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Purposive Learning

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...

The Placebo Effect

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The placebo effect occurs when people's expectations or beliefs influence or determine their experience in a given situation. In other words, simply expecting something to happen can actually make it happen.

Classical Conditioning in Daily Life

Classical Conditioning in Daily Life

Classical conditioning, a fundamental principle of associative learning, explains various phenomena observed in daily life, such as fear development, the placebo effect, taste aversion, and drug habituation. These applications demonstrate the profound impact of associative learning on human behavior and physiological responses.
John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner famously demonstrated the development of fear through classical conditioning in their experiment with Little Albert. They paired the...

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight learning.
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...

Blind Procedures

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Ideally, the people who observe and record the children’s behavior are unaware of who was assigned to the experimental or control group, in order to control for experimenter bias. Experimenter bias refers to the possibility that a researcher’s expectations might skew the results of the study. Remember, conducting an experiment requires a lot of planning, and the people involved in the research project have a vested interest in supporting their hypotheses. If the observers knew which child was...

Associative Learning

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Associative learning is a fundamental concept in behavioral psychology, wherein a connection is established between two stimuli or events, leading to a learned response. This process is critical in understanding how behaviors are acquired and modified. Conditioning, the mechanism through which associations are formed, can be divided into two main types: classical conditioning and operant conditioning, each elucidating different aspects of associative learning.
Classical conditioning, also known...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 2, 2026

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants

How to Study Placebo Responses in Motion Sickness with a Rotation Chair Paradigm in Healthy Participants

Published on: December 14, 2014

How placebo responses are formed: a learning perspective.

Luana Colloca¹, Franklin G Miller

¹National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM), National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. luana.colloca@nih.gov

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences

|May 18, 2011

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

The placebo effect

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Last Updated: Jun 2, 2026

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Psychology
Pharmacology

Background:

The placebo effect is increasingly studied, yet lacks a robust theoretical framework.
Mechanistic research often proceeds without strong theoretical guidance.
Understanding the placebo effect is crucial for advancing medical care.

Purpose of the Study:

To present a theoretical perspective on placebo response formation.
To propose an information processing framework for the placebo effect.
To integrate learning and genetics into placebo response mechanisms.

Main Methods:

This review synthesizes existing literature on the placebo effect.
It focuses on information processing models.
It examines the roles of learning and genetic factors.

Main Results:

Placebo responses are formed through information processing.
Learning mechanisms and genetic predispositions are key proximate causes.
These factors trigger neurobiological pathways for expectations and responses.

Conclusions:

A learning-based conceptualization of the placebo effect is proposed.
This framework can guide future mechanistic research.
Understanding placebo mechanisms can significantly impact medical practice.