Psychology of learning

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The psychology of learning refers to theories and research on how individuals learn. There are many theories of learning. Some take on a more behaviorist approach which focuses on inputs and reinforcements. [1] [2] [3] Other approaches, such as neuroscience and social cognition, focus more on how the brain's organization and structure influence learning. Some psychological approaches, such as social constructivism, focus more on one's interaction with the environment and with others. [2] [4] Other theories, such as those related to motivation, like the growth mindset, focus more on individuals' perceptions of ability.

Contents

Extensive research has looked at how individuals learn, both inside and outside the classroom. [5]

History

Early approaches

Prior to the 1950s, psychological learning theory varied across countries. [1] In Germany, gestalt psychology viewed psychological concepts holistically, such as the human mind and behavior. An emphasis was placed on trying to understand the overarching phenomenon of a psychological concept and how it connects with other ideas. This also led to a focus on problem-solving as a construct to be explored in the 1920s and 1930s. [6]

In America, there was a strong emphasis on behaviorism, which focused on exploring observable behavior. Learning mechanisms were often tested on animals. [1] [3] Russia, or the Soviet Union at the time, provided a cultural-historical approach towards psychology that described learning in the context of one's environment. [3] Learning was viewed as a phenomenon that can be directed and supported in institutions like schools. Another significant theory was Jean Piaget's constructivism, which described how learners construct knowledge by expanding and changing their ideas based on the information they receive. [3] [7] Sigmund Freud's work on psychoanalysis and John Dewey's theories on schooling and learning were also major influences during this time. [1]

1950s–1960s

After World War II, two major learning theories became prominent. One was behaviorism, which stemmed from the work of B. F. Skinner and others. [1] [8] Skinner viewed human behavior as determined by an individual's interactions with one's environment. [1] He argued that humans are controlled by external factors such that human learning is predicated on the environmental information one receives from one's surroundings. [3] [2] [1] Starting in the 1960s, behaviorism expanded to consider more complicated forms of learning, such as Albert Bandura's concept of social learning and Dane Thomas Nissen's learning theory of culmination. These could not be explained adequately through behaviorism. [8] [1]

In addition, a humanistic view of psychology, led by psychologists Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, grew. [3] [8] In 1951, Rogers introduced the concepts of client-based therapy and introduced related terms such as "student-centered teacher" and "significant learning". Maslow's hierarchy of needs model influenced the psychology of learning because it described how people needed to meet their basic physical, social, and mental needs before they could address other less basic needs. [9]

1970s and beyond

During the 1970s, learning began to be viewed as an integral part of life and the world as it started to be seen as a part of personal and social enrichment. Concepts such as lifelong learning and adult education started to appear as people began to view learning as a daily process throughout life. [1]

The Russian cultural-historical approach started to be adopted. This approach viewed learning as interacting with incentives in the environment. For instance, Ute Holzkamp-Osterkamp viewed motivation as interconnected with learning. [1] Lev Vygotsky's zone of proximal development influenced educators to view learning activities in relation to the students' comfort zones. [2] [10]

Kenneth Gergen introduced the social constructionism approach, which posits that individuals construct mental structures from their social connections and environment. [11] [1] Hence, although learning can happen individually, it can only be evaluated in a social context. Jean Lave and Étienne Wenger, in their book Situated Learning, also stated that the environmental context influenced the learning outcomes. [12]

Experiential learning, described by David Kolb, defines learning as an iterative process of experience, reflection, conceptualization, and experimentation. [13] Robert Kegan established a constructive-developmental approach that expands upon Piaget's stages of child development into a lifelong process that includes adulthood. [1] In 1991, the American psychologist Howard Gardner wrote The Unschooled Mind, which focused on three types of learning: intuitive learning, school learning, and expert learning. Intuitive learning, the most natural, occurs mostly in the preschool years; school learning is the learning children engage in during the school years, and intuitive-expert learning is the type of learning Gardner argues everyone should strive towards. [8] [14]

Psychologists and learning theorists

Socrates

Socrates (469-399 B.C.) introduced a method of learning known as piloting, through which one arrives at one's own answers through power of reasoning. Socrates, in dialogue with Meno, taught this method by teaching a slave boy who knew nothing about Euclidean geometry the Pythagorean theorem. He did so by asking questions or rephrasing them until the correct answer was found. Socrates strongly supported the idea that knowledge is innate and can be found from within, a concept known as anamnesis. [4] [15]

