psychological and pedagogical direction, which considers learning and human behavior as the result of the formation of connections or associations between stimuli and responses, so that a certain stimulus becomes associated in consciousness with a specific response through repetition and practice. This approach is based on the principle that experience and learning are gradually formed as a result of repeated associations between events, ideas, or actions, and that behavior can be explained and controlled by studying these connections. Connectionism is not associated with one person, but was formed mainly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with pioneers such as Edward Thorndike, a pioneer of the theory of learning by trial and error and the law of effect. Ivan Pavlov is the discoverer of the classical conditioned reflex. The main psychological theories arising from connectionism are: Classical conditioning – Pavlovian. Learning by trial and error – Thorndike. The law of effect is Thorndike. Stimulus-response theory – John Watson in early behaviorism. Operant conditioning – B. F. Skinner, which extends connectionist thought to reinforceable or repressed behaviors.