Month: September 2022

The monthly or period payment in installment purchase is termed an installment whereas, in hire purchase arrangement, it is called hire charges. Installment derives its value from the length of time, the sale value of an asset, and the interest rate. In contrast, the hire charges are a function of two additional factors, viz. option of termination and repairs and maintenance. Ideally, the installment should be less than the hire charges for the same asset. Therefore, hire purchase is an expensive system compared to installment purchase.

Features

• The buyer makes the payment in different installment over a period of time as agrees upon in the agreement.
• Installment purchase system is just like an outright credit sale of goods.
• Under installment purchase system, the buyer gets the immediate possession as well as the ownership of goods.
• The seller cannot responses the good if the buyer made default in the payment of installment but he/she can sue against the buyer for the recovery of amount due.
• In case of default in the payment of installment, the total amount of installments already paid by the buyer cannot be forfeited.
• Risk of goods/assets are to be borne by the buyer just after signing the agreement.
• Under installment system, the buyer can sell or mortgage the goods even before clearing all the installments.
• The buyer of the goods under installment purchase system has no right to return the goods to the seller.

Risk, Repair, and Maintenance related to Asset

In hire purchase, all the risks are borne by the financing company until the hirer’s last payment because it is the official owner of the asset till that time. In installment purchases, the risks are borne by the buyer from day one. Similarly, repair and maintenance is the headache of the financier in the case of hire purchase and the buyer in case of an installment purchase.

Right to Sell or Transfer

The owner of the assets always exercises the right to sell or transfer. In the case of hire purchase, this right lies with the financing company or seller as the case may be because they are the owners of the asset. In the case of an installment purchase, it is with the buyer because he becomes the owner on the day he signs the agreement.

The default of Installment/Hire Charges

When a hirer defaults in the payment of hire charges, the financier has the right to forfeit the money paid till that date and take back possession of the goods. Whereas in installment purchase, the installment paid are not forfeited, and the financier is liable to receive the remaining dues.

Attitude

Attitude refers to the standpoint, or the stance one has towards something or someone. Therefore, they are judgments or opinions about a certain subject matter or a person. These standpoints or opinions are formed based on that person’s values and emotions. In brief, attitudes are the personal responses to certain things according to that person’s preference.

Accordingly, several factors such as a person’s life experiences, values, moral attributes, and living environment (family, society) directly influence their attitudes to particular subject matters or persons. More importantly, attitudes differ from one individual to another and from one subject matter to another.

A person’s attitude can be positive, negative or neutral views, which shows one’s likes and dislikes for someone or something. So, the type of attitude we carry, speaks a lot about us, as we get into that mood and transmits a message to the people around us. There is no such thing like ideal attitude, for a particular situation as it is spontaneous and so we always have a choice to opt the right attitude for us.

There is a direct relationship between attitude and behavior. It is evident from the ABC model of attitudes, which describes the components of individual attitudes.

Affective: Refers to the part of the attitude that drives a person’s feelings

Behavioral: Refers to the behavior a person shows or how one reacts with accordance to their attitude in a particular situation

Cognitive: Refers to a person’s opinion, beliefs or thought about a subject matter or a person.

Behavior

Behavior is the way in which one acts or conducts oneself, especially towards others. Hence, behavior comprises of our actions with concern to the interactions or the relationships we maintain with the external environment. Moreover, a person’s actions and conduct is defined as ‘human behavior’. Human behavior can be of two main categories as innate behavior and learned behavior.

Furthermore, behavior can be described as our immediate response to external stimuli. And, this can be voluntary or involuntary, or conscious or unconscious. Similarly, by proper scrutiny of someone’s behavior, we can deduce a lot of facts about that person’s character and personality.

Thus, several main factors influence the behavior of a person; some of these factors include their surrounding (either they like that surrounding or not), their biology (the physical and mental wellbeing), and their psychological attributes (such as character traits, attitudes etc.).

In short, behavior is an individual or group reaction to inputs such as an action, environment or stimulus which can be internal or external, voluntary or involuntary, conscious or subconscious.

