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Robert Mills Gagnec

Born in 1916 in North Andover, Massachusetts, Gagne attended Yale University where
he obtained an A.B. in 1937. He received his Ph.D. in psychology from Brown University
in 1940 and taught at Connecticut College for Women from 1940-49 and at
Pennsylvania State University from 1945-46. From 1949-58 Gagne was research
director of the perceptual and motor skills laboratory of the US Air Force, at which time
he began to develop some of the ideas that would go into his comprehensive learning
theory called the "conditions of learning". His research on military training problems
while working for the Air Force and his experience as consultant to the U.S. Department
of Defense (1958-61) helped him see that the "grand learning theories" of his
predecessors were in adequate for the design of instruction. Since 1969 Gagne has
been a Professor in the Department of Educational Research at Florida State University
in Tallahasseec

Around this time Gagne began to formulate three principles that he saw as contributing
to successful instruction: (1) providing instruction on the set of component tasks that
build toward a final task, (2) ensuring that each component task is mastered, and (3)
sequencing the component tasks to ensure optimal transfer to the final task. He
published an article in 1962 entitled "Military Training and the Principles of Learning"
that discussed these ideas. Gagne first published his best-known bookß
 


  in 1965.c

Gagne's early investigations into the psychological bases of effective teaching led him
to believe that an instructional technology or theory must go beyond traditional learning
theory. Gagne concluded that instructional theory should address the specific factors
that contribute to the learning of complex skills. He described these factors in a 1968
article entitled "Learning Hierarchies". Gagne next identified five unique categories of
learning: verbal information, intellectual skills, attitudes, motor skills and cognitive
strategies. These categories represent different capacities and performances and are
learned in different ways. They are outlined in Gagne's 1972 article, "Domains of
Learning".c

After establishing his domains of learning Gagne went on to describe the environmental
events and stages of information processing required for each of these domains in the
1977 edition of his book, ß
 

 . The main aim of Gagne's theory is
to assist in classroom instruction, The skills to be learned are written in the form of
performance objectives and the specific type of learning is identified. Task analysis is
then employed to identify prerequisite skills and "instructional events" are chosen for
each learning objective. The major contribution of Gagne's approach is that it
operationalizes the notion of cumulative learning and offers a mechanism for designing
instruction from simple to complex levels. Gagne's concept of hierarchies has become a
standard component of curricula in a variety of subject areas. And his theory provides a
unified framework for a wide range of findings about learning such as those from
information processing studies.c


c

Gagne, R. M. (1975) (Author) È
 


 
    Holt, Rinehart and
Winstonc

Gagne, R. M. (1968) (Editor) 
 

   
 F.E. Peacock.c

Gagne, R. M. (1968) (Editor) 
 

   
 F.E. Peacock.c

Gagne, R. M. (1965) (Author) ß
 


  Holt, Rinehart and Winstonc

Gagne, R. M. (1964) (Contributor, Editor) =

È

University of
Pittsburgh Press.c

Gagne, R. M. (1962) (Editor)    
 
=


 Holt.c

Gagne, R. M. & Briggs, L. J. (1979)  


  =
 Holt.c

Gagne, R. M. & Fleishman, E. A. (1959)   

 

    Holt.c

Gagne, R. M. & Reiser, R. A. (1983) 




    Educational
Technology Publications.c

`
c

Gagne, R. M. (1988) Some reflections on thinking skills   

 !"#$%&!'

%()c

Gagne, R. M. (1984) Learning Outcomes and Their Effects: Useful Categories of

Human Performance 
   %("#$%!!'%&*c

Gagne, R. M. (1983) A reply to critiques of some issues in the psychology of

mathematics instruction A 
 

  
 È #"%$+ #'+ ,c

Gagne, R. M. (1982) Learning from the top down and the bottom up _ A 

È

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Gagne, R. M. (1980) Is educational technology in phase? Èß
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Gagne, R. M. (1980) Learnable aspects of problem solving È   
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Gagne, R. M. (1975) Observing the effects of learning È    "%$
##' *!c

Gagne, R. M. (1973) Observations of school learning È    )"%$
+' ,c

Gagne, R. M. (1973) Learning and instructional sequence IN Kerlinger, F. N.

(Ed.)

-


  È Itasca, III: F.E. Peacock.c

Gagne, R. M. (1972) Domains of learning 
 
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Gagne, R. M. (1970) The learning of concepts IN Clarizio, H. F., Craig, R. C. & Mehrens
W. A. (Eds.) 
   
È  +%)'+%!Boston: Allyn &
Bacon.c

Gagne, R. M. (1969) Context, isolation, and interference effects on the retention of

fact A 
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Gagne, R. M. (1968) A systems approach to adult learning h .


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  ß
 
 /0 * '#c

Gagne, R. M. (1968) Contributions of learning to human development   



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Gagne, R. M. (1962) The acquisition of knowledge   

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Gagne, R. M. (1962) Military training and principles of learning 
   
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Gagne, R. M. (1962)    
 
 =


 New York: Holt,
Rinehart & Winston.c

Gagne, R. M. (1959) Problem solving and thinking 

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#!' !+c

Gagne, R. M. & Dick, W. (1983) Instructional psychology 

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%#+, '+(*c

Gagne, R. M., Mayor, J. R., Harstens, H. L., & Paradise, N. E. (1962) Factors in
acquiring knowledge of a mathematics task     !," #$+%c
Gagne, R. M. & Paradise, N. E. (1961) Abilities and learning sets in knowledge
acquisition     !*" #$+%c

Gagne, R. M. & Reiser, R. A. (1982) Characteristics of media selection models

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Gagne, R. M. & Rohweer, W. D. (1969) Instructional psychology 

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Gagne, R. M. & White, R. T. (1978) Memory structures and learning outcomes

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Gagne, R. M. & White, R. T. (1978) Formative evaluation applied to a learning

hierarchy 
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Gagne, R. M. & White, R. T. (1976) Retention of related and unrelated

sentencesA 
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Gagne, R. M. & Wiegand, V. K. (1970) Effects of a superordinate concept on learning

and retention of facts A 
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Gagne, R. M. & Wiegand, V. K. (1968) Some factors in children's learning and retention
of concrete rules A 
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Lee S. S. & Gagne, R. M. (1970) Effects of degree of component learnings on the

acquisition of a complete conceptual rule A 
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Lee S. S. & Gagne, R. M. (1969) Effects of chaining cues on the acquisition of a

complex conceptual rule A 
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