Correct Answer - Option 4 : Generalisation
The learning theory of Pavlov is based on his famous experiment with dogs. This theory explains learning by associations and focuses on learning of involuntary emotions or psychological responses such as fear, increased muscle tension, salivation, or sweating.
During the salivation experiment, Pavlov proposed a few concepts, which are very important to know, if one wants to understand classical conditioning. One such concept is a generalization.
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Generalization: If the behavior occurs in presence of another stimulus similar to the conditioned one, this is called generalization.
- For example, salivation after hearing the sounds similar to bell (sometimes maybe in higher or lower tone also), is called the process of generalization.
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In the conditioning process, stimulus generalization is the tendency for the conditioned stimulus to evoke similar responses after the response has been conditioned.
- For example, if a child has been conditioned to fear a stuffed white rabbit, it will exhibit a fear of objects similar to the conditioned stimulus such as a white toy rat.
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Generalization refers to the tendency to respond to stimuli that resemble the original conditioned stimulus.
- It is important to understand how stimulus generalization can influence responses to the conditioned stimulus.
- Once a person or animal has been trained to respond to a stimulus, very similar stimuli may produce the same response as well.
Hence, it can be concluded that a child's tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to the conditioned stimulus is Generalization.
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Discrimination: Pavlov proved that at a higher level of conditioning, dogs learned to distinguish the sounds and stopped salivation on sounds other than the bell. This is called discrimination.
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Readiness for learning refers to the present cognitive level of students in the learning continuum. It implies the degree of inquisitiveness of an individual to learn.
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The acquisition of knowledge foster the ability to reflect in the children and enable the development of new knowledge or meaning based on their experiences.
