B.F. Skinner did some experiments involving pigeon training that turned into a branch of psychology known as behaviorism. It's about directly influencing behavior based on reinforcement, either positive (giving something bad or good), or negative (taking away something good or bad).

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Learners aren't pigeons, but the experiments gave us useful information about how learning works anyway.

Cognitivism is when you are told something or you read something, you memorize it, and then you are able to recall it. The basic idea is that learning can occur when a learner gets information and then practices remembering it, like by taking a quiz on the information and recalling the correct answer.

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(Note: there are two other things in ID that have cognitive in their names, but they aren't part of this theory.

• Cognitive strategy is learners coming up with their own methods to remember stuff.

• Cognitive domain is a category used for classifying learning objectives)

Constructivism builds on previous knowledge and experience. It takes into account the fact that adult learners have lives outside of the classroom, and uses their existing skill sets and memories as a base to attach new information to. If they already know a related topic, you can draw parallels to it to help them grasp a new one. It leans on experiential learning and using the learner's surroundings to help teach them.

Andragogy (teaching adults) is different from pedagogy (teaching children). For the most part, adults know what they need and don't need, they already have life experience, and they have goals that they have set for themselves and are pursuing. Adults need more independence than children do, and they need to know what's in it for them - why are they taking this training?

Maslow's hierarchy talks about how people's basic needs have to be met before they can worry about other stuff. Ever tried to sit through a lesson just before lunch on a day you skipped breakfast? It's difficult to focus on anything when your stomach's growling, or you're tired, or you've just had a bad day.

These are smaller theories, not less important ones.

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Chunking (by George Miller) - you can remember stuff best if it's in a group of around 7 or so things, like digits in a phone number.

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Knowledge, Skills, and Attitudes (by Benjamin Bloom, same guy the Taxonomy is named after) - these are things you can write your objectives about.

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Cognitive Overload - learners can only absorb so much information at one time. Try to write your lesson plans so that the information flow feels more like a water faucet than a fire hose. Don't overwhelm the learners, or they might give up.​

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Multimedia - try to use multiple methods of communication at once, like audio and images in the same video. This reinforces the information, but only if the audio and visuals actually match each other. If they don't go together, it's just confusing for the learner.