Learning occurs when new knowledge leads an organism to change its behavior. All animals demonstrate the ability to learn to some degree. However, humans far exceed all other organisms, including other primates, in their ability to learn. Our capacity to learn gives us a distinct competitive advantage over other species and allows us to adapt to any environment. This is illustrated by the fact that humans occupy essentially every inhabitable corner of the globe. Learning takes many forms, but the three most studied forms of learning are classical conditioning,operant conditioning, and observational learning.
Classical Conditioning
Classical conditioning is the basis of all phobias, taste aversions, and automatic reactions to external stimuli. For example: Joe drinks a glass of orange juice every morning. One morning, Joe gets sick and vomits after drinking a glass of orange juice. Even if the sickness had nothing to do with the orange juice, Joe will now subconsciously associate orange juice with feeling sick. Joe develops a taste aversion. Now, whenever Joe smells orange juice, he starts feeling nauseous. Taste aversions develop more readily than other associations, but this is the basic process of classical conditioning. The diagram below illustrates the steps of classical conditioning through Pavlov's famous Dog Experiment.
The following clip, which comes from a television show (The Office) rather than a movie, shows a comedic take on classical conditioning. Since classical conditioning only applies to automatic bodily responses, only Dwight's "dry mouth" (not his arm extension) is an example of a classically conditioned response .
Operant conditioning is governed by the "Law of Effect." This posits that behavior is based purely on the relationships established between stimuli and responses. Animals will behave in random ways initially. When certain behaviors are rewarded and others are punished, they learn to only repeat the rewarded behaviors. Behaviors can either be encouraged or discouraged through reinforcement (increases behavior) or punishment (decreases behavior). Reinforcement of good behaviors is more effective than punishment of bad behaviors. Punishment can lead to resentment, the learning of bad behaviors (like physical abuse, for example), and does not always change behavior. Typically, the person being punished will only change their behavior when there is a chance that they will be caught.
In the clip below, from Harry Potter and The Order of The Phoenix (2007), Professor Umbridge gives Harry a very harsh punishment. While this is not your typical "writing lines" punishment, it hints at the harm that punishment can bring. (Time stamp: 0:50)
Observational Learning
The last form of learning we will discuss, observational learning, is a key to how culture is shared within communities. Humans, like many creatures, imitate the behavior of other members of the species. We are particularly influenced by our family in our early years and our peers in adolescence, but we also learn behaviors from what we see in the media.
In the clip below, from Tarzan(1999), we have another extreme case of "learning." Tarzan, a man raised by apes, observes and imitates the behavior of animals in the jungle in order to learn how to be a man...an ape-man that is.