Origins & Computability · 1949

The Organization of Behavior (Hebbian learning)

Donald Hebb

Hebb proposed that learning happens by strengthening the connection between neurons that are repeatedly active together, giving a physical mechanism for memory and association.

Editorial record

Plain-language summary

Hebb argued that when one neuron persistently helps fire another, the link between them grows stronger, often summarized as 'cells that fire together wire together'. He used this to explain how groups of neurons form 'cell assemblies' that represent learned concepts and associations. The rule gave neuroscience a concrete account of learning and became a foundational principle for training weights in artificial neural networks.

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Antecedents

  • ExtendsEvidence: Strongly supported

    The Perceptron

    Perceptron rule elaborates Hebbian learning

    O-017

Descendants

Source record

Provenance

Record ID
O-010
Record created
2026-07-13
Last reviewed
2026-07-14
Record version
2

Citation caveat: Citation metadata is approximate and marked unverified in the source dataset.