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850—1909) examined learning by studying rote memory and forgetting. With himself as his own experimental subject, he used meaningless syllables to form lists that he read several times until he could restate them with high accuracy. He also attempted to recall the same lists with delays of a few days or months and then recorded his discoveries as learning curves and forgetting curves. [4]

Edward Thorndike

Edward Thorndike (1874–1949) presented his theory of the "Law of Effect" in 1898. [16] According to this theory, humans and other animals learn behaviors through trial-and-error methods. Once a functioning solution is found, these behaviors are likely to be repeated during the same or similar task. [17] It was his work on learning theory that resulted in operant conditioning within behaviorism. His theory of operant conditioning is learning from the consequences of our actions and behavior. [18]

Ivan Pavlov

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (1849–1936), a Russian physiologist, contributed to research on learning. Knowing that a hungry dog salivates when food is present, he trained dogs to salivate to an arbitrary external stimuli. This was done by pairing a natural stimulus (such as food) with a novel stimulus (e.g., a metronome) to provoke the desired response in dogs. That proved his thesis that he could make a dog salivate by just the presentation of the sound of a bell. Pavlov's behavioristic approach to learning became known as classical conditioning. [19]

John Broadus Watson

John Broadus Watson (1878–1958) also used this method of learning (e.g., he caused a young child, not previously afraid of furry animals, to become frightened of them) and argued that it was sufficient for the science of psychology, specifically behaviorism. [4] [20] Watson is often referred to as being the founder of the school of behaviorism. From 1920 to 1960, this school influenced a great deal of North American psychology. [21] John Watson may also be known as one of the biggest contributors to marketing and advertising, using his knowledge about behaviorism to predict and control responses from the consumers. [22]

Burrhus F. Skinner

Burrhus F. Skinner (1904-1990) developed operant conditioning, in which specific behaviors resulted from stimuli, which caused them to appear more or less frequently. [4] [23] By the 1920s, John B. Watson's ideas had become popular and influential in the world of psychology and classical conditioning was being explored by other behaviorists. Skinner was one of these behaviorists. He thought that in order to understand behavior we needed to look at the causes of an action and its consequences. He called this operant conditioning. Skinner is referred to as the father of operant conditioning but his theory stems from the works presented by Edward Thorndike. [24]

Jean Piaget

Jean Piaget is known for his theory of cognitive development that describes how children create a mental model of the world around them. His theory is important because it is one of the first theories that disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a steadfast trait. His theory sees cognitive development as something that happens because of biological maturation and one's interaction with their surrounding environment. Piaget did not want to measure a child's knowledge, like an I.Q. score, instead he focused on how children did with fundamental concepts. Piaget's theory has four stages. The sensorimotor stage which is birth to 18–24 months. The preoperational stage is toddler ages (18–24 months) to early childhood, age 7. The concrete operational stage, ages 7 to 12. Then the formal operation stage which is adolescence to adulthood. Before Piaget's theory it was believed that children were just less competent thinkers but this theory and his stages helped to show that children think in significantly differently ways than adults do. [25]

Lev Vygotsky

Lev Vygotsky is best known for his theory in cognitive development known as social development theory. Vygotsky was developing his theories of cognitive development around the same time that Jean Piaget was developing his theories. Vygotsky believed that social interaction plays a critical role in cognitive development. He places a large emphasis on culture and how it affects cognitive development. He also sees the importance of adults in cognitive development in children. Vygotsky says that development cannot be understood without referring back to the social and also the cultural context in which it is embedded. Vygotsky claimed that learning occurs via skillful interaction in which the child is with someone who models behaviors or gives instructions for the child to follow, most likely a parent or a teacher. The child tries to understand the instructions or actions provided and then stores the information so they can use it to guide their future performances. Piaget's theory says that a child's development must follow their learning, Vygotsky disagreed with this. He believed that social learning tends to come before development. [26]

Psychology of learning theories

Learning theories are attempts to better understand and explain learning processes. There are several different theories that account for learning.

