PSİKOLOJİ

Although the term ‘learning’ is associated with educational settings, it bears a whole other meaning within the realm of psychology. First of all, learning, as a matter of research in psychology, is not unique to humans. It actually refers to the adaptation process that an organism goes through to balance with the changing environmental conditions. Some animal behaviors and almost all human behaviors are formed as a result of learning processes. The most common definition states that learning is a relatively permanent change in the behavior of an organism due to experience. The correct option is B.

Basically, there are two components of behavior – stimulus and response. Stimulus is either an external or internal change in state that induces a response from the organism. For example, turning our head towards the sound of a plane is a response for the sound stimulus.  In this question, sneezing after pepper is a response to the pepper, in which case it becomes the stimulus. The correct option is C.

When the famous Pavlov experiment is considered, the same logic applied in this question. After several bells and bullying experience that follows the bells, he associates the bells with older students and their bullying behaviour to him. So for John, the bells for the break becomes the informant for the negative behaviour and in time the bells become a conditioned stimulus that creates the same response to bullying. The correct option is D.

Stimulus generalization is to respond to stimuli similar to the original CS. For example, the child who learns to fear white rats in the Little Albert experiment later developed a fear for white rabbits he saw in the park, and even for his grandfather’s white beard. This is called stimulus generalization. So, the correct option is D.

Punishment is anything that immediately follows an undesired behavior and decreases the possibility for that specific behavior to occur again in the future. In positive punishment, an organism is exposed to an aversive stimulus as a consequence of its behavior. In this case, payin money serves as positive punishment. The correct option is B.

Basically, there are two components of behavior – stimulus and response. Stimulus is either an external or internal change in state that induces a response from the organism. Feeling hungry and rapid heartbeat rate can be noted as examples of internal changes while others that relate to changes in lightning, heat, or sound are classified as external changes. Response, on the contrary, is the behavior that an organism displays based on a stimulus. For example, turning our head towards the sound of a plane is a response for the sound stimulus. The answer is B.

Albeit permanent, congenital behaviors are not considered as learning. Congenital behaviors include reflexes and modal behaviors. Reflexes are rapid, consistent, and simple behaviors displayed against a stimulus – e.g. knee jerk, eye blinking. Modal behaviors, yet, refer to complicated behaviors observed among all the members of a species. Honey production by bees and spiders producing webs are among modal behaviors. Although both behaviors are permanent and goal oriented, they do not represent learning because they are innate. If the change in behavior is not a result of an individual’s interaction with the environment, but instead is a by-product of an illness, fatigue, medication, or accident, then this change cannot be classified as learning. For instance, nonsense talk exhibited by a patient waking up from anesthesia is not learning since stimulus here is medication. If the change in a behavior is dependent on growing, then it is not learning. For example, clumsiness displayed by a teenager during adolescence cannot be considered learning since it is a result of growing body parts. The answer is E.

An organism needs to have completed some earlier learning, in other words some kind of prior information, in order to achieve learning. Positive or negative transfer is observed respectively if previous learning facilitates or debilitates current learning. Learning how to play tennis after you know how to play ping-pong is an example of positive transfer but learning to type on an F keyboard layout after learning to type on a Q keyboard is an example of negative transfer. The answer is C.

A vast field of research, classical conditioning accommodates several other concepts not included in the above examples. For example, the child who learns to fear white rats in the Little Albert experiment later developed a fear for white rabbits he saw in the park, and even for his grandfather’s white beard. This is called stimulus generalization. The answer is A .

The term used for this is stimulus discrimination. What produces conditioned response in classical conditioning is the mechanism by which an organism builds an association between neutral stimulus and the conditioned stimulus. Temporal contiguity is the main requirement for such an association to surface. When temporal contiguity between two stimuli disappears for a long time, the association also weakens or fades away; in other words, extinction is observed. In Pavlov’s experiment, the dog stops salivating upon the sound of the bell when meat is not delivered after that sound for repeated times (when temporal contiguity is dissolved). The answer is D.

Do we always learn via classical conditioning that associates NS with UCS? Of course not. In operant conditioning – another behaviorist learning style – we learn about the link between a behavior and the consequence of that behavior. The idea that learning occurs as a result of an action/activity was supported by Thorndike’s (1874-1949) pioneering research. The dog does an activity to get the reward so the answer is C.

Conditioned behavior is cognitive and psycho-motor behaviors. The answer is D.

Developed by Tolman (1886-1959), who disagreed with Thorndike’s ideas, purposive behaviorism is mainly a cognitive learning theory. Tolman suggested that an organism can learn without any reinforcement process. According to him, if a behavior serves a goal, it can be learned; if not, it cannot. The answer is A.

What Köhler concluded at the end of his research is as follows: in some cases, an organism solves a problem not via the trial-and-error process but by relating parts to a whole. Learning occurs with an “Ah-ha feeling” that emerges in one’s mind like a lightbulb suddenly turning on. Upon encountering similar problems, the organism can employ the same mechanism to overcome that problem because an insight has been formed to either solve that particular type of problem or to learn. Archimedes’ sudden discovery of the buoyancy of water when watching a bowl float on water during having a bath, or Newton’s discovery of gravity when an apple fell onto his head are both examples of insight learning. The answer is C.

Learning through observation is the dominant concept in social learning theory suggested by Albert Bandura in 1977. The name of the theory was updated to cognitive-social learning theory based on the importance of cognitive characteristics such as beliefs, sense of self, self-competencies, and expectations. Bandura stated that people learn through observation. Also known as taking someone as a model or imitation, learning through observation states that people outline a mental representation of a behavior they observe and assimilate that behavior into their own repertoire. For instance, a child of a father with temper issues may reflect the same behavior in friendships he has after observing how the father behaves.

Developed by Tolman (1886-1959), who disagreed with Thorndike's ideas, purposive behaviorism is mainly a cognitive learning theory. Tolman suggested that an organism can learn without any reinforcement process. According to him, if a behavior serves a goal, it can be learned; if not, it cannot. Tolman supported this view of his via labyrinth experiments he conducted with rats. The correct option is A.

In insight learning, problems are solved via four stages:

Preparation to solve the problem (Sultan’s thinking to reach the bananas)

Conducting mental and kinetic trials to solve the problem (Sultan’s trial jumps to get the bananas)

Incubation (Sultan’s sitting and thinking in one of the corners of the room)

Sudden illumination of the solution (Sultan’s sudden movement to attach the cues and reach the bananas). 

The correct option is E.

When the transition of information from WM to LTM is analyzed, some factors are seemed to be influential. Among these factors, originality means that if the new piece of information appeals to a person, transfer to LTM becomes faster. The way the information is presented matters more than what the information actually is. The correct option is E.

Learning through observation, as described by social-cognitive learning theory, is realized via four steps; which are attention, retention, production and motivation. The correct option is B.

According to social learning theory, the main factors determining psychological development are environment and cognitive processes. And, Bandura’s cognitive-social learning model relies on behavior, cognition (individual) and environment. The correct option is D.