Hebbian learning and development

Abstract
Hebbian learning is a biologically plausible and ecologically valid learning mechanism. In Hebbian learning, ‘units that fire together, wire together’. Such learning may occur at the neural level in terms of long‐term potentiation (LTP) and long‐term depression (LTD). Many features of Hebbian learning are relevant to developmental theorizing, including its self‐organizing nature and its ability to extract statistical regularities from the environment. Hebbian learning mechanisms may also play an important role in critical periods during development, and in a number of other developmental phenomena.