Neuroscience

The neuroscience of learning focuses on the relationships among the central nervous system, learning, and behavior. [3] [8] This central nervous system (CNS) is composed of the brain and spinal cord which are responsible for controlling behavior. This differs from the autonomic nervous system which relates with more autonomous functions such as respiration and digestion. Within the CNS, there are neurons, which send messages within and from the brain to the rest of body through electrical and chemical signals. The CNS also has glial cells which assist neurons in the communication process. [27] [28] These neurons communicate and form connections, also called consolidation, to form a person's cognition. Hence, learning, from a neuroscience perspective, focuses on how the organization of this neural network changes through the use and reception of information. [27] [8]

Neuroscience has an explanation for the acquisition of memory. In the brain, there are two types of memory called working memory (WM) and long-term memory (LTM). [27] [8] WM is memory of immediate thoughts; it is a memory that collects, organizes, and retains sensory information for a short time. Information in WM needs to be repeated in order to be retained. LTM, also called permanent memory, is memory that is retained for the long-term. Hence, a concept is considered "learned" when information from WM enters and gets stored into LTM. [8] [28]

Neuroscience also plays a role in related areas such as motivation and self-regulation. [29] Motivation, a psychological component related to learning, also has an explanation through neuroscience. [30] Overall, the brain has a disposition towards rewards and outcomes related to pleasure. In fact, it brings out certain chemicals and opiates that give a natural high increasing a person's motivation. [2] Self-regulation, which plays a significant factor into learning, are also represented by the brain's synaptic connections. These particular connections between self-regulatory activities and tasks help people to regulate their learning. [3]

Behaviorism

Behaviorism views knowledge as a collection of behavioral responses towards different stimuli in the environment. In behaviorism, learning is promoted by positive reinforcement and reiteration. Throughout the history of psychology, there have been many different behaviorist learning theories. All these theories relate stimulus with response such that a person or animal learns and changes its behavior based upon the stimulus it receives. One significant theory proposed by B.F, Skinner is operant conditioning. [31] This theory claims that the consequences from behaviors will determine future behavior. Consequences to behavior that are positive, and therefore reinforcing, will increase the corresponding behavior. However, consequences that are punishing will decrease behavior. [31] [2]

In a behaviorist perspective, motivation is due to the consequences of behavior and hence completely external. If a consequence is positive, that will further increase one's motivation and eventually one's behavior. On the other hand, if a consequence is negative, one's motivation and behavior will decrease. Behaviorism exists in many current models for learning such as rewards and consequences in classrooms and other incentives like having content mastery goals. [5] However, it does not account for all aspects of learning. [2] Memory, for instance, is not addressed as behaviorism does not consider internal processes. Nevertheless, learning surrounding behaviorism is still very prevalent today. [3] [31]

Social cognitive theory

Social cognitive theory proposes that much of human learning occurs through the social environment. [3] [2] Many ideas surrounding social cognitive theory were proposed by Albert Bandura, a clinical psychologist. Unlike behaviorism, which argues that learning is caused through the reinforcement of actions and routines, social cognitive theory provides a cognitive component for learning. [32] [33] For instance, learning can occur purely through observation, where a person can gain knowledge of a concept or acquire an understanding of a rule, attitude, beliefs, without actually acting out any of these respective ideas. [2]

Models also play a significant great role in learning according to social cognitive theory. For instance, a person can gain useful knowledge and understanding through information gained from the model. However, solely observing models does not guarantee one will master the concepts represented in the model. Instead, these models provide information about possible outcomes and inform how the observer should act. [33] Hence, while learning can occur without actually partaking in any enactive learning (learning by doing), the social cognitive theory learning is most effective when it is done enactively and vicariously (learning through observation). [33]

Social cognitive theory describes human behavior as agentic meaning that humans have intentions and agendas that drive their behavior. This perspective explains lot of human learning behavior such as setting goals and regulating one's thoughts, emotions, and behavior for the purpose of learning. [2]

