The development and present status of the SOP model of associative learning

Vögel, Edgar; Ponce, Fernando P.; Wagner, Allan R.

doi:10.1177/1747021818777074

Cited by 31 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…The SOP model is described in more detail elsewhere (e.g., Wagner, 1981 ; Mazur and Wagner, 1982 ; Vogel et al., 2018 ), so we present only its essentials here. As shown in Figure 1A , the model states that the representation of any stimulus (i.e., “s”) comprises a large set of elements that can be in one of three states of activity: inactive (I s ), primary activity (A1 s ), and secondary activity (A2 s ).…”

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although this may sound straightforward, context-stimulus associations are more theoretically challenging than they appear. Vogel et al. (2018) noticed that if the context is viewed intuitively as a long duration CS with a constant value of PA1 Ctxt over the entire duration of the session, then SOP predicts no net association with the habituating stimulus.…”

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In this example, the net excitatory association that would be acquired by the context during the period in which the stimulus is in its A1 state of activity will be overcome by the inhibitory associations that would be provoked during the occasions in which the context is in its primary activity and the stimulus in its secondary activity during the inter-trial intervals. In order to solve this, Vogel et al. (2018) suggested that contexts should not be represented as a long uniform stimulus with a constant primary activity.…”

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To implement the idea of context disruption, Vogel et al. (2018) adopted the simple strategy of setting the p 1 Ctxt value to zero for some period after the presentation of explicit cues.…”

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Quantitative Account of the Behavioral Characteristics of Habituation: The Sometimes Opponent Processes Model of Stimulus Processing

et al. 2019

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Habituation is defined as a decline in responding to a repeated stimulus. After more than 80 years of research, there is an enduring consensus among researchers on the existence of 9–10 behavioral regularities or parameters of habituation. There is no similar agreement, however, on the best approach to explain these facts. In this paper, we demonstrate that the Sometimes Opponent Processes (SOP) model of stimulus processing accurately describes all of these regularities. This model was proposed by Allan Wagner as a quantitative elaboration of priming theory, which states that the processing of a stimulus, and therefore its capacity to provoke its response, depends inversely on the degree to which the stimulus is pre-represented in short-term memory. Using computer simulations, we show that all the facts involving within-session effects or short-term habituation might be the result of priming from recent presentations of the stimulus (self-generated priming). The characteristics involving between-sessions effects or long-term habituation would result from the retrieval of the representation of the stimulus from memory by the associated context (associatively generated priming).

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Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To implement the idea of context disruption, Vogel et al. (2018) adopted the simple strategy of setting the p 1 Ctxt value to zero for some period after the presentation of explicit cues.…”

Section: The Sop Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Quantitative Account of the Behavioral Characteristics of Habituation: The Sometimes Opponent Processes Model of Stimulus Processing

et al. 2019

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“…The paper by Hall and Rodríguez (2019) provides an account of perceptual learning that develops upon earlier theoretical analyses by McLaren, Kaye and Mackintosh (1989) and by Hall (2003), bringing into play the kinds of suggestions that are included in attentional theories of associative learning (e.g., Mackintosh, 1975; Pearce & Hall, 1980) but which, they argue, are critical for the perceptual learning effect. The paper by Vogel, Ponce, and Wagner (2019) describes the theoretical development of one of the most complete theories of associative learning: the Sometimes opponent-process (SOP) model, as well as some refinements that permit it to provide an explanation for data on predictability and stimulus associability that, at first blush, may appear to be beyond the scope of the original model. Like Nick Mackintosh, Alan Wagner made a contribution to the psychology of associative learning that is difficult to overestimate, and it was with great sadness that we learned, while writing this editorial, of the death of Alan Wagner.…”

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confidence: 99%

The psychology of associative learning: Editorial

Haselgrove

McLaren

2019

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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The articles in this Special Issue have been chosen to cover the rather wide range of topics that fall under the heading "Associative Learning." As such, they represent one strand of the work of Nick Mackintosh, who passed away in February 2015, with other aspects of his research, notably his work on individual differences and IQ, only touched on in passing. Nevertheless, even though they do not encompass the full range of Nick's interests, they still convey something of the sheer scope of his contribution to our subject, and the way in which he was able to take a particular approach to psychology and apply it to almost any subdomain of that discipline. The papers brought together in this volume are testament to the fact that this approach still commands our attention today and still has an important role in psychology at this time. An obituary to Nick is published in Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society (Pearce, 2018).The first article in this Special Issue is the Inaugural Mackintosh Lecture given at the Associative Learning Symposium held at Gregynog Hall, Wales, Easter 2016. This lecture series was established in honour of Nick's contribution to psychology and in particular to associative learning. In it, McLaren et al. (2019) make the case for associative learning in humans, an issue that Nick had worked on with several of the authors previously. Using paradigms ranging from Pavlovian conditioning in humans to task switching and sequence production, they show that there are more than propositional processes at work controlling behaviour and provide evidence for an associative component as well. Where this approach differs from more traditional dual-process theories is in emphasising the way that associative and rule-based processes are different facets of the same learning system. It is not that there are two systems operating in parallel; instead, the view is that there is one system that amounts to propositional processes constructed from an associative substrate. Such a system may typically seem propositional in nature, but can be persuaded to reveal its associative underpinnings.The second article, by Ahmed and Lovibond (2019), explores the peak shift effect, studied in both pigeons and humans by Sarah Wills and Nick Mackintosh (1998). Peak shift refers to the observation that, following training of two stimuli that differ along points on a dimension as a CS+ and CS−, conditioned responding is strongest not to the CS+ but to a stimulus further along the dimension from the CS+, in the opposite direction to the CS−. Lovibond and Ahmed show, in two shock conditioning experiments with human participants, that this effect can be modulated by verbalisable rules. In both experiments, different gradients were observed when participants were divided on the basis of the rules they reported using during the task (linear and similarity). The authors argue that their results imply the involvement of rule-based processes in the generalisation of conditioned fear along simple stimulus dimensions. Peak s...

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