Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-mlc7c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-13T04:08:49.625Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Straw-men and selective citation are needed to argue that associative-link formation makes no contribution to human learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Dominic M. Dwyer ,
Michael E. Le Pelley ,
David N. George ,
Mark Haselgrove  and
Robert C. Honey
Dominic M. Dwyer
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdommark.haselgrove@Nottingham.ac.ukhttp://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/mxh/
Michael E. Le Pelley
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdommark.haselgrove@Nottingham.ac.ukhttp://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/mxh/
David N. George
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdommark.haselgrove@Nottingham.ac.ukhttp://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/mxh/
Mark Haselgrove
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, University of Nottingham, Nottingham NG7 2RD, United Kingdomdwyerdm@Cardiff.ac.ukhttp://www.cardiff.ac.uk/psych/contactsandpeople/lecturing/dwyer-dominic-m-overview_new.htmllepelleyme@Cardiff.ac.ukhttp://www.cardiff.ac.uk/psych/contactsandpeople/lecturing/le-pelley-mike-overview_new.htmlgeorged@Cardiff.ac.ukhttp://www.cardiff.ac.uk/psych/contactsandpeople/researchfellows/george-d-n-dr-overview_new.htmlhoney@Cardiff.ac.ukhttp://www.cardiff.ac.uk/psych/contactsandpeople/lecturing/honey-rob-overview_new.html
Robert C. Honey
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdommark.haselgrove@Nottingham.ac.ukhttp://www.psychology.nottingham.ac.uk/staff/mxh/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Mitchell et al. contend that there is no need to posit a contribution based on the formation of associative links to human learning. In order to sustain this argument, they have ignored evidence which is difficult to explain with propositional accounts; and they have mischaracterised the evidence they do cite by neglecting features of these experiments that contradict a propositional account.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 206 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arcediano, F., Matute, H., Escobar, M. & Miller, R. R. (2005) Competition between antecedent and between subsequent stimuli in causal judgments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 31:228–37.Google ScholarPubMed
Batsell, W. R., Paschall, G. Y., Gleason, D. I. & Batson, J. D. (2001) Taste preconditioning augments odor-aversion learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 27:30–47.Google ScholarPubMed
Bernstein, I. L. & Webster, M. M. (1980) Learned taste aversions in humans. Physiology and Behavior 25:363–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blough, D. S. (1975) Steady state data and a quantitative model of operant generalization and discrimination. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 1:3–21.Google Scholar
Brandon, S. E., Vogel, E. H. & Wagner, A. R. (2000) A componential view of configural cues in generalization and discrimination in Pavlovian conditioning. Behavioural Brain Research 110:67–72.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cobos, P. L., Lopez, F. J., Cano, A., Almaraz, J. & Shanks, D. R. (2002) Mechanisms of predictive and diagnostic causal induction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 28:331–46.Google ScholarPubMed
Collins, D. J. & Shanks, D. R. (2002) Momentary and integrative response strategies in causal judgment. Memory and Cognition 30:1138–47.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dickinson, A. & Burke, J. (1996) Within-compound associations mediate the retrospective revaluation of causality judgments. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 49B:60–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durlach, P. D. & Rescorla, R. A. (1980) Potentiation rather than overshadowing in flavor aversion learning: An analysis in terms of within-compound associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 6:175–87.Google ScholarPubMed
Estes, W. K. (1950) Towards a statistical theory of learning. Psychological Review 57:94–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Iselin-Chaves, I. A., Willems, S. J., Jermann, F. C., Forster, A., Adam, S. R. & Van der Linden, M. (2005) Investigation of implicit memory during isoflurane anesthesia for elective surgery using the process dissociation procedure. Anesthesiology 103:925–33.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Le Pelley, M. E., Oakeshott, S. M. & McLaren, I. P. L. (2005a) Blocking and unblocking in human causal learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 31:56–70.Google ScholarPubMed
López, F. J., Cobos, P. L. & Caño, A. (2005) Associative and causal reasoning accounts of causal induction: Symmetries and asymmetries in predictive and diagnostic inferences. Memory and Cognition 33:1388–98.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
López, F. J., Shanks, D. R., Almaraz, J. & Fernández, P. (1998b) Effects of trial order on contingency judgments: A comparison of associative and probabilistic contrast accounts. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 24:672–94.Google Scholar
Lovibond, P. F. & Shanks, D. R. (2002) The role of awareness in Pavlovian conditioning: Empirical evidence and theoretical implications. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 28:3–26.Google ScholarPubMed
Mitchell, C. J., Lovibond, P. F., Minard, E. & Lavis, Y. (2006) Forward blocking in human learning sometimes reflects the failure to encode a cue-outcome relationship. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59:830–44.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rescorla, R. A. & Durlach, P. J. (1981) Within-event learning in Pavlovian conditioning. In: Information processing in animals: Memory mechanisms, ed. Spear, N. E. & Miller, R., pp. 81–111. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Shanks, D. R. (2007) Associationism and cognition: Human contingency learning at 25. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 60:291–309.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shanks, D. R. & Darby, R. J. (1998) Feature- and rule-based generalization in human associative learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes 24:405–15.Google Scholar
Tangen, J. M., Allan, L. G. & Sadeghi, H. (2005) Assessing (in)sensitivity to causal asymmetry: A matter of degree. In: New directions in human associative learning, ed. Wills, A. J., pp. 65–93. Erlbaum.Google Scholar