Synonyms
Definition
Non-associative learning is the simplest yet fundamental form of learning that does not require stimuli association or pairing. This means that animal species alter their response upon exposure to a single event or stimulus. Behavioral responses become attenuated or augmented after repeated or prolonged stimulation. Habituation and sensitization constitute the two major forms of non-associative learning and are opposite to each other in terms of the elicited responses upon continual presentation of the stimulus. In contrary, associative learning involves the presence of paired stimuli in order for change to occur. Naturally, it is suggested that non-associative learning likely came first in the hierarchy of evolutionary history, and then associative learning followed (Pereira and van der Kooy 2013).
Introduction
The mechanisms underlying non-associative learning have received great attention from the earliest of times...
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Ioannou, A., Anastassiou-Hadjicharalambous, X. (2018). Non-associative Learning. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1027-1
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