In his comment, Black (AA 526 155) argued that Maier and Seligman (EJ 138 911) incorrectly interpreted competing motor response explanations of the learned helplessness effect. Here, it is argued that no article that has proposed a competing motor response explanation of the learned helplessness effect has alluded to a mechanism similar to the one…

Accounts of learning and generalization typically focus on factors related to lasting changes in representation (i.e., long-term memory). The authors present evidence that shorter term effects also play a critical role in determining performance and that these recency effects can be subdivided into perceptual and decisional components.…

Food words were considered as conditioned stimuli that elicit an appetitive emotional response. (Editor)

Comments on Maier and Seligman's research (EJ 138 911) on learned helplessness, specifically on their analysis of alternatives to the learned helplessness hypothesis. (Author/RK)

Stimulus analyzer theory as proposed by Sutherland and Mackintosh (1971) makes the unique prediction that the first-experienced reinforcement schedule will influence resistance to extinction more than subsequent schedules. Results presently reported of runaway acquisition and extinction indicate the opposite: C-P consistently produce substantially…

These experiments attempt to optimize the possibility of demonstrating blocking in a taste-aversion paradigm and to elucidate the conditions under which this interference occurs. (Author/RK)

To complement investigations of the direct effects of lithium toxicosis on consummatory behavior, these experiments were designed to determine the aftereffects on drinking of exposure to a conditioned stimulus previously paired with lithium. (Author/RK)

In four different experiments, brief illumination of a localized visual stimulus was followed by grain presentation unless the pigeon approached the light. Results indicate that although response-reinforcer relations do play a role, stimulus-reinforcer contingencies are the dominant factor in establishing and maintaining approaches to the…

An analysis of two paradigms suggests that predictions in regard to the effects of stimulus preexposure must take into account not only the novelty of the stimulus, but the relationship of that novelty to that of the environment at the time of testing. (Editor/RK)

Analyzes the temporal features of the transient unconditioned stimulus preexposure effect observed by Cannon (EJ 123 672) and attempts to determine whether a preconditioned stimulus toxin presentation can both condition a backward taste aversion and interfere with the development of a forward aversion. (Author/RK)

In honeybees, the proboscis extension response (PER) can be conditioned by associating an odor stimulus (CS) to a sucrose reward (US). Conditioned responses to the CS, which are acquired by most bees after a single CS-US pairing, disappear after repeated unrewarded presentations of the CS, a process called extinction. Extinction is usually thought…

These experiments are addressed specifically to the question of whether transituational transfer of immunizing and therapeutic effects will occur when these procedures involve responses and settings which are very different from those used in final testing. (Author/RK)

Investigates the possibility that memory for the conditioned response (CR) may be subject to the same sorts of interference that have been found to operate in verbal and perceptual-motor memory situations. Considers the implications for developing a general theory of memory. (Editor/RK)

The lack of standardization in research involving pictorial variables has made it difficult to clarify the functions of pictorial stimuli in learning. This study sought to determine whether selected methods of rendering pictorial illustrations influenced the number and type of descriptive words evoked in a verbal association task. Normally the…

Learning behavior of young children of contrasting socioeconomic backgrounds is examined in this study, which poses the question: what are the necessary or sufficient environmental conditions for the establishment of identifiable patterns of behavior? Socioeconomic level (SEL), the principal independent variable, was defined in terms of parental…