In both discrimination learning and partial reinforcement, transitions may occur from nonrewarded to rewarded trials (NR transition). In discrimination learning, NR transitions may occur in two different stimulus alternatives (NR different transitions). In partial reward, NR transitions may occur in a single stimulus alternative (NR same…

The Rescorla-Wagner model is one of the cornerstones of learning theory. However, many students in undergraduate courses find the model's concepts difficult to grasp, and the model is often the students' first exposure to computational models in psychology. This article describes an interactive simulation based on an Excel(r) spreadsheet program…

Describing the state of the science of ABA, this comprehensive handbook provides detailed information about theory, research, and intervention. The contributors are leading ABA authorities who present current best practices in behavioral assessment and demonstrate evidence-based strategies for supporting positive behaviors and reducing problem…

Historically, sensory systems have been largely ignored as potential loci of information storage in the neurobiology of learning and memory. They continued to be relegated to the role of "sensory analyzers" despite consistent findings of associatively induced enhancement of responses in primary sensory cortices to behaviorally important signal…

Calls for the inclusion of classical conditioning in educational psychology courses and texts because such conditioning can effectively alleviate anxiety and related problems in students. (IRT)

Twenty overweight and 20 normal weight women underwent habituation, classical conditioning, and extinction of the galvanic skin response. (Editor)

Counter conditioning procedures reduced text anxiety in fifth and sixth grade children and improved their Digit Span performance but not Vocabulary performance on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. (Author/DEP)

An examination of the differences between radical and conventional behaviorism is presented in this article. The radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner is compared with the phenomenological thought of Maurice Merleau-Ponty emphasizing the manner in which each of these men understands human behavior. (JC)

One lemon, an assortment of other fruits and vegetables, a tennis ball, and a Galvanic Skin Response meter are needed to implement this approach to teaching about classical conditioning in introductory psychology courses. (RM)

Fear extinction refers to the ability to adapt as situations change by learning to suppress a previously learned fear. This process involves a gradual reduction in the capacity of a fear-conditioned stimulus to elicit fear by presenting the conditioned stimulus repeatedly on its own. Fear extinction is context-dependent and is generally considered…

The present study investigated reinstatement of conditioned responses in humans by using a differential Pavlovian conditioning procedure. Evidence for reinstatement was established in a direct (fear rating) and in an indirect measure (secondary reaction time task) of conditioning. Moreover, the amount of reinstatement in the secondary reaction…

In studies of function transformation, participants initially are taught to match stimuli in the presence of a contextual cue, X; the stimuli to be matched bear some formal relation to each other, for example, a relation of opposition or difference. In a second phase, the participants are taught to match arbitrary stimuli (say, A and B) in the…

The major question of interest in the present investigation was whether or not a UCS is more effectively represented in STM when its occurrence is relatively surprising as opposed to expected. (Author)

Two experiments demonstrated that Pavlovian counterconditioning alters not only the responses elicited by an aversive stimulus but also the capacity of that stimulus to act as a reinforcer in a fear-conditioning paradigm. (Author/RK)

Contrary to widely held belief, Watons and Rayner's (1920) experiment with Little Albert is not first reported case of classical conditioning of a child. Their work was preceded by that of Bogen and of Krasnogorskii. Mateer's work either preceded or coincided with Watons and Rayner's. This article clarifies chronology of these early studies of…