MAIN LEARNING THEORIES: CHARACTERISTICS AND AUTHORS - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The theories of learning explain the changes that occur in behavior because of the practice and not to other factors such as physiological development. Some of the theories appeared as a negative reaction to the previous ones, others served as the basis for the development of later theories, and still others deal only with certain specific learning contexts.

The different theories of learning can be grouped into 4 perspectives: behaviorist (focuses on observable behavior), cognitivist (learning as a purely mental process), humanist (emotions and affects have a role in learning) and the perspective of the social learning (humans learn best in group activities).

Learning theories from the behavioral perspective

John B. Watson

Founded by John B. Watson, behaviorism assumes that the learner is essentially passive and only responds to stimuli from the environment around him. The learner starts out as a clean slate, completely empty, and behavior is shaped through positive or negative reinforcement.

Both types of reinforcement increase the likelihood that the behavior that precedes them will be repeated again in the future. On the contrary, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the possibility that the behavior will reappear.

One of the most obvious limitations of these theories consists in the study of only observable behaviors, leaving aside the mental processes that are so important when it comes to learning.

The word "positive" in this context implies the application of a stimulus, and "negative" implies the withdrawal of a stimulus. Learning, therefore, is defined from this perspective as a change in the behavior of the learner.

- Classical conditioning

Ivan Pavlov

Much of the behaviorists' early research was conducted with animals (for example, Pavlov's dog work) and generalized to humans. Behaviorism, which was a precursor to cognitive theories, contributed theories of learning such as classical conditioning and operant conditioning.

The concept of "classical conditioning" has had an enormous influence in the field of psychology, although the man who discovered it was not a psychologist. Ivan Pavlov (1849–1903), a Russian physiologist, discovered this concept through a series of experiments with the digestive systems of his dogs. He noticed that the dogs salivated as soon as he saw the laboratory assistants, before being fed.

But how exactly does classical conditioning explain learning? According to Pavlov, learning occurs when an association is formed between a stimulus that was previously neutral and a stimulus that occurs naturally.

1-The dog salivates seeing the food. 2-The dog does not salivate at the sound of the bell. 3-The sound of the bell is shown next to the food. 4-After conditioning, the dog salivates with the sound of the bell.

In his experiments, Pavlov associated the natural stimulus that constitutes food with the sound of a bell. In this way, the dogs began to salivate in response to the food but, after multiple associations, the dogs salivated only at the sound of the bell.

- Operant conditioning

BF Skinner is the most recognized psychologist within the current of behaviorism.

Operant conditioning, for its part, was first described by the behavioral psychologist BF Skinner. Skinner believed that classical conditioning could not explain all types of learning and was more interested in learning how the consequences of actions influence behavior.

Like classical conditioning, the operant also deals with associations. However, in this type of conditioning, associations are made between a behavior and its consequences.

When a behavior leads to desirable consequences, it is more likely to recur again in the future. If the actions lead to a negative outcome, then the behavior will probably not be repeated.

This theory was exposed through the Skinner box experiment, where he introduced a rat that was exposed to positive and negative reinforcements.

Skinner Box

As researchers uncovered problems in behavioral concepts, new theories began to emerge, keeping some of the concepts but eliminating others. Neobehaviorists added new ideas that were later associated with the cognitive perspective of learning.

Theories according to the cognitivist perspective

Cognitivists give the mind and mental processes the importance that behaviorism did not; They believed that the mind should be studied to understand how we learn. For them, the learner is an information processor, like a computer. This perspective replaced behaviorism as the main paradigm in the 1960s.

From a cognitive perspective, mental processes such as thoughts, memory, and problem solving must be studied. Knowledge can be seen as a schema or as symbolic mental constructions. Learning, in this way, is defined as a change in the apprentice's schemas.

This view of learning emerged as a response to behaviorism: human beings are not "programmed animals" that simply respond to environmental stimuli. Rather, we are rational beings who require active participation to learn and whose actions are a consequence of thought.

Changes in behavior can be observed, but only as an indicator of what is going on in the person's head. Cognitivism uses the metaphor of the mind as a computer: information enters, is processed and leads to certain results in behavior.

- Information Processing Theory of George A. Miller

George A. Miller. Image via wikimedia commons.

This information processing theory, whose founder was the American psychologist George A. Miller (1920-2012), was very influential in the elaboration of later theories. Discuss how learning occurs, including concepts such as attention and memory, and comparing the mind to the operation of a computer.

This theory has been expanded and developed over the years. For example, Craik and Lockhart emphasized that information is processed in various ways (through perception, attention, concept labeling, and meaning formation), which affect the ability to access information later.

