DEFINITION OF THINKING:

can be defined as mental activity that goes on in the brain when a person is processing
information—organizing it, understanding it, and communicating it to others. Thinking
includes memory, but it is much more. When people think, they are not only aware of the
information in the brain but also are making decisions about it, comparing it to other
information, and using it to solve problems.
DEFINITION OF LEARNING:
Learning is any relatively permanent change in behavior brought about by experience or
practice. The “relatively permanent” part of the definition refers to the fact that when peo- ple
learn anything, some part of their brain is physically changed to record what they’ve learned
(Farmer et al., 2013; Loftus & Loftus, 1980). This is actually a process of memory, for
without the ability to remember what happens, people cannot learn anything. Although there
is no conclusive proof as yet, research suggests that once people learn something, it may be
present somewhere in memory in physical form (Barsalou, 1992; Smolen et al., 2006). They
may be unable to “get” to it, but it’s there.
CHARACTERISTICS OF THINKING:

• Purposeful:
o Definition: Thinking serves a purpose or goal. It is goal-directed and driven
by the need to achieve specific outcomes or solve problems.
o Example: Planning a route before a trip or considering different options
before making a decision.
• Mental Manipulation:
o Definition: Thinking involves mentally manipulating information. This
includes activities such as analyzing, comparing, synthesizing, and evaluating
ideas or concepts.
o Example: Analyzing data to draw conclusions, comparing the pros and cons
of different options.
• Problem-Solving:
o Definition: Thinking often involves the identification and resolution of
problems. It is a dynamic process of finding solutions to challenges or
obstacles.
o Example: Figuring out how to repair a malfunctioning device or devising a
strategy to overcome a work-related challenge.
• Adaptive:
o Definition: Thinking is adaptive, allowing individuals to adjust to new
situations, learn from experiences, and make informed decisions based on
changing circumstances.
o Example: Adapting communication styles based on the audience or adjusting
strategies in response to unexpected challenges.
• Creative Potential:
o Definition: Thinking has the potential for creativity, enabling individuals to
generate novel ideas, solutions, or perspectives.
o Example: Brainstorming creative solutions to a business problem or
expressing ideas through artistic endeavors.
• Critical Thinking:
 o Definition: Critical thinking involves the ability to objectively evaluate
information, arguments, or situations. It includes analyzing the validity and
reliability of information.
o Example: Evaluating the evidence supporting a claim, identifying logical
fallacies in an argument.
• Decision-Making:
o Definition: Thinking plays a crucial role in decision-making, where
individuals weigh options, consider consequences, and choose the most
appropriate course of action.
o Example: Making choices about career paths, selecting between different
products or services.
• Metacognition:
o Definition: Metacognition refers to thinking about one's own thinking
processes. It involves self-awareness and the ability to monitor and regulate
cognitive activities.
o Example: Reflecting on the effectiveness of study strategies, recognizing
when additional information is needed.
• Flexible and Open-Minded:
o Definition: Effective thinking involves being open-minded, adaptable, and
willing to consider different perspectives or alternative solutions.
o Example: Being open to feedback, considering alternative viewpoints in a
discussion.
• Continuous Process:
o Definition: Thinking is a continuous and ongoing process. It occurs
throughout daily life as individuals encounter new information, experiences,
and challenges.
o Example: Reflecting on personal experiences, learning from mistakes, and
continuously updating one's knowledge.

CHARACTERISTICS OF LEARNING:

