6.4 An ABC of learning
The principle that governs learning is the same as the evolution-principle: the response to an environmental challenge improves by variation and selection, and this gradually leads to ever more appropriate responses. An evolving species continuously improves its adaptation to its usual environment, its ecological niche. An individual during its life-time improves his individual adjustment to the particular environment in which he happens to grow up. Selection from a prolific variety of possibilities is a feature that learning (in the individuals ontogeny) has in common with evolution (in the phylogeny of the species). The environment assists in shaping the individuals' skills by rewarding the best adapted varieties in the repertoire of behavioural responses. Different types of learning are:
priming: a perceptual or motor response is elicited for the first time in a developing individual; this is followed by further improvement through practice and experience
habituation, when a repeated stimulus that has little or no significance is no longer followed by an attention response. Habituation relieves the mind of excess information, so that it does not have to pay attention to trivial events
classical conditioning: emotions, autonomic nervous system responses, and basic motives such as the tendencies to approach or to avoid establish themselves on the basis of anticipated effects
learning by effect; rewarding or punishing effects will shape an individual's behaviours to become more efficient and skilful.
'A-B-C ' is a mnemonic device that permits a broad categorisation of the learning process. It stands for:
A: antecedent events, genetic constitutional and personality factors, attitudes, anticipations, the accompanying arousal, the challenging stimulus in the environment (A elicits B)
B: a behaviour; the individual responds to a stimulus; the response is often motivational or emotional and involuntary (factor 1) and is followed by instrumental behaviour appropriate to the situation (factor 2)
C: the consequences of the behaviour: the environment reacts to the response in a positive or neutral or negative way, thus reinforcing a habit or not reinforcing it. Consequent events can be either rewarding or punishing.
Events (A) antecede the behaviour (B) and the behaviour is followed by consequences (C). Consequences shape future behaviour. By becoming associated with antecedent events they also cause anticipation. When one has had a bad experience when answering a phone-call one will try to avoid picking up the telephone in future. On hearing the ringing sound one already becomes apprehensive.
In classical conditioning (type I) signals from the environment acquire a meaning. Drives and motives are goal-directed responses. They stem either from internal needs or environmental challenges. Type II learning concerns perceptual and motor skills that implement the type I motives. By repeated experiences and by trial-and-error (type II) an individual learns to anticipate the effects of its own behaviour. He learns to scan, to select, to choose his preferred environment, in short he increases his measure of control.
Focussed attention, and an adequate degree of general arousal are necessary for various sorts of learning and for retention in memory:
discrimination and recognition,
habituation to irrelevant stimuli while attaching significance to meaningful or novel stimuli.
An adequate degree of general arousal and attention response is called facilitating stress. It is elicited by challenges that do not surpass the limits of the individual's coping capacity. If learning is to take place, some sort of reward has to follow the finishing of the task. Passing from a state of uncertainty to one of assurance may in itself be sufficiently rewarding. In the context of non-verbal communication, a smile or other sign of recognition may be the reward. It confirms the child's expectations that it is competent in relating to it's parent and in exerting some influence over it's environment.