Psychology RootsAcquisition
Acquisition refers to the initial stage of the learning or conditioning process. In this stage, some response is being associated with some stimulus to the point where we can say the organism (person, animal, etc.) has “acquired” the response. During this stage, the response is strengthened (reinforced) so that it is truly “learned”.
For example, if you are trying to train a rat to press a lever in response to you ringing a bell (i.e., trying to condition the rat to press the lever when and only when you ring the bell), then once the rat presses the lever in only response to the bell, you can say the response is “acquired”. You would then continue to gradually reinforce the lever pressing in response to the bell to make sure the response is strengthened.
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The acquisition is the attainment by an individual of new behavior, information, or skills or the process by which this occurs. Although often used interchangeably with learning, acquisition tends to be defined somewhat more concretely as the period during which progressive, measurable changes in response are seen.
