Learning Approaches Key Features

They all reveal different things concerning the human mind as well as how it works. The cognitive approach to learning focuses on how individuals think. Comparative approaches focus on the study of how animals behave. Sociocultural approaches focus on understanding human behavior. This paper describes how cognitive and comparative learning approaches conceptualize learning, the processes involved in learning and their features. The rat learned that stepping on a lever would release food and this suggests that behavior can be affected by rewards and punishment. Instrumental and classical conditioning suggest that learning can take place through association. Classical conditioning can be well-defined as a process of leaning wherein a potent stimulus such as food is paired with neutral stimuli such as a bell.

In other words, the learning processes by an association concerning a stimulus naturally taking place and environmental stimuli. It entails developing associations between two stimuli which results into a learned response. (112), learning is a mental activity whereby learners internally structures and codes knowledge as well as modify the state of information. Cognitive approach real focus is on transforming the learner by inspiring him or her to make use of the suitable learning strategies. The cognitive learning approach entails 2 key processes which include assimilation and accommodation. Accommodation can be defined as the process of altering how individuals view the world or the cognitive map to match up with their encounter in it. The process takes place via the creation of classifications in the mind to get used to experiences that do not fit in existing classifications.

The cognitive approach can be classified into 2; cognitive behavioral approach and social cognitive approach. The cognitive behavioral theory is widely used for treating mental disorders such as depression, anxiety, and stress. Trainers use cognitive behavioral therapy to help learners control their own behavior instead of trying to control learner’s behavior through external reinforcement (Lachman, Roy, Lachman, and Butterfield 112). The social cognitive theory holds the view that individual knowledge attainment can be in every aspect linked to watching others in the context of social experiences and interactions and beyond media influence. Normally, children learn by imitating adults. All these activities involve altering the cognitive map and involve recognition, evaluation, reflection, and application (Wright and Jesse 45). Classical conditioning has been widely used in the treatment of behavioral therapies such as phobias.