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Key Principles of Classical Conditioning Theory The focus of Classical Conditioning theory is on automatic and naturally occurring behaviours.
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The dogs would salivate with the natural occurrence of food, but after repeated associations, the dogs salivated just by hearing the sound of the bell alone. In his experiment, he tried to pair the natural stimulus that is food with a bell sound. It should be noted, that Classical Conditioning places a neutral stimulus before the naturally occurring reflexes. The environmental forces play a key role in shaping the behaviour.Īccording to Pavlovs Classical Conditioning theory, learning takes place because of association which is established between a previously neutral stimulus and a natural stimulus.Learning takes place as a result of the interactions with the environmental forces.Behaviourism is based on two major assumptions: His Classical conditioning theory played a crucial role in explaining the important psychological concepts like learning and equally established the foundation for the behavioural school of thought. Though Pavlovs discovery is originally an accidental discovery, but later with the help of his experiments the classical conditioning theory came into existence. He noticed that his subject would begin to salivate by seeing the lab assistant with white lab coats entering into the room before being fed. The Nobel Prize laureate of 1904, while studying the digestive processes in dogs came across a very interesting observation during his experimentation. The key premises of Classical Conditioning theory was established by Russian Physiologist named Ivan Pavlov, who first discovered the crucial principles of classical learning theory with the help of an experiment done on dogs to study their digestive processes. Classical Conditioning Theory and Learning Lets have a closer look at all these three major theories of learning. The key learning theories are Classical Conditioning, Operant Conditioning and Social Learning. Environmental influences like, reinforcements, associations, observations and punishments influence the learning process. For a scientific orientation, the study of psychology gave importance to only those variables which were quantifiable and measurable. Learning theories prescribe the right format or methodologies of learning for making the learning effective and more impactful.ĭuring early 20th century, many psychologists became increasingly interested in understanding the relevance of learning from a scientific perspective. Human learning is influenced by a gamut of factors like Emotional, Cognitive, Past Experiences and Environmental factors. Learning theories establish the conceptual framework for explaining how information absorption, processing and retention take place during learning. The theories of learning are an organized set of principles that explain how individuals attain, retain or recall the learnt knowledge.
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In many books, the theories of learning are also regarded as kinds of learning. The concept of learning is quite comprehensive as it covers a broad range of activities.
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