The propositional approach to associative learning as an alternative for association formation models

Abstract

Associative learning effects can be defined as changes in behavior that are due to relations between events in the world. Most often, these effects are explained in terms of the formation of unqualified associations in memory. I describe an alternative theoretical explanation, according to which associative learning effects are the result of the nonautomatic generation and evaluation of propositions about relations between events. This idea is supported by many studies showing that associative learning effects are determined not only by the direct experience of events but also by prior knowledge, instructions, intervention, and deductive reasoning. Moreover, evidence supports the assumption that associative learning effects depend on nonautomatic processes. Whereas a propositional approach thus offers many new insights, questions can be raised about what the idea of association formation adds to our understanding of associative learning

Evaluative Conditioning is Insensitive to Blocking

“…Note that the lack of blocking in EC is also consistent with recent propositional accounts of EC (De Houwer, 2007) and associative learning in humans in general (De Houwer, 2009). According to a propositional account, human performance in associative learning tasks reflects their truth-evaluation of propositions about the relation between CS and US.…”

“…As such, the same information structures present in memory may yield different functional characteristics for different kinds of conditioned responses. Recent research suggests that particularly blocking and other forms of cue competition are not the solid phenomena that their central, hard-wired status in contemporary associative learning theories would suggest, neither in causal learning (e.g., Beckers, De Houwer, Pineño, & Miller, 2005), nor in human electrodermal conditioning (Mitchell & Lovibond, 2002); rather, the available evidence suggests that their occurrence crucially depends on the appropriateness and possibility of truth-evaluating propositions that will yield cue competition (De Houwer, 2009;. Remarkably, even in Pavlovian conditioning in animals, the occurrence of blocking seems sensitive to manipulations that affect the propositions that the animals should truth-evaluate (Beckers, Miller, De Houwer, & Urushihara, 2006).…”

Return of fear after retrospective inferences about the absence of an unconditioned stimulus during extinction

“…According to propositional models of associative learning (De Houwer, 2009;De Houwer, Beckers, & Vandorpe, 2005;Mitchell, et al, 2009), retrospective inferences that give rise to an alternative interpretation of the observed contingencies should lead to a change in conditioned responding. Within the context of extinction, a return of the CR after extinction is expected when people retrospectively attribute the absence of the US during extinction to a third factor that was present only during the extinction phase.…”

“…Another class of theories describes the extinction process in terms of the formation and evaluation of propositions (De Houwer, 2009;Lovibond, 2003;Mitchell, De Houwer, & Lovibond, 2009). According to the propositional account, the extinction procedure allows participants to verify that the CS is no longer followed by the US.…”

Feature-Specific Attention Allocation Modulates the Generalization of Recently Acquired Likes and Dislikes

“…As a first example of such an account, consider the propositional account of EC (see De Houwer, 2009;Mitchell et al, 2009). According to this model, EC effects are mediated by the formation of propositions about the relationship between the CS and the US.…”