ABSTRACT
The associative account of learning has at its heart just a single concept-the no tion that the central representations of events can become linked so that activa tion of one can excite its associate. Of course any adequate theory of learning needs to consider other things-the exact conditions in which the events need to be presented for an association to be formed; how excitation of a representation produces changes in behavior; and so on. But these other issues, although they have been the subject of much debate among theorists, remain secondary mat ters. Only inhibitory learning, with its implication that associations might inhibit rather than excite representations, and, more recently “ occasion-setting” (Hol land, 1982; Rescorla, 1985) with its implication that associations might act on other associations rather than on event-representations, have challenged the sim plicity of the basic conception.
