The Psychology Of How Human Learn

                                                                                       Psychologists often define learning as a relatively permanent change in behaviour as a result of experience. The psychology of learning focuses on a range of topics related to how people learn and interact with their environments.

One of the first thinkers to study how learning influences behaviour was the psychologist John Watson who suggested that all behaviours are a result of the learning process. The school of thought that emerged from Watson's work was known as behaviourism. The behavioural school of thought proposed studying internal thoughts, memories, and other mental processes was too subjective. Psychology, the behaviourists believed, should be the scientific study of observable behaviour. Behaviourism thrived during the first half of the twentieth-century and contributed a great deal to our understanding of some important learning processes.

Understanding the learning process is a key element of educational learning theory and provides a framework for teachers and trainers to plan, create and deliver effective lessons and assess each student's learning.

One important thing to remember is that learning can involve both beneficial and negative behaviours. Learning is a natural and ongoing part of life that takes place continually, both for better and for worse. Sometimes people learn things that help them become more knowledgeable and lead better lives. In other instances, people can learn things that are detrimental to their overall health and well-being.

Types of Learning:

1. Motor learning:

Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these activities involve the muscular coordination.

2. Verbal learning:

This type of learning involves the language we speak, the communication devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use words for communication.

3. Concept learning:

It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalisation. This learning is very useful in recognising, identifying things.

4. Discrimination learning:

Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is called discrimination learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc.

5. Learning of principles:

Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between two or more concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

6. Problem solving:

This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome difficult problems encountered by the people.

7. Attitude learning:

Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our behaviour. We develop different attitudes from our childhood about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behaviour may be positive or negative depending upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse towards her profession, patients, etc.