Learning: Definition — Organizational Behavior

4 min readOct 14, 2019

Meaning and Nature of Learning

Learning is a key process in human behaviour. All living is learning. If we compare the simple, crude ways in which a child feels and behaves, with the complex modes of adult behaviour, his skills, habits, thought, sentiments and the like- we will know what difference learning has made to the individual.

Definitions of Learning:

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1. Gales and others:

“Learning is the modification of behaviour through experience and training.”

2. J.P. Guilford:

“Learning is any change in behaviour, resulting from behaviour”.

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3. Charles E. Skinner:

“Learning is the process of progressive behaviour adoptions.”

4. Colvin:

“Learning is the modification of our ready made behaviour due to experience”.

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5. Crow and Crow:

“Learning is the acquisition of habits, knowledge and attitudes”.

6. E.A. Peel:

“Learning is a change in the individual following upon changes in the environment”.

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7. H.J. Klausmeir:

“Learning is a process whereby a change in, behaviour results from some of experience, activity, training, observation and the like”.

Types of Learning:

Learning is of the following types:

(a) Skill Learning:

Right from the birth, the child acquires skill. His bodily organs learn to handle the things. He moves his legs and begins to crawl. In source of time, he learns other motor, skills, like walking, speaking, drawing, writing, reading, playing music, cycling and swimming etc.

(b) Perceptual Learning:

The child gets sensations through his organs of sense, and he attaches meaning to each sensation. The earliest sensations of the infant are undifferentiated to the extent that he cannot differentiate between one object and another. In course of time, he recognises specific objects, and perceives these separately.

Indian psychologists have given explanation of perceptual learning its types and processes. They define conceptual learning as sense object contact. Pure sensation is indeterminate perception, and is the first stage in perceptual learning. The second step is determinate perception, where in the object is revealed as endowed with its attributes and characteristics.

© Conceptual Learning:

As concrete thinking leads to abstract thinking perceptual learning is followed by conceptual learning. A concept is a general idea, universal in character. A child sees a particular cow, and forms some ideas of a cow, with some particular characteristics Here the ideation is on the basis of one particular cow.

This is the particular percept but when the a child sees number of cows, with some common characteristics, he locates certain general qualities in all the cows, and on the basis of these he forms a conception of ‘cow’. This is on the basis of percept which is made general.

Thus the child proceeds from particular to general and forms, in course of time, innumerable concepts, sometimes concrete and sometimes abstract. This is the basis of all thinking and ideational learning. When a few concepts are learnt, this forms the basis of raising the super-structure of knowledge and education, through association and assimilation.

(d) Associative Learning:

Conceptional learning is helped by associative learning in amassing a wealth of knowledge. New concepts are tagged with the past concepts through association, and as such knowledge.

(e) Appreciational Learning:

While conceptual learning is on the affective side. A child, from the very beginning, utilises his inborn trait of aesthetic sensibility, and acquires concepts coloured by appreciation.

(f) Attitudinal Learning:

Attitudes are generalised dispositions for certain particular concepts, things, persons or activities. A child develops an attitude of affection towards his mother, an attitude of reverence towards the teacher, and an attitude of belongingness towards the family. His attitude towards play is most favourable. All this he learns and adopts gradually.

Types of Learning:

1. Motor learning:

Most of our activities in our day-to-days life refer to motor activities. The individual has to learn them in order to maintain his regular life, for example walking, running, skating, driving, climbing, etc. All these activities involve the muscular coordination.

2. Verbal learning:

This type of learning involves the language we speak, the communication devices we use. Signs, pictures, symbols, words, figures, sounds, etc, are the tools used in such activities. We use words for communication.

3. Concept learning:

It is the form of learning which requires higher order mental processes like thinking, reasoning, intelligence, etc. we learn different concepts from childhood. For example, when we see a dog and attach the term ‘dog’, we learn that the word dog refers to a particular animal. Concept learning involves two processes, viz. abstraction and generalisation. This learning is very useful in recognising, identifying things.

4. Discrimination learning:

Learning to differentiate between stimuli and showing an appropriate response to these stimuli is called discrimination learning. Example, sound horns of different vehicles like bus, car, ambulance, etc.

5. Learning of principles:

Individuals learn certain principles related to science, mathematics, grammar, etc. in order to manage their work effectively. These principles always show the relationship between two or more concepts. Example: formulae, laws, associations, correlations, etc.

6. Problem solving:

This is a higher order learning process. This learning requires the use of cognitive abilities-such as thinking, reasoning, observation, imagination, generalization, etc. This is very useful to overcome difficult problems encountered by the people.

7. Attitude learning:

Attitude is a predisposition which determines and directs our behaviour. We develop different attitudes from our childhood about the people, objects and everything we know. Our behaviour may be positive or negative depending upon our attitudes. Example: attitudes of nurse towards her profession, patients, etc.

Learning: Definition — Organizational Behavior

Meaning and Nature of Learning

Types of Learning:

Types of Learning:

1. Motor learning:

2. Verbal learning:

3. Concept learning:

4. Discrimination learning:

5. Learning of principles:

6. Problem solving:

7. Attitude learning:

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Written by Geektonight.com