Single Idea 14955

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 2. Associationism]

Full Idea

Contrary to early behaviourist dogma, associations are not all equally learnable. Rats learn to associate eating with nausea, and a flash with a shock, much more easily than either complementary pairing.

Gist of Idea

Rats find some obvious associations easier to learn than less obvious ones

Source

J Ladyman / D Ross (Every Thing Must Go [2007], 5.2)

Book Reference

Ladyman,J/Ross,D: 'Every Thing Must Go' [OUP 2007], p.267


A Reaction

That looks like an argue for some sort of innate knowledge, but experiments to disentangle eating from nausea must be rather hard to set up.