• Discusses the centrality of learning to our lives, and its role in memory, language and intelligence
• Considers the significance of learning to survival for animals, who need strategies to recognize changes in their environment, both opportunities and threats, and to respond appropriately
• Comments on psychology experiments and recent studies in the field of learning

 
What is learning? How does it take place? What happens when it goes wrong? 

The topic of learning has been central to the development of the science of psychology since its inception. Without learning there can be no memory, no language and no intelligence. Indeed it is rather difficult to imagine a part of psychology, or neuroscience, that learning does not touch upon. In this Very Short Introduction Mark Haselgrove describes learning from the perspective of associative theories of classical and instrumental conditioning, and considers why these are the dominant, and best described analyses of learning in contemporary psychology. Tracing the origins of these theories, he discusses the techniques used to study learning in both animals and humans, and considers the importance of learning for animal behaviour and survival.