Understanding Learning: Conditioning, Social Learning, and Cognitive Development

Reinforcement: A consequence that increases the probability that a behavior will occur.

Escape Conditioning: Behavior is strengthened because it ends an unpleasant, present event.

Avoidance Conditioning: Behavior is strengthened because it postpones or prevents an objectionable event.

Punishment: A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will occur.

Social Learning Theory: Also known as imitation, this is learning that occurs when a person observes and imitates the behavior of another. It involves:

1. Attention
2. Retention
3. Motor Reproduction
4. Motivation or Incentive and Reinforcement

Piaget's Sensorimotor Stage (Birth-2 Years)

During this stage, infants learn about themselves and their world through sensory development and motor activity. It consists of 6 sub-stages: Reflexes, Primary Circular Reactions, Secondary Circular Reactions, Coordination of Secondary Schemes, Tertiary Circular Reactions, Mental Combinations.

During the first five sub-stages, infants organize their activities in relation to their environment and coordinate sensory information. In the sixth sub-stage, they progress from trial-and-error learning to using symbols and perspectives to solve simple problems.

Approaches to Cognitive Development

Information Processing Focus

Analyzes mental processes involved in perceiving and handling information.

Cognitive Neuroscience Approach

Examines brain structures and measures neural activity.

Socio-Contextual Approach

Focuses on the influence of environmental aspects, particularly parents and caregivers, on the learning process.

Information Processing Concepts

Habituation: A simple learning type where familiarity with a stimulus reduces or stops a response.

Dishabituation: Increased responsiveness after the presentation of a new stimulus.

Visual Recognition Memory: The ability to distinguish familiar visual stimuli from unfamiliar ones.

Visual Novelty Preference: A preference for new images over familiar ones.

Cross-Modal Transfer: The ability to identify by sight an object previously touched but not seen.

Causation: Awareness that one event causes another.

Cognitive Neuroscience Concepts

Explicit Memory: Memory of facts, names, and events that is intentional and conscious.

Implicit Memory: Memory of habits and skills that do not require conscious recollection; also called procedural memory.

Working Memory: Short-term storage of information that must be actively processed.

Socio-Contextual Concepts

Guided Participation: An adult's involvement in a child's activity to help structure and guide the child's understanding towards the adult's perspective.