Associative Learning

Perhaps the most basic of the many different kinds of learning is association learning or conditioning, of which there are two types: classical and instrumental (or operant) conditioning.

Classical conditioning was first explored and understood by Pavlov, working with dogs in the 1920s.

Having found a way of measuring their salivation in response to food he noticed that the dogs started to salivate before they were given the food.

The reflexive, or unconditioned response, of salivation was triggered by things associated with the food, like the sight of the bowl, the person who brought the food, or the sound of the bell that was paired with the food (rung as the food appeared).

He concluded that learning takes place when a previously neutral stimulus (a bell) is associated with an unconditioned stimulus (something to which we naturally respond, such as food).

Instrumental conditioning, first investigated by B. F. Skinner, explains the powerful part played by reinforcement in learning.

The main idea is that if an action is followed by a pleasant effect (a reward) it will be repeated—whether performed by a man or a rat. If pressing a lever brings with it a food pellet, a rat will learn to press the lever.

The rat will ‘work’ hardest if the pellets arrive intermittently and unpredictably (which is how fruit machines—or capricious lovers—keep us hooked), and least hard if the pellets arrive after the same amount of time whatever the rat does.

Hence, people paid at a constant rate for doing boring, repetitive work quickly lose motivation in comparison to those paid piece-rate.

Memory, like perception, is an active process and not just a tape recording of all that you have learned. The more use you make of the material you learn, the more you will remember.

Material that is passively imbibed is easily forgotten and the differences that learning makes to what stays in the mind can be more fully understood by exploring the determinants of what we remember—by finding out how our memory works.