Individual Differences In Associative Learning

Theories of associative learning have a long history in advancing the psychological account of behavior via cognitive representation. There are many components and variations of associative theory but at the core is the idea that links or connections between stimuli or responses describe important aspects of our psychological experience. This Frontiers Topic considers how variations in association formation can be used to account for differences between people, elaborating the differences between males and females, differences over the life span, understanding of psychopathologies or even across cultural contexts. A recent volume on the application of learning theory to clinical psychology is one example of this emerging application (e.g., Hazelgrove & Hogarth, 2012). The task for students of learning has been the development, often with mathematically defined explanations, of the parameters and operators that determine the formation and strengths of associations. The ultimate goal is to explain how the acquired representations influence future behavior. This approach has recently been influential in the field of neuroscience where one such learning operator, the error correction principle, has unified the understanding of the conditions which facilitate neuron activation with the computational goals of the brain with properties of learning algorithms (e.g., Rescorla & Wagner, 1972). In this Frontiers Research Topic, we are interested in a similar but currently developing aspect to learning theory, which is the application of the associative model to our understanding of individual differences, including psychopathology. In general, learning theories are monolithic, the same theory applies to the rat and the human, and within people the same algorithm is applied to all individuals. If so this might be thought to suggest that there is little that learning theory can tell us about the how males and females differ, how we change over time or why someone develops schizophrenia for instance. However, these theories have wide scope for developing our understanding of when learning occurs and when it is interfered with, along with a variety of methods of predicting these differences. We received contributions from researchers studying individual differences, including sex differences, age related changes and those using analog or clinical samples of personality and psychopathological disorders where the outcomes of the research bear directly on theories of associative learning. This Research Topic brings together researchers studying basic learning and conditioning processes but in which the basic emotional, attentional, pathological or more general physiological differences between groups of people are modeled using associative theory. This work involves varying stimulus properties and temporal relations or modeling the differences between groups.

Although many professionals in psychology (including the sub-disciplines of human learning and memory, clinical practice related to psychopathology, neuroscience, educational psychology and many other areas) no longer receive training in learning and conditioning, the influence of this field remains strong. Therefore, many researchers and clinicians have little knowledge about basic learning theory and its current applications beyond their own specific research topic. The primary purpose of the present volume is to highlight ways in which basic learning principles, methodology, and phenomena underpin, and indeed guide, contemporary translational research. With contributions from a distinguished collection of internationally renowned scholars, this 23-chapter volume contains specific research issues but is also broad in scope, covering a variety of topics in which associative learning and conditioning theory apply, such as drug abuse and addiction, anxiety, fear and pain research, advertising, attribution processes, acquisition of likes and dislikes, social learning, psychoneuroimmunology, and psychopathology (e.g., autism, depression, helplessness and schizophrenia). This breadth is captured in the titles of the three major sections of the book: Applications to Clinical Pathology; Applications to Health and Addiction; Applications to Cognition, Social Interaction and Motivation. The critically important phenomena and methodology of learning and conditioning continue to have a profound influence on theory and clinical concerns related to the mechanisms of memory, cognition, education, and pathology of emotional and consummatory disorders. This volume is expected to have the unique quality of serving the interests of many researchers, educators and clinicians including, for example, neuroscientists, learning and conditioning researchers, psychopharmacologists, clinical psychopathologists, and practitioners in the medical field.

Memory conveys the state of knowledge regarding human memory. This book is composed of seven parts beginning with a discussion on different memory structures and the processes that regulate the flow of information between those structures. A chapter follows on the distinction between explicit and implicit memory. Other chapters address the different aspects of storing information in long-term memory; how information in long-term memories is accessed; and the controlling and monitoring of such storage and retrieval processes. How memory capacities and characteristics vary as a function of individual differences and aging, as well as the implications of memory research for two real-world domains of strong interest: witness interrogation and testimony and the long-term retention of skills and knowledge, are also addressed. This handbook will be an important resource for students of human memory.

For the previous 6 years before publication, Office of Naval Research (ONR) had been conducting a thematically oriented contract research program aimed, in large part, at developing the kind of broad theoretical framework necessary for a workable process interpretation of aptitude, learning, and performance. Originally published in 1980, the papers in this collection are generally addressed to three broad areas that were central to those interests of the ONR Personnel and Training Research Programs. One area is concerned with individual differences information processing, as revealed in simple laboratory or psychometric tests. The second area focuses on the structural aspects of learning and performance, using tools and concepts from semantic memory theory to describe what is learned and how it is learned. And the third area is aimed at the management of instruction: It addresses itself to the kinds of research and instructional designs required for effective implementation of adaptive instruction.

Among particular issues discussed in this book are the problems of the cultural disadvantaged, the problems of devising psychological tests which are not biased towards any particular culture, the problems of minority groups of children in education and the relationship between heritability and teachability.

Neuroscience for Addiction Medicine: From Prevention to Rehabilitation: Constructs and Drugs is the latest volume from Progress in Brain Research focusing on new trends and developments in addiction research. This established international series examines major areas of basic and clinical research within neuroscience, as well as popular emerging subfields such as addiction. This volume takes an integrated approach to review and summarize some of the most recent progress from the subfield of addiction research, with particular emphasis on potential applications in a clinical setting. Explores new trends and developments in basic and clinical research in the addiction subfield of neuroscience Uses an integrated approach to review and summarize recent progress Emphasizes potential applications in a clinical setting Enhances the literature of neuroscience by further expanding the established international series Progress in Brain Research