Cognitive Aspects of Stimulus Control

Cognitive Aspects of Stimulus Control

Author: W. K. Honig

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2018-10-24

Total Pages: 456

ISBN-13: 1317728513

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The study of discrimination and generalization in animals traditionally involves stimuli that are simple, uniform, and restricted in time or space. In recent years, the area of stimulus control has been expanded with the use of stimuli that are complex, extended in time or space, and incorporate or represent natural objects, events, or locations. The contributors to this unique volume have emphasized controlling functions of complex stimulus events -- such as location or duration -- and their relation to cognitive processes in animals. The chapters cover a wide array of topics, including spatial cognition, categorization, pattern perception, numerosity discriminations, imagery, and spatial tracking, thereby addressing the question of how complex events are perceived, processed, and organized. This volume goes beyond other recent books on animal cognition in that it specifically places some well-known phenomena within the context of stimulus control.


Animal Cognition

Animal Cognition

Author: Thomas R. Zentall

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2013-12-02

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 1317782127

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Prepared as a tribute to Donald A. Riley, the essays that appear here are representative of a research area that has loosely been classified as animal cognition -- a categorization that reflects a functionalist philosophy that was prevalent in Riley's laboratory and that many of his students absorbed. According to this philosophy, it is acceptable to hypothesize that an animal might engage in complex processing of information, as long as one can operationalize evidence for such a process and the hypothesis can be presented in the context of testable predictions that can differentiate it from other mechanisms. The contributions to this volume represent the three most important areas of research in animal cognition -- stimulus representation, memory processes, and perceptual processes -- although current research has considerably blurred these distinctions.


Rule-Governed Behavior

Rule-Governed Behavior

Author: Steven C. Hayes

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 404

ISBN-13: 147570447X

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Animal learning and human learning traditions have been distinguishable within psychology since the start of the discipline and are to this day. The human learning wing was interested in the development of psychological functions in human organisms and proceeded directly to their examination. The animal learning wing was not distinguished by a corresponding interest in animal behavior per se. Rather, the animal learners studied animal behavior in order to identify principles of behavior of relevance to humans as well as other organisms. The two traditions, in other words, did not differ so much on goals as on strategies. It is not by accident that so many techniques of modem applied psychol ogy have emerged from the animal laboratory. That was one of the ultimate purposes of this work from the very beginning. The envisioned extension to humans was not just technological, however. Many animal researchers, B. F. Skinner most prominently among them, recognized that direct basic research with humans might ultimately be needed in certain areas but that it was wise first to build a strong foundation in the controlled environment of the animal laboratory. In a sense, animal learning was always in part a human research program in development.


The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition

The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition

Author: Thomas R. Zentall

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2012-03-20

Total Pages: 941

ISBN-13: 019993066X

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In the past decade, the field of comparative cognition has grown and thrived. No less rigorous than purely behavioristic investigations, examinations of animal intelligence are useful for scientists and psychologists alike in their quest to understand the nature and mechanisms of intelligence. Extensive field research of various species has yielded exciting new areas of research, integrating findings from psychology, behavioral ecology, and ethology in a unique and wide-ranging synthesis of theory and research on animal cognition. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Cognition contains sections on perception and illusion, attention and search, memory processes, spatial cognition, conceptualization and categorization, problem solving and behavioral flexibility, and social cognition processes including findings in primate tool usage, pattern learning, and counting. The authors have incorporated findings and theoretical approaches that reflect the current state of the field. This comprehensive volume will be a must-read for students and scientists who want to know about the state of the art of the modern science of comparative cognition.


Comparative Cognition : Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Comparative Cognition : Experimental Explorations of Animal Intelligence

Author: Edward A. Wasserman Department of Psychology University of Iowa

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2006-04-20

Total Pages: 720

ISBN-13: 019970340X

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Comparative Cognition celebrates comparative cognitions first quarter century with a state-of-the-art collection of chapters covering the broad realm of the scientific study of animal intelligence. It will be an invaluable resource for students and professional researchers in all areas of psychology and neuroscience.


