do that action reaction. Thank you. Dr  Skinner, thank you. Dr Watson, now we go into how does the human then  respond in the same in a similar manner? Well, the human being, some  examples, are learning to write. Perhaps you remember this when you were in  kindergarten, first grade, you might begin by tracing letters. Next by connecting  dots or dashes. Then the next step, by looking at, let at the letters, copying them below. Finally, by writing the letters from memory. You see this other little tyke,  he learns, learns to eat with a spoon. First, he needs to pick up the spoon. Step  one. Step two, he needs to put the spoon in the bowl. Step three, he needs to  scoop the food into the spoon. Next, he needs to lift the spoonful out of the bowl. Finally, he's put the spoon into his mouth. Encouragement from parents along  the way can reinforce these movements. Why? So that this child does not take a spoon and then flick that spoon of food onto the floor, or the food slides out the  spoon, and there's that timing to get the food on the spoon, into the mouth and  into the stomach, learning, conditioning, steps, examples, most Common biblical example, Rabbi, what Jesus said to His disciples, He said, Watch me. Look at  imitate me. Paul said, the same thing as a good rabbi in his epistles. He said,  Watch me, look at me, do as I do, as much as I say, but imitate what I do, as far  as what I've written to you to describe what it is I am therefore doing. Love is  patient. Love is kind. It does not anger. It keeps no record of wrongs. It delights  with the truth. Do this and you will live. Imitate me. Hmm. Sounds a lot like  Skinner. Wait a minute. That's before Skinner, the Jewish culture, already had it  figured out. We learn by imitating, which brings us into the next section of how  we learn. Learning is by observation. Of course, we have the shaping and the  development of human beings, or the Piaget talked about that in human  development, but we look at these other types of learning, in particular insight  and observation, learning or modeling. As you can see, the that the father and  son in that picture, as they as the son is learning how to shave based on his  father's example. Of course, we've learned read by example and also do what I  do, imitate me. Jesus said, Paul said, the rabbi in general said, because they  would do things together all the time, and they will learn by imitating. And then,  of course, we have the experiment with the monkey, which I'll talk about here  pretty soon. The monkey then begins, do it with insight. He says, oh, okay, if I do this, I do that. There's insight. There's the mind, the brain, that then collects data and then puts that data together, synthesizes the data, and therefore is able to  then do a particular task. Well, these ideas, which, of course, are come right out  of the Bible. Of course, we then looked at this from the rabbi perspective, but Dr  Kohler championed the concept and also term Insight Learning, defined as the 

sudden understanding of a solution to a problem. It's what we call the aha  moment. And Kohler said, this is, in fact, what we do, what humans are doing.  Now, you could make the argument that the Greeks already knew that back in  the ancient day, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, they had aha moments, ideas they  were sharing with each other. A more philosophical, albeit, but, but please, if you take a step back and look at what the Greeks did, a lot of learning was going on, but they just didn't put a lot of labels to it, scientifically, clinically, Kohler did as  well as Skinner and the others. So what did Dr Kohler then say from there, he  said, from having a sudden understanding of a solution to a problem. He then  said, again, insight comes from observation. Observation then brings insight.  And then we actually then take in a ton of observations, and we put that  together, and we say, Okay, this is what I understand and make a fair to the best of our ability, a fair assumption. But there are other types of learning as well.  Edward Tolman talked about latent learning, to compliment Kohler, who said,  when one suddenly realizes how to solve a problem, the answer becomes in the flash or an insight. And that's where he talks about apes and bananas. He did  that. You saw that picture earlier, about the ape with that thought bubble, with  the banana and so on. That's what, what Kohler had observed. That was its  experiment. But Edward Tolman did other work to complement this. He said  latent learning is hidden learning. He used rats in a maze because they don't  show knowledge until there's an incentive. And what Tolman found was that they create these mind maps. There's this form the brain then begins to create, put  structure, to organize order and therefore learn, so that as we learn with our  minds, begin to map things out, we then can proceed in what we then do.  Tolman was very, very helpful in this to help us understand how the student can  learn. Because then, from this, we then, of course, Insight Learning again, the  ability to solve problems using past experiences, which we also call reasoning,  to put that together with latent learning, where then we look at it again, how we,  you know, we don't show knowledge until there's an incentive Tolman said, as a  respected animal psychologist, he looked at he, he's also, by the way, is a  prominent opponent of McCarthyism In the 1950s and so he was very much  about me, not to be a conformist. He was about being working into learning. He  as a respected animal psychologist, he retained a broad philosophical  perspective. He's saying latent learning is this. He said latent means hidden.  There are three groups of rats. He used no reward, delayed reward, and reward  three different categories in his experiment, as you can see in the in the cartoon  next to the text here, the rat has this map, this, this labyrinth, maze, and our  minds. Tolman theorized, create they create this map in our in our minds to  understand what to do and how to do it next, from the the three groups and then the no reward group, the delayed reward group and the reward group in the  experiment, he then said, Sometimes learning is not immediately evident. We  make mental representations or mental maps of our real world experience and 

