Context, Ambiguity, and Classical Conditioning

Abstract

Ambiguity is a fundamental as pect of language. Words and phrases often have more than one meaning. The ambiguity is resolved, at least in part, by information pro vided by the context. For example, Fire! has different meanings, and evokes very different responses, in the movie theater and in the shoot ing gallery. I would like to suggest that ambiguity and context may be just as important in classical condi tioning. When Pavlovian cues have multiple meanings, the behavior they evoke also depends on the cur rent context.