Associationism Learning Theory Psychology is a very complex idea to study. With so many different theories written by many different theorists it is almost impossible to say when and how psychology was started. One of the earliest theories is the associationism learning theory which is known as the beginnings of a cognitive theory. Associationism is a theory that explains how items combine in the mind to produce thoughts and learning. Tracing all the way back to Aristotle, this learning theory is quite easy to understand and has a great history of great minds associated with it. The basis of associationism is quite easy to understand. Items are associated in the mind through a person’s experience. These items then form a thought. For example, we know not to touch a pan coming out of the oven because the pan will be hot, and we know that touching something hot will cause pain, therefore we do not touch the pan. Typically there are four principles of associationism which were assumed to hold true for 2000 years; the law of contiguity, the law of frequency, the law of similarity, and the law of contrast. The law of contiguity states that items that are contiguous in time or space are lined by associations (Lucas, 2002). In other words, things or events that occur close to one another tend to get linked together in the mind. If you see a coffee cup you may think of drinking coffee. Psychologists Edwin Ray Guthrie is remembered for his theory of learning based on association in which he states the law of contiguity is a combination of stimuli which has accompanied a movement will on its recurrence tend to be followed by that movement (Peterson, 1999). He believed that all learning was based on this stimulus-response association and that learning was incremental Guthrie believed in one-trial learning which states that a stimulus pattern gains its full