	Attitude	Behavior
Meaning	Attitude refers to a person’s mental view, regarding the way he/she thinks or feels about someone or something.	Behavior implies the actions, moves, conduct or functions of an individual or group towards other persons.
Based on	Experience and observation	Situation
Trait	Human	Inborn
What is it?	A person’s mindset.	Outward expression of attitude.
Reflects	What you think or feel?	What you do?
Defined by	Way we perceive things.	Social Norms

An attitude is a positive, negative, or mixed evaluation of an object that is expressed at some level of intensity. Our attitude can vary in strength along both positive effect, and with negative effect, with ambivalence or with apathy and indifference. It usually implies feelings that are either positive or negative. Social psychologists use the term attitude differently. Gordon Allport formulated the following definition: “An altitude is a mental and neural stale of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual’s response to ill objects and situations with which it is related.”

“Attitude as an enduring organization of motivational, emotional, perceptual and cognitive processes with respect to some aspect of the individual’s world.”

Krech and Crutchfield

“Attitude is a mental and neutral state of readiness organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon individual’s response to all objects and situations with which it is related.”

G.W. Allport

Character

Attitude are predispositions

Attitude are predispositions of purpose, interest or opinion of the person to assess some objects in a favourable or an unfavourable manner.

Attitude are different from values

Attitude are different from values: Values are the ideals, whereas attitudes are narrow, they are our feelings.

Attitude are evaluative statement

Attitude are evaluative statements: either favourable or unfavourable concerning the objects, people or events.

Attitude influence human behavior

A positive attitude towards a thing will influence human behavior towards the thing favorably and vice-versa.

Attitude have intensity

It refers to the strength of the effective component. For example, we may dislike an individual but the extent of our disliking would determine the intensity of our attitude towards the person.

Attitude are learnt

Attitude is not inborn phenomenon. Attitudes are learnt through social interaction and experience.

Functions of Attitude

Four important functions of attitude which are crucial in organizational behavior viewpoint are:

• Adjustment Function
• Ego-Defensive Function
• Value-Expressive Function
• Knowledge Function

Adjustment Function

Attitudes often help individuals to adjust to their work environment.

Consumers hold certain brand attitudes partly because of the brand utility. If a product has helped us in the past even in a small way, our attitude towards it tends to be favorable. One way of changing attitude in favor of a product is by showing people that it can solve utilitarian goals. They may not have considered some advertisement which stresses the utilitarian benefits of a product.

Ego-Defensive Function

Consumers want to protect their self concept from inner feelings of doubt. Cosmetic and personal hygiene products, by acknowledging this need, increase their relevance to the consumer and have the possibility of a favorable attitude by offering reassurance to the consumers self concept.

Value-Expressive Function

Attitudes are one expression of general values, lifestyles, and outlook. If a consumer segment generally holds a positive attitude towards being in a fashion segment, consumer may treat high fashion clothing and accessories as symbols of that lifestyle.

Knowledge Function

Attitudes provide frames of reference or standard that allow individuals to understand and perceive the world around him. Individuals have a strong need to know and understand the people and things with whom they come in contact, especially if they think they might influence their behavior.

Example, If a student has a strong negative attitude towards the college, whatever the college does, the student will be perceived as something ‘bad’ and as actually against them.

Perceptual Inputs:

A number of stimuli are constantly confronting people in the form of information, objects, events, people etc. in the environment. These serve as the inputs of the perceptual process. A few of the stimuli affecting the senses are the noise of the air coolers, the sound of other people talking and moving, outside noises from the vehicular traffic or a street repair shop or a loud speaker playing somewhere plus the impact of the total environmental situation. Some stimuli do not affect the senses of a person consciously, a process called subliminal perception.

Perceptual Mechanism:

When a person receives information, he tries to process it through the following sub processes of selection, organisation and interpretation.

(A) Perceptual Selectivity:

Many things are taking place in the environment simultaneously. However, one cannot pay equal attention to all these things, thus the need of perceptual selectivity. Perceptual selectivity refers to the tendency to select certain objects from the environment for attention. The objects which are selected are those which are relevant and appropriate for an individual or those which are consistent with our existing beliefs, values and needs. For this, we need to screen or filter out most of them so that we may deal with the important or relevant ones.

