History of Learning Theories Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

History of Learning Theories - Research Paper Example A brief history of the theories of learning can provide a context for understanding social learning. The basics of three learning theories—Behaviourism, Cognitivism and Constructivism—are discussed in this section (Mergel 1998). Behaviourism took form as a learning theory when Aristotle made an essay entitled "Memory". This essay discussed associations between events such as lightning and thunder. The theory concentrated on behaviours that are overt enough to be observed and measured (Good & Brophy 1990). The illustration is that the mind is some sort of a â€Å"black box† such that the response to a stimulus can be quantified and observed. However, this assumed that the possibility that processes are running in the mind are totally ignored. Pavlov was considered as one of the key players of the development of the Behaviourist Theory together with Skinner, Thorndike and Watson. Pavlov was known for his reputation as the Russian physiologist who worked on stimulus substitution, more popularly known as classical conditioning. His experiments mainly involved food, a dog and a bell. Others who followed Aristotle's thoughts include Hobbs in 1650s, Hume in 1740s, Brown in 1820s, Bain 1860s and Ebbinghaus i n 1890s (Mergel 1998). However, when the 1920s came, the limitations in the behaviourist approach to understanding learning were noticed. It was in this time where Cognitivism was born. Specifically, Edward Tolman observed that the rats he used in his experiment seemed to have a mental map of the maze he was using for the experiment. It was noticed that when he closed a part of the maze, the rats did not bother to look for an alternative path because they seem to know that it led to the blocked path. This was the phenomenon that behaviourists were unable to explain. Certain social behaviours seemed to be out of the bounds of behaviourism.