Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

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...

Observational Learning

Observational Learning

Albert Bandura's observational learning, also known as imitation or modeling, occurs when a person observes and imitates another's behavior. It is a quicker process than operant conditioning. A well-known example is the Bobo doll study, where children who saw an adult acting aggressively towards the doll were more likely to act aggressively when left alone, compared to those who observed a nonaggressive adult. Many psychologists view observational learning as a form of latent learning because...

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...

Introduction to Learning

Introduction to Learning

Learning is the process of acquiring knowledge or skills through practice or experience, leading to long-lasting behavioral changes. This acquisition occurs through interaction with the environment and requires practice or experience. For instance, mastering a skill such as surfing requires considerable practice and experience, highlighting the essential role of repeated interactions with the environment in learning.
In contrast to learned behaviors, unlearned behaviors such as crying, sexual...

Associative Learning

Associative Learning

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...

Real-World Application of Classical Conditioning

Real-World Application of Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning not only includes the initial pairing of stimuli but also extends to more complex forms, such as higher-order conditioning. Higher-order conditioning involves creating associations beyond the primary conditioned stimulus, resulting in a chain of conditioned responses.
Higher-order, or second-order, conditioning occurs when a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an already established conditioned stimulus through repeated pairings. For instance, if a dog has been...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

No privileged link between intentionality and causation: Generalizable effects of agency in language.

Cognition·2025

Same author

Herding cats: children and adults infer collective decision speed from team size and diversity, but disagree about whether consensus strength matters more than team size.

Cognition·2025

Same author

Learning about causal relations that change over time: primacy and recency over long timeframes in causal judgments and memory.

Cognitive research: principles and implications·2025

Same author

Mechanistic complexity is fundamental: Evidence from judgments, attention, and memory.

Journal of experimental psychology. General·2024

Same author

Adults' learning of complex explanations violates their intuitions about optimal explanatory order.

Cognition·2024

Same author

The effects of mnemonic variability and spacing on memory over multiple timescales.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 26, 2026

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Published on: June 30, 2020

Causal structure learning over time: observations and interventions.

Benjamin M Rottman¹, Frank C Keil

¹Department of Hospital Medicine, University of Chicago, 5841 S. Maryland Ave., MC5000, Chicago, IL 60637, USA. benjaminrottman@uchicago.edu

Cognitive Psychology

|December 14, 2011

Summary

People effectively learn cause-and-effect relationships by observing how variable states change over time. This temporal reasoning strategy helps in understanding causal structures even when events appear independent.

More Related Videos

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 26, 2026

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Measuring Statistical Learning Across Modalities and Domains in School-Aged Children Via an Online Platform and Neuroimaging Techniques

Published on: June 30, 2020

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Defining the Role Of Language in Infants' Object Categorization with Eye-tracking Paradigms

Published on: February 8, 2019

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Causal Inference

Background:

Understanding how humans learn causal relationships is fundamental to cognitive science.
Prior research often simplifies causal learning by assuming temporal independence.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the role of temporal dynamics in human causal learning.
To determine if people utilize temporal information to infer causal directionality and structure.

Main Methods:

Seven experiments were conducted presenting participants with scenarios involving temporally dependent variables.
Participants observed changes in variable states over time and made interventions.
Analysis focused on the strategies participants employed to infer causal links.

Main Results:

Participants reliably inferred causality when interventions on one variable preceded changes in another.
Temporal stability was crucial for rapid and accurate causal structure learning.
People accounted for potential exogenous influences when determining causal directionality.

Conclusions:

Temporal reasoning is a dominant strategy in causal learning, not an exception.
This approach aligns with naturalistic event experiences and facilitates learning complex causal structures.