The following factors govern the selection of stimuli:

(i) External Factors

(ii) Internal Factors

Various external and internal factors which affect our selection process are as explained below:

(i) External Factors:

(a) Size:

The bigger the size of the stimulus, the higher is the probability that it is perceived. Size always attracts the attention, because it establishes dominance. The size may be the height or weight of an individual, sign board of a shop, or the space devoted to an advertisement in the newspaper. A very tall person will always stand out in the crowd on the other hand; a very short person will also attract attention. A full page advertisement will always catch attention as compared to a few lines in the classified section.

(b) Intensity:

Intensity attracts to increase the selective perception. A few examples of intensity are yelling or whispering, very bright colours, very bright or very dim lights. Intensity will also include behavioural intensity. If the office order says “Report to the boss immediately,” it will be more intense and effective as compared to the office order which says “Make it convenient to meet the boss today.”

(c) Repetition:

The repetition principle states that a repeated external stimulus is more attention drawing than a single one. Because of this principle, supervisors make it a point to give the necessary directions again and again to the workers. Similarly, the same advertisement or different advertisement but for the same product shown, again and again on the TV will have more attention as compared to an advertisement which is shown once a day.

(d) Status:

High status people ran exerts greater influence on the perception of the employees than the low status people. There will always be different reactions to the orders given by the foreman, the supervisor or the production manager.

(e) Contrast:

An object which contrasts with the surrounding environment is more likely to be noticed than the object which blends in the environment. For example, the Exit signs in the cinema halls which have red lettering on a black background are attention drawing or a warning sign in a factory, such as Danger, written in black against a red or yellow background will be easily noticeable. In a room if there are twenty men and one woman, the woman will be noticed first because of the contrast.

(f) Movement:

The principle of motion states that a moving object receives more attention than an object which is standing still. A moving car among the parked cars catches our attention faster. A flashing neon-sign is more easily noticed.

(g) Novelty and Familiarity:

This principle states that either a novel or a familiar external situation can serve as an attention getter. New objects in the familiar settings or familiar objects in new settings will draw the attention of the perceiver. A familiar face on a crowded railway platform will immediately catch attention. Because of this principle, the managers change the workers jobs from time to time, because it will increase the attention they give to their jobs.

(h) Nature:

By nature we mean, whether the object is visual or auditory and whether it involves pictures, people or animals. It is well known that pictures attract more attention than words. Video attracts more attention than still pictures. A picture with human beings attracts more attention than a picture with animals.

(ii) Internal Factors:

The internal factors relate to the perceiver. Perceiving people is very important for a manager, because behaviour occurs as a result of behaviour.

Following are the internal factors which affect perception:

1. Learning:

Although interrelated with other internal factors learning may play the single biggest role in developing perceptual set. A perceptual set is basically what a person expects from the stimuli on the basis of his learning and experience relative to same or similar stimuli. This perceptual set is also known as cognitive awareness by which the mind organizes information and forms images and compares them with previous exposures to similar stimuli. A number of illustrations have been used by psychologists to demonstrate the impact of learning on perception.

Some are as explained below:

(i) Learning creates an expectancy in an individual and expectancy makes him see what he wants to see.

2. Motivation:

Besides the learning aspects of the perceptual set, motivation also has a vital impact on perceptual selectivity. For example, a person who has a relatively high need for power, affiliation or achievement will be more attentive to the relevant situational variables. For example, when such a person walks into the lunch room, he may go to the table where several of his co-workers are sitting, rather than a table which is empty or on which just one person is sitting.

Another example is that a hungry person will be more sensitive to the smell or sight of food than a non-hungry person. In one experiment people who were kept hungry for some time were shown some pictures and were asked to describe what they saw in them. Most of the reported more food items in such perceptions.

Personality.

Closely related to learning and motivation is the personality of the perceiving person. For example, the older senior executives often complain about the inability of the new young manager to take tough decisions concerning terminating or reassigning people and paying attention to details and paper work. The young managers, in turn, complain about the ‘old guards’ resisting change and using paper and rules as ends in themselves. Different perceptions in young and old are due to their age differences. Further, the generation gap witnessed in recent years definitely contributes to different perceptions.

In addition to the above two problems another problem is about the woman in the work place. Women are still not reaching the top levels of organisations. At least part of this problem can be attributed to perceptual barriers such as the established managerial hierarchy is not able to see (perceive) that qualified woman should be promoted into top level positions. Of course, there are individual differences in all age categories but the above examples show that how personalities, values and even age may affect the way people perceive the world around them.

