ABSTRACT
The Hullian theory is a reinforcement theory in the sense of postulating that the learning of repeated stimulusresponse connections only takes place when drive reduction reinforces or rewards the response in question. Modern behaviour theory, particularly in the form which G. L. Hull has given it, can best be understood as an attempt to integrate two great experimental schools each of which has concentrated its efforts on one particular type of experiment. These two schools are that of Pavlov, employing the conditioning type of experiment, and that of Thorndike, making use of trial-and-error learning. Hull's theory of inhibition has been subject to a considerable degree of criticism. Spatial inhibition is quite different from temporal inhibition. A simple repetition of neural impulses going through a set of neurones produces certain changes in these neurones and synapses and alters more or less permanently their properties of transmission.
