Historically, the body's sensory systems have been presumed to provide the brain with raw information about the external environment, which the brain must interpret to select a behavioral response. Consequently, studies of the neurobiology of learning and memory have focused on circuitry that interfaces between sensory inputs and behavioral…

The formation of associations between items and their context has been proposed to rely on mechanisms distinct from those supporting memory for a single item. Although emotional experiences can profoundly affect memory, our understanding of how it interacts with different aspects of memory remains unclear. We performed three experiments to examine…

Monkeys will selectively and adaptively learn to avoid the most difficult trials of a perceptual discrimination learning task. Couchman, Coutinho, Beran, and Smith (2010) have recently demonstrated that this pattern of responding does not depend on animals receiving trial-by-trial feedback for their responses; it also obtains if experience of the…

How does the brain learn to recognize an object from multiple viewpoints while scanning a scene with eye movements? How does the brain avoid the problem of erroneously classifying parts of different objects together? How are attention and eye movements intelligently coordinated to facilitate object learning? A neural model provides a unified…

Great controversy exists on whether associative learning occurs without awareness. In Experiment 1, 31 participants received discrimination training by repeated presentations of two stimulus sequences (S1[subscript A] right arrow S2[subscript A], and S1[subscript B] right arrow S2[subscript B]), S1 being a masked stimulus. S2 were imperative…

Humans conduct visual search faster when the same display is presented for a 2nd time, showing implicit learning of repeated displays. This study examines whether learning of a spatial layout transfers to other layouts that are occupied by items of new shapes or colors. The authors show that spatial context learning is sometimes contingent on item…

Used a new statistical procedure to examine consensual beliefs about situations common to universities. This approach aims at constructing a joint hierarchical or non-hierarchical classification of situational categories. Results indicate that a psychologically meaningful and methodologically satisfactory representation of the cognitive…

Comments on Needham's research of infant perception by focusing on the types of evidence needed to make inferences concerning infant cognition. Considers the history of scientific explanations of animal cognition as nearer to infant cognition, and the high level of creativity required in proposing and testing alternative explanations of infant…

Discusses Needham's findings by asserting that they extend understanding of infant perception by showing that the memory representations infants draw upon have bound together information about shape, color, and pattern. Considers the distinction between two senses of "recognition" and asks in which sense object recognition contributes to object…

Examines the usefulness of paired associative performance to assess for school learning proficiency by comparing a sample of learning-disabled (LD) youngsters to normals. Results indicate that the proportion of subjects in the normal and the LD groups who reported use of elaborative strategies compared to none laborative strategies does not differ…

Reflects on Needham's findings on infants' object recognition and segregation. Examines the role for perceptual bias in explaining infant performance, places Needham's studies in historical perspective, and assesses their theoretical significance. Discusses the merits of positing different kinds of information sources for object segregation, and…

The present work introduces a form of associative mechanosensory conditioning of the proboscis extension reflex (PER) in honeybees. In our paradigm, harnessed honeybees learn the elemental association between mechanosensory, antennal stimulation and a reward of sucrose solution delivered to the proboscis. Thereafter, bees extend their proboscis to…

Considers reasons for infants' selective looking and information gathering. Discusses three general theoretical issues raised by studies of selective looking, related to type of information gathered, speed of processing time, and the effect of prior exposure on processing time. Considers these issues in relation to Needham's study of infant…

A series of three studies is presented, each building on the other to validate the utility of reinforcement value, an affective dimension of meaningfulness based on ratings of likability. (Authors)