1. Perceptual Organisation:

After having selectively absorbed the data from the range of stimuli we are exposed to at any given time, we then try to organize the perceptual inputs in such a manner that would facilitate us to extract meaning out of what we perceive. Or in other words, person’s perceptual process organizes the incoming information into a meaningful whole. While selection is a subjective process, organizing is a cognitive process.

How we organize the stimuli is primarily based on the following principles:

(i) Figure and Ground:

Figure-Ground principle is generally considered to be the most basic form of perceptual organisation. This principle simply implies that the perceived object or person or event stands out distinct from its back ground and occupies the cognitive space of the individual. For example, as you read this page, you see white as the background and black as the letters or words to be read. You do not try to understand what the white spaces amidst the black letters could mean.

Likewise, in the organisational setting, some people are more noticed or stand out than others. For example, an individual in the organisation might try to focus his entire attention on his immediate supervisor, trying to be in his good books, completely ignoring his colleagues and how they feel about his behaviour. According to this principle, thus, the perceiver tends to organize only the information which stands out in the environment which seems to be significant to the individual.

(ii) Perceptual Grouping:

Grouping is the tendency to curb individual stimuli into meaningful patterns. For instance, if we perceive objects or people with similar characteristics, we tend to group them together and this organizing mechanism helps us to deal with information in an efficient way rather than getting bogged down and confused with so many details. This tendency of grouping is very basic in nature and largely seems to be inborn.

Some of the factors underlying his grouping are:

(a) Similarity:

The principle of similarity states that the greater the similarity of the stimuli, the greater the tendency to perceive them as a common group. The principle of similarity is exemplified when objects of similar shape, size or colour tend to be grouped together. For example, if all visitors to a plant are required to wear white hats while the supervisors wear blue hats, the workers can identify all the white hats as the group of visitors. Another example is our general tendency to perceive minority and women employees as a single group.

(b) Proximity:

The principle of proximity or nearness states that a group of stimuli that are close together will be perceived as a whole pattern of parts belonging together. For example, several people working on a machine will be considered as a single group so that if the productivity on that particular machine is low, then the entire group will be considered responsible even though, only some people in the group may be inefficient. The following figure demonstrates the proximity principle.

(c) Closure:

The principle of closure relates to the tendencies of the people to perceive objects as a whole, even when some parts of the object are missing. The person’s perceptual process will close the gaps that are unfilled from sensory input.

(d) Continuity:

Continuity is closely related to closure. But there is a difference. Closure supplies missing stimuli, whereas the continuity principle says that a person will tend to perceive continuous lines of pattern. The continuity may lead to inflexible or non creative thinking on the part of the organisational participants. Only the obvious patterns or relationships will be perceived. Because of this type of perception, the inflexible managers may require that employers follow a set and step by step routine leaving no ground for implementation of out of line innovative ideas.

(iii) Perceptual Constancy:

Constancy is one of the more sophisticated forms of perceptual organisation. This concept gives a person a sense of stability in this changing world. This principle permits the individuals to have some constancy or stability in a tremendously variable and highly complex world. If constancy were not at work, the world would be very chaotic and dis-organised for the individual.

There are several aspects of constancy:

(a) Shape Constancy:

Whenever an object appears to maintain its shape despite marked changes in the retinal image e.g. the top of a glass bottle is seen as circular whether we view it from the side or from the top.

(b) Size Constancy:

The size constancy refers to the fact that as an object is moved farther away from us we tend to see it as more or less un-variant in size. For example, the players in cricket field on the opposite side of the field do not look smaller than those closer to you even though their images on the retina of the eye are much smaller.

(c) Colour Constancy:

Colour constancy implies that familiar objects are perceived to be of the same colour in varied conditions. The owner of a red car sees it as red in the bright sunlight as well as in dim twilight. Without perceptual constancy the size, shape and colour of objects would change as the worker moved about and it would make the job almost impossible.

(iv) Perceptual Context:

The highest and most sophisticated forms of organisation are context. It gives meaning and value to simple stimuli, objects, events, situations and other persons in the environment. The organisational structure and culture provide the primary context in which workers and managers do their perceiving. For example, a verbal order, a new policy, a pat on the back, a raised eye brow or a suggestion takes on special meaning when placed in the context of the work organisation.