- Mayer's cognitive theory of multimedia learning

Another of the theories related to learning within the cognitivist perspective is the cognitive theory of multimedia learning by Richard Mayer (1947). This theory states that people learn more deeply and meaningfully from words combined with pictures than from words alone. It proposes three main assumptions regarding multimedia learning:

1. There are two separate channels (auditory and visual) for processing information.
2. Each channel has a limited capacity.
3. Learning is an active process of filtering, selecting, organizing and integrating information based on prior knowledge.

Human beings can process a limited amount of information through a channel at any given time. We make sense of the information we receive by actively creating mental representations.

The cognitive theory of multimedia learning presents the idea that the brain does not interpret a multimedia presentation of words, images and auditory information exclusively; rather, these elements are selected and dynamically organized to produce logical mental constructs.

Theories according to the humanist perspective

Humanism, a paradigm that emerged in the psychology of the 1960s, focuses on the freedom, dignity, and potential of human beings. The main assumption of humanism, according to Huitt, is that people act with intentionality and values.

This notion is opposed to what the operant conditioning theory affirmed, which argues that all behaviors are the result of the application of consequences, and the belief of cognitivist psychology regarding the construction of meaning and the discovery of knowledge, that consider central when learning.

Humanists also believe that it is necessary to study each person as a whole, especially how he grows and develops as an individual throughout his life. For humanism, the study of the self, motivation and goals of each person are areas of particular interest.

- Car Rogers theory

Carl rogers

The best known defenders of humanism include Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. According to Carl Rogers, one of the main purposes of humanism could be described as the development of autonomous and self-actualizing people.

In humanism, learning is student-centered and personalized. In this context, the role of the educator is to facilitate learning. Affective and cognitive needs are key, and the goal is to develop self-actualized people in a cooperative and supportive environment.

- Abraham Maslow Theory

Abraham Maslow

For his part, Abraham Maslow, considered the father of humanistic psychology, developed a theory based on the notion that experience is the main phenomenon in the study of human behavior and learning.

He put a lot of emphasis on qualities that distinguish us as human beings (values, creativity, choice), thus rejecting behaviorist views because of how reductionist they were.

Maslow is famous for suggesting that human motivation is based on a hierarchy of needs. The lowest level of needs are those basic physiological and survival needs such as hunger and thirst. Higher levels include group membership, love, and self-esteem.

Maslow's pyramid

Rather than reducing behavior to a response from the environment, as the behaviorists did, Maslow took a holistic perspective on learning and education. Maslow aims to see all the intellectual, social, emotional and physical qualities of an individual and to understand how they affect learning.

The applications of his hierarchy of needs to work in the classroom are obvious: before a student's cognitive needs can be met, his most basic needs will have to be met.

Maslow's learning theory emphasizes the differences between experiential knowledge and spectator knowledge, which he considered inferior. Experiential learning is considered “authentic” learning, which causes significant changes in people's behavior, attitudes and personality.

This type of learning occurs when the student realizes that the type of material to be learned will serve him to achieve the goals that he has proposed. This learning is acquired more by practice than by theory, and it begins spontaneously. The properties of experiential learning include:

• Immersion in the experience without being aware of the passage of time.
• Stop being self-aware momentarily.
• Transcend time, place, history and society without being affected by them.
• Merge with what is being experienced.
• Be innocently receptive, like a child, without criticizing.
• Temporarily suspend the evaluation of the experience in terms of its importance.
• A lack of inhibition.
• Suspend criticism, validation and evaluation of the experience.
• Trust the experience by letting it happen passively, without being influenced by preconceived notions.
• Disconnect from rational, logical and analytical activities.

Bandura's Social Learning Theory

Albert bandura

Albert Bandura, a Canadian psychologist and educator, believed that partnerships and direct reinforcement could not explain all types of learning. According to his theory of social learning, interactions between people are fundamental to learning.

Bandura reasoned that learning would be much more complicated if people relied solely on the results of our own actions to know how to act.

For this psychologist, much of the learning takes place through observation. Children observe the actions of those around them, especially their primary caregivers and siblings, and then imitate these behaviors.

In one of his best-known experiments, Bandura revealed how easy it is for children to imitate behaviors, even negative ones. Most of the children who saw a video of an adult hitting a doll imitated this behavior when given the opportunity.

One of the most important contributions of Bandura's work was to disprove one of the claims of behaviorism; noted that learning something does not have to result in a change in behavior.

Children often learn new things through observation, but they do not have to carry out these behaviors until there is a need or motivation to use the information.

The following statement is a good summary of this perspective:

By observing a model who performs the behavior to be learned, an individual forms an idea of ​​how the response components must be combined and sequenced to produce the new behavior. In other words, people let their actions be guided by notions they have previously learned rather than relying on the results of their own behaviors. "