--- title: Learning & Conditioning description: This area of psychology focuses on how organisms adapt their behavior through experience. Learners will understand the mechanisms of classical and operant conditioning, habituation, and observational learning in both humans and animals. category: social-sciences subcategory: psychology difficulty: beginner, intermediate, advanced url: /subject/learning-and-conditioning --- # Learning & Conditioning This area of psychology focuses on how organisms adapt their behavior through experience. Learners will understand the mechanisms of classical and operant conditioning, habituation, and observational learning in both humans and animals. ## Available Resources 1 Books • 2 Courses • 5 Websites ## Websites ### 1. APA - Learning and Memory The American Psychological Association's topic hub on learning and memory, collecting plain-language articles, research summaries and journal links. Explains how learning is defined, how memories are encoded, retained and retrieved, and which evidence-based techniques support memory. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.apa.org/topics/learning-memory **Tags:** learning, memory, cognitive-psychology, memory-encoding ### 2. Khan Academy - Learning Khan Academy's free lessons on classical conditioning, drawn from its MCAT behavior unit, with short videos and practice questions. Covers unconditioned and conditioned stimuli, acquisition, extinction, spontaneous recovery, generalization and discrimination, and how Pavlovian learning applies clinically. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.khanacademy.org/science/health-and-medicine/mental-health/learning-disorders/a/classical-conditioning **Tags:** classical-conditioning, operant-conditioning, behavioral-psychology, mcat ### 3. Simply Psychology - Classical Conditioning Referenced overview of Pavlov's classical conditioning experiments and the behaviorist research that followed, including Watson's Little Albert study. Explains stimulus pairing, extinction and generalization, and how conditioning is used in exposure therapy and aversion therapy. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.simplypsychology.org/classical-conditioning.html **Tags:** classical-conditioning, pavlov, behaviorism, exposure-therapy ### 4. nobaproject.com/learning Noba Project is an open-access psychology resource offering modular course content. The Learning section provides chapters and activities on learning and conditioning—covering classical and operant conditioning, reinforcement, extinction, and related theories—with explanations, exercises, and assessments. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://nobaproject.com/learning **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ### 5. psytoolkit.org PsyToolkit is a free online platform for designing, hosting, and running psychology experiments and surveys, featuring a library of ready-made cognitive tasks and tutorials plus data collection and export tools. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://psytoolkit.org **Tags:** websites, humanities-social-sciences, psychology ## Courses ### 1. Learning How to Learn This course gives you easy access to the invaluable learning techniques used by experts in art, music, literature, math, science, sports, and many other disciplines. We’ll learn about how the brain uses two very different learning modes and how it encapsulates (“chunks”) information. We’ll also cover illusions of learning, memory techniques, dealing with procrastination, and best practices shown by research to be most effective in helping you master tough subjects. Using these approaches, no matter what your skill levels in topics you would like to master, you can change your thinking and change your life. If you’re already an expert, this peep under the mental hood will give you ideas for turbocharging successful learning, including counter-intuitive test-taking tips and insights that will help you make the best use of your time on homework and problem sets. If you’re struggling, you’ll see a structured treasure trove of practical techniques that walk you through what you need to do to get on track. If you’ve ever wanted to become better at anything, this course will help serve as your guide. This course can be taken independent of, concurrent with, or prior to, its companion course, Mindshift. (Learning How to Learn is more learning-focused, and Mindshift is more career-focused.) A related course by the same instructors is Uncommon Sense Teaching. To join the fully translated Portuguese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprender To join the fully translated Spanish version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/aprendiendo-a-aprender To join the fully translated Chinese version of the course, visit: https://www.coursera.org/learn/ruhe-xuexi To join the fully translated French version of the course, visit : http://www.coursera.org/learn/apprendre-comment-apprendre **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/learning-how-to-learn **Tags:** learning-techniques, memory, metacognition, procrastination, study-skills ### 2. Introduction to Psychology What are people most afraid of? What do our dreams mean? Are we natural-born racists? What makes us happy? What are the causes and cures of mental illness? This course tries to answer these questions and many others, providing a comprehensive overview of the scientific study of thought and behavior. It explores topics such as perception, communication, learning, memory, decision-making, persuasion, emotions, and social behavior. We will look at how these aspects of the mind develop in children, how they differ across people, how they are wired-up in the brain, and how they break down due to illness and injury. **Difficulty:** Beginner | **Price:** Free **Link:** https://www.coursera.org/learn/introduction-psychology **Tags:** psychology, cognitive-science, mental-illness, social-behavior, intro-course ## Books ### 1. Learning **Author:** Jeanne Ellis Ormrod Ormrod's textbook survey of learning theory for education students, second edition. Covers behaviorist conditioning, social learning, information processing, memory, and constructivism, and shows how each theory translates into concrete instructional practice and approaches to motivating learners. **Difficulty:** Intermediate | **Language:** English | **Price:** Paid **Link:** https://www.amazon.com/dp/0023894822?tag=edmonddante07-20 **Tags:** books, humanities-social-sciences, psychology --- *This content is part of Dantes.io - Your Treasure Map to Knowledge* *Curated by humans at Dantes.io. Personal study use welcome; republishing this curation requires permission (team@dantes.io).* View this page online: https://dantes.io/subject/learning-and-conditioning