"The Conditions of Learning" book is written by

2019

"The Conditions of Learning" book is written by

  1. A.

    I.P. Pavlov

  2. B.

    B.F. Skinner

  3. C.

    E.L. Thorndike

  4. D.

    R.M. Gagne

Attempted by 5 students.

Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: D

Concept: A well-known instructional-design framework classifies learning into five distinct outcome categories — verbal information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, motor skills, and attitudes — and specifies the internal conditions (previously learned prerequisite capabilities) and external conditions (instructional events) required for each type to occur. A landmark 1965 book carrying this exact title laid out this framework.

Application: The question asks which of the listed psychologists authored this book. Among the four names offered, only Robert M. Gagné is credited with originating this outcome-and-conditions framework and authoring the 1965 work "The Conditions of Learning" — the same title the question names — while the other three are associated with entirely different theories.

Distractors ruled out:

  • Ivan Pavlov's contribution is classical conditioning, demonstrated through stimulus-response pairing in salivation-reflex experiments — a different line of work from cataloguing learning-outcome types and their conditions.

  • B.F. Skinner's contribution is operant conditioning and reinforcement scheduling, studied through devices such as the Skinner box — again a distinct strand from this book's outcome-and-conditions framework.

  • E.L. Thorndike's contribution is connectionism and the Law of Effect, derived from trial-and-error learning experiments — not the source of this particular instructional-design treatise.

Cross-check: the book's title directly names its subject — the conditions under which each type of learning occurs — which matches the author's broader body of work on instructional systems design and the nine events of instruction built on this same framework.

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