Deutsch's Model Applied to a Conditional Maze

Holding & Pritchatt have recently suggested that an experiment by Sheldon, in which rats learned to choose the more frequently rewarded of two paths to the same goal, is not a critical test of Deutsch's theory of behaviour since that theory can be shown to predict that certain schedules of training will establish temporary preferences for one of the paths. The results of an experiment with mice were offered as confirming this prediction. In the present paper it is argued (1) that Holding & Pritchatt's results are not entirely satisfactory; (2) that their experiment is probably not relevant to Sheldon's experiment; (3) that Deutsch's theory cannot explain the apparent stability of conditional learning

Cognitive psychology · Machine learning · Stability (learning theory) · Test (biology) · Computer Science · Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics · Memory and Neural Mechanisms · Psychology · Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling