Video Transcript: Laws of Learning

Oh, oh, I know. I know the answer. Oh, Teacher, teacher, call on me. Jack, what  do you think about Pavlov? I don't know how many of you kids like ice cream  learning. Learning is dynamic. How do we learn? What's involved in learning, as  you consider psychology in the process of learning, learning is that fundamental  process of how we receive knowledge. Process, knowledge, intellectually,  cognitively, that is with the brain, as well as an experience that great Hebrew  word yada, meaning you learn by experience. You learn by doing. Learning is  complex, complicated, but powerful. In fact, learning you could date back to the  ancient day when it came to families and fathers and mothers around the  campfire, or, of course, we probably call it campfire, but for them in the ancient  world, often coming around the fire was not only about warmth, but also about  community, community coming together, and where one of the dads would tell  the story. Again, how do we learn? Consider Jewish methods of learning. God  said, Take this law Moses, tell the people to tie it upon their foreheads and and,  of course, on their arms and and tell, teach them, remind them. Remember,  remember, remember, morning, noon, day, night, learn, and then from there we  have catechetical methods, catechisms, studies, didactics, all these forms of  learning. Now we have university, college learning. Learning is meant to  transform. Learning is meant to help build and grow and develop the person.  That's what learning is about, not just for the sake of learning facts and figures  and and also learning how we like coffee, or how we relate to our spouse, or  how we parent a child. Learning is about transformation that leads to that  experience of the coffee. It leads to effective parenting. It leads to effective  marriage bonding, giving life, building, community just like the ancient folks did  around that fire. But how do we learn? Learning is something that has to be  started with, with with the brain, I have to look at how the brain works and how  the brain then operates when it comes to stimuli. And as we've been talking  about Piaget and we've been talking about others, we're now to look more  specifically at Skinner, Thorndike and others that have stepped back and said,  Now, how does this all work together? From the brain to the external, from the  child to the object to what? How Does Learning work? Today, we're going to  start with Thorndike and Skinner. Thorndike was the first one to truly study  operant conditioning. He probably followed us. Let's be a Skinner. Actually, it  was Dr Thorndike, let's take a look. Dr Edward L Thorndike, 1874-1949 a  psychologist. He was the first scientist to systematically study operant  conditioning, and as that first researcher of operant conditioning, much like  Freud and other contemporaries during this era, Thorndike was began to see  patterns, begin to see how humans interacted objectively, and also made  observations, and then also calculations and and and so on. And began to  develop what are now called laws, laws that he defined as these, the laws of  learning, the laws of learning. Laws of learning included the law of readiness, or  that how individuals learn best when they are ready to learn and understand the 

reason for learning. So the young man, perhaps in that classroom who was  called upon to talk about Pavlov. Maybe he just wasn't ready to talk about it. He  isn't ready to learn about Pavlov. He just didn't care. Thorndike recognizes this,  and he says, well, the law of readiness says that we have to be ready to learn.  And then, of course, understand why I must learn about Pavlov. It helps me to  understand about that conditioning, and that also that response to the  conditioning that happens to me when I hear that bell ring or I smell that smell,  and from readiness, we get to exercise. A law of exercise, repetition is basic to  learning things most often repeated are easiest remembered again. The law of  exercise is repetition, which is basic to learning things most often repeated are  easiest remembered. And so when you ride that bike, remember how we always you know how we always say. It's like riding a bike again, that bike, and it's like I  I'm 18 again, or like I'm 10 again, and I'm riding the bike down the road, and I  know how to swerve and how to stop with the brakes, and how to use my hand  signals, how to avoid traffic, or how to respect traffic. I There's that law of  exercise, and Thorndike recognizes that. Recognize this he he had to see in a  person how the body and the brain, and then the interaction became very  important to exercise, and therefore there was a memory that began to happen  when we get used to riding a bike, and we haven't ridden a bike, and for me  personally, I haven't ridden a bike in years. Too busy life happens. This didn't  become a big value in our lives, my wife and I, but when it came to running,  running has become my main thing as far as exercise. However, if you just bring to me a bike, 22 speed or or one of those mountain bikes now, I would say,  Sure, let's do it again. I would hop on and be like back when I did my bike tours  when I was a teenager in Florida and also in the East Coast, here in the United  States, had that wonderful opportunity, that wonderful now memory of riding 300 miles in a given week, learning so Thorndike said, Be ready, and also exercise  like a muscle. It comes back. Becomes a part of you, much like that Hebrew  word yada, becomes a part of me with what I learn and what I experience so  readiness exercise. But then there's a law of effect. The law of effect is, learning  will always be much more effective when a feeling of satisfaction accompanies  the process. Again, learning will always be much more effective when a feeling  of satisfaction accompanies the process. In other words, there's a positive  outcome, there's a satisfaction or positive negative the whole process, if there's  satisfaction at the end of the day. And maybe I had trial and error in in how to  make my coffee with a coffee maker, or how I, I, I take the cap off, on, off this  water bottle. See, okay, I exercise it. I twist, but not too hard, and just that much, as opposed to wildly turning, you know, twisting off or or not twisting enough just somewhere in between, I can enjoy my water. I now satisfied. I now understand  that I twist just so With that, that bottled water, the Law of Effect, ready exercise  effect. Then it feels a part of me, it just goes natural to pick up that to know how  many scoops of coffee grounds and and how much pressure to put on the cap 

