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Skinner’s learning method of operant conditioning happens in terms of rewards and punishments for behavior. According to Skinner (1938) with the help of operant conditioning, a person makes an association between a particular behavior and a consequence and therefore, it causes of voluntary behavior and accordingly its consequences. Skinner’s operant conditioning theory was basically based on Thorndike’s (1898) “Law of Effect” theory which is a behavior followed by positive consequences is likely to be repeated whereas a behavior which is followed by unpleasant consequences is less likely to be repeated. However, Skinner coined a new term into the Thorndike’s “Law of Effect” namely as “reinforcement” which stands for the   behavior that is reinforced is likely to be repeated while the behavior which is not reinforced is likely to die out. In terms of basic principles of operant conditioning, positive reinforcement is strengthening a behavior by also increasing the probability...

According to Bruner (1957) the outcome of cognitive development is thinking and the intelligent mind creates from experience "generic coding systems that permit one to go beyond the data to new and possibly fruitful predictions" (p. 234). Children are supposed to acquire a way of representing the recurrent regularities in their environment. Hence, Bruner (1957) postulated that important outcomes of learning include not only the concepts, categories, and problem-solving procedures but also the ability to invent things.   Jerome Bruner’s research on children’s  cognitive development  proposed three modes of representation namely as 1) Enactive representation, 2) Iconic representation and 3) Symbolic representation. Those modes of representation are related to people’s storage and encoding knowledge or information in their memory. The first mode of representation which is enactive representation is based on action. This mode lasts from 0 to 1 years. This mode invol...

Piaget’s theory of cognitive development basically focuses on how a child constructs a mental model of the world due to the fact that Piaget disagreed with the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait. Therefore, according to Piaget, children are born with a very basic mental structure which is genetically inherited and evolved where all subsequent learning and knowledge are based on. In other words, cognitive development happens because of biological maturation and interaction with the environment. Piaget’s cognitive development theory concerned with children instead of all learners and it mainly focuses on development rather than learning since it proposes discrete stages of development. Regarding the cognitive development theory by Piaget, there are three basic components namely as schemas, assimilation and accommodation and lastly  stages of cognitive development. As for the first  component ,  schemas, they are basic building blocks of such cognitive models and ...

The term schema is related to  organizing and orienting attitude that also contains past experiences. In other words,  schema is the knowledge of network of mental frames as well as cognitive constructs . Therefore, the schemata is the main determiner of the focus of a text and also what is learned from a text so  schemata organize and maintain knowledge that is stored in the long-term memory.  Schemata present people’s personal simplified view over reality derived from their past experience as well as prior knowledge by enabling people to recall and modify their behavior, concentrate attention on key information as well. According to Rumelhart (1980), there are four analogies of various aspects of the Nature of Schema. Firstly, a schema has variables which can be associated with different aspects of the environment so schemata are like plays since plays have characters, setting, actions, schemata have as well. Secondly, due to the fact that schemata enable...

Ausubel postulated that   meaningful learning happens by the time learners interpret their experiences actively using certain internal as well as cognitive operations. During that, learners have a connection with the already known information. In order to ensure meaningful learning, three conditions should be provided. Firstly, learners need to prepare a meaningful learning and then materials are also supposed to be meaningful, relevant and organized and final condition is that how knowledge connects to what learners are asked to learn. Existing cognitive structure, an individual’s organization and stability as well as clarity of knowledge are the basic factors that have an effect on the learning retention of meaningful new material as Ausubel indicated. Furthermore, in terms of reception learning, instead of discovering information, learners are directly told information. In other words, what is to be learned is given to the learners and they are supposed to internalize the i...

According to Schunk (1990) motivation is the process in which goal directed behaviour is encouraged as well as maintained. Furthermore, as Weiner (1990) postulated that for educational psychologists, learning is an indicator of motivation (p.168), therefore motivation is related to the use of knowledge yet not the development of it. However, curiosity is a strong motivator of learning. Thus, instructional strategies should be designed to appeal the intended learners. One way to ensure it is rewarding which aims to increase the probability of its reoccurring yet some might also reduce the natural interest of the learning task. Thorndike supports rewarding by stating that it increases importance on pleasant consequences of behaviour that can be repeated and this is called as Law of Effect. Therefore, according to this claim, any behaviour, which is followed by unpleasant consequences, has a chance to be stopped. There are different views and theories regarding motivation. G oal Se...

When stimuli becomes input and behaviour become output, this is conceives as information processing which is called today as cognitive information processing (CIP). There are three basic staged of memory system as  sensory memory, short-term memory and long-term memory.   Sensory memory  is the first stage of information processing which is related to vision, hearing etc. and it holds information in memory very briefly.  Working memory  which is also called as  short-term memory  is the stage where further processing carried out to make information ready for the  long-term storage.   Working memory  holds information for a limited time as well as it holds limited information. Finally,  long-term memory  is the permanent storage of information and once information is proceeded into long-term memory, it is never lost.  Additionally,  sensory memory  which is temporally has a great deal of visual information ye...