Activities and Demonstrations

Section 6.1

6.1 What Are the Three Ways We Learn?—Activity

Topic:Learning

Title:Learning Journal: Monitor and Analyze Your Behavior

Instructions: This activity/assignment typically works better in a discussion. It is also helpful to ask students to do this BEFORE class.

  • Tell students to keep a “behavior journal” for one day.
  • In the journal, students should record some of their behaviors and reflect on how those behaviors were learned (e.g., tying shoes, sitting down/raising hand in classes, saying thank you). Instructors may want to provide more structure, such as “Identify two behaviors acquired through operant conditioning, two through observational learning, etc.”
  • In discussion, put students in groups and allow them time to discuss their journals.
  • Ask the groups to then develop a work product (e.g., poster board, PowerPoint presentation, draw on the chalkboard) that illustrates one behavior for each category (e.g., classical conditioning, operant conditioning) and explain how it was learned.

Rationale: This activity allows for productive group discussions, and the visuals help students to contrast the various ways people learn. It is especially useful for getting students to apply these concepts to their lives and to provide thorough examples.

Learning Goal:6.1c, “Apply learning to your life”

Time: Out-of-class work: 30–45 minutes. In-class work and sharing: 30–45 minutes

6.1 What Are the Three Ways We Learn?—Demonstration

Topic: Learning

Title: Habituation

Instructions: Demonstrating habituation in the classroom is fairly easy. Basically, you must provide a stimulus that elicits an unlearned response and then keep providing the stimulus until the response diminishes. One way to demonstrate this process is by using a camera with a flash. Use the flash to elicit blinking and startle-type responses. With repeated flashes, these responses will disappear. Likewise, you can bring balloons into the classroom, then pop them one by one with a sharp pen (you may wish to ensure that people in classrooms adjoining yours will not be disrupted). With repeated pops (you may need as many as 10 balloons), the startle reaction will disappear. Once your demonstration is complete, ask students to discuss how habituation differs from classical and operant conditioning. Is habituation adaptive?

Rationale: The purpose of this demonstration is to show students how quickly they learn through habituation. By experiencing habituation in terms of disappearing startle reactions, they will be able to understand why this form of learning is adaptive for people and animals alike.

Learning Goal:6.1b, “Understand the three main types of learning”

Time: 10 minutes

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