The Psychology of Learning

by Robert Borger, A.E.M. Seaborne

Looks at current theories of learning and investigates their influence on education and therapy.

Genres: Psychology, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1966

Reviews

[Inês]

Knowledge does not simply accumulate, it also becomes obsolete.

[Michael David]

This is a survey of the general theories of learning and of motivation, from the prominent psychologists of the 20th century. It could be a little more interesting, but it's a good overview.

[Nick Davies]

Disappointing, in truth. When reading the batch of fifty random Pelican non-fiction books I took a punt on last year, I know I have to be mindful of the time they were written, and to view them both in terms of the factual content discussed, but also in terms of 'this was what current thought on the field was half a century or so ago'. However, even with these caveats this fell slightly below my experiences with others in the same haul.

Too much of it I already knew (psychology is full of key paradigm experiments discussed ad nauseum), and much of the rest was put across in an overly-jargonned manner which made it difficult and unrewarding to understand. I was also very aware that the field has moved on significantly in the past few decades and what was not discussed was very keenly felt. I was expecting something a little more 'cognitive science' in terms of human behaviour, but much of this book was taken up with rather simplistic animal experiments. So I don't doubt it was an interesting academic piece fifty years ago, but it didn't make for a particularly insightful read for me now.