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Physiological learning theory

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Abstract

Attention or “concentration” requires control of activity in those excess neurons that are not necessary for the present task. The control is probably not a massive inhibitory suppression but may be a recruiting process, a function of complex perceptual and associative learning that begins with early experience. Inhibition, however, may still be of crucial importance as a sharpener of associative mechanisms, and the child with minimal brain damage may have suffered a selective loss of inhibitory neurons.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, McGill University, Station A, P. O. Box 6070, H3C 3G1, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

    D. O. Hebb

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  1. D. O. Hebb
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Paper prepared for reading at the Ciba Medical Horizons conference on MBD (minimal brain dysfunction), Omaha, Nebraska, April 2, 1976.

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Hebb, D.O. Physiological learning theory. J Abnorm Child Psychol 4, 309–314 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00922529

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00922529

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