Learned Helplessness

suffered the shock through, and did not attempt to escape. This behaviour of the dog was called learned helplessness. This phenomenon has been shown to be operative in humans also. It has been found that continuous failure in a set of tasks shows the occurrence of learned helplessness.

In an experimental study, the subjects are initially given failure experience irrespective of their performance. In the second phase the subjects are given a task. Learned helplessness is often measured in terms of the subject’s ability and persistence before they give up the task. Continuous failure leads to little persistence and poor performance.

This shows helplessness. There are numerous studies that demonstrate that persistent depression is often caused by learned helplessness. the response strength. Resistance to extinction increases with increasing number of reinforcements during acquisition trials, beyond that any increase in number of reinforcement reduces the resistance to extinction.

Studies have also indicated that as the amount of reinforcement (number of food pellets) increases during the acquisition trials, resistance to extinction decreases. If the reinforcement is delayed during acquisition trials, the resistance to extinction increases. Reinforcement in every acquisition trial makes the learned response to be less resistant to extinction. In contrast, intermittent or partial reinforcement during acquisition trials makes a learned response more resistant to extinction.