Learning Theories

Behaviourism - I found Pavlov's experiment very interesting. He demonstrated that an animal can affiliate an action with a sound. I have seen something similar to this in action. Friends of ours, let's call them Jack and Jill (for anonymity purposes) had two Bull Terrier dogs. One was an adult, one a puppy. They had rescued the adult dog from the pound only a few years earlier and had trained him when he was able to eat the food that was put in front of him. Jill would bring the dog food out in the bowl and place it in front of the dog. Jill would sit down in her chair and settle herself, while the dog waited patiently for his cue. After a minute or so she would say "ready, set... bananas!" The dog would move slightly but stop himself, as he knew he was not allowed to eat until he heard the words "go" When the puppy was brought into the house she followed suit. Both animals complied when strangers such as myself fed the them. This demonstrated to me similarities to Pavlov's experiment. A visual or audio cue will demonstrate an action. This is learned quite quickly.
Cognitivism - The key points I have taken from the article provided are The Three-Stage Information Processing Model, meaningful effects and Piaget's theory. I wasn't aware of the Information Processing Model, and found it interesting to read about. Some information is merely passed through the mind and is often not retained in the short-term memory (STM). The STM holds important or interesting information for "20 seconds or more if rehearsed repeatedly." The STM has a limited capacity and cannot retain a lot of information. The long-term memory (LTM) can hold an unlimited amount of information. Retention of material is best achieved when deep levels of processing or links are made between prior and new knowledge. Piaget's theory illustrates cognitive development in stages. These are shown in the image on the right-hand side of the page, and is also broken down into age-specific groups.
Constructivism - I found it interesting to see the difference between the two types of constructivism demonstrates in the article provided. These were realistic and radical constructivism. The comparison I saw between these were that the realistic constructivism concentrated on the real world, and viewing things in a real life context. Whereas the radical constructivism branched further into the experiential or unknown world.
I am still a bit confused about a bit of this, as there is so much information to read through. I found the below image was helpful in distinguishing one learning theory from the other.

This information has been gathered from: http://www.usask.ca/education/coursework/802papers/mergel/brenda.htm as was the above image.

The image demonstrating Piaget's Theory was found: http://sites.wiki.ubc.ca/etec510/images/9/9f/Developmental_Theory.jpg