Presenting relevant facts separately from non-relevant facts in a learning…

Thorndike's subsidiary (secondary) laws of learning describe additional ways in which stimulus-response connections form and strengthen. The Law of Prepotency of Elements holds that in any complex situation a learner reacts selectively to the significant, essential, or "prepotent" elements, and is able to subordinate or screen out the non-essential, irrelevant elements.

When a teacher deliberately presents relevant facts separately from non-relevant facts, the learner is being trained to isolate exactly this prepotent, essential content from the surrounding irrelevant material — the defining behaviour the Law of Prepotency of Elements describes. This is why the situation illustrates the Principle of Prepotency of Elements.

Contrasting with Thorndike's other subsidiary laws confirms the choice:

• Law of Multiple Response: the learner tries out several different reactions in a trial-and-error sequence until one produces a satisfying effect — it concerns generating varied responses, not separating relevant facts from irrelevant ones.

• Law of Response by Analogy: a learner transfers a response to a new situation because of a perceived similarity with a previously learned situation — it concerns similarity-based transfer between situations, not isolating relevant content within a single situation.

• Law of Associative Shifting: an existing response is gradually shifted from an old stimulus to a new stimulus it is repeatedly paired with — it concerns stimulus substitution, not attention to relevant versus irrelevant facts.

Only the Law of Prepotency of Elements matches presenting relevant facts separately from non-relevant ones in a learning situation.