The Organization of Behavior
Abstract
Since its publication in 1949, D.O. Hebb's, The Organization of Behavior has been one of the most influential books in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. However, the original edition has been unavailable since 1966, ensuring that Hebb's comment that a classic normally means "cited but not read" is true in his case. This new edition rectifies a long-standing problem for behavioral neuroscientists--the inability to obtain one of the most cited publications in the field. The Organization of Behavior played a significant part in stimulating the investigation of the neural foundations of behavior and continues to be inspiring because it provides a general framework for relating behavior to synaptic organization through the dynamics of neural networks. D.O. Hebb was also the first to examine the mechanisms by which environment and experience can influence brain structure and function, and his ideas formed the basis for work on enriched environments as stimulants for behavioral development. References to Hebb, the Hebbian cell assembly, the Hebb synapse, and the Hebb rule increase each year. These forceful ideas of 1949 are now applied in engineering, robotics, and computer science, as well as neurophysiology, neuroscience, and psychology--a tribute to Hebb's foresight in developing a foundational neuropsychological theory of the organization of behavior.
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Experiences that are repeatedly co-activated gradually develop stronger associations (Hebbian learning).
“In biological systems, experiences that are repeatedly co-activated gradually develop stronger associations, a phenomenon often summarized as 'neurons that fire together wire together' (illustrated in Figure 2).”
From HeLa-Mem: Hebbian Learning and Associative Memory for LLM Agents (2026) · cites this paper as Hebb, 2005
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- Authors
- Hebb, D. O.
- Corresponding author
- Hebb, D.O.
- Venue
- Psychology Press eBooks
- Publisher
- Psychology Press
- Published
- 2005-04-11
- Pages
- 43-54
- OpenAlex
- W22297218
- Cited by
- 9,825
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 65 · 2025: 116 · 2024: 113 · 2023: 145 · 2022: 142 · 2021: 217 · 2020: 252 · 2019: 223 · 2018: 244 · 2017: 236 · 2016: 259 · 2015: 283 · 2014: 319 · 2013: 306 · 2012: 258
- FWCI
- 91.14
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychology Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- The MIT Press eBooks
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Neurology › Neurology and Historical Studies
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Keywords
- synaptic organization, artificial neural networks, Hebbian learning rule, environmental enrichment, experience-dependent brain development, neuropsychological theory, history of neuroscience
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