Fall Term, 2002
Psychology 121, Learning, MWF 10-11, Stiteler B26 Elementary learning processes. Topics include how organisms learn about events per se (e.g. habituation), how they learn relations among events (e.g. Pavlovian conditioning), and how they learn relations between their own behavior and events (e.g. instrumental learning).
Spring Term, 2003
Psychology 321, Research Experience in Learning, T, 1:30-4:30
Our work centers on the nature of elementary associative learning processes, especially as exemplified by Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental training. The recent research has addressed three broad questions: (a) What are the circumstances that produce associative learning? Here the work has ranged from the development of a quantitative model of conditioning to the exploration of the role of such perceptual variables as similarity in determining associative learning. (b) What are the contents of that learning? For instance, in Pavlovian conditioning, how are the events that are associated encoded? In instrumental training, what associations are learned among the response, the outcome, and the stimulus? (c) By what rules does learning map into performance.
We investigate questions of these sorts using a variety of Pavlovian paradigms: fear conditioning, flavor-aversion learning, and instrumental reward training in rodents, as well as autoshaping in birds. The investigation involves analytical use of such procedures as second-order conditioning, sensory precondtioning, blocking, conditioned inhibition, and outcome revaluation.
The long-term goal of the research is to provide a characterization and theoretical understanding of simple associative learning.
REPRESENTATIVE RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Rescorla, R.A. (1985) Conditioned Inhibition and Facilitation, in R.R. Miller & N.S. Spear (Eds.) Information Processing in Animals: Conditioned Inhibition. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
Colwill, R.M. & Rescorla, R.A. (1986) Associative structures in instrumental learning, in G.H. Bower (Ed.) The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 20, 55-104.
Rescorla, R.A. (1988) Pavlovian conditioning: It's not what you think it is. American Psychologist, 43, 151-160.
Rescorla, R.A. (1991) Associative relations in Instrumental learning: The eighteenth Bartlet Memorial Lecture. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43B, 1-23.
Rescorla, R.A. (1992) Hierarchical associative relations in Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental training. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 66-70.
Swartzentruber, D., and Rescorla, R. A. (1994) Modulation of trained and extinguished stimuli by facilitators and inhibitors. Animal Learning and Behavior, 22, 309-316.
Rescorla, R. A., and Coldwell, S. E. (1995) Summation in Autoshaping. Animal Learning and Behavior, 23, 314-326.
Rescorla, R. A. (1996) Spontaneous recovery after training with multiple outcomes. Animal Learning and Behavior, 24, 11-18.
Rescorla, R.A. (1997) Response-inhibition in extinction. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50B, 238-252.
Rescorla, R. A. (1998). Instrumental learning: Nature and Persistence. In M. Sabourin, F. I. M. Craig, & M. Roberts (Eds.), Proceedings of the XXVI International Congress of Psychology, Vol. 2. Advances in Psychological Science: Biological and Cognitive Aspects. (Pp. 239-258). London: Psychology Press.
Rescorla, R. A. (1999). Summation and overexpectation with qualitatively different outcomes. Animal Learning and Behavior, 27, 50-62.
Rescorla, R. A. (2000). Associative changes in excitors and inhibitors differ when they are conditioned in compound. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 26, 428-438
Rescorla, R. A. (2001). Experimental Extinction, In R. R. Mowrer & S. Klein (Eds.) Handbook of contemporary learning theories. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 119-154.
Rescorla, R. A. (2002). Savings Tests: Separating differences in rate of learning from differences in initial levels. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 28, 369-377.
Rescorla, R. A. (2002). Comparison of the rates of associative change during acquisition and extinction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 28, 406-415.