Three theories concerning motives for learning and perception are the most well known: theory of vitalism, theory of behaviourism, and the
theory of Field and Cognitive psychology. The theories of learning are based on these theories of motives.

Theory of Vitalism: Plato was the first to conceive the idea that the intellect is the only reality. All the materialistic things are
reflections/images of the real thing that exists in a perfect form in the man’s spirit. The ones who support this theory consider the man’s mind
as the centre of the man. The man’s success is his power of will. Basedon this theory, we have the view that if the child wants, s/he will learn;
the teacher, the machines and the different school activities do not playan important role.
Theory of Behaviourism: This theory tries to explain life as a process that relies on the scientific laws of movement and change. This theory
has a materialistic underground and considers man as a very complex machine that works differently every time that different forces act upon
them.

Theory of Field-Cognitive psychology:  This theory views the man’s activities in a more whole way. Every alive cell belongs in a system of
cells and this system is part of a part of the human body. Man also functions in the society, within a social system. Man’s behaviour affects
and is affected by the elements and the events of the field within which man behaves and acts.

There are more theories that support that the basic motives for learning are the needs and instincts of the children, whereas others have
connected the process of learning with the children’s interests. There are huge arguments between the two theories that are concerned with
competitiveness as a learning motive and the strategies of the common and whole group work in the classroom in order to achieve the learning aims.
All in all, the categories for the theories that are concerned with motives are two: The first group are the impelling theories. Their main elements
deal with the terms instinct, motives, stimulus. The second group of theories are concerned with the terms aim, need, principles.

Vitalism, school of scientific thought—the germ of which dates from Aristotle—that attempts (in opposition to mechanism and organicism) to explain the nature of life as resulting from a vital force peculiar to living organisms and different from all other forces found outside living things. This force is held to control form and development and to direct the activities of the organism. Vitalism has lost prestige as the chemical and physical nature of more and more vital phenomena have been shown.

Behaviorism is a worldview that operates on a principle of “stimulus-response.” All behavior caused by external stimuli (operant conditioning). All behavior can be explained without the need to consider internal mental states or consciousness.   Behaviorism is a worldview that assumes a learner is essentially passive, responding to environmental stimuli. The learner starts off as a clean slate (i.e. tabula rasa) and behavior is shaped through positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement^[2]. Both positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability that the antecedent behavior will happen again. In contrast, punishment (both positive and negative) decreases the likelihood that the antecedent behavior will happen again. Positive indicates the application of a stimulus; Negative indicates the withholding of a stimulus. Learning is therefore defined as a change in behavior in the learner. Lots of (early) behaviorist work was done with animals (e.g. Pavlov’s dogs) and generalized to humans^.  Behaviorism precedes the cognitivist worldview. It rejects structuralism and is an extension of Logical Positivism.
Contributors :  John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner, E. L. Thorndike, Albert Bandura.

Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes such as “attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and thinking”.Much of the work derived from cognitive psychology has been integrated into various other modern disciplines of psychological study, including educational psychology, social psychology, personality psychology, abnormal psychology, developmental psychology, and economics.