so I can be satisfied with my coffee and with my water. So Thorndike has helped us to better understand how learning is by way of operant conditioning, the  pioneer that set the path for Dr Skinner now, Dr Skinner takes us into operant  conditioning as well. He expanded it. He brought more science into it,  observation as well as trial and error and findings. See for Skinner, he said that  learning occurs based on the consequences of behavior. I'll say it again.  Operant conditioning, according to Skinner is learning that occurs based on the  consequences of behavior. So if I learn that I'm not supposed to touch that oven  again. Mom says, Don't Ouch. If I touch by, if I go to touch the oven, I get  slapped. My mind then retains that there's punishment. Of course, with some  parents, they say it's punishment enough that the child went up to the oven  again, even though I verbally said to him or her, don't touch, but she or he  touches the oven and burns that little Finger. Ouch, mom, dad, and the tears just come down, and the little boy, little girl, realizes that that's punishment enough in addition to the slap. But then they learn, oh, the slap means I love you.  Interesting, how that parallels with us and God, that's another discussion  Skinner brings us into this whole understanding of operant conditioning does  bring us into this, this understanding of how we learn through punishment but  also through reward. So Mark, when you complete this task, I'll have a full cup of hot coffee for you. Okay, I do the task. Here you go. Reward. I like black coffee,  no sugar, no cream. Of course they'll be here thinking, Boy, that's punishment to  me. It's amazing. Who Yeah, hot gets me going, and I feel satisfied. I feel that I  can do that task again, or something like it, because how's your order? Skinner  saw this with his Skinner box. The Skinner box became his lab. Now, the  Skinner box, as we learn about operant conditioning, was this, the Skinner's  operant conditioning chamber, called the Skinner box, was designed to teach  rats how to push a lever or lever. This behavior is not natural to rats, so operant  conditioning with positive and negative reinforcement were performed in order to teach the behavior. Now, positive reinforcement, a rat was awarded with food  when he pressed the lever. Negative reinforcement, a rat was able to turn off  electric to turn off electric shocks produced by the floor. By pressing the lever,  the shock was the punishment, ouch. And so the mouse the rat learned how to  turn it off. Hence the Skinner box was that rat that Skinner used to use rats to  apply this principles then applying to human behavior, very similar, not the  same. After all, we aren't rats. We're humans. And yet, as Skinner continued to  do these experiments, as he continued to cross supply, the whole deal of how  the rat interacted, the positive reinforcement, how the. Rat responded to the  negative reinforcement, the punishment, Skinner began to apply it, in my  opinion, a little too much to the human condition and the human behavior. Why?  Because, in this be, in this experiment, Skinner began to develop another theory that human beings respond to punishment and reward and behave based upon  punishment and reward as a result, and not due to spiritual belief necessarily. 

It's almost as if he he minimized the human experience to punishment and  reward. You do the task, you are then given the reward. And if done well, you're  given even more reward. Or if you do the task badly, you were given the  punishment. Or if you're a place where you are not to be, you are then punished. Or if you are in the right place, the right time, for the right reasons, for the right  things, you're rewarded. And so it almost seemed like Skinner was saying we're  just a bunch of automatons or times or I mean, at least we have these these  interactions as human beings, these connections are more so about  connections with punishment and reward, and therefore, scientists like Skinner  truly did divorce the human experience with spirituality, lock and order the  Skinner box. Again, what else did Skinner see? Skinner saw this with a Skinner  box. He saw negative reinforcement, as this is an unpleasant electric current  that ran through the floor of the rat's cage, as we cited in the previous slide.  Initially accidental, the accidental lever pushing turned off the electric current,  but the consequence of avoiding something painful, removal and unpleasant  stimulus ensured that the rat continued to push the lever to avoid that shock. So  again, that has to do with the fact that there's reward with the food punishment,  with electric shock. And from there, we then understand how Skinner developed  his theory. But then we also want to break down his theory. You see, Skinner  also defines specifics within this whole theory of punishment and reward and  operant conditioning in general. What are the other components here? The first  one is the reinforcer. The reinforcer, the reinforcer is, goes like this. There's a  premise behind reward and recognition. There's a reward. What comes about?  Why the reward? Well, there's a higher motivation and a greater output. In other  words, any event that strengthens or increases the likelihood of a behavior then  is the reinforcer. Again, any event that strengthens or increases the likelihood of  a behavior is a reinforcer. So if I know that I'm going to get ice cream after I do  my homework as a kid, as well as go to the playground to play the monkey bars  and play the merry go round and and run around and have a good time with my  buddies. There's a higher motivation then to do my homework. And Skinner saw  this, the reinforcer is how then the ice cream and the playground time begin to  reinforce my better behavior as opposed to my worse behavior, hence a greater  motivation and reward, so a reinforcer. Then also look at what Skinner said  about this. A person has been punished is not less inclined to behave in a given  way. At best, he learns how to avoid punishment. Well, isn't that the truth? See  the Punisher, the Punisher, as opposed to reinforcer. Is this any event that  weakens or decreases the likelihood of behavior? So for example, if I don't do  my homework, if I sulk, or if I put up a fuss, if I am if I cop an attitude, a bad  attitude, that is, if I'm belligerent, if I'm obstinate to my mom or my dad or both of them. Or if I, if I tend to do other things in the house to destroy property, I'm not  going to get the ice cream. I certainly not going to get playtime at the at the  playground with my buddies. What I will get is probably, of course, depending on

