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What is learning? When we talk of learning something we usually think of something classroom, such as English or Maths. However, Psychologists refer to learning as a relatively permanent change in behaviour as a result of experience'. Learning is defined as: any relatively permanent change in behaviour as a result of experience. Learning is a fundamental process in all animals and the higher up the evolutionary scale the animal, the more important is the ability to learn. All animals need to adapt their behaviour in order to fit in with the environment and to adapt to changing circumstances in order to survive. Habituation is the simplest form of learning Habituation occurs in virtually all organisms. The function of habituation is that everyday an organism encounters many stimuli some potentially beneficial and some potentially harmful, and many neither helpful or harmful. It is to the organism’s advantage to be able to ignore the many insignificant stimuli it encounters daily. This therefore enables an organism to ignore familiar harmless stimuli. Behaviourism Behaviourism has become one of the dominant areas of research into learning throughout the twentieth century. It is p