• Active Process:
o Definition: Learning is an active and dynamic process where individuals
engage with the material or experience actively.
o Implication: Learners participate, question, discuss, and apply their
understanding actively, fostering a deeper and more meaningful learning
experience.
• Relatively Permanent:
o Definition: Learning results in relatively permanent changes in behavior,
knowledge, or understanding.
o Implication: The acquired knowledge or skills are retained over time,
suggesting a lasting impact on the learner.
• Varied Forms:
o Definition: Learning can occur through various forms, including explicit
instruction, observation, experience, and practice.
o Implication: Individuals may learn through diverse methods, and the
effectiveness of learning experiences can vary based on the nature of the
content and the individual's preferences.
• Individual Differences:
o Definition: Individuals may learn in different ways and at different rates.
o Implication: Recognizing and accommodating diverse learning styles,
preferences, and paces can enhance the effectiveness of educational
interventions.
• Adaptive:
o Definition: Learning is adaptive, allowing individuals to adjust their behavior
or thinking in response to new information or experiences.
o Implication: The ability to adapt and apply knowledge in different contexts is
a crucial aspect of effective learning.
• Cognitive and Behavioral Changes:
o Definition: Learning can lead to changes in cognitive processes (knowledge,
understanding) and behavioral patterns (skills, actions).
o Implication: Education aims to bring about both cognitive and behavioral
transformations, ensuring a holistic development of individuals.
• Influenced by Motivation:
o Definition: Motivation plays a significant role in the learning process,
influencing the extent to which individuals engage with and invest effort in
learning activities.
o Implication: Motivated learners are more likely to persist in the face of
challenges, leading to more successful learning outcomes.
• Transferability:
o Definition: Learning is often transferable, allowing individuals to apply
knowledge or skills learned in one context to new and different situations.
o Implication: Encouraging transferability helps learners connect learning to
real-world applications and enhances the practical utility of education.
• Feedback and Assessment:
o Definition: Feedback and assessment are integral components of the learning
process, providing information on progress and areas for improvement.
o Implication: Effective feedback and assessment strategies contribute to a
continuous cycle of learning improvement.
• Social and Collaborative:
o Definition: Learning is influenced by social interactions and can occur
through collaboration and shared experiences.
o Implication: Collaborative learning environments foster communication,
critical thinking, and the exchange of diverse perspectives.
 LEARNING PERSPECTIVES:
1. SOCIAL OR OBSERVATIONAL LEARNING: social or observational learning is a
type of learning in which a behaviour is learnt through observing and imitating a
model behaviour [Albert Bandura, 1961]. There are four conditions for social or
observational learning listed by Bandura, 1986: attention, memory, imitation and
desire.
Attention: to learn a behaviour through observational learning by paying attention to the
model behaviour [Ciccarelli, White, 2017]. For example, a person who doesn’t know how to
utilise chopsticks to eat might first pay attention to what a person who knows how to use one
does.
Memory: here the one must remember or retain the memory of the behaviour that he/she
observed [Ciccarelli, White, 2017]. If this doesn’t occur, then the said behaviour will not be
imitated or learnt. For example, the person who was observing the model behaviour about
how to use chopsticks tries to remember it after observing the person who knows how to use
it.
Imitation: here the learner tries to reproduce or imitate the behaviour of the model [Ciccarelli,
White, 2017]. For example, the person mentioned above might try to imitate the model
behaviour of using chopsticks.
Desire: here the learner imitated a model behaviour due to desire or motivation. When there
is lack of reason for the model behaviour then the said behaviour is not imitated or learnt. For
example, observing the model get a reward for the behaviour motivates the learner to imitate
the said behaviour.
2. Behavioural learning: Behavioural learning is a type of learning in which a behaviour
is learnt through conditioning. There are two common forms of behavioural learning;
classical Conditioning by Ivan Pavlov and operant Conditioning.
Classical conditioning: In classical conditioning, one learns to respond involuntary to
a stimulus other than the initial, original, natural stimulus that originally made a
response. There are four elements to classical conditioning; Unconditioned stimulus
(UCS), Unconditioned response (UCR), Neutral stimulus (NS), Conditioned stimulus
(CS), & Conditioned response (CR) [Ciccarelli, White, 2017].
Operant conditioning: In operant conditioning, one learns to respond to a voluntary
stimulus through pleasant and unpleasant consequences to his/her responses.
Reinforcement: is an event or stimulus that follows a response and increases the
likelihood of the response to repeat. Reinforcers differ in the way they are used. There
is positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement.
Positive reinforcement: positive reinforcement is reinforcement of a behaviour
through the addition of a pleasurable stimulus or consequence.
Negative reinforcement: negative reinforcement is reinforcement of a behaviour
through the addition of an unpleasurable stimulus or consequence.
Punishment: is an event or stimulus following a response and decreases the likelihood
of the response to repeat.
Positive punishment: positive punishment is punishment of a behaviour through the
addition of an unpleasurable stimulus or consequence
Negative punishment: negative punishment is punishment of a behaviour through the
removal of a pleasurable stimulus or consequence.
3. INSIGHT LEARNING
Insight learning is defined as the sudden realisation of existence of connection between a
problem and a solution [Köhler, 1925]. The solution to the problem emerges after a series of
repeated failures and absence of progress hence is not the result of trial-and-error method. It
involves observing the problem from a different perspective [Cornell, Drew, et al., 2023].
Köhler set up a problem for Sultan the chimpanzee. Chimpanzees are known to be excellent
tool users. Here a banana was placed outside of his cage, just away from his reach. He was
able to solve this problem quickly by retrieving the banana using a stick that was present in
his cage. Next the problem was made difficult by placing the banana just out of reach of his
extended arm with a stick. Here there were two sticks were placed in his cage, which could
be fitted together to make a pole. Sultan first tried to reach the banana with one stick and then
with the other but couldn’t reach the banana. After some time under sudden inspiration, he
was able to fit the two sticks together and was able to retrieve the banana [Ciccarelli, White,
2017].
4. LATENT LEARNING:
One of Gestalt psychologist Edward Tolman’s best-known experiments in learning involved
teaching three groups of rats the same maze, one at a time (Tolman & Honzik, 1930). In the
first group, each rat was placed in the maze and reinforced with food for making its way out
the other side. The rat was then placed back in the maze, reinforced upon completing the
maze again, and so on until the rat could successfully solve the maze with no errors.

