Cue competition is one of the most studied phenomena in associative learning. However, a theoretical disagreement has long stood over whether it reflects a learning or performance deficit. The comparator hypothesis, a model of expression of Pavlovian associations, posits that learning is not subject to competition but that performance reflects a…

The word-frequency effect (WFE) in recognition memory refers to the finding that more rare words are better recognized than more common words. We demonstrate that a familiarity-discrimination model operating on data from a semantic word-association space yields a robust WFE in data on both hit rates and false-alarm rates. Our modeling results…

Revisions of common associative learning models incorporate a within-compound association mechanism in order to explain retrospective cue competition effects (e.g., [Dickinson, A., & Burke, J. (1996). Within-compound associations mediate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgements. "Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 49B", pp.…

This investigation identified the stroking habits characteristic of typists at various levels of skill. Typing by letter sequences within words was found to be dominant in accounting for increases in skill, phrase habits nonexistent and word habits present to a modest extent and only among the very fastest typists. (Author/CT)

An aptitude treatment interaction was predicted in which 30 retarded adolescents were expected to profit most from associative training and 30 intellectually average third graders most from conceptual training. Ss received either associative training designed to strengthen direct associations among pairs of conceptually related members of a free…

Examines ways of learning (association, correspondence, coherence, recognition) and lists three aspects of each (criterion, source of theory, nature of knower and known). Identifies each way's approach to curricular elements (education, curriculum, learner, teacher, society, and evaluation criterion). (SK)

Three mechanisms can explain second-order conditioning: (1) The second-order conditioned stimulus (CS2) could activate a representation of the first-order conditioned stimulus (CS1), thereby provoking the conditioned response (CR); The CS2 could enter into an excitatory association with either (2) the representation governing the CR, or (3) with a…

Recent studies involving nonlinear discrimination problems suggest that stimuli in human associative learning are represented configurally with narrow generalization, such that presentation of stimuli that are even slightly dissimilar to stored configurations weakly activate these configurations. The authors note that another well-known set of…

Freezing to a tone following auditory fear conditioning is commonly considered as a measure of the strength of the tone-shock association. The decrease in freezing on repeated nonreinforced tone presentation following conditioning, in turn, is attributed to the formation of an inhibitory association between tone and shock that leads to a…

False recognition, broadly defined as a claim to remember something that was not encountered previously, can arise for multiple reasons. For instance, a distinction can be made between conceptual false recognition (i.e., false alarms resulting from semantic or associative similarities between studied and tested items) and perceptual false…

Much recent research on mechanisms of learning and memory focuses on the role of heterosynaptic neuromodulatory signaling. Such neuromodulation appears to stabilize Hebbian synaptic changes underlying associative learning, thereby extending memory. Previous comparisons of three related sea-hares (Mollusca, Opisthobranchia) uncovered interspecific…

One conditioned taste aversion experiment with rats assessed the impact of extinguishing a target conditioned stimulus (CS), S, in compound with a second CS, A, upon conditioned responding elicited by CS S when presented alone at test. Following initial conditioning treatment with CSs A and S, the experiment manipulated number of extinction trials…

THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE--(1) TO DEFINE AND ISOLATE THE BASIC PROCESSES INVOLVED IN PAIR-ASSOCIATE LEARNING, (2) TO SPECIFY THE IMPORTANT VARIABLES RELATED TO THESE PROCESSES AND THE CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH EACH BECOMES IMPORTANT, (3) AND TO DEFINE AND ASSESS THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ASSOCIATION FORMATION PROCESS IN PAIRED-ASSOCIATE LEARNING…