Explore how new behaviours are learnt by examining different types of psychological conditioning. Understand the different ways we learn. How do people learn different behaviours? How does biology affect our ability to learn new things? On this course you will answer these questions and others, exploring the difference between learned and instinctive behaviours, and considering different approaches to how we learn - for instance, you’ve probably heard of Pavlov and his dog - this is an example of classical conditioning.

This course does not have open access anymore.

But you’ll also learn about operant conditioning (learning behaviours based on positive or negative consequences), and observational learning (watching other people and imitating their behaviour).

What topics will you cover?

- What is learning?

- Classical conditioning

- Operant conditioning

- Observational learning

What will you achieve?

By the end of the course, you'll be able to...

- Discuss the term 'learning'.

- Interpret the influence of behaviourism on the study of learning.

- Explain the basic principles of classical and operant conditioning.

- Identify the role of classical and/or operant conditioning in a real-world situation.

- Explain how biological factors can influence some forms of learning.