the culture a spanking or again, off to your room and and then no playground  time for a month, depending on how severe the offense is, hence punishment.  So as a kid, I learned, okay if I then do not do my homework, if I use my crayons on on the counter all the time, and therefore deface property in the house. If I  sulk and I cop a bad attitude, and I'm always sultry and an obstinate well, then  the Punisher, the punishment and the Punisher, that is that Skinner defines here is the fact that I will then go without the things that I enjoy and give me  satisfaction and peace and also exhilaration and so on. Hence the reinforcer. So reinforcer, Punisher. That helps greatly understand, too, how humans behave in  this manner, especially when it comes to being a parent. Wow. So from Punisher and reinforcer, we then look at how this all fits together, reinforcement, theory of  motivation, how we learn to reinforcement, and we see then this the driving  forces and also the restraining forces. Positive reinforcement, when new  behaviors add positive consequences. Negative reinforcement, when new  behaviors remove negative consequences, and then punishment, when new  behaviors add negative consequences an extinction when new behaviors  remove positive consequences, therefore we remove the stimulus, which we've  discussed before in the previous video. So positive and negative, but also  Skinner, you saw the slide just for a brief second. Skinner also saw scheduling.  What I mean. Scheduling has to do with the fact that, as I help my child learn  what it means to behave well, to obey his mom and dad and to get along well  with others and so on. I may, in fact, schedule a task I know he or she will  complete well, and then I give her or him that reward, whatever it may be. Again, my thing is coffee or or get that great bottled water. Oh, okay, of course for the  child, it's the ice cream. It's the merry go round. It's Oh boy, go to grandma's  house, provided Grandma and Grandpa are fun to be with. Okay, I can do that,  okay? And I know exactly when to do it Friday afternoon, because then I know I  can then continue to build trust, and then maybe even you're thinking to  yourself, now, Dr Mark, that's manipulation. Actually, this is probably a  component of manipulation. How it happens in a negative way, in an unhealthy  way, however, in a healthy way and a positive way. We then understand that  scheduling these, these, these rewards, scheduling these, these things of  reinforcing good behavior can benefit the home and benefit the community. Take a look what I mean. Reinforcement schedules. Skinner defined it as this number one, continuous reinforcement reinforces the desired response each time it  occurs. So in other words, if I want my child to behave well and have peace in  the home, I'll get the simple task of saying to her, if you put the nice cups on the  shelf, then be okay, and then we can have some ice cream, or maybe we'll go to grandma's house or give options, because that's a whole nother thing. What do  you learn as far as continuous reinforcement? What are the things that we then  give to the child that won't spoil the child, because that's more of a moral issue.  But this is going again, following Skinner's theory and application. So there's a 

continuous schedule every Friday we do this and every Friday after this task, I  know you can do so well, little students. We want to go to that merry go round  and have a great time together. Well, there's also from continuous  reinforcement. There's partial reinforcement, which is by definition, reinforces a  response only part of the time. Though, this results in slower acquisition in the  beginning, it shows greater resistance to extinction later on. So as I said before,  you see these continuous rewards, and of course, the partial the partial  reinforcement. The partial reinforcement is where we want to maybe redirect a  child's behavior. We want to maybe shift what we do, or shift what another  person does in the workplace, because you can use this in the workplace too,  when it comes to employees as well as volunteers, redirect them to other  meaningful tasks that will then because things have changed. How do you get  people to do it? You walk them through gradual change. And this is where  continuous reinforcement and partial reinforcement can work together rewards  and then not as many rewards. Or you keep on doing that task. For example,  okay, Susie, you you're going to keep on putting that, those cups on the shelf.  But let's stop doing that. We're going to shift over to this. And so there's a little  reward, but then she begins to learn, okay, this is not bringing me the reward I  used to have. And then we condition. We then redirect the behavior. Perhaps  you're thinking about this as far as the volunteers that work with you and work  for you in your ministry, or, of course, working with people who do work for you  and they're paid, and you need to get them in a new track reinforcement, much  like these kids too. These kids here, ah, adorable. This little girl, she gets things, oh, I'm a great student certificate. And the other little girl, I get $1 every time I do whatever that is. And then, of course, these little girls also know the value of  being given m&ms and chocolate is amazing, great in the mouth. It won't melt in  your hands. So as we look at what Skinner gives to us, as well as Thorndike  operant conditioning gives us insight. And probably we're talking about insight  here pretty soon, insight into how we learn.