Information processing theories

Information processing theories focus on the ways information is collected, analyzed, and stored in the human brain. [34] While there is no single information processing theory, there are several theories that can be categorized about information processing theory. [2] One model, proposed by many information processing theorists, is the two-store memory model. Also called the dual memory model, the two-store memory model describes learning as storing information and knowledge from one's environment into one's short-term memory (STM) and eventually into one's long-term memory (LTM). [35] To elaborate, information about your environment is collected through your senses. This information is then entered into your STM, also called working memory (WM). [36] From the STM, some of this information is rehearsed and eventually encoded into the LTM where it is then stored permanently. [3] [34]

Alternate models have been proposed in regards to how information is processed. For instance, some argue that there is one type of memory in the brain which has different levels of processing within it. Nevertheless, the classical model poses memory as dual memory (short-term and long-term) model. [2] [28] [3]

Another related theory is the dual-code theory which splits the brain processes into two systems: an imaginal system and a verbal system. The imaginal system primarily stores concrete events and objects while the verbal system stores more abstract information from language. This theory also allows for knowledge transfer within both systems as images, expressed through verbal language, can be encoded and placed into the imaginal system. [37]

While these theories can be traced back to gestalt psychology, many of these theories were influenced by the rise of technology, neuroscience, and communications. [2] [37]

Constructivism

Constructivism is a philosophical perspective which argues that much of what one learns and understands about the world is constructed. [38] Constructivists believe that knowledge is created within and reject the idea of pre-existing scientific knowledge waiting to be discovered. With that in mind, constructivists argue that learning needs to be structured so that they challenge students to make sense of new knowledge. [2] [3]

Theories from two major psychologists, Piaget and Vygotsky, form the foundational ideas of constructivism: cognitive constructivism and social constructivism. [3]

Cognitive constructivism

Cognitive constructivism, stemming from Jean Piaget's theories, sees learning as adding new information to cognitive structures that are already there. Piaget's theory claim that people cognitively develop by passing through several stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. [38] [39]

The sensorimotor stage, which occurs from birth to around age 2, is when children act spontaneously to make sense of their world. Much of these actions are sensory in nature (e.g. touching) and rooted in present action. The preoperational stage occurs between ages 2 to 7 and is categorized by children being able to reflect briefly on the past and imagine the future. [39] However, in the preoperational stage, most of one's thinking in this stage is still grounded in one's experiences in the present. The concrete operational stage, which occurs between ages 7 to 11, is when children rapidly grow cognitively and drastically improve their basic skills and language. Here, children can demonstrate some abstract thinking although much of this thinking is still grounded by actions. [2] [39] The formal operational stage, which starts around age 11 and goes on to adulthood, is the last developmental stage in Piaget's theory. This stage expands upon the concrete operational stage by using higher levels of thinking such as hypothetical thinking, more developed abstract thinking, and idealistic thinking. [39]

Throughout these motivational stages, the mechanism in which the children and people learn, is through a concept called equilibrium. This mechanism is the process where an individual is able to resolve cognitive conflicts by either applying one's beliefs to one's experiences (a process called assimilation) or by changing one's beliefs to accommodate new experiences and information when encountering new situations or concepts. [39]

Social constructivism

Social constructivism, like its name suggests, believes that knowledge and learning is gained within social situations. [40] Led by psychologist Lev Vygotsky, social constructivism has a more sociocultural approach. This approach argues that the social environment facilitates learning through certain tools such objects, language, and organizations. Through these tools, cognitive learning occurs when the people interact with these tools socially and internalize them. [41]

A major concept within social constructivism is the zone of proximal development (ZPD). ZPD represents the potential amount of learning a student can have given the right environmental conditions. This model suggests that the teacher and student work together to further the student's learning. Educational examples of this include instructional scaffolding and apprenticeships where the educator takes an invested and active role in furthering the knowledge of the student. [3] [41] [5]

Motivation

Various motivational theories play a role in the psychology of learning. John William Atkinson's motivation theory argues that people are motivated to achieve their best. This motivation is in part moderated by two different sources: the desire to succeed as well as the fear of failure. [2] Another motivational theory is Allan Wigfield's and Jacquelynne Eccles's expectancy-value theory which states that motivation is moderated by one's desire for success as well as the importance of the tasks one needs to do. [42] Self-worth theory also plays a role in learning as students and individuals are motivated to learn and achieve because of their desire to maintain their perception of being high achieving. [2]

