The Discriminative Stimulus and Response Enhancing Properties of Reward Produced Memories

What is learned in sequential learning? An associative model of reward magnitude serial-pattern learning.

“…In this article, it has been demonstrated that SPAM, a subsymbolic associative memory model, can simulate what have been taken to be examples of cognitive phenomena in rats-rule induction, rule generalization, and rule extrapolation. The results add to a growing body of evidence that animal sequential behavior, even putatively "complex" processes such as phrasing effects on chunking (Capaldi, 2002;Capaldi et al, 1984;Stempowski et al, 1999;Terrace, 1987), can be understood in terms of subsymbolic mediating processes. Whereas one must be cautious not to throw out the baby with the bath water, our results suggest that a healthy skepticism should be maintained toward nonassociative and "emergent" processes in cognitive theorizing.…”

“…Similarly, in the field of sequential learning, a fundamental question that is not yet fully answered is “What is learned in sequential learning?” In animal sequential-learning research, claims that animals chunk information and form hierarchical representations to facilitate sequential learning and memory (Dallal & Meck, 1990; Fountain, Henne, & Hulse, 1984; Macuda & Roberts, 1995; Roberts, 1979; Terrace, 1987) have inspired research designed to determine what processes mediate chunking and related phenomena. For example, serial-learning research has investigated a number of factors thought to affect how animals encode sequences of events (Capaldi, 2002; Capaldi, Verry, Nawrocki, & Miller, 1984; Fountain, 1990; Fountain et al, 1984; Fountain & Rowan, 1995a; Fountain, Rowan, & Benson, 1999; Fountain, Wallace, & Rowan, 2002; Swartz, Chen, & Terrace, 1991; Terrace, 1987, 1991, 2002 ; Terrace & Chen, 1991a, 1991b). Evidence has accumulated that performance in sequential-learning tasks may be mediated by discrimination-learning processes (e.g., Capaldi, 1985, 1994; Capaldi & Miller, 1988; Fountain, Benson, & Wallace, 2000; Stempowski, Carman, & Fountain, 1999), by a representation of the serial position of items (e.g., Burns, Dunkman, & Detloff, 1999; Chen, Swartz, & Terrace, 1997; Roitblat, Pologe, & Scopatz, 1983), or by a representation of pattern organization through some form of rule learning (Fountain et al, 1984; Fountain & Rowan, 1995a, 1995b ).…”

An Associative Model of Rat Serial Pattern Learning in Three-Element Sequences

“…One possible explanation of the foregoing effects is that response-enhancing mechanisms modulate anticipation. Capaldi (1998) reported that response-enhancing properties of larger reinforcements are a plausible mechanism for varying levels of element anticipation in serial patterns. Response enhancement refers to the observed effect that large food quantities enhance responding (increase running speed in runways) on trials that follow the large reward.…”