(v) Perceptual Defence:

Closely related to perceptual context is the perceptual defence. A person may build a defence against stimuli or situational events in a particular context that are personally or culturally unacceptable or threatening. Accordingly, perceptual defence may play a very important role in understanding union-management and supervisor-subordinate relationship. Most studies verify the existence of a perceptual defence mechanism.

The general conclusions drawn from these studies are that people may learn to avoid certain conflicting, threatening or unacceptable aspects of the context. The various defenses may be denial of an aspect, by modification and distortion, by change in the perception, then the last but not the least is recognition but refusal to change.

1. Perceptual Interpretation:

Perceptual interpretation is an integral part of the perception process. Without interpretation, selection and organisation of information do not make any sense. After the information has been received and organised, the perceiver interprets or assigns meaning to the information. In fact, perception is said to have taken place only after the data have been interpreted. Several factors contribute towards the interpretation of data.

More important among them are perceptual set, attribution, stereotyping, halo effect, perceptual context, perceptual defence, implicit personality theory and projection. It may also be noted that in the process of interpretation, people tend to become judgmental. They may tend to distort what they see and even ignore things that they feel are unpleasant.

1. Checking:

After data have been received and interpreted, the perceiver tends to check whether his interpretations are right or wrong. One way of checking is for the person himself to indulge in introspection. He will put a series of questions to himself and the answers will confirm whether his perception about an individual or object is correct or otherwise. Another way is to check the validity of the interpretation with others.

1. Reacting:

The last stage in perception is the reaction. The perceiver shall indulge in some action in relation to the perception. The action depends on whether the perception is favourable or unfavourable. It is negative when the perception is unfavourable and the action is positive when the perception is favourable.

III. Perceptual Outputs:

Perceptual outputs encompass all that results from the throughout process. These would include such factors as one’s attitudes, opinions, feelings, values and behaviours resulting from the perceptual inputs and throughputs. Perceptual errors adversely affect the perceptual outputs. The lesser our biases in perception, the better our chances of perceiving reality as it exists or at least perceiving situations with the minimum amount of distortions.

This will help us to form the right attitudes and engage in appropriate behavioural patterns, which in turn will be beneficial for attaining the desired organisational outcomes. It is essentially important for managers who are responsible for organisational results to enhance their skills in order to develop the right attitudes and behaviours.

Perception refers to our sensory experience of the world. It is through this experience that we gain information about the environment around us.

Perception relies on the cognitive functions we use to process information, such as utilizing memory to recognize the face of a friend or detect a familiar scent. Through the perception process, we are able to both identify and respond to environmental stimuli.

The perceptual process follows a series of steps which starts with an exposure to stimuli and ends with an interpretation of the stimuli. The perceptual process is usually unconscious which happens without our awareness and also for several times in a day. The process of perception passes through the following stages:

Selection: This is the first stage of perception which involves decision making about what needs to be attended to, which can be unconscious sometimes and on other occasions can be intentional. The world around us might present infinite stimuli, but our brain has the capacity to attend to the stimuli selectively, which depends upon the environmental factors or individual factors. When we attend to a stimulus selectively, it is considered as attended stimulus. Selection is influenced by various factors such as drives & motives, impulses and incentives for acting in a certain way. Emotional drive in a number of ways can influence how we selectively attend to stimuli. This has been explained with the help of the following examples:

• Selective Retention: It means, we have a tendency to recall or retain that information which is compatible with our interests, beliefs and values as opposed to those which conflict with our interests, values or belief system, as a result of which we selectively organize the information. For example, a consumer may rationalize the product purchase which they enjoy by considering only the health benefits or the positive aspects of that product.
• Selective Perception: It is the tendency to perceive only such information or things which we want to perceive and completely ignore the opposing factors which are against our beliefs, preferences or values. For example, a teacher may find all the good qualities in her favourite student and may completely ignore the negative one because of the perceptual bias.
• Selective Exposure: We select and organize only that information to which we want to be exposed to based on our past beliefs, perception or experiences.

