General psychology is a term that deals with the complete science of psychology. Psychology is a broad field of science that deals with the study of motivation, perception, relationships, the unconscious, and the mind. It is one of the many subjects that matter in daily human activities. The successes and failures people experience in daily activities usually depend on their day to day psychology. People can suffer from psychological problems that disrupt their lives and functioning. Understanding psychology can also help students perform well by understanding and mastering the factors that impact their learning. Experimental psychology is a branch of psychology that deals with the functioning of the mind. Learning is a topic in general psychology and experimental. The factors in psychology that impact learning includes stimulus and response, rewards and punishment, observations, and emotions.
Learning in psychology is usually defined as the permanent change in the behavior due to experience. The psychology of learning focuses on different topics, such as how people learn as they interact with their environments. One of the early individuals that studied how learning influenced behavior was John Watson. He suggested that all behaviors that human beings have are as a result of the learning process. The observation led to the formation of the behaviorism theory (Amouroux & Zaslawski, 2020). The analysis of behaviorism played a significant role in the understanding of the learning process.
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Stimulus and Response Conditioned Learning
Conditioned learning is a type of learning that is influenced by stimulus and response. Conditioned learning was first studied by Ivan Pavlov, who studied the conditioning in dogs. Classical conditioning is a type of learning where a conditioned stimulus has a relationship to an unconditioned stimulus to produce a conditioned response. The conditioned response is usually a learned response from a neutral stimulus. A conditioned stimulus is usually neutral at the start. After conditioning, it creates a different conditioned response. Pavlov’s experiments showed how conditioning influences learning when he studied the behavior of salivating in dogs. The original intention of the experiment was to study the saliva in dogs as it was related to digestion. However, he noticed that the dogs began to salivate every time he entered the room even when he had not carried any food. The dogs had learned to associate his entrance to the room with feeding. Pavlov then designed a series of experiments to show the dogs conditioning to the saliva response.
Different factors influence the process of learning by conditioning. The time delay between the condition and the action can influence the development of the learned behavior. A shorter delay will result in stronger conditioning. Thrailkill et al. (2020) studied the effects of conditioned stimulus duration and intertrial interval. The study involved three experiments where rats were used as appetitive conditioning in two different approaches. A factor of 6 was used to compare the time delay between the two experiments. The results from the experiment revealed that the conditioning for a 10-second delay was superior compared to the conditioning for a 60-second delay. The results of the experiment further proved Pavlov’s theory by indicating how conditioning impacts learning.
Another factor that impacts learning through conditioning is contingency. Contingency involves having the ability to relate the condition to the stimulus. In case one can reliably predict the two, it is expected that the condition will be stronger. In Pavlov’s experiments with the dogs, he used a buzzer and gave the dogs food each time he rang the buzzer. The dogs could reliably predict that the sound of the buzzer meant that they would be given food. The use of the buzzer as a conditioned stimulus served to be reliable throughout the experiment; hence it improved the process of learning the conditioned response.
Rewards and Punishment
The use of rewards and punishments has long been studied for both their positive and negative effects. Rewards are usually used to reinforce a specific behavior, while punishments are used to deter a specific behavior. Rewards and punishments both impact a specific behavior and improve learning. Operant conditioning is usually applied to the use of rewards and punishment. In such a case, when the reinforcement either through a reward or a punishment is removed, it can lead to a diminishing of a specific learned behavior. The use of rewards and punishment can be perceived to be a short-term learning process. Operant conditioning is thus different from the classical conditioning where behaviors could be retained over a long time.
The effectiveness of rewards and punishment is highly impacted by the development stage and development changes of an individual. Miyasaka and Nomura (2019) studied the relationship between potential rewards and losses on the responses of both children and adolescents. The participants could gain or lose money, depending on how they performed on a specified financial task. The results from the study revealed that inhibitory control was higher among adolescents for financial feedback. The results suggested that the effectiveness of a feedback and reward system were mostly dependent on motor impulsivity and development stage. Motor development is also influenced by cognition.
