Cognitive theories as reinforcement history surrogates: the case of likelihood ratio models of human recognition memory.

Full Abstract

B. F. Skinner (1977) once argued that cognitive theories are essentially surrogates for the organism's (usually unknown) reinforcement history. In this article, we argue that this notion applies rather directly to a class of likelihood ratio models of human recognition memory. The point is not that such models are fundamentally flawed or that they are not useful and should be abandoned. Instead, the point is that the role of reinforcement history in shaping memory decisions could help to explain what otherwise must be explained by assuming that subjects are inexplicably endowed with the relevant distributional information and computational abilities. To the degree that a role for an organism's reinforcement history is appreciated, the importance of animal memory research in understanding human memory comes into clearer focus. As Skinner was also fond of pointing out, it is only in the animal laboratory that an organism's history of reinforcement can be precisely controlled and its effects on behavior clearly understood.

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Author information

Author/s: Wixted, John T (JT); Gaitan, Santino C (SC);

Affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. jwixted(-atsign-)ucsd.edu

Grants: 2 R01 MH55648-04A1 (Agency:United States NIMH)

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

Journal: Animal learning & behavior (Anim Learn Behav), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Nov; vol 30 (issue 4) : pp 289-305

Dates: Created 2003/02/20; Completed 2003/04/23; Revised 2007/11/14;

PMID: 12593322, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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