A person who believes that the mind learns by connecting ideas together through repeated exposure and experience.
From 'association' + -alist (one who practices or believes in). Emerged as a philosophical and psychological term in 18th-19th century discussions of how learning works.
Associationalist philosophers believed Pavlov's dogs learned through associations decades before Pavlov did his famous experiments—they had figured out that the brain works like a connection-making machine, which modern neuroscience completely confirms!
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