Written by Gregory A. Kimble

learning theory

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Written by Gregory A. Kimble

Varieties of learning

It is debated whether all forms of learning represent the same process. This question applies even to relatively primitive phenomena such as classical and instrumental conditioning.

In instrumental conditioning reinforcement is contingent on the learner’s response; a rat receives food only if it presses the lever. In classical conditioning there is no such contingency; a dog is fed whether or not it salivates. But this is a distinction in experimental procedure. Whether the underlying process of learning is the same for both is quite another question.

Classical conditioning usually has been reported for glandular, autonomically mediated, involuntary responses (e.g., salivation, heart rate). By contrast, voluntary movements of skeletal muscles more typically have been found to be conditionable instrumentally. However, to theorize that classical conditioning is exclusively effective for one class of responses while instrumental conditioning is uniquely applicable to others seems to be a mistake.

Evidence that seems to demolish such theorizing comes from a series of experiments directed by Neal E. Miller at the Rockefeller University in New York City. Rats were immobilized with curare; this drug blocks the junction between muscle and nerve to paralyze the skeletal muscles. However, a curarized individual still can show autonomic, involuntary signs of emotional activity such as a rapidly beating heart.

Electrical stimulation of selected parts of the brain seems to be rewarding; animals behave as if they seek such stimulation and will learn to press a switch for it (voluntary muscle function). Using curarized animals, Miller and others made the rewarding stimulation contingent on such typically involuntary responses as changes in heart rate, blood pressure, contractions of the bowel, and salivation. Their research has shown such instrumental conditioning to be effective for all these responses. The evidence appears to destroy the once-popular hypothesis that involuntary autonomic reactions are subject only to classical conditioning. In this sense the two primitive forms of learning seem to be the same.

Stages of learning

Should the basic process prove to be the same for all varieties of learning, there would still be reason to believe that it operates differently from one stage of practice to another. For example, in coping with painful stimuli (e.g., electric shocks) laboratory animals seem to learn in two successive, distinguishable phases. Apparently they first learn to fear the situation, then to avoid it.

For example, when an animal learns to avoid painful shock (by turning a paddle wheel or by running away), a warning signal can be given; e.g., with a flash of light or a buzzer. The two stages of learning then can be studied separately. The animal first is subjected to pairings of signal and unavoidable shock to establish (by classical conditioning) signs of fear in response to the signal. In the second stage it is allowed to stop the frightening signal by making an appropriate response. Preconditioned members of the many animal species have learned to avoid the signal itself, even though shock never was presented again.

Theoretically, the classically conditioned signs of fright in response to the initially neutral signal have a motivating function. Termination of that stimulus is seen as instrumental—that is, as rewarding the animal by reducing learned experiences of fear.

Classical conditioning

A two-stage process has been suggested even for classical conditioning. One theory is that in the first stage the subject learns that a neutral stimulus (a ringing bell) is to be presented along with another stimulus (food) whether or not it exhibits a reaction (salivation). Conditioning of any reaction is held to constitute the second stage of learning. The skimpy supporting evidence points to the first stage as a prerequisite, suggesting that responses can only be conditioned after the sensory conditions are recognized.

Verbal learning

Theories that interpret verbal learning as a process that develops in stages also have been worked out. In one variety of rote learning the subject is to respond with a specific word whenever another word with which it has been paired is presented. In learning lists that include such paired-associates as house–girl, table–happy, and parcel–chair, the correct responses would be girl (for house), happy (for table), and chair (for parcel). By convention the first word in each pair is called the stimulus term and the second the response term. Paired-associate learning is theorized to require subprocesses: one to discriminate among stimulus terms, another to select the second terms as the set of responses, and a third to associate or link each response term with its stimulus term. Although these posited phases seem to overlap, there is evidence indicating that the first two (stimulus discrimination and response selection) precede the associative stage.

Remembering and forgetting

Learning, remembering, and forgetting often have been considered separate processes. Yet these distinctions seem to blur in the face of contemporary research and theory.

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