Organization: Once the stimulus is selectively chosen, the second stage comes into play. In this stage, a series of reactions set in the brain. It starts with the process of activation of sensory receptors, which is then transmitted to the brain as neural energy and involves mental construction of the stimulus which is called as percept. In this stage, we tend to mentally organize the stimulus into meaningful patterns for being able to interpret the same properly. Perceptual schema helps in organizing information or grouping of the stimuli on the basis of the appearances, interactions, social roles and a lot of other factors. These schemas then determine how we perceive things about the world around us. We even do have a tendency to form stereotypes for making sense of the world around us, which is the tendency to simplify or group related stimuli together to be able to easily understand and interpret the information in the simplistic possible way. Stereotyping may have dangerous implications when it is based on unrealistic attribution of certain characteristics to the entire group. It may result in discriminatory behaviour or a bias or oppressive behaviour.

Interpretation: Once the stimulus is attended to selectively and the information is organized by the brain, the interpretation of the information takes place for providing some meaning to the stimulus to which we are exposed. We tend to categorize the stimulus for being able to acquire a proper understanding and take improved decisions accordingly. Interpretation is subjective in nature because different people might perceive the same stimuli differently in the influence of their past experiences, attitude, values or beliefs.

Perception Process

To better understand how we become aware of and respond to stimuli in the world around us, it can be helpful to look at the perception process. This varies somewhat for every sense.

• Environmental stimulus: The world is full of stimuli that can attract attention. Environmental stimulus is everything in the environment that has the potential to be perceived.
• Attended stimulus: The attended stimulus is the specific object in the environment on which our attention is focused.
• Image on the retina: This part of the perception process involves light passing through the cornea and pupil, onto the lens of the eye. The cornea helps focus the light as it enters and the iris controls the size of the pupils to determine how much light to let in. The cornea and lens act together to project an inverted image onto the retina.
• Transduction: The image on the retina is then transformed into electrical signals through a process known as transduction. This allows the visual messages to be transmitted to the brain to be interpreted.

Neural processing: After transduction, the electrical signals undergo neural processing. The path followed by a particular signal depends on what type of signal it is (i.e. an auditory signal or a visual signal).

Perception: In this step of the perception process, you perceive the stimulus object in the environment. It is at this point that you become consciously aware of the stimulus.

Recognition: Perception doesn’t just involve becoming consciously aware of the stimuli. It is also necessary for the brain to categorize and interpret what you are sensing. The ability to interpret and give meaning to the object is the next step, known as recognition.

Action: The action phase of the perception process involves some type of motor activity that occurs in response to the perceived stimulus. This might involve a major action, like running toward a person in distress. It can also involve doing something as subtle as blinking your eyes in response to a puff of dust blowing through the air.

Educational psychology & Educational psychologists have identified several principles of learning, also referred to as laws of learning which seem generally applicable to the learning process. These principles have been discovered, tested, and used in practical situations. They provide additional insight into what makes people learn most effectively. Edward Thorndike developed the first three “Laws of learning:” readiness, exercise and effect.

Readiness

Since learning is an active process, students must have adequate rest, health, and physical ability. Basic needs of students must be satisfied before they are ready or capable of learning. Students who are exhausted or in ill health cannot learn much. If they are distracted by outside responsibilities, interests, or worries, have overcrowded schedules, or other unresolved issues, students may have little interest in learning. For example, we may identify the situation of an academic examination of a school, in which the cause of securing good marks in various subjects leads to mental and emotional readiness of students to do more hard labour in acquiring knowledge.

Exercise

Every time practice occurs, learning continues. These include student recall, review and summary and manual drill and physical applications. All of these serve to create learning habits. The instructor must repeat important items of subject matter at reasonable intervals, and provide opportunities for students to practice while making sure that this process is directed toward a goal. But in some or many cases, there is no need for regular practice if the skill is acquired once. For instance if we have learnt cycling once, we will not forget the knowledge or skill even if we aren’t exercising it for a long time.

Effect

However, every learning experience should contain elements that leave the student with some good feelings. A student’s chance of success is definitely increased if the learning experience is a pleasant one.

Primacy

Primacy, the instructor must present subject matter in a logical order, step by step, making sure the students have already learned the preceding step. If the task is learned in isolation, if it is not initially applied to the overall performance, or if it must be relearned, the process can be confusing and time consuming. Preparing and following a lesson plan facilitates delivery of the subject matter correctly the very first time.

