Indicators of Early and Late Processing Reveal the Importance of Within-Trial-Time for Theories of Associative Learning

Harald Lachnit, Anna Thorwart, Holger Schultheis, Anja Lotz, Stephan Koenig and Metin Uengoer

PLOS ONE, 2013, vol. 8, issue 6, 1-10

Abstract: In four human learning experiments (Pavlovian skin conductance, causal learning, speeded classification task), we evaluated several associative learning theories that assume either an elemental (modified unique cue model and Harris’ model) or a configural (Pearce’s configural theory and an extension of it) form of stimulus processing. The experiments used two modified patterning problems (A/B/C+, AB/BC/AC+ vs. ABC-; A+, BC+ vs. ABC-). Pearce’s configural theory successfully predicted all of our data reflecting early stimulus processing, while the predictions of the elemental theories were in accord with all of our data reflecting later stages of stimulus processing. Our results suggest that the form of stimulus representation depends on the amount of time available for stimulus processing. Our findings highlight the necessity to investigate stimulus processing during conditioning on a finer time scale than usually done in contemporary research.

Date: 2013
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0066291 (text/html)
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id= ... 66291&type=printable (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:plo:pone00:0066291

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0066291

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in PLOS ONE from Public Library of Science
Bibliographic data for series maintained by plosone ().