On the Role of the Reinforcer in Associative Learning

Abstract

In this chapter, the author addresses what he terms a “paradigm shift,” or a change in the form that behavior analysis has recently taken. His view of learning attempts to account for animal behavior not only in terms of reinforcement but also in terms of innate responses and cognitive processes. The author traces new outlines for the functions of the reinforcer in engendering behavior change in associative learning. Associative learning seems in large part a result of the ability of animals to extract correlations in time and space between events from nature. Implicated in the constraint of sensory preconditioning are what may be termed the habituative processes, habituation proper and latent extinction, which are at least as general as sensory preconditioning and latent learning but with opposite effects. It is possible to muster other quite plausible evolutionary advantages of the interlocking of habituative and associative processes.