ABSTRACT
This volume provides discussions of select learning processes and the theories developed to explain them. The definition of learning varies in wording and detail from source to source. A brief perusal of some of the more popular learning texts reveals several definitions of learning: “a relatively permanent change in an organism’s potential for responding that results from prior experience or practice” (Gordon, 1989, p. 6); “an enduring change in the mechanisms of behavior involving specific stimuli and/or responses that results from prior experience with similar stimuli and responses” (Domjan, 1998, p. 13); “a … more or less permanent change in behavior potentiality which occurs as a result of repeated practice” (Flaharty, 1985, p. 7, citing Kimble, 1961); “the change in a subject’s behavior or behavior potential to a given situation brought about by the subject’s repeated experiences in that situation, provided that the behavior change cannot be explained on the basis of the subject’s native response tendencies, maturation or temporary states” (Bower & Hilgard, 1981, p. 11); and “an experiential process resulting in a relatively permanent change in behavior that cannot be explained by temporary states, maturation, or innate response tendencies.” (Klein, 1996, p. 2).