Goal theory is another related theory. Learners usually have two types of goals: learning mastery goals (e.g. learning a new concept) and performance goals (e.g. being first place). This theory suggests that mastery goals are more effective than performance goals as a motivator. This is because performance goals may cause people to do more social comparison, such as comparing oneself to others, which may ineffectively raise motivation. [3] [2] Mindsets related to learning also play into motivation. Psychologist Carol Dweck distinguished differences between the growth mindset, the idea that ability is malleable, and the fixed mindset, the idea that ability is fixed. People who incorporate a growth mindset on a certain task tend to have higher motivation. [43] [44]

Attribution theory, which discusses how people perceive and attribute a certain behavior or outcome to a certain characteristic, also relates to motivation and learning. According to Bernie Weiner's attribution model, students attribute their academic achievement based on effort, ability, and luck. The way an individual attributes his or her academic performance will determine that person's level of motivation. [44] [2]

Theories related to control also have a major impact to learning. When people begin to perceive that their performance outcomes are not related to their own effort, this can severely limit motivation. At the most extreme, this can lead to learned helplessness which is when a person is experiencing a negative cycle where one's negative beliefs interactions with one's academic failures and motivation. [44] [45]

Various types of motivation also play a role particularly intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation is an inherent type of motivation that one engages as an end to itself. Extrinsic motivation, on the other hand, is a motivation that is provided externally such as external awards or punishments. Research has shown that incentives which reward task engagement lowers intrinsic motivation as it is much like controlling behavior. However, rewards related to one's performance are more effective which can help further one's skill, motivation, and self-efficacy. [46]

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Developmental psychology</span> Scientific study of psychological changes in humans over the course of their lives

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development, aging, and the entire lifespan. Developmental psychologists aim to explain how thinking, feeling, and behaviors change throughout life. This field examines change across three major dimensions, which are physical development, cognitive development, and social emotional development. Within these three dimensions are a broad range of topics including motor skills, executive functions, moral understanding, language acquisition, social change, personality, emotional development, self-concept, and identity formation.

Educational psychology is the branch of psychology concerned with the scientific study of human learning. The study of learning processes, from both cognitive and behavioral perspectives, allows researchers to understand individual differences in intelligence, cognitive development, affect, motivation, self-regulation, and self-concept, as well as their role in learning. The field of educational psychology relies heavily on quantitative methods, including testing and measurement, to enhance educational activities related to instructional design, classroom management, and assessment, which serve to facilitate learning processes in various educational settings across the lifespan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Learning theory (education)</span> Theory that describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning

Learning theory describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a worldview, is acquired or changed and knowledge and skills retained.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lev Vygotsky</span> Soviet psychologist (1896–1934)

Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky was a Russian and Soviet psychologist, best known for his work on psychological development in children and creating the framework known as cultural-historical activity theory. After his early death, his books and research were banned in the Soviet Union until Joseph Stalin's death in 1953, with a first collection of major texts published in 1956.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean Piaget</span> Swiss psychologist, biologist, logician, philosopher and academic

Jean William Fritz Piaget was a Swiss psychologist known for his work on child development. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and epistemological view are together called genetic epistemology.

Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of human mental functions and behavior. Occasionally, in addition or opposition to employing the scientific method, it also relies on symbolic interpretation and critical analysis, although these traditions have tended to be less pronounced than in other social sciences, such as sociology. Psychologists study phenomena such as perception, cognition, emotion, personality, behavior, and interpersonal relationships. Some, especially depth psychologists, also study the unconscious mind.

In psychology, cognitivism is a theoretical framework for understanding the mind that gained credence in the 1950s. The movement was a response to behaviorism, which cognitivists said neglected to explain cognition. Cognitive psychology derived its name from the Latin cognoscere, referring to knowing and information, thus cognitive psychology is an information-processing psychology derived in part from earlier traditions of the investigation of thought and problem solving.

