Abstract
Associative theories of learning have been used to explain human contingency learning since the 1980's. Recent findings have led several authors to claim that there is no evidence clearly showing the engagement of associative processes of acquisition or representation in human contingency learning, and to propose non-associative accounts. Prim- ing techniques can detect associative representations when the right parameters are employed. The present paper reviews evidence available of associative representations created after human contingency learning obtained using priming techniques. The evidence reviewed supports associative theories of learning and the assumption of spreading activation and associations between representations.
Highlights
Associative theories of learning have been used to explain human contingency learning since the 1980’s
Priming techniques have been widely used in the study of memory and psycholinguistics, and it is well known that using adequate parameters, associations between representations of stimuli can be measured without the engagement of high level or strategic processes [34,35,36,37]
The present non-exhaustive review of previous results shows that associative repetition priming can be found after training in an Human contingency learning (HCL) task
Summary
In the 1980’s several works led to a great growth of the study of HCL, as they related human learning to animal associative learning and the group of theories and models used to explain it (for a review see [4, 5]). For example Dickinson, Shanks and Evenden [6] found evidence of blocking, a phenomenon described earlier by Kamin in rats that later proved to be critical for theories of animal learning. The blocking phenomenon, which is a kind of cue competition effect, is observed when participants are exposed to Cues AB-Outcome 1 pairings after having been exposed to. Shanks [7] showed that humans’ verbal judgements were sensitive to contingency manipulations in a similar way as responses of non human animals
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