Learning Theories: Guthrie and Kohler

Guthrie's Associative Theory of Learning

• Forgetting occurs due to interference because stimuli become associated with new responses.
• Guthrie Horton experiment illustrates the associative theory of learning.

Cognitive Theories on Learning

Kohler's Insight Theory

• Wolfgang Kohler, a German-American psychologist, argued that animals do not learn everything through gradual trial-and-error process or stimulus-response association.
• Kohler discovered the isolation effect in memory, contributing to the theory of memory and recall.
• He developed a non-associationist theory of the nature of associations, emphasizing the active role of organization in perception.

Kurt Lewin's Field Theory

• Lewin emphasized the meaning of human behavior in terms of the forces and tension that move men to action.
• Field theory states that behavior must be derived from a totality of coexisting facts.
• The Zeigarnik Effect, discovered by Lewin's student, shows that people tend to remember uncompleted tasks or unfinished business.

Classical Conditioning Theory

• Factors affecting the conditioned stimulus and response relationship include:
  • Frequency of conditioned and unconditioned stimulus pairings
  • Timing of stimulus presentation
  • Similarities between one type of conditioned stimulus and another
• Extinction is a process where conditioned responses can be eliminated gradually.
• Spontaneous recovery is a process where extinct responses can reappear after a rest period.

Connectionism Theory

• Edward Thorndike's Connectionism Theory is the first scientific theory of learning.
• Thorndike focused on the effects of rewards and punishment, success or failure, and satisfaction and annoyance on the learner.
• Three major laws of learning:
  • Law of exercise or repetition: repeated responses are retained longer.
  • Law of effect: responses are strengthened if followed by pleasure and weakened if followed by displeasure.
  • Law of readiness: certain conduction units in a given situation are more predisposed to function than others.

Operant Conditioning Theory

• B.F. Skinner's Theory of Operant Conditioning includes four types:
  • Positive reinforcement
  • Negative reinforcement
  • Punishment
  • Extinction

Behaviorism Theory

• John Watson's Behaviorism theory states that:
  • Behaviorism is naturalistic, and everything can be explained in terms of natural laws.
  • Man has no soul and no mind, but only has a brain that responds to external stimuli.
  • Man is stripped of responsibility, freedom, and dignity, and is reduced to a purely biological being.
  • Man is a machine that responds to conditioning processes and responds accordingly to the way the mind perceives the stimulus.
  • Men are "biological machines" whose minds do not have any influence on their actions.