The principle
laws of association are
contiguity,
repetition,
attention,
pleasure-pain, and similarity. The basic laws were formulated by
Aristotle in approximately 300 B.C. and by
John Locke in the seventeenth century. Both philosophers taught that the mind at birth is a blank slate and that all knowledge has to be acquired by learning. The laws they taught still make up the backbone of modern
learning theory.