Context-Sensitive Elemental Theory

My theories of associative learning, like those of N. J. Mackintosh and almost all learning theorists, have employed elemental representations of the stimuli involved. We must take notice when two important contributors to elemental theory, J. M. Pearce and W. K. Estes, find sufficient problems with the theory type to cause them to defect from it. I will describe some of the essential problems, concerning the substantial influence of context on learning and retrieval, characterize the different responses of Pearce and Estes, and, then, propose a variation on a recently developed elemental model that was similarly inspired. The resulting elemental theory has a close quantitative relationship to the “product-rule” of Estes and D. L. Medin, and may help us to rationalize how the same formal experimental design can sometimes produce results that favour the configural interpretation of Pearce and at other times the elemental interpretation of R. A. Rescorla and A. R. Wagner, as these have often been pitted against each other.

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