use when necessary. In other words, we're kind of file it away like a file folder on our computers, our brains are likened to that the computer having memory,  having the ability to file it away and bring it back later on. Finally, rats needed a  reason to display what they have learned, because the delay group illustrates  latent learning as he conducted his experiment. Now more deeply, we then look  at latent learning as this, Tolman said how he watches rats pausing in their  mazes and seemed to be deciding their direction because Tolman, he wanted to  study decision making with Dr Hanzlik. From there, the results demonstrated  latent learning, as we just discussed. And latent learning is learning which is not  merely expressed into some observable performance, and it's also significant  not for the specific response, but knowledge about responses and their  consequences, which is the main point. So as we build our understanding here  of latent Learning and, of course, insight, again, latent learning, the fifth bullet  point here, late learning is significant, not for the specific response, but  knowledge about responses and their consequences. Why? Because Tolman  already knew the whole thing of conditioning. He already understood that we  respond to punishment and reward. But he also wanted to see how the brain  then created the mind map and the filing things away for later next, much of the  human learning remains latent until circumstances allow or require its  expression, kind of like riding a bike, if I learn how to ride a bike when I was 10,  and I was about 9, 8, 9, years old or so, actually, when I learned how to ride my  bike, I remember it well. My dad held the back of the seat and I was hanging on  for dear life, and I rode down the street with my dad, eventually he was able to  let go, because my body, my brain and body then became conditioned to the  handlebars, the forward motion, the steering, the balance, and also the braking  and also the falling Negative reinforcement, if I fall, I hurt myself if I don't fall,  and I'm staying on my bike balanced, I have a positive reward of going from A to  B, here to there. Now, let's say I didn't ride my bike course. I rode my bike into  my teens and and I mentioned in the past video, I went on bike tours when I was age 16, 17, and 18, each were 300 miles a piece, the 70 mile days. It was great. It's part of a Christian ministry that brought us on that retreat for that week. And  we would bike every day, and then have devotions at night and fellowship and  time with God and nature. More importantly, for many, many years now,  probably over 20 years, I really have not ridden my bike, but if you gave me a  bike now today, I would say, great, it fits. I know the handlebars, mind and body  come back together and be able to head down the street, just as I did over 20  years ago. Latent learning. I learn it and then use it later. Per Tolman, so latent  learning, and according to Wayne and Tambris in 2003 not too long ago, they  they came to some more findings. We learn how the world is organized through  the acquisition of knowledge about responses and their consequences. It is this  knowledge that invites creativity and flexibility in planning and goal attainment,  which is why in ministry, when we come together as a committee, ooh, would I 

say committee? I mean Task Force or team, a lot of churches. Now do teams.  We come together and we say, okay, what are we going to do? Well, I learned  back when I was in 25 in college. We did this. It worked really well with that  fundraiser. Or, yeah, that's what we talked about in seminary. Says the intern,  he's about to graduate. But I know all these ideas, then you have the other  seasoned veteran Christian in his 70s saying, Hmm, good ideas, but boys and  girls. Let me tell you, there, there are lessons that we've learned that then bring  on the creativity and also the flexibility to pivot, to shift, change, mold, nothing  new, but these researchers help us to then understand and define that yes and  confirm yes. Human beings are this way, and we can measure it, therefore, as  opposed to just knowing it and observing it and saying, Yep, you can do that,  like with a bike, we can measure how it all works. Hence, Tolman and the other  researchers with latent learning. So latent learning is very, very powerful, and  latent learning, we then also get into primary versus secondary reinforcers.  Going back to Skinner again and and Dr Watson, we then need to bring into this  with Kohler and also the and Tolman, the fact that there are primary and  secondary reinforcers, primary having to do with stimuli that are immediately  rewarding, naturally, innately reinforcing, no learning required. They satisfy a  biological need, such as food, sexual pleasure, water, warmth, physical activity,  novel stimulation, like coffee, sleep, entertainment and oxygen, breathing now  secondary reinforcers, so we can measure what goes on with human behavior is less immediately satisfying, less tangible, also called conditioned quote, unquote reinforcers and become reinforcing Through Association, also called learned  reinforcers, such as money grades, by the way, attention, praise, success,  performance, feedback and prestige. And I'm sure there are many other  examples too, but, but understandably, these are secondary. Why? Because  when it comes to money, money is not given to you right away at the job. What's the incentive? You're hired to do a job to teach. You're hired to do a job to be the pastor. You're hired to do a job to be the teacher. Hired to do a job to be the  construction worker. You're hired to do a job to fill in the blank. There's no  employer that unless they give you upfront bonus, which many employers today  are to attract, incentivize new employees. But after that bonus is given of 150  bucks, $500 here in America, and by the way, you're watching from Africa and  also Asia, you're probably wondering, wow, I wish they would do that here. But  anyway, here in America, that's what they've been doing lately. And after that  bonus, or no bonus, for that matter, you're on the job, you don't get paid for  another two weeks. And then every two weeks after that, or maybe every week  there's a delay secondary grades too. You work for it. The primary is, ooh, I'm  hungry, I'm gonna eat my fish. Ooh, I'm thirsty, I'm gonna have some water. Oh,  I need to breathe. It's right there. I feel better now, primary and secondary. So  from those reinforcers about op recognition and so on, we think it into Albert  Bandura's theory on social learning. As I said, there are different types of 

