Learning about Environmental Geometry: an Associative Model

K. Cheng (1986) suggested that learning the geometry of enclosing surfaces takes place in a geometric module blind to other spatial information. Failures to find blocking or overshadowing of geometry learning by features near a goal seem consistent with this view. The authors present an operant model in which learning spatial features competes with geometry learning, as in the Rescorla-Wagner model. Relative total associative strength of cues at a location determines choice of that location and thus the frequencies of reward paired with each cue. The model shows how competitive learning of local features and geometry can appear to result in potentiation, blocking, or independence, depending on enclosure shape and kind of features. The model reproduces numerous findings from dry arenas and water mazes.