The Associative Theory - an obvious but underappreciated law

 

To better understand the Associative Theory I’ll start by creating a scenario: a kid is riding her bicycle refusing to wear a helmet. She then falls and hits her head on the grass, gets hurt, and starts crying. Naturally, her parents aid her and reinforce the importance of wearing a helmet. By associating getting hurt with not having the helmet she will then understand and form her concept of safety.

Breaking this into bite-sized information we can say Associationism connects learning to basic principles that were taught to us in our lifetime. According to the researchers of the University of Standford: “(…) associationists have sought to use the history of an organism’s experience as the main sculptor of cognitive architecture. In its most basic form, associationism has claimed that pairs of thoughts become associated based on the organism’s past experience.” This seems obvious to understand but there’s more to understanding the importance of this mechanism, this is the reason why we make associations with colours and emotions, shapes and sounds, and other different things.

This theory also allows us to form concepts, like stated before; getting hurt, being happy, crying, or being disgusted by something. As a theory of learning, associationism reflects how we form associative structures that later form our “har-wired” behaviours and reactions. As a designer, this power we have applying this theory gives us the ability to convey the different concepts formed into perceptible shapes and objects. Design drinks a lot from this way of learning, utilizes it, and passes it on to others.

All of this explains that, as humans, we have the mental capacity to associate things, and just like culture, the association is subjective. As easy as associating a car accident with death, we can associate different things; for example, I can associate the winter and the grey weather with something cosy and warm, and other people can associate it with sadness, cold, and the flu. The associative behaviours of linking the cold weather with being cosy and warm inside the bed or with being sad and sick are both legitimate and they vary because each person is different and our brains process information differently. This is also why this theory is associated with Hume’s Empiricist Theory. Citing the University Of Stanford on Associationism by Eric Mandelbaum; ”Hume’s associationism was, first and foremost, a theory connecting how perceptions (“Impressions”) determined trains of thought (successions of “Ideas”). Hume’s empiricism, as enshrined in the Copy Principle, demanded that there were no Ideas in the mind that were not first given in experience. For Hume, the principles of association constrained the functional role of Ideas once they were copied from Impressions: if Impressions IM1 and IM2 were associated in perception, then their corresponding Ideas, ID1 and ID2 would also become associated. In other words, the ordering of Ideas was determined by the ordering of the Impressions that caused the Ideas to arise.”

With this in mind, we can affirm that Associationism can be recognized as a theory of learning. Locke for example formulated the Idea that the mind is a blank page being filled with notes through time. David Hartley and James Mill also contributed significantly to this framework by linking associationism to psychological processes like emotions and behaviour. While classical associationism has evolved, its core ideas influenced early psychology, especially in areas like behaviourism and learning theories. Modern cognitive science still examines associative mechanisms in understanding memory, learning, and perception. Over time, critics argued that associationism is too simplistic to explain all mental phenomena. For example, complex mental functions like creativity and problem-solving seem to require more than just associations between ideas. All of these philosophers added crucial conclusions to this theory and in consequence, Associationism has played a foundational role in the development of psychology and continues to influence contemporary theories of learning and memory.