Principles

and Strategies of Teaching Health Education

MT29

Learning Theories

I. Classical Conditioning
- is a learning process that occurs through associations between an environmental stimulus and a
naturally occurring stimulus
- is a type of learning that had a major influence on the school of thought in psychology known as
behaviorism.
- refers to learning by association, and involves the conditioning of innate bodily reflexes with new
stimuli.
- a theory that is based on the assumption that learning is developed through the interactions with
the environment.
- two stimuli are linked together to produce a new learned response in a person or animal
- is a technique frequently used in behavioral training in which a neutral stimulus is paired with a
naturally occurring stimulus. Eventually, the neutral stimulus comes to evoke the same response
as the naturally occurring stimulus, even without the naturally occurring stimulus presenting
itself. The associated stimulus is now known as the conditioned stimulus and the learned
behavior is known as the conditioned response.
Ivan P. Pavlov
Ø Is a Russian physiologist
Ø Classical Conditioning is a learning process that occurs through associations
between an environmental stimulus and a naturally occurring stimulus.
Ø Dog Experiment - ringing a bell in the presence of food is what caused the dogs
to begin salivating.

John B. Watson

Ø was a pioneering psychologist who played an important role in developing

behaviorism.
Ø believed that psychology should primarily be scientific observable behavior.
Ø he is remembered for his research on the conditioning process, as well as the
Little Albert experiment, in which he demonstrated that a child could be
conditioned to fear a previously neutral stimulus. His research also revealed
that this fear could be generalized to other similar objects.
Ø Little Albert Experiment
Little Albert was a 9 month old infant who was tested on his reactions to
various stimuli. He was shown a white rat, a rabbit, a monkey and various
masks. Albert described as "unemotional", showed no fear of any of these
stimuli. However, what did startle him and cause him to be afraid was if a
hammer was struck against a steel bar behind his head. The sudden loud noise
would cause little Albert to burst into tears. When Little Albert was just over
11 months old, the white rat was presented, and seconds later the hammer
was struck against the steel bar. This was done seven times over the next
seven weeks, and each time Little Albert burst into tears. By now little Albert
only had to see the rat and he immediately showed every sign of fear. He
would cry (whether or not the hammer was hit against the steel bar) and he
would attempt to crawl away.

Rosalie Rayner
 Ø she was a research psychologist, and the assistant and later wife of Johns
Hopkins University psychology professor John B. Watson, with whom she
carried out the famous Little Albert experiment.
3 Basic Phases of Classical Conditioning

Stage 1: Before Conditioning

Stage 2: During Conditioning
Stage 3: After Conditioning

Stage 1: Before Conditioning
Ø requires a naturally occurring stimulus that will automatically elicit a
response. Salivating in response to the smell of food is a good example of
a naturally occurring stimulus.

Stage 2: During Conditioning

Ø the previously neutral stimulus is repeatedly paired with the

unconditioned stimulus. The subject has now been conditioned to respond
to this stimulus.
Ø The conditioned stimulus is previously neutral stimulus that, after
becoming associated with the unconditioned stimulus, eventually comes
to trigger a conditioned response.

Stage 3: After Conditioning

Ø Once the association has been made between the Unconditioned Stimulus
and the Conditioned Stimulus, presenting the conditioned stimulus alone
will come to evoke a response even without the unconditioned stimulus.
The resulting response is known as the conditioned response.



II. Operant Conditioning
- involves learning through the consequences of behavior
- it is sometimes referred to as instrumental conditioning - is a method of learning that occurs
through reinforcements and punishments.
- an association is made between a behavior and a consequence for that behavior. When a
desirable result follows an action, the behavior becomes more likely to occur again in the future.
Responses followed by adverse outcomes, on the other hand, become less likely to happen again
in the future.
- changes in behaviour are the result of an individual’s response to events ( that occur in the
environment)
- When a particular Stimulus Response (SR) pattern is reinforced (rewarded), the individual is
conditioned to respond. Through operant conditioning, an association is made between a
behavior and a consequence for that behavior.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner or B.F. Skinner

Ø is used rewards and punishment to increase or decrease the behavior

Ø is based upon the idea that learning is a function of change in overt
behavior
Ø Skinner showed that two kinds of consequences are specially influenced
First is reinforcement in which it is a consequence that increases the future
likelihood of the behavior that it follows Positive reinforcement includes
giving rewards

Positive Reinforcement
Ø Giving something pleasant after a behavior to increase the probability the behavior will
continue
Ex.
a. A teacher appreciating good performing students when they answer correctly will increase
that behavior

Negative Reinforcement
Ø Taking away something unpleasant as a result of the behavior that is acceptable.
Ex:
 a. Rats learned to press the lever in order to switch off the electric current in the cage.
b. Med tech students who got a 4.0 in MT29 will not anymore go to the class to perform the
dance activity.
Punishment
Used to decrease a behavior by presenting something unpleasant after the behavior
Ex:
When a student doesn’t get the requires QPA he/she loses her scholarship

III. Social Conditioning/ Social Learning Theory

Ø Sociological process of training individuals in a society to respond in a manner generally

approved by the society in general and peer groups within society
Ø The Social Learning Theory says that people can learn by watching other people perform the
behaviour.
Ø Observational learning explains the nature of children to learn behaviours by watching the
behaviour of the people around them, and eventually, imitating them.
Ø And the result of all this is a person who conforms to the ideals, big and small, of the society
and community they live in.

Dalton Clark Conley

Ø Is an American sociologist who is one of the people who explained the

Social Conditioning Theory.