The Principles of Learning and Behavior

Known for its currency and clear writing style, this book provides a comprehensive and systematic introduction to elementary forms of learning that have been the focus of research for much of the twentieth century. The book covers habituation, classical conditioning, instrumental conditioning, stimulus control, aversive control, and their applications to the study of cognition and to the alleviation of behavior problems. Biological constraints on learning are integrated throughout the text, as are applications boxes that relate animal research to human learning and behavior. The book closely reflects the field of research it represents in terms of topics covered, theories discussed, and experimental paradigms described.

Michael Domjan is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Domjan specializes in various areas of learning including animal learning, biological constraints on learning, learning mechanisms in reproductive behavior, and comparative psychology. He has been recognized with the MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) (1993), the G. Stanley Hall Award from the American Psychological Association (APA) (1995), and election as President of the Division of Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology of the APA (1999-2000). He is the recipients of 16 grants for research from the National Science Foundation, NIMH, and other agencies and has published more than 100 papers and presented in his area of specialization at more than 115 conventions.