Behaviorism is a systematic approach to understand the behavior of humans and other animals. It assumes that behavior is either a reflex elicited by the pairing of certain antecedent stimuli in the environment, or a consequence of that individual's history, including especially reinforcement and punishment contingencies, together with the individual's current motivational state and controlling stimuli. Although behaviorists generally accept the important role of heredity in determining behavior, deriving from Skinner's three levels of selection: phylogeny, ontogeny, and culture, they focus primarily on environmental events. The cognitive revolution of the late 20th century largely replaced behaviorism as an explanatory theory with cognitive psychology, which unlike behaviorism views internal mental states as explanations for observable behavior.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Constructivism (philosophy of education)</span> Philosophical viewpoint about the nature of knowledge; theory of knowledge

Constructivism in education is a theory that suggests that learners do not passively acquire knowledge through direct instruction. Instead, they construct their understanding through experiences and social interaction, integrating new information with their existing knowledge. This theory originates from Swiss developmental psychologist Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

In psychology, developmental stage theories are theories that divide psychological development into distinct stages which are characterized by qualitative differences in behavior.

Cognitive development is a field of study in neuroscience and psychology focusing on a child's development in terms of information processing, conceptual resources, perceptual skill, language learning, and other aspects of the developed adult brain and cognitive psychology. Qualitative differences between how a child processes their waking experience and how an adult processes their waking experience are acknowledged. Cognitive development is defined as the emergence of the ability to consciously cognize, understand, and articulate their understanding in adult terms. Cognitive development is how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of their world through the relations of genetic and learning factors. There are four stages to cognitive information development. They are, reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. These stages start when the baby is about 18 months old, they play with toys, listen to their parents speak, they watch TV, anything that catches their attention helps build their cognitive development.

The cognitive revolution was an intellectual movement that began in the 1950s as an interdisciplinary study of the mind and its processes, from which emerged a new field known as cognitive science. The preexisting relevant fields were psychology, linguistics, computer science, anthropology, neuroscience, and philosophy. The approaches used were developed within the then-nascent fields of artificial intelligence, computer science, and neuroscience. In the 1960s, the Harvard Center for Cognitive Studies and the Center for Human Information Processing at the University of California, San Diego were influential in developing the academic study of cognitive science. By the early 1970s, the cognitive movement had surpassed behaviorism as a psychological paradigm. Furthermore, by the early 1980s the cognitive approach had become the dominant line of research inquiry across most branches in the field of psychology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zone of proximal development</span> Difference between what a learner can do without help and what they can do with help

The zone of proximal development (ZPD) is a concept in educational psychology that represents the space between what a learner is capable of doing unsupported and what the learner cannot do even with support. It is the range where the learner is able to perform, but only with support from a teacher or a peer with more knowledge or expertise. This person is known as the "more knowledgable other." The concept was introduced, but not fully developed, by psychologist Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934) during the last three years of his life. Vygotsky argued that a child gets involved in a dialogue with the "more knowledgeable other" and gradually, through social interaction and sense-making, develops the ability to solve problems independently and do certain tasks without help. Following Vygotsky, some educators believe that the role of education is to give children experiences that are within their zones of proximal development, thereby encouraging and advancing their individual learning skills and strategies.

In psychology, constructivism refers to many schools of thought that, though extraordinarily different in their techniques, are all connected by a common critique of previous standard approaches, and by shared assumptions about the active constructive nature of human knowledge. In particular, the critique is aimed at the "associationist" postulate of empiricism, "by which the mind is conceived as a passive system that gathers its contents from its environment and, through the act of knowing, produces a copy of the order of reality".

Genetic epistemology or 'developmental theory of knowledge' is a study of the origins (genesis) of knowledge (epistemology) established by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget. This theory opposes traditional epistemology and unites constructivism and structuralism. Piaget took epistemology as the starting point and adopted the method of genetics, arguing that all knowledge of the child is generated through interaction with the environment.

Domain-general learning theories of development suggest that humans are born with mechanisms in the brain that exist to support and guide learning on a broad level, regardless of the type of information being learned. Domain-general learning theories also recognize that although learning different types of new information may be processed in the same way and in the same areas of the brain, different domains also function interdependently. Because these generalized domains work together, skills developed from one learned activity may translate into benefits with skills not yet learned. Another facet of domain-general learning theories is that knowledge within domains is cumulative, and builds under these domains over time to contribute to our greater knowledge structure. Psychologists whose theories align with domain-general framework include developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, who theorized that people develop a global knowledge structure which contains cohesive, whole knowledge internalized from experience, and psychologist Charles Spearman, whose work led to a theory on the existence of a single factor accounting for all general cognitive ability.

