biological and cognitive factors of the learning perspective

"Assess the extent to which biological and cognitive factors have added to traditional explanations of behavior from the learning perspective"

Biological and cognitive factors have both contributed greatly to traditional explanations of behavior from the learning perspective. Nowadays, biological factors, such as imprinting, preparedness and the Critical period, and cognitive factors, such as observational learning and latent learning are used to explain how we learn. The modern assumption which challenges the traditional view of the learning perspective is ‘learning can take place in the absence of reinforcement’.

The traditional view of the learning perspective can be expressed with the words ‘learning only takes place in the presence of reinforcement’. This was because of the theories of classical and operant conditioning, where the subjects learned to do a certain behavior in exchange for reinforcement (mainly food in the case of animal subjects).

However, because of biological factors and cognitive factors, this has been disproved.

Imprinting is a key biological factor used in explaining how learning can take place. When an animal is first born, imprinting causes it to believe that the first moving thing it sees is its mother. This learning is very rapid, and the animal quickly recognizes the mother. A more technical description is ‘the learning that occurs in a young bird when following a moving object’. The term was coined by ecologist Konrad Lorenz, who conducted a study on imprinting. He kept a number of goose eggs and just before they hatched, put half underneath their biological mother and half beside himself. When the eggs hatched, the chicks followed whichever guardian they had been with when they hatched. Even after placing them in a box and allowing them to mix, they successfully recognized their respective guardian and continued to follow them about. Imprinting is very useful as an example of biology affecting learning. Imprinting also occurs during the ‘Critical period’.

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The critical period is a period right after birth in which bonding can occur between the child and the mother, mainly through skin-to-skin contact. It is irreversible, and has lasting consequences. The lasting consequences are that there is a bond between the mother and the child, and in later life the infant will prefer to mate with the species upon which it has been imprinted. However, several of the ideas have been criticized. The idea of a critical period is deemed by some psychologists as too strong a term; they believe that a ‘sensitive period’ is a more accurate term to describe it. Bonding can occur at any time, but during the ‘sensitive period’, bonding is particularly strong. Furthermore, imprinting appears to be reversible – if the infant stays with its own species long enough, it will return to normal and mate with its own species. One experiment proving these arguments have a valid basis showed that when newly born chicks were exposed to socks, the socks were imprinted upon them. Later on in life, they attempted to mate with the socks; however, after they spent some time with their own species, they returned to normal and mated with those of their own species.

The critical period is also important in explaining learning, especially with language. Lenneberg, a psychiatrist, believes that the age of 10-11 is a critical period for language development. Children who become brain damaged are able to learn a bit of language, as other parts of the brain take over the function; however, adults who are brain damaged do not seem to be able to learn any language, as their brain’s functions have already been set.

The case of Genie is another example where the critical period is important in the development of language. Genie was a girl who had been suppressed for over twelve years; following her release, she practically had to learn her language from scratch. Whilst growing up, she obviously had great difficulty in language development and even when she could speak, had bad intonation. This example shows that language development is possible, even after the critical period, but it is most prominent during this period. For this reason, many psychiatrists maintain that a ‘sensitive period’ is a more accurate description.

Preparedness is very important in helping the development of learning; bait shyness, or food avoidance learning, is very important for ensuring survival. Because of bait shyness, rats that eat poisoned food and feel ill afterwards will not do so again; they learn to associate the food with the illness.

There are three types of preparedness: prepared behaviors, unprepared behaviors and contraprepared behaviors. Prepared behaviors are behaviors that are learnt with little experience; these are usually behaviors the organism is developed to do. Unprepared behaviors are acquired through experience, and contraprepared behaviors are patterns of behavior which we find difficult to acquire. Preparedness is an excellent example of how learning can take place in the absence of reinforcements; we can naturally learn things through prepared behaviors, for example because we are physiologically structured to do these things. This shows that we have an innate disposition to learning.

Cognitive factors are also important in explaining how learning can take place in the absence of reinforcement. Observational learning is important in the learning process. The ‘Bashing Bobo’ example shows how observational learning helps us develop as human beings. First of all, we tend to have a role model who we imitate. For young children, this may be their peers, teachers or parents. Gender also affects the degree to which we imitate our role models; we tend to imitate those of the same gender. By watching and imitating role models, we learn much of what we do.

Latent learning is another example of cognitive factors affecting the way we examine the learning perspective today.