Learning Theory Home

Learning Theory is rooted in the work of Ivan Pavlov, the famous scientist who discovered and documented the principles governing how animals (humans included) learn. Two basic kinds of learning or conditioning occur:

· Classical conditioning happens when an animal learns to associate a neutral stimulus (signal) with a stimulus that has intrinsic meaning based on how closely in time the two stimuli are presented. The classic example of classic conditioning is a dog's ability to associate the sound of a bell (something that originally has no meaning to the dog) with the presentation of food (something that has a lot of meaning for the dog) a few moments later. Dogs are able to learn the association between bell and food, and will salivate immediately after hearing the bell once this connection has been made.

· Instrumental conditioning happens when an animal learns to perform particular behaviors in order to obtain an intrinsically rewarding stimulus. Instrumental conditioning has occurred when a trained dolphin leaps out of the water in order to obtain a fish reward, and when a human employee shows up at work in exchange for a paycheck.

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Years of learning research have lead to the creation of a highly precise learning theory that can be used to understand and predict how and under what circumstances most any animal will learn, including human beings. Because most behavior is learned according to the principles of instrumental conditioning, learning theory can be used to help people figure out how to change their behaviors.

Though there is only one learning theory, there are several flavors of behaviorism, which is the school of psychology that developed around learning theory. Strict behaviorism ignores the importance of mental events in shaping behavior. According to this view, the same principles that are