Abstract
Deeply rooted within the history of experimental psychology is the search for general laws of learning that hold across tasks and species. Central to this enterprise has been the notion of equipotentiality; that any two events have the same likelihood of being associated with one another as any other pair of events. Much work, generally summarized as ‘biological constraints on learning,’ has challenged this view, and demonstrates pre-existing relations between cues and outcomes, based on genes and prior experience, that influence potential associability. Learning theorists and comparative psychologists have thus recognized the need to consider how the evolutionary history as well as prior experience of the organism being studied influences its ability to learn about and navigate its environment. We suggest that current models of human memory, and human memory research in general, lack sufficient consideration of how human evolution has shaped human memory systems. We review several findings that suggest the human memory system preferentially processes information relevant to biological fitness, and highlight potential theoretical and applied benefits afforded by adopting this functionalist perspective.
Highlights
Rooted within the history of experimental psychology is the search for general laws of learning that hold across tasks and species
Using this double-dissociation design, Garcia and Koelling showed that rats were better able to associate the audio-visual cues with tactile pain than they were with illness
The debate surrounding biological constraints on learning have offered much insight into the factors that influence learning and behavioral processes and, at the very least, can be viewed as good circumstantial evidence against a singular learning system functioning in all species in all situations
Summary
Rooted within the history of experimental psychology is the search for general laws of learning that hold across tasks and species. Central to this enterprise has been the notion of equipotentiality, that any 2 events have the same likelihood of being associated with one another as any other pair of events. Generally summarized as biological constraints on learning, has challenged this view and demonstrates pre-existing relations between cues and outcomes, based on genes and prior experience, that influence potential associability. We suggest a simple computational amendment to existing models of learning and memory that would expand their explanatory power and discuss potential theoretical and applied benefits (and costs) afforded by adopting this functionalist perspective
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