learning we want to cover today, and social learning is Dr Bandura's specialty.  His theory goes like this, we have personal factors, cognitive, affective,  biological events and the brain and also stimuli that come at us, and also things  that we then react to and so on, and that goes back and forth to behavior.  Behavior then, of course, is what we then do in response to these cognitive,  affective and biological events. And then for behavior, there are environmental  factors and going back to personal factors. In other words, when it comes to  learning, learning is not much more than books. Learning has to do with what do I experience. Learning has to do with how is the nature of my relationship with  my mother, my father, my family? What's the nature of my relationship with my  professor or with my classmates. If you're in a cohort going from class to class  to class, or with people that you fellowship with at church on Sunday mornings.  Why? Because you're learning together. The pastor delivers the message you  hear that you worship God with some worship songs, hymns. There are in each  congregation, its own rituals, its own routines and also rhythm we learn. Then  new things when things, new things are introduced. Oh, that's change. New  stimuli. Primary and Secondary reinforcers are involved with that. Bandura said,  yeah, it's all embedded. It's all there involved or comes to the events, and  therefore the behavior, which is the response and back and forth. Social,  connective, reactive as well as responsive, because reactive is reacting as  opposed to responsive, or we can be more deliberate, think and then respond.  So Bandura helps us to understand the breakdown of this because we then put  it to the test about how we learn to drive a car based on learning through  observation and also social learning. We We first pay attention like riding a bike,  there's an intentional process as far as paying attention look both ways, and  then retention process, remember the right buttons and the pedals, the buttons  that you push to make sure that things are going or doing the right thing, that  you turn The key and the ignition, and you retain that. And then, of course, you  have the practice driving on your own, often with, of course, that teacher who is  right there to guide you. And from there, there's a motor production process and  a motivational process. You arrive at school on time, or you arrive at your job on  time. There's the reward of being on time, because you then, you know your  boss will then compliment you, or necessarily, just just note the fact that you  arrived on time, and then also pay you for the work that you do. Again, that  secondary reinforcer. And then you have learning through observation as well as other stimuli, other cognitive events, other things. According to Bandura, when  we look at the car example, there are other people in the car who said, Ooh,  stop driving so fast. Or or they react and say, why? And ask the question, Why  are you driving so slow? And then you're able to say, well, this is what I've  learned. I've retained, that it's better drive slow in this part of the city than to  drive fast. Or if I drove this, if I drove too fast, I know that the policeman will then pull me over here on the freeway, and I will get a ticket, hence punishment if I 

have to pay $100. learning. Learning takes us down many different roads, but  we know this too. God has it innately and specially put in us the ability to learn,  to be educated, so we can then receive the reward. Sorry, it's already in the  design, but that does not become the God. God's our God. Like I said about  Skinner, he made it sound like we're just a bunch of processes as human  beings, when really we're made in the image of God, which involves a whole lot  more. Because, as God said, This is what you need to learn, obey do, because,  as Ephesians 2:10 says God prepared good works in advance for you to do.  How do we do them? Going back to I Corinthians 12, yeah, he's gifted us a  spiritual gifts, administrating, leadership, craftsmanship, encouragement, faith,  helps, mercy. All are involved in our social learning and in our doing and in our  responding, as well as how we retain what love is and do it in Jesus name.