Infant cognitive development is the first stage of human cognitive development, in the youngest children. The academic field of infant cognitive development studies of how psychological processes involved in thinking and knowing develop in young children. Information is acquired in a number of ways including through sight, sound, touch, taste, smell and language, all of which require processing by our cognitive system. However, cognition begins through social bonds between children and caregivers, which gradually increase through the essential motive force of Shared intentionality. The notion of Shared intentionality describes unaware processes during social learning at the onset of life when organisms in the simple reflexes substage of the sensorimotor stage of cognitive development do not maintain communication via the sensory system.

Psychological behaviorism is a form of behaviorism—a major theory within psychology which holds that generally human behaviors are learned—proposed by Arthur W. Staats. The theory is constructed to advance from basic animal learning principles to deal with all types of human behavior, including personality, culture, and human evolution. Behaviorism was first developed by John B. Watson (1912), who coined the term "behaviorism", and then B. F. Skinner who developed what is known as "radical behaviorism". Watson and Skinner rejected the idea that psychological data could be obtained through introspection or by an attempt to describe consciousness; all psychological data, in their view, was to be derived from the observation of outward behavior. The strategy of these behaviorists was that the animal learning principles should then be used to explain human behavior. Thus, their behaviorisms were based upon research with animals.

Neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development criticize and build upon Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development.

