Associative Learning and Conditioning Theory

Download or read book Associative Learning and Conditioning Theory written by Todd R Schachtman, PhD and published by OUP USA. This book was released on 2011-06-03 with total page 588 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Organisms survive and succeed because of their ability to learn and adapt to changing circumstances and new demands. As discussed in the chapters of the present volume, an appreciation of the mechanisms and principles of learning and conditioning is fundamental to any analysis of normal behavior as well as to an informed understanding of our well being (including examination of such issues as anxiety and fear, brain-immune system interactions, drug addiction and abuse, emotional learning, and social behavior) and mental health (for example, autism, depression, helplessness and schizophrenia). The twenty-three chapters in this volume, written by a distinguished collection of internationally renowned scholars, articulate the basic, yet sophisticated, way in which learning and conditioning processes influence our everyday behaviors, both normal and maladaptive, and help explain a variety of clinically important phenomena and disorders.