LEARNING ABOUT S-S RELATIONS: Theories

WHEN DOES LEARNING OCCUR

Historical view

Contiguity is necessary and sufficient

Challenges to the notion that contiguity is necessary

Temporal contiguity and taste aversion learning

Challenges to the notion that contiguity is sufficient

Overshadowing and blocking

The attentional account

Informational account

MODELS OF PAVLOVIAN CONDITIONING

RESCORLA-WAGNER MODEL (1972)

The model

Application

Acquisition

Blocking

Overshadowing

Extinction

Conditioned inhibition

US pre-exposure effect

Novel predictions

Overexpectation

Contingency effects

A CONDITIONED OPPONENT THEORY (Schull, 1979)

The theory

An extension of opponent process theory

Assumes the b-process can be conditioned

Posits

Lamda reflects the magnitude of the a-process

Vt reflects the strength of the conditioned b

Substitutes (a-b) for (lamda-Vt)

Evidence b-processes can be conditioned

A conditioning account of opiate tolerance (Siegel)

Conditioned analgesia & antianalgesia

VARIATION IN THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE CS (Pearce & Hall, 1980)

Decrements in CS processing

Latent inhibition

Increments in CS processing

An unexpected S-S relation enhances conditioning (Wilson, 1992)

COMPARATOR HYPOTHESIS (Miller)

Attributes variation in responding to performance factors

Posits

CS and context are independently associated with the US

Prob. of a CR depends on expectation during CS relative to training context

A novel prediction

 

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