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  13. ↑ Kolb, David A. (2015). Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey. ISBN   978-0-13-389240-6. OCLC   909815841.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  14. ↑ Gardner, Howard (2011). The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach. New York: Basic Books. ISBN   978-0-465-02438-4.
  15. ↑ Plato. Meno. 80e, Grube translation.
  16. ↑ Myers, David G.; Dewall, C. Nathan (2015). Psychology. New York: Worth Publishers. p. 290. ISBN   978-1-4641-4081-5.
  17. ↑ <Skinner, B.F. Science and Human Behaviour. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1953. Google Books. Web 9 April 2012. <https://books.google.ca/books?id=f6QZAAAAMAAJ&q=science+and+behaviour+bf+skinner&dq=science+and+behaviour+bf+skinner&hl=en&sa=X&ei=zi2DT_OjGY-40QG464XnBw&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA>.
  18. ↑ "Edward Thorndike - Law of Effect | Simply Psychology". www.simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  19. ↑ Myers, David G.; Dewall, C. Nathan (2015). Psychology. New York, NY: Worth publishers. pp. 282–289. ISBN   978-1-4641-4081-5.[ verification needed ]
  20. ↑ Hergenhahn, B. R. (2009). An Introduction to the History of Psychology . Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. pp.  403–412. ISBN   978-0-495-50621-8.
  21. ↑ Green, Christopher D. "Classics in the History of Psychology -- Introduction to Watson (1913) by C.D. Green". psychclassics.yorku.ca. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  22. ↑ Bartholomew, Abigail (1 December 2013). "Behaviorism's Impact on Advertising: Then and Now". College of Journalism and Mass Communications: Theses.
  23. ↑ Myers, David G.; Dewall, C. Nathan (2015). Psychology. New York, NY: Worth publishers. pp. 290–299. ISBN   978-1-4641-4081-5.
  24. ↑ "B.F. Skinner | Operant Conditioning | Simply Psychology". www.simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 12 November 2018.
  25. ↑ "Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development | Simply Psychology". www.simplypsychology.org. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  26. ↑ "Vygotsky | Simply Psychology". www.simplypsychology.org. Archived from the original on 5 August 2019. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
  27. 1 2 3 Bear, Mark F. (2016). Neuroscience : exploring the brain. Connors, Barry W.,, Paradiso, Michael A. (Fourth ed.). Philadelphia. ISBN   978-0-7817-7817-6. OCLC   897825779.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  28. 1 2 3 Neuroscience. Purves, Dale (Sixth ed.). New York. 4 July 2018. ISBN   978-1-60535-380-7. OCLC   990257568.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  29. ↑ Deckers, Lambert. (10 July 2013). Motivation : biological, psychological, and environmental (Fourth ed.). Boston. ISBN   978-0-205-94100-1. OCLC   841559013.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  30. ↑ Miendlarzewska, Ewa A.; Bavelier, Daphne; Schwartz, Sophie (2016). "Influence of reward motivation on human declarative memory". Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews. 61: 156–176. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2015.11.015 . PMID   26657967.
  31. 1 2 3 Staddon, J. E. R.; Cerutti, D. T. (2003). "Operant Conditioning". Annual Review of Psychology. 54 (1): 115–144. doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145124. ISSN   0066-4308. PMC   1473025 . PMID   12415075.
  32. ↑ Bandura, Albert (1992), "Social Cognitive Theory of Social Referencing", in Feinman, Saul (ed.), Social Referencing and the Social Construction of Reality in Infancy, Springer US, pp. 175–208, doi:10.1007/978-1-4899-2462-9_8, ISBN   978-1-4899-2464-3
  33. 1 2 3 Bandura, Albert (1977). Social learning theory. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall. ISBN   0-13-816751-6. OCLC   2635133.
  34. 1 2 Tangen, Jodi L.; Borders, L. DiAnne (2017). "Applying Information Processing Theory to Supervision: An Initial Exploration" (PDF). Counselor Education and Supervision. 56 (2): 98–111. doi:10.1002/ceas.12065.
  35. ↑ Memory and aging : current issues and future directions. Naveh-Benjamin, Moshe., Ohta, Nobuo. New York: Psychology Press. 2012. ISBN   978-1-136-58302-5. OCLC   795124261.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  36. ↑ Richter, Kim Merle; Mödden, Claudia; Eling, Paul; Hildebrandt, Helmut (2015). "Working Memory Training and Semantic Structuring Improves Remembering Future Events, Not Past Events". Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. 29 (1): 33–40. doi:10.1177/1545968314527352. hdl: 2066/135098 . ISSN   1545-9683. PMID   24699430. S2CID   302504.
  37. 1 2 Kousta, Stavroula-Thaleia; Vigliocco, Gabriella; Vinson, David P.; Andrews, Mark; Del Campo, Elena (2011). "The representation of abstract words: Why emotion matters". Journal of Experimental Psychology: General. 140 (1): 14–34. doi:10.1037/a0021446. ISSN   1939-2222. PMID   21171803.
  38. 1 2 Constructivism : theory, perspectives, and practice. Fosnot, Catherine Twomey. (2nd ed.). New York: Teachers College Press. 2005. ISBN   0-8077-4570-7. OCLC   57040003.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  39. 1 2 3 4 5 Wadsworth, Barry J. (2004). Piaget's theory of cognitive and affective development (Classic ed., 5th ed.). Boston: Pearson/A and B. ISBN   0-205-40603-3. OCLC   53807097.
  40. ↑ "Overview of Learning Theories | GSI Teaching & Resource Center". gsi.berkeley.edu. Retrieved 21 November 2019.
  41. 1 2 Karpov, Yuriy V., 1957- (9 June 2014). Vygotsky for educators. New York, NY. ISBN   978-1-107-06542-0. OCLC   871343716.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  42. ↑ Wigfield, Allan; Eccles, Jacquelynne S. (2000). "Expectancy–Value Theory of Achievement Motivation". Contemporary Educational Psychology. 25 (1): 68–81. doi: 10.1006/ceps.1999.1015 . PMID   10620382.
  43. ↑ Dweck, Carol S. (2006). Mindset : the new psychology of success (1st ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN   1-4000-6275-6. OCLC   58546262.
  44. 1 2 3 Handbook of competence and motivation : theory and application. Elliot, Andrew J.,, Dweck, Carol S., 1946-, Yeager, David S. (Second ed.). New York. 28 April 2017. ISBN   978-1-4625-2960-5. OCLC   961457526.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  45. ↑ Maier, Steven F.; Seligman, Martin E. P. (2016). "Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience". Psychological Review. 123 (4): 349–367. doi:10.1037/rev0000033. ISSN   1939-1471. PMC   4920136 . PMID   27337390.
  46. ↑ Deci, Edward L. (1975). Intrinsic motivation . New York: Plenum Press. ISBN   0-306-34401-7. OCLC   1500344.


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