Associative learning: Call for Commentators (BBS)

[Stevan Harnad]

The following is the abstract of a target article to appear in
Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS).  All BBS articles are accompanied
by "open peer commentary" from across disciplines and around the
world. For information about serving as a commentator on this article,
send email to harnad at mind.princeton.edu or write to BBS, 20 Nassau
Street, #240, Princeton NJ 08540 [tel: 609-921-7771]. Specialists in
the following areas are encouraged to contribute: connectionism/PDP,
neural modeling, associative modeling, classical conditioning, operant
conditioning, cognitive psychology, behavioral biology, neuroethology.


CLASSICAL CONDITIONING: THE NEW HEGEMONY

Jaylan Sheila Turkkan
Division of Behavioral Biology
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Converging data from different disciplines are showing that the role
of classical [associative] conditioning processes in the elaboration
of human and animal behavior is larger than previously supposed. Older
restrictive views of classically conditioned responses as merely secretory,
reflexive or emotional are giving way to a broader conception that includes
problem-solving and other rule-governed behavior thought to be under
the exclusive province of either operant conditioning or cognitive
psychology. There have also been changes in the way conditioning is
conducted and evaluated. Data from a number of seemingly unrelated
phenomena such as postaddictive drug relapse, the placebo
effect and immune system conditioning turn out to be related to
classical conditioning. Classical conditioning has also been found in
simpler and simpler organisms and has recently been demonstrated in
brain slices in utero. This target article will integrate the diverse
areas of classical conditioning research and theory; it will also
challenge teleological interpretations of classically conditioned
responses and will offer some basic principles to guide experimental
testing in diverse areas.

Stevan Harnad		 harnad at mind.princeton.edu	 (609)-921-7771