Learning as Adaptation

There is still little agreement on the processes responsible for learning in man and animals. As these volumes show, work with people has tended to foster an active, information-processing view of learning, whereas research on instrumental and classical conditioning in animals is dominated by simpler theories. The usual view of classical conditioning is that it represents a cumulative process that moves progressively toward one or other asymptote of performance with each reinfarcement or nonreinforcement (see Rescorla, Chapter 1 of this volume). There is less consensus about the processes responsible far instrumental (operant) conditioning.