Learning and concept formation in cognitive psychology

Learning and Cognition

Learning is defined as a route or process that is a product of a relative consistent change in behavior or behavior potential. Learning takes place only through experience and making responses that will impact his or her environment. Experience can be defined as taking, evaluating, and transforming information. Learning incorporates a response impacted by memory and learned behavior does not become modified simply based on physical maturation or brain progression. However, some permanent behavioral changes facilitate the need for maturational readiness.

There are two types of learning, which are simple non-associative and associative. Habituation and sensitization belong to the former, while classical conditioning makes up the latter. The first reflects a weakened response when a stimulus is repeated over time. Sensitization is the opposite of the aforementioned type of learning, which means as a stimulus is repeated over and over; the response that follows becomes stronger and more efficient. Classical conditioning is the process where an activity is taught through association with a separate, pre-occurring element, which is also known as associative learning. It is a basic form of learning that engages in a repeated activity, where one stimulus or event predicts the occurrence of another stimulus of event. The person learns a new interrelation between two stimuli, which involve a stimulus that did not extract a response, or a neural stimulus, and another that did educe a reaction or known as the unconditioned stimulus.

Behavior and learning are linked in that as the latter takes place, which is when the person is able to demonstrate results, then the former changes. Learning is apparent from improvements in his or her performance. However, sometimes performance isn't a rubric for everything learned. Sometimes, it is when an individual has acquired a general mindset or viewpoint, for example, a valuing or understanding of something. Although learning is not always quantifiable, the person has achieved a potential for behavior change. It is because he or she has acknowledged and attained attitudes and values that can influence his or her actions and performance. It has been noted by Greeno the differentiated behavior among students who pursue performance goals or learning goals. The former is when students want to do well, and the latter is when such individuals want to become more capable. Those who participate in the former tend to believe intelligence is a fixed trait, so he or she is either smart or not. Those who take part in the latter believe that intelligence is acquired. The behavior exhibited by both groups are distinct in that performance goal pupils only seek challenges and persist when they are confident in their ability to accomplish the task. The behavior displayed by the learning goal group is they seek challenges and show high persistence in the face of difficulties.

In order to qualify something as learned, a change in behavior or behavior potential must be relatively consistent over different occasions. Consistent changes are not always permanent alterations but he or she always has that learned or prior experience for an activity. There are certain forms of learning that can't be explained, but only through principles of classical conditioning. Therefore, behaviors are also partially the product of cognitive processes since the stimulus-stimulus or S-S theory involves cognitive activity, in which the conditioned stimulus is associated to the concept of the unconditioned stimulus.

Cognition is any mental activity in the representation and processing of knowledge, for example, thinking, remembering, perceiving, and language use. Edward L. Thorndike discovered learning was an association between stimuli in the situation and a response that, for example, an animal learned to make, which was known as the stimulus-response or S-R connection. Learning and cognition share a relationship by that a significant premise in the cognitive view of knowing is the concept of metacognition, which is the capability to contemplate about one's own thinking, so then he or she becomes able to monitor and deal with such thoughts.

The cognitive process and learning are linked by that the former envelops classic conditioning, which stresses incidental learning or learning that was not anticipated. It is important since it involves affective response. For example, in a classroom and learning environment, students' experiences, whether good or bad or embarrassing, are likely to become conditioned to stimuli in their learning setting. As a result, the affective reactions of students are shaped when they are at school.