Handbook Of Learning And Cognitive Processes Vol 2 Conditioning And Behaviour Theory

Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes (Volume 2)

Originally published in 1975, Volume 2 of this Handbook looks at areas traditionally associated with learning theory such as conditioning, discrimination and behavior theory. It deals with concepts and theories growing principally out of laboratory studies of conditioning and learning. The intention was to treat mechanisms, processes, and principles of some generality – applicable at least to all vertebrates. It was becoming well understood that detailed interpretations of particular behaviors required the authors to take account of the way general principles operate in the context of species-specific behavioral organizations and developmental histories; but detailed consideration of just how these interpretations were accomplished for different animal forms was another enterprise. Here the authors limit their task to abstracting from the enormous literature facts and ideas which seemed general enough to be of interest and perhaps utility to investigators in other disciplines at the time. Volume 1 presented an overview of the field and introduced the principal theoretical and methodological issues that persistently recurred in the expanded treatments of specific research areas that comprise the later volumes. Volume 3 looks at human learning and motivation, while the last 3 volumes range over the many active lines of research identified with human cognitive processes at the time.

Handbook of learning and cognitive processes: Vol 2: Conditioning and behaviour theory

Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes

Is it possible at present to identify a core cluster of theoretical ideas, concepts, and methods with which everyone working in the area of learning and cognition needs to be familiar? Would it be possible to make explicit the relationships that we feel do or must exist among the various subspecialties, ranging from conditioning through perceptual learning and memory to psycholinguistics, and to present these in a sufficiently organized way to help specialists and non-specialists alike in relating particular lines of research to the broader spectrum of activity? These questions were posed to a substantial number of investigators who were most active in developing the ideas and doing the research in the early 1970s. Originally published between 1975 and 1978, their response constitutes this 6-volume Handbook of Learning and Cognitive Processes. The volumes survey the research and theory on learning and cognitive processes that were rapidly developing at the time. The primary orientation was to concentrate on research and models aimed toward the development of general cognitive theory. They were up-to-date with regard to theoretical and technical developments, and sufficiently self-contained to be readable by anyone with a reasonable scientific background, regardless of their acquaintance with the technical jargon of particular specialties. Previously out of print, the Handbook is now available again, as a set or as individual volumes.