The second group of rats was treated exactly like the first, except that they never received any
reinforcement upon exiting the maze. They were simply put back in again and again, until the
10th day of the experiment. On that day, the rats in the second group began to receive
reinforcement for getting out of the maze. The third group of rats, serving as a control group,
was also not rein- forced and was not given reinforcement for the entire duration of the
experiment.

A strict Skinnerian behaviorist would predict that only the first group of rats would learn the
maze successfully because learn- ing depends on reinforcing consequences. At first, this
seemed to be the case. The first group of rats did indeed solve the maze after a certain
number of trials, whereas the second and third groups seemed to wander aimlessly around the
maze until accidentally finding

On the 10th day, however, something happened that would be difficult to explain
using only Skinner’s basic principles.Upon receiving the reinforcement for the first time, the
second group of rats should haveve then taken as long as the first group to solve the maze.
Instead, they began to solve the maze almost immediately.

Tolman concluded that the rats in the second group, while wandering around in the first 9
days of the experiment, had indeed learned where all the blind alleys, wrong turns, and
correct paths were and stored this knowledge away as a kind of “mental map,” or cognitive
map of the physical layout of the maze. The rats in the second group had learned and stored
that learning away mentally but had not demonstrated this learn- ing because there was no
reason to do so. The cognitive map had remained hidden, or latent, until the rats had a reason
to demonstrate their knowledge by getting to the food. Tolman called this latent learning. The
idea that learning could happen without reinforcement and then later affect behavior was not
something traditional operant con- ditioning could explain.

TOOLS OF THINKING:
Mental images, concepts, prototypes, trial and error, algorithms, heuristic, and insight are some of
the methods for problem solving and decision making used by thought processes.

1. MENTAL IMAGES: mental images are defined as the mental representation of an

event, object, animal, or people. The way one interacts with mental images is like how
they interact with the physical object [Kosslyn et al.,1970]. People even had the
ability to mental rate images as well [Shepherd & Metzler, 1971].
2. TRIAL AND ERROR METHOD: is a problem-solving and decision-making method
in which one applies a method and upon error tries a different method to solve a
problem. For example, when we get our password wrong on the first try, we try all
possible configuration to get it right.
3. ALGORITHMS: algorithms are step-by-step procedures that are used to solve
problems. An algorithm unlike trial-and-error method gives a definite solution to the
problem when the right procedure is applied.
4. HEURISTICS: heuristics is an educated guess to solve a problem, that is made based
on prior experiences to another familiar problem.
REPRESENTATIVE HEURISTIC: is the assumption that anything that exhibits the defining
characteristics of a class or concept is part of it. This may not always give a right answer.
AVAILABILITY HEURISTICS: is the estimation of the frequency or likelihood for an event
to occur based on how easy it is to remember the relevant information from memory
[Tversky & Kahneman, 1973].
WORKING BACKWARDS: is a heuristic in which one goes directly to the goal and the
works backwards from it.
SUBGOALS: upon breaking down a difficult goal into small subgoals we feel less
overwhelmed as now it feels more achievable. This is the method used in pomodoro
technique.
5. INSIGHTS: here the answer to a solution just comes to one in just a moment. This
happens when one realises that the problem, they are facing currently shares similarity
to a problem they already experienced in the past.