Some psychologists emphasize stimulus-response (S-R) relationships and interpret as an associative process: a new association or connection is formed between a stimulus and response.

A child who says “kitty” when he sees the family cat has learned to associate a stimulus (the animal) with a verbal response (“kitty”). A person learning to catch a ball associates a series of motor responses with various stimuli arising from the ball and from his own movements. Some psychologists interpret all med behaviour as associative learning.