Towards a co-ordination of conditioning and information-processing mechanisms within the field of human learning

Abstract.— A delimitation of the fields of application of conditioning and information-processing models was attempted. The delimitation was made in relation to two psychological dimensions, a perception-conception dimension and a selectivity-of-attention dimension. It depicted conditioning models as more applicable the more perceptually-loaded and attentionally non-selective the lzarning attempts, and information-processing models as more applicable the more conceptually-loaded and attentionally selective the learning attempts. Three assumptions were made concerning the intra-individual coordination of conditioning and information-processing mechanisms of learning. Conditioning and hypotheses-testing were, for instance, assumed to be encoding processes functioning in a parallel way and resulting in products, which may fuse when retrieved and used in efferent processes.