| Records |
Author  |
Zentall, T.R. |
| Title |
A cognitive behaviorist approach to the study of animal behavior |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2002 |
Publication |
The Journal of general psychology |
Abbreviated Journal |
J Gen Psychol |
| Volume |
129 |
Issue |
4 |
Pages |
328-363 |
| Keywords |
Animals; *Attention; *Behavior, Animal; *Cognition; Learning; *Memory; Social Behavior |
| Abstract |
Traditional psychological approaches to animal learning and behavior have involved either the atheoretical behaviorist approach proposed by B. F. Skinner (1938), in which input-output relations are described in response to environmental manipulations, or the theoretical behaviorist approach offered by C. L Hull (1943), in which associations mediated by several hypothetical constructs and intervening variables are formed between stimuli and responses. Recently, the application of a cognitive behaviorist approach to animal learning and behavior has been found to have considerable value as a research tool. This perspective has grown out of E. C. Tolman's cognitive approach to learning in which behavior is mediated by mechanisms that are not directly observable but can be inferred from the results of critical experiments. In the present article, the author presents several examples of the successful application of the cognitive behaviorist approach. In each case, the experiments have been designed to distinguish between more traditional mechanisms and those mediated by hypothesized internal representations. These examples were selected because the evidence suggests that some form of active cognitive organization is needed to account for the behavioral results. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. Zentall@uky.edu |
| Corporate Author |
|
Thesis |
|
| Publisher |
|
Place of Publication |
|
Editor |
|
| Language |
English |
Summary Language |
|
Original Title |
|
| Series Editor |
|
Series Title |
|
Abbreviated Series Title |
|
| Series Volume |
|
Series Issue |
|
Edition |
|
| ISSN |
0022-1309 |
ISBN |
|
Medium |
|
| Area |
|
Expedition |
|
Conference |
|
| Notes |
PMID:12494989 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
214 |
| Permanent link to this record |
| |
|
| |
| Author |
Zentall, T.R.; Riley, D.A. |
| Title |
Selective attention in animal discrimination learning |
Type |
Journal Article |
| Year |
2000 |
Publication |
The Journal of general psychology |
Abbreviated Journal |
J Gen Psychol |
| Volume |
127 |
Issue |
1 |
Pages |
45-66 |
| Keywords |
Animals; Attention/*physiology; Behavior, Animal/physiology; Conditioning (Psychology)/physiology; Cues; Discrimination Learning/*physiology; Generalization, Response; Rats |
| Abstract |
The traditional approach to the study of selective attention in animal discrimination learning has been to ask if animals are capable of the central selective processing of stimuli, such that certain aspects of the discriminative stimuli are partially or wholly ignored while their relationships to each other, or other relevant stimuli, are processed. A notable characteristic of this research has been that procedures involve the acquisition of discriminations, and the issue of concern is whether learning is selectively determined by the stimulus dimension defined by the discriminative stimuli. Although there is support for this kind of selective attention, in many cases, simpler nonattentional accounts are sufficient to explain the results. An alternative approach involves procedures more similar to those used in human information-processing research. When selective attention is studied in humans, it generally involves the steady state performance of tasks for which there is limited time allowed for stimulus input and a relatively large amount of relevant information to be processed; thus, attention must be selective or divided. When this approach is applied to animals and alternative accounts have been ruled out, stronger evidence for selective or divided attention in animals has been found. Similar processes are thought to be involved when animals search more natural environments for targets. Finally, an attempt is made to distinguish these top-down attentional processes from more automatic preattentional processes that have been studied in humans and other animals. |
| Address |
Department of Psychology, University of Kentucky, Lexington 40506, USA. Zentall@pop.uky.edu |
| Corporate Author |
|
Thesis |
|
| Publisher |
|
Place of Publication |
|
Editor |
|
| Language |
English |
Summary Language |
|
Original Title |
|
| Series Editor |
|
Series Title |
|
Abbreviated Series Title |
|
| Series Volume |
|
Series Issue |
|
Edition |
|
| ISSN |
0022-1309 |
ISBN |
|
Medium |
|
| Area |
|
Expedition |
|
Conference |
|
| Notes |
PMID:10695951 |
Approved |
no |
| Call Number |
refbase @ user @ |
Serial |
250 |
| Permanent link to this record |
