2012/08/27 by Anthony Dickinson · 3 citations
Psychology · Neuroscience · #Action Observation and Synchronization #Child and Animal Learning Development #Memory and Neural Mechanisms
paper · pdf · doi:10.1098/rstb.2012.0220
openalex publication_date 2012/08/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/15
Associative learning plays a variety of roles in the study of animal cognition from a core theoretical component to a null hypothesis against which the contribution of cognitive processes is assessed. Two developments in contemporary associative learning have enhanced its relevance to animal cognition. The first concerns the role of associatively activated representations, whereas the second is the development of hybrid theories in which learning is determined by prediction errors, both directly and indirectly through associability processes. However, it remains unclear whether these developments allow associative theory to capture the psychological rationality of cognition. I argue that embodying associative processes within specific processing architectures provides mechanisms that can mediate psychological rationality and illustrate such embodiment by discussing the relationship between practical reasoning and the associative-cybernetic model of goal-directed action.