Learning is simply the process by which experience or practice results in a relatively enduring change in behavior or potential behavior. In other words, learning means a reorganization of behavior. Learning involves making associations, formation of concepts, theories, ideas, and other mental abstractions.
The automatic shift of attention to something new is known as an orienting response. Once a person orients himself/herself to this new stimulus, habituation occurs. Habituation is generally regarded as the simplest form of learning.
Association occurs when one bit of information from the environment becomes linked repeatedly with another, and the organism begins to connect the two sources of information.
Conditioning is a form of associative learning in which behaviors are triggered by association with events in the environment. Someone sneezes and we respond with "God bless you." Someone says "how are you" and you respond with "fine, thank you, and you?" even if you are really feeling pretty lousy.
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