Observational Learning
Learning through cognition is based on the fact that learning is not something that is done involuntarily. Instead, it is perceived that learning takes place based on the interest and observations of an individual. One of the factors that influences learning through cognition is observational learning. Observational learning involves watching the behaviors and consequences of others and then learning from their experiences. Such a learning process is more pronounced in children who observe the behaviors of adults and try to emulate them. The factors that would impact observational learning will depend on the observed action and whether the consequences are positive or negative. Observing positive consequences will result in the reinforcement of the behavior while observing negative consequences will result in the avoidance of the behavior. For one to learn through observational learning, they would have to use a series of steps that include attention, retaining in one’s memory, reproducing the behavior and motivation. Following these steps ensures that the learned behavior is retained for the long-term.
Observational learning has been observed to be highly utilized by children. Ma et al. (2018) studied whether it was possible to promote honesty in young children by observational learning. The study involved the children confessing to peeking. The first study involved children observing a classmate confessing while the second study involved observing a classmate confess and receiving a reward for their honesty through a small prize or praise. The results of the study showed that merely observing a classmate confess did not result in improved honesty. However, observing a student receive a reward for their behavior resulted in further reinforcement of the behavior. The results of the study showed how to make observational learning effective. Observational learning can be useful by making the consequences for a specific behavior evident.
Emotion is one of the main factors that influence the observational learning process. Emotion is a psychological factor, and some of the emotions that influence learning include motivation, self-efficacy, stress, and anxiety. Behaviors such as motivation and self-efficacy improve the learning process while behaviors such as stress and anxiety reduce the effectiveness of learning. Beharu (2018) analyzed the psychological factors that affect a student’s academic performance. The study showed that there was a significant relationship between the intrinsic motivation and self-efficacy of the students. The study also showed that there was a strong correlation between the stress level and both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. However, the performance of the students deteriorated after a certain amount of stress. The conclusion for the study is that learning has a significant influence on motivation. Teachers should try to make use of motivation to improve their learning process.
Conclusion
The factors that affect learning in generational psychology include the stimulus and response, rewards and punishment, observations, and emotions. Learning in psychology was identified as the process of permanent behavior change from an experience. Stimulus and response affected the conditioned learning. However, the time taken between the stimulus and a specific response impacted the ability to learn. Individuals that may want to use conditioned learning should focus on reducing the time delay. The use of rewards and punishment impacted the learning process. It was identified that the effectiveness of rewards and punishment dependent on the development of an individual and cognitive development. A proper analysis of the cognitive development of an individual should be done before applying rewards and punishment. Learning through cognition takes place through observational learning. The effectiveness of such learning was dependent on a clear observation of the perceived benefits and consequences of specific behavior and the presence of emotions. A teacher that wants to improve observational learning should focus on applying the benefits and consequences of specific behavior and ensure that it elicits an appropriate emotion.
References
Amouroux, R., & Zaslawski, N. (2020). “The damned behaviorist” versus French phenomenologists: Pierre Naville and the French indigenization of Watson’s behaviorism. History of psychology , 23 (1), 77. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/hop0000129
Beharu, W. T. (2018). Psyhological Factors Affecting Students Academic Performance Among Freshman Psychology Students in Dire Dawa University. Journal of Education and Practice , (4), 59-65. https://www.iiste.org/Journals/index.php/JEP/article/view/41120
Ma, F., Heyman, G. D., Jing, C., Fu, Y., Compton, B. J., Xu, F., & Lee, K. (2018). Promoting honesty in young children through observational learning. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology , 167 , 234-245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jecp.2017.11.003
Miyasaka, M., & Nomura, M. (2019). Asymmetric developmental change regarding the effect of reward and punishment on response inhibition. Scientific reports , 9 (1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-49037-9
Thrailkill, E. A., Todd, T. P., & Bouton, M. E. (2020). Effects of conditioned stimulus (CS) duration, intertrial interval, and I/T ratio on appetitive Pavlovian conditioning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 46 (3), 243–255. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000241
