Scientists have come one step closer to unraveling the molecular basis of learning. Neurobiologists have now discovered the first gene for operant conditioning in the fruit fly Drosophila. Their ...

Anticipating the future has a decided evolutionary advantage, and researchers have found many evolutionarily conserved mechanisms by which humans and animals learn to predict future events.

Operant learning is a process by which a specific behavioural response (such as a lever press) is associated with a biologically salient stimulus known as a reinforcer (such as food). Key neurons in ...

Researchers at Tel Aviv University have discovered that the brain cannot learn simultaneously through both classical conditioning and operant conditioning. In fact, the brain actively prevents the ...

A new study brings together two schools of thought on the function of the neurotransmitter dopamine: one saying that dopamine provides a learning signal, the other saying that dopamine drives ...

Operant conditioning is B.F. Skinner’s name for instrumental learning: learning by consequences. Not a new idea, of course. Humanity has always known how to teach children and animals by means of ...