ABSTRACT
The use of language requires a strong element of learning, and so does the knowledge of social custom and ritual, and all beliefs, loyalties and values that can be shown to differ from one culture to another, or from one generation to the next. Whether in academic education, specialized training, or in the more informal and unconscious adaptation to social and personal circumstances, there has always been a case to make that human life is largely dependent on individual learning. Thorndike ensured that the tendency of animals to learn to help themselves was not lost to learning theory. Like most learning theorists, Watson discussed human behaviour in terms of motives and rewards. First Watson, and then Skinner, emphasized overt and directly measurable behaviour, learned as habits and reflexes. Skinner has followed Thorndike in pointing to external reinforcements consisting of reward and punishment as the primary causes of trial-and-error learning, or operant conditioning.
