Topic 4: Learning theories — Edexcel A-Level Psychology
Test yourself on Topic 4: Learning theories with PEARSON EDEXCEL A-Level practice questions.
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Topic 4: Learning theories explained
Behaviourism starts from a near blank slate and explains behaviour by what the environment does to it, so this topic runs through three mechanisms and the evidence for each.
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Pavlov paired a neutral signal with food until the signal alone produced salivation. Thorndike's cats escaped a puzzle box faster when escape was rewarded, a law of effect Skinner formalised with rats in an operant chamber, where positive and negative reinforcement raise a response rate, positive and negative punishment lower it, and the schedule of reinforcement decides how stubbornly the behaviour resists extinction. Bandura then showed watching is enough, because children reproduced acts they had only observed, and vicarious consequences decided whether what was learned was performed.
Individual differences and developmental psychology must be considered when learning about the effect of rewards and punishment on individuals and how children develop through the different ways of learning, including social learning.
Two perspectives have to run alongside the learning content. Individual differences asks why the same reward or punishment does not work on everybody: Eysenck argued introverts condition more readily because of higher cortical arousal and built his criminal personality account on poor conditioning of conscience, biological preparedness makes some associations far easier to form than others, and what counts as reinforcing differs person by person, which is why token economies individualise the reinforcer. Developmental psychology asks how the mechanisms change as children grow. Bandura's nursery age children imitated same sex models most, boys most physically, and in his later study seeing a model punished suppressed imitation until an incentive was offered. Gershoff's meta-analysis links physical punishment to more aggression in children, not less.
Your focus
- Students must show an understanding that learning theories are about learning from the environment and of the effects of conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, the role of reward and social learning on the organism.
- Individual differences and developmental psychology must be considered when learning about the effect of rewards and punishment on individuals and how children develop through the different ways of learning, including social learning.
Topic 4: Learning theories exam tips
Marking Points
- Define the three mechanisms so they cannot be confused: classical conditioning associates two stimuli and produces a reflex response, operant conditioning associates a voluntary behaviour with its consequence, and social learning adds observation, mediational processes and identification with a model.
- Negative reinforcement removes something unpleasant and therefore increases behaviour; punishment decreases it. Examiners see these two swapped constantly and the mark is lost immediately.
- Support each mechanism with named evidence: Pavlov's dogs, Watson and Rayner's conditioning of an infant's fear, Skinner's schedules of reinforcement, and Bandura's children imitating an aggressive model.
- Explain what on the organism means: radical behaviourism studies observable behaviour only, treats mental states as unnecessary, and uses animals because the laws of learning are assumed to be general across species.
- Evaluate as an approach. Strengths are experimental control, replicability and successful therapies; weaknesses are environmental determinism, reductionism, extrapolation from caged animals, and biological preparedness, since Garcia and Koelling showed not all associations are equally learnable.
Examiner Tips
- 💡Comparison questions across approaches are common, so keep a ready contrast on determinism, reductionism, the use of animals and the treatment of mental processes.
- 💡Application items describe a behaviour such as a tantrum or a phobia, and marks come from naming the exact stimulus, response and reinforcer present in that stem.
- 💡Outline and describe items are short tariff, so define the process in a sentence and give one example rather than writing an essay.
- 💡Pearson prints these perspectives in the specification itself, so an answer that notes how a finding varies by age or by individual picks up synoptic credit in Paper 3.
- 💡Application stems frequently describe a parent, teacher or reward chart, so name the schedule and the reinforcer being used in that scenario.
- 💡Discuss questions on punishment want the behaviourist prediction first and the developmental evidence against it second, ending in a judgement.
Common Mistakes
- Calling negative reinforcement a form of punishment, which reverses the prediction the theory makes.
- Presenting Bandura as a pure behaviourist. His mediational processes are cognitive and are exactly what separates social learning theory from Skinner.
- Reading the Bobo doll work as proof that watching violence makes children violent, when striking an inflatable toy designed to be struck is not aggression against a person.
- Evaluating behaviourism with general remarks about laboratories rather than tying each criticism to a named study.
- Claiming individual differences without naming one. Saying people vary earns nothing unless a mechanism such as personality, preparedness or reinforcer preference is supplied.
- Assuming punishment simply works, when the evidence is that it suppresses rather than removes behaviour and can increase child aggression.
- Using age as decoration. Say what actually changes with development, such as growing capacity for retention, identification and vicarious learning.
- Describing Bandura's study as showing children became aggressive, rather than that they imitated specific modelled acts under specific conditions.