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'Associationism' is the theory that consciousness is the result of a combination, in accordance with the law of association, of simple and ultimate elements derived from sense experiences. It was developed by David Hartley and advanced by James Mill.
Associationism is considered a more moderate version of behaviourism.
In the philosophy of mind, associationism began as a theory about how ideas combine in the mind. It analyzes how events or views are associated with each other in the mind, thus leading to a form of learning. Associations can result from contiguity, similarity, or contrast. Through contiguity, one associates ideas or events that usually happen to occur at the same time. With similarity, one associates ideas or events with similar features or properties. Lastly, with contrast, one associates ideas or events that seem to demonstrate polarity (i.e. good/evil).
John Locke suggested that each of us was born with a tabula rasa (without any innate capabilities) and learned to form representations as a result of experiences, rather than of reason. "Experimental psychology", as David Hume (1711–1776) called it, was concerned with studying the mind as a mirror of representations of nature, constantly trying to make sense of the world. Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) was among those criticising Hume’s focus on experiences, claiming that knowledge must be the result of either a God-given or an evolved rationality, but that the nature of the mind made direct observations impossible. Despite his theories, the empirical methodology begun by the associationists kept its stronghold, at least in England, and before the end of the nineteenth century experiments were conducted in areas such as memory and animal learning.
The first researcher to systematically apply principles of association was Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850-1909).
In the early history of socialism, associationism was one term used by early-nineteenth-century followers of the utopian theories of such thinkers as Robert Owen, Claude Henri de Saint-Simon, and Charles Fourier to describe their beliefs.

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See also

★ Association (psychology)

★ Conditioning

★ Connectionism

★ Thorndike

External links

★ Pre-History of Cognitive Science.

★ Howard C. Warren, A History Of The Association Psychology, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1921