ABSTRACT
The various associative accounts of learning and behaviour share a single core notion—the suggestion that central representations of specified elements can become linked so that activation of one can excite its associate. Although intended to have widespread (even universal) applicability, this notion is most easily exemplified (and has been most rigorously explored) in studies of conditioning in non-human animals. When a pigeon receives a series of trials in which the illumination of a keylight is reliably followed by the presentation of food, the change in its behaviour (the development of a tendency to approach and peck the lit key) has been taken to reflect the formation of an association between (the central representations of) keylight and food. Operant conditioning has received a similar analysis, it being assumed that a pattern of behaviour can be treated as an element that can enter into association.
