Associationism
Associationism began as a theory about how ideas combine in the mind.
John Locke suggested that each of us was born without any innate capabilities - a Tabula Rasa - which 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 an either
God-given or 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, and before the end of the nineteenth century experiments were conducted in areas such as
memory and animal learning.
This theory sets up that all
consciousness is the result of the combination, in accordance with the law of association, of certain simple and ultimate elements derived from sense experiences. It was developed by David Hartley and advanced by
James Mill.
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