Learning Theories

Attention and learning theory begins with a simple observation: people cannot learn what they never notice. Attention acts as a

Motivation and attention are two of the most closely linked ideas in learning psychology. Motivation is the push behind our

Equilibration theory is Jean Piaget’s explanation for why thinking grows more advanced over time. The core idea is that learners

Radical constructivism is a theory of knowing and learning which claims that people build their understanding from their own experience,

Social constructivism is the view that people build understanding through interaction with others rather than absorbing facts passively. Knowledge, in

Emotion and learning are tied together more tightly than most people realize. Every lesson arrives wrapped in feelings such as

Affective learning theory studies how emotions, attitudes, interests and values influence learning. It treats feeling as part of understanding, not

The encoding specificity principle says a memory is retrieved best when the cues present at recall match the cues that

Transfer appropriate processing is the idea that memory performs best when the mental activity used while learning resembles the mental

Elaboration likelihood model learning describes how people process persuasive messages along two routes, one careful and one quick, and why