Stimulus Class Formation in Humans and Animals

Stimulus Class Formation in Humans and Animals

Author: T.R. Zentall

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 1996-10-24

Total Pages: 323

ISBN-13: 0080541798

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Stimulus class formation has been studied independently by two groups of researchers. One group has come out of a learning theory approach, while the second has developed out of a behavior analytic tradition. The purpose of the present volume is to further establish the ties between these two research areas while allowing for differences in approach to the questions asked. The book is loosely organized around four themes. The first two sections deal with what constitutes functional and equivalence classes in animals and humans. In the third section, the authors attempt to identify stimulus control variables that contribute to the formation of equivalences classes. The last section deals with the complex issue of the role of verbal behavior in equivalence classes. The goal of the book is to provide the reader with a better understanding of the current state of research and theory in stimulus class formation. It is also hoped that it will stimulate research into how and under what conditions, stimulus classes can form.


Animal Cognition and Sequential Behavior

Animal Cognition and Sequential Behavior

Author: Stephen B. Fountain

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 1461508215

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Animal Cognition and Sequential Behavior: Behavioral, Biological, and Computational Perspectives brings together psychologists studying cognitive skill in animal and human subjects, connectionist theorists, and neuroscientists who have a common interest in understanding function and dysfunction in the realm of complex cognitive behavior. In this volume, discussion focuses on behavioral, cognitive, psychobiological, and computational approaches to understanding the integration of ongoing behavior, with particular attention to models of timing and the organization of sequential behavior.


Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior

Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior

Author: Tetsuro Matsuzawa

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2009-03-12

Total Pages: 597

ISBN-13: 4431094237

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Biologists and anthropologists in Japan have played a crucial role in the development of primatology as a scientific discipline. Publication of Primate Origins of Human Cognition and Behavior under the editorship of Tetsuro Matsuzawa reaffirms the pervasive and creative role played by the intellectual descendants of Kinji Imanishi and Junichiro Itani in the fields of behavioral ecology, psychology, and cognitive science. Matsuzawa and his colleagues-humans and other primate partners- explore a broad range of issues including the phylogeny of perception and cognition; the origin of human speech; learning and memory; recognition of self, others, and species; society and social interaction; and culture. With data from field and laboratory studies of more than 90 primate species and of more than 50 years of long-term research, the intellectual breadth represented in this volume makes it a major contribution to comparative cognitive science and to current views on the origin of the mind and behavior of humans.


The Automaticity of Everyday Life

The Automaticity of Everyday Life

Author: Robert S. Wyer, Jr.

Publisher: Psychology Press

Published: 2014-02-25

Total Pages: 267

ISBN-13: 1317780205

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As Skinner argued so pointedly, the more we know about the situational causes of psychological phenomena, the less need we have for postulating internal conscious mediating processes to explain those phenomena. Now, as the purview of social psychology is precisely to discover those situational causes of thinking, feeling, and acting in the real or implied presence of other people, it is hard to escape the forecast that as knowledge progresses regarding social psychological phenomena there will be less of a role played by free will or conscious choice in accounting for them. In other words, because of social psychology's natural focus on the situational determinants of thinking, feeling, and doing, it is inevitable that social psychological phenomena increasingly will be found to be automatic in nature. This 10th book in the series addresses automaticity and how it relates to social behavior. The lead article, written by John Bargh, argues that social psychology phenomena are essentially automatic in nature, as opposed to being mediated by conscious choice or reflection. Bargh maintains that an automatic mental phenomenon is that which occurs reflexively whenever certain triggering conditions are in place; when those conditions are present, the process runs off autonomously, independently of conscious guidance. In his lead article, he focuses on these preconscious automatic processes that can be contrasted with postconscious and goal-dependent forms of automaticity which depend on more than the mere presence of environmental objects or events. Because social psychology, like automaticity theory and research, is also largely concerned with phenomena that occur whenever certain situational features or factors are in place, social psychology phenomena are essentially automatic. Students and researchers in social and cognitive psychology will find this to be a provocative addition to the series.