Recency

The principle of recency states that things most recently learned are best remembered. Conversely, the further a student is removed time-wise from a new fact or understanding, the more difficult it is to remember.

Intensity

The more intense the material taught, the more likely it will be retained. A sharp, clear, vivid, dramatic, or exciting learning experience teaches more than a routine or boring experience. The principle of intensity implies that a student will learn more from the real thing than from a substitute. Examples, analogies, and personal experiences also make learning come to life. Instructors should make full use of the senses (hearing, sight, touch, taste, smell, balance, rhythm, depth perception, and others).

Freedom

Since learning is an active process, students must have freedom: freedom of choice, freedom of action, freedom to bear the results of action these are the three great freedoms that constitute personal responsibility. If no freedom is granted, students may have little interest in learning.

Requirements

The law of requirement states that “we must have something to obtain or do something.” It can be an ability, skill, instrument or anything that may help us to learn or gain something. A starting point or root’

Laws of Learning Applied to Learning Games

The principles of learning have been presented as an explanation for why learning games (the use of games to introduce material, improve understanding, or increase retention) can show such incredible results. This impacts flow and motivation and increases the positive feelings toward the activity, which links back to the principles of exercise, readiness, and effect. Games use immersion and engagement as ways to create riveting experiences for players, which is part of the principle of intensity. Finally, part of the primary appeal of games is that they are fun. Although fun is hard to define, it is clear that it involves feelings such as engagement, satisfaction, pleasure, and enjoyment which are part of the principle of effect.

Principles:

1. Participation

Learning should permit and encourage active participation of the learner. Participation improves motivation and apparently engages more senses that reinforce the learning process. As a result of participation, people learn more quickly and retain that learning longer.

For example, most people never forget how to ride a bicycle because they actively participated in the learning process.

The learning activities should be experiential rather than just informational.

Therefore, the trainers should arrange the physical surroundings to facilitate small group interaction and promote the sharing of ideas.

2. Repetition

An important principle of the learning is to provide the learner with the opportunity for practice and repetition. To gain the full benefit of training learned behaviors must be overlearned to ensure smooth performance and minimum of forgetting at a later date.

Proficiency in learning and retaining new skills is improved when individuals visualize themselves performing the new behavior.

3. Relevance

Learning is helped when the material to be learned is meaningful. The learning should be problem-centered rather than content centered.

People are motivated to learn when training is immediately relevant to help them solve a current problem. Learning something just because someone says “it is important” is not as motivating.

4. Transference

Because the training occurs in a special environment, an important question to ask is whether learning will transfer to the actual job situation.

Understanding the environment in which the firm operates is the key to achieving organizational effectiveness.

Transfer of training occurs when trainees can apply the knowledge and skills learned in training course to their jobs. If the learning in one setting does not transfer to the actual job situation, the training has failed.

Three transfers training situations are possible

(1) Positive transfer of training when the training activities enhance performance in the new situation;

(2) Negative transfer of training, when the training activities inhibit performance in a new situation; and

(3) No observable effect of training.

5. Feedback

Feedback gives learners information on their progress. Performance feedback is a necessary prerequisite for learning. Feedback improves performance not only by helping learners correct their mistakes but also by providing reinforcement for learning.

Knowledge of results is a positive reinforcement itself. Learning activities have more intrinsic interest if the feedback is available.

Cooperating conditioning follows a specific process. An athlete performs a behavior and the coach chooses how to respond to that behavior. If the goal is to increase the frequency of that behavior, the coach should provide reinforcement. Reinforcement can be positive or negative (more about the difference later). If the goal is to decrease that behavior, the response should be punishment. However, extensive research has shown the limitations and problems of using punishment (it creates a short-term fix but creates long-term distress). The goal for a coach should be to use reinforcement to increase desirable behaviors and to drastically limit the amount of punishment, ideally never using it at all.

Positive reinforcement:

It should come soon after the behavior is performed. It is usually in the form of a quick vocal praise (“nice pass”), a clap, or a supportive gesture (like a head nod or fist-pump).

Negative reinforcement:

Follows a correct performance, but involves removing something undesirable to reinforce the desired behavior. A simple example is taking away a difficult conditioning workout if players perform well on some behavior, like paying attention during a tactical drill, or vocally encouraging their teammates).

Extinction

(with holding reinforcers): We have seen that responses followed by reinforcers tend to be repeated and that responses no longer followed by reinforcers will occur less and less frequently and eventually die out. In humans, extinction can lead to frustration or even rage. Consider a child having a temper tantrum. If whining and loud demands do not bring the reinforcer, the child may progress to kicking and screaming. It is what we expect and don’t get that makes us angry.

An alternative to punishing undesirable behaviour is extension – the attempt to weaken behaviour by attaching no consequences (either positive or negative) to it. It is equivalent to ignoring the behaviour. The rationale for using extinction is that a behaviour not followed by any consequence is weakened. However, some patience and time may be needed for it to be effective.

This type of reinforcement is applied to reduce undesirable behaviour, especially when such behaviours were previously rewarded. This means that if rewards were removed from behaviours that were previously reinforced, then such behaviours would become less frequent and eventually die out. For example, if a student in the class is highly mischievous and disturbs the class, he is probably asking for attention. If the attention is given to him, he will continue to exhibit that behaviour. However, if he is continuously ignored and not recognised, then such undesirable behaviour will vanish over a period of time.

Punishment:

Happens in response to an incorrect or undesirable behavior, and involves the presentation of something unpleasant (like making the player run or do push-ups). Punishment is usually psychological, like ridicule or embarrassment, and it often trends towards abuse.

Negative reinforcement is not the same as punishment. Punishment is usually wielded in an unpredictable and irrational manner when the coach loses control of a situation. Negative reinforcement gives players a chance to perform in a desirable way, with the consequence clearly defined. One of my favourite examples is the “get-out swim,” where a swimmer can end a grueling workout for the team if they can perform near a personal-best time standard. The goals and consequences are clear, and athletes often relish the opportunity to perform under pressure; in fact, players need to learn to perform under pressure in practice to help them when they experience pressure in game situations.

Schedules of Reinforcement

Any analysis of reinforcement shows that it is not provided in a consistent manner. The various ways by which the reinforcement can be administered can be categorized into two groups. These are continuous and partial reinforcement schedules.

• Continuous reinforcement Schedule: A continuous schedule is that one in which the desirable behaviour is reinforced every time it occurs and the reinforcement is immediate.

    This results in fast acquisition of the desired response and the learning is rapid. Continuous reinforcement strategy is not always feasible in the organizational environment where continuous observation of behaviour is not possible due to time constraints imposed upon management. Reinforcing every correct response is known as continuous reinforcement. It is the most efficient way to condition a new response. However, after a response has been conditioned, partial or intermittent reinforcement is more effective in maintaining or increasing the rate of response.

• Partial Reinforcement Schedule: A partial reinforcement schedule rewards desirable behaviour at specific intervals. It is believed that “behaviour tends to be persistent when it is learned under conditions of partial and delayed reinforcement.

There are four kinds of partial reinforcement schedule. These are:

• Fixed Interval Schedule: In this type of schedule, a response is reinforced at fixed intervals of time. Fixed-interval schedules produce an uneven pattern of responses. The highest rate of response occurs fairly close to the time when reinforcement occurs. For example, if there are two tests announced at fixed intervals in a semester, you will see that the students will study harder as the time of the test approaches because the test itself is a reinforce and the studying behaviour is reinforced by the opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge and earn a good grade.
• Variable Interval Schedule: In this type of schedule, the reinforcement is administered at random times that cannot be predicted by the employee. For example: “Surprise Quizzes” in the classroom is one of the examples of variable interval schedules.
• Fixed Ratio Schedules: In a fixed ratio schedule, the reinforcement is administered only upon the completion of a given number of desirable responses. Reward is consistently tied to the output. The individual soon determines that reinforcement is based upon the number of responses and performs the responses as quickly as possible in order to receive the reward. For example, a professor may receive a promotion after a certain number of research articles have been published.
• Variable Ratio Schedules: It is similar to fixed ratio schedule except that the number of responses required before reinforcement is determined, are not fixed but vary from situation to situation. The variable ratio schedule elicits a rapid rate of response. The value of the reward and its unpredictability keeps the behaviour at high-level desirability.