An elemental model of retrospective revaluation without within-compound associations

Learn Behav. 2014 Mar;42(1):22-38. doi: 10.3758/s13420-013-0112-z.

Abstract

When retrospective revaluation phenomena (e.g., unovershadowing: AB+, then A-, then test B) were discovered, simple elemental models were at a disadvantage because they could not explain such phenomena. Extensions of these models and novel models appealed to within-compound associations to accommodate these new data. Here, we present an elemental, neural network model of conditioning that explains retrospective revaluation apart from within-compound associations. In the model, previously paired stimuli (say, A and B, after AB+) come to activate similar ensembles of neurons, so that revaluation of one stimulus (A-) has the opposite effect on the other stimulus (B) through changes (decreases) in the strength of the inhibitory connections between neurons activated by B. The ventral striatum is discussed as a possible home for the structure and function of the present model.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Action Potentials / physiology*
  • Animals
  • Conditioning, Classical / physiology*
  • Cues
  • Inhibition, Psychological
  • Models, Psychological*
  • Neural Networks, Computer*
  • Neurons / physiology*