Psychology of learning
Learning is a key concept in psychology, and it is defined as a permanent change in behavior caused by experience. Its study was begun by the ancient Greeks, who speculated about how the humans acquire knowledge, thus giving birth to the philosophical specialty known as epistemology. Modern views on learning, however, are based on Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Before Darwin, mind was considered a human-only characteristic that was unaltered since the creation of men. Evolution suggested that mind and consciousness were not restricted to humans, but could also be found in other animals. Moreover, it suggested that mind might have evolved in order to aid the survival of man, therefore being an adaptive characteristic.
These arguments were first exposed by Herbert Spencer (1820-1903), who said that the function of the mind was to capture the environment in order to enable the adaptation of the animal to environmental changes. This line of reasoning was continued by William James (1842-1910) who in his work, "Principles of Psychology," maintained that the adaptive value of the mind was to enable man to transcend instinct, and so respond to new situations. He defined learning as the process by which animals (including humans) adapt to change. Though learning proceeded by conscious thought, its products were habits, from which thought was absent.
An important consequence of these views was to lay the foundations for the study of animal behavior that would later give rise to behaviorism. The method of psychologists was still the original one: introspection, even if used with a more experimental approach. The emphasis in animal behavior led to the conclusion that learning could be studied rigorously in animals, and the results extended to humans. As introspection was not feasible with animals, studies on animal learning begun at the end of the 19th century, with the purpose of proving the philosophical thesis of associationism, were inevitably centered on behavior.
Conditioning
The special kind of learning that is common to men and animals has been called 'conditioning.' This was the principal subject of study of behaviorism, which maintained that only behavior could be observed, as mental processes were internal to the individual. They called 'mentalism' any approach that tried to take into account those inner processes. Conditioning can be considered as being of two kinds: associative and non-associative. Non-associative conditioning occurs when the response to a stimulus changes (increases or decreases) over time. For example, you may move to a highly noisy neighborhood. Initially, you may be upset by the noise, but after a time your response decreases--you become habituated.
Associative conditioning occurs when two or more stimuli produce a response only when they happen together. For example, the sound of a bell in a context will produce panic, while in other context will result only in curiosity. There is obviously an association between the sound and the context in which it is heard. It is believed that there is a component of associationism in nearly every conditioning.
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