Learning

Lecturer:

Eric Vassilikos

How do we form attitudes? Socialization and experience

Mere exposure Classical conditioning Operant conditioning Social learning Self-perception

Mere exposure effect We are (initially) attracted more to

objects we are repeatedly exposed to.

Conditioning Classical

A formerly neutral stimulus comes to elicit the same evaluative reaction as another stimulus, after systematic pairing (e.g. co-occurrence) with the latter

i.e. Positive/negative reinforcement or punishment of an attitude towards a stimulus (e.g. object, person, event) in a person’s environment

Spreading attitude effect Operant

A behaviour comes to be encouraged or disscouraged after systematic pairing with some form of reward or punishment respectively

i.e. Positive/negative reinforcement or punishment of a person’s behaviour

Social learning (Bandura, 1986)

Observational learning/Modelling Symbolizing capability Forethought capability Vicarious capability Self-regulatory capability Self-reflection capability

Related concepts (to attitudes)

Values Ideology

Different prioritization of values Different approach to pluralism

Social representations Collectively elaborated explanations of

unfamiliar and complex phenomena that transform them into a familiar and simple form

Orgnisational behaviour modification

Typical steps (Luthans & Kreitner,1985): Identifying ‘critical’ behaviour for

satisfactory performance Identifying behaviour’s strength/frequency Functional analysis of beaviour

Is it sustained by rewards/punishments? Possible causes

Identifying intervention process Evaluation

Skills’ development

Cognitive phase Understanding the task

Associative phase Intensifying association through practice

Autonomous phase Increasing automaticity

The learning organisation

An organisation promoting a continuous and enhanced capacity to learn, adapt and change

Major difficulty Transmission and management of expert, tacit knowledge and

insights Knowledge management

The collaborative organisation diffusing knowledge vs. the IT-driven illusion of knowledge management

The learning organisation Principles of learning organisations (Senge, 1990)

Person mastery Promotion of individual motivation to learn Continuous development

Mental models Openness to misconceptions Double-loop learning – Critical focus on the evaluative criteria

Shared vision/viewpoints Team learning

Emphasis on co-operation and communication Systems thinking