A theory of learning, to be effective, must account for the facts which have been established. The significance of the facts themselves is, unfortunately, not at present clear. Most experimental investigations have necessarily measured learning in terms of certain end results, however these were accomplished, leaving undetermined whether the subject has learned to do one thing in one way or one thing in many different ways. And most experimental investigations have concerned such intricate special activities that their results cannot be generalized. Theories of learning can attempt to systematize only the facts of the more elementary forms of learning.Most of the facts of learning are derived from common knowledge. The elementary facts of learning were fairly well understood by the associationists. The role of experiment in this field is as a rule illustrative. Pavlov's 'conditioned reflex' is accepted because it fits into a body of common knowledge about human and animal nature. That burned children dread fires is accepted before hearing of Pavlov. If Pavlov's results had contradicted this body of common knowledge they would have been met with sceptical analysis. Even though they seem to corroborate common knowledge they deserve thorough examination.

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Common speech defines acts in terms of their results, not in terms of the movements by which those results are accomplished. We eat a dinner, sail a boat, ride a horse, play a selection on the piano. For each of these acts there may be a thousand different patterns of muscular contraction in the details of the achievement, and the act may still be known by the same name. Skillful and awkward performances of the same act may use very different motions. 'E. A. Culler. Recent advances in some concepts of conditioning. PSYCHOL. REV., 1938, 45, p. 136.

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