What is important about McCollough effects? Reply to Allan and Siegel.

Dodwell, P. C.; Humphrey, G. Keith

doi:10.1037/0033-295x.100.2.347

Cited by 16 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…Thus, as causes and effects are expected to correlate, detecting these relationships, or contingencies, is a valuable skill to infer potential causality. In line with this reasoning, a great corpus of experimental evidence strongly suggests that manipulations of the contingency between potential causes and effects produce the corresponding variations in people’s judgments of causality ( Allan and Jenkins, 1980 ; Shanks and Dickinson, 1987 ; Dodwell and Humphrey, 1993 ; Blanco et al, 2010 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Causal Illusions in the Service of Political Attitudes in Spain and the United Kingdom

2018

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The causal illusion is a cognitive bias that results in the perception of causality where there is no supporting evidence. We show that people selectively exhibit the bias, especially in those situations where it favors their current worldview as revealed by their political orientation. In our two experiments (one conducted in Spain and one conducted in the United Kingdom), participants who self-positioned themselves on the ideological left formed the illusion that a left-wing ruling party was more successful in improving city indicators than a right-wing party, while participants on the ideological right tended to show the opposite pattern. In sum, despite the fact that the same information was presented to all participants, people developed the causal illusion bias selectively, providing very different interpretations that aligned with their previous attitudes. This result occurs in situations where participants inspect the relationship between the government’s actions and positive outcomes (improving city indicators) but not when the outcomes are negative (worsening city indicators).

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Causal Illusions in the Service of Political Attitudes in Spain and the United Kingdom

2018

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“…Its application to such phenomena has not been without criticism. For example, Dodwell and Humphrey (1993) suggested that Allan and Siegel's (1993) application of the RescorlaWagner model to the McCollough effect "attempts to divert modeling to a different direction from the one we find most insightful, not to say compelling" (p. 347). Markovits and Dumas (1992) took exception to Fersen et al's (1991) associative analysis of transitive inference in pigeons: "Great care must be taken before it is possible 'to unambiguously equate complex cognitive abilities with simple information-processing mechanisms" (p. 312).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As a result ofthe pairing ofthe CS (lined grid) with the DCS (color) a conditioned response (CR) develops so that the adaptive response of the visual system to the color is evoked by the lined grid" (p. 615). There has been considerable controversy about the value of interpreting the McCollough effect as an instance of classical conditioning (see, e.g., Allan & Siegel, 1986;Dodwell & Humphrey, 1993;Skowbo, 1984), but there have been many reports supporting this associative analysis of the phenomenon (e.g., Brand, Holding, & Jones, 1987;Eissenberg, Allan, Siegel, & Petrov, 1995;Siegel, Allan, & Eissenberg, 1992;Westbrook & Harrison, 1984). Many of the experiments evaluating the conditioning interpretation of the McCollough effect have been inspired by the Rescorla-Wagner model.…”

Section: Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The widespread influence of the Rescorla-Wagner model

Siegel

Allan

1996

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

130

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The theory of Pavlovian conditioning presented by Robert Rescorla and Allan Wagner in 1972 (the Rescorla-Wagner model) has been enormously important in animal learning research. It also has been applied in a variety of areas other than animal learning. We summarize the contribution of the Rescorla-Wagner model to research in verbal learning, social psychology, human category learning, human judgments of correlational relationships, transitive inference, color aftereffects, and physiological regulation. We conclude that there have been few models in experimental psychology as influential as the Rescorla-Wagner model.The late 1960s was an exciting time for investigators of basic associative processes. Challenges to the view that pairing was sufficient to establish an association between events were coming from many quarters. Robert Rescorla, a new PhD from the University ofPennsylvania, published his influential paper suggesting that the contingency (or correlation) between events, rather than contiguity (or pairing), was the crucial factor in establishing associations (Rescorla, 1967). Leon Kamin, at McMaster University, reported a new phenomenon, "blocking," and rediscovered an old one, "overshadowing," both ofwhich were further demonstrations that a simple pairing analysis of classical conditioning was apparently inadequate (Kamin, 1968). Allan Wagner and colleagues, at Yale University, reported another phenomenon, "cue validity," that made essentially the same point: There are conditions under which conditional and unconditional stimuli (CSs and UCSs) are paired, but apparently little is learned about the relationship between them (Wagner, Logan, Haberlandt, & Price, 1968).Rescorla assumed a position at Yale University, where he collaborated with Wagner in the development of the model that integrated and made sense ofthese (and other) then-recent findings about Pavlovian conditioning. Rescoria and Wagner presented their model to Kamin and the other participants at a conference on classical conditioning that was held at McMaster University in May 1969. We now know that the attendees at that conference were present at the inauguration of an important era in conditioning research.

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“…If, however, the test patterns are rotated 450 from the adapted orientations, colour aftereffects are not reported. Since McCollough's original report, numerous studies of this aftereffect have confirmed and extended her initial findings (for reviews see [2][3][4]), and several accounts of its functional role in vision have been proposed [2,[5][6][7]. One of the issues that has concerned researchers is the locus in the visual system of the mechanisms that mediate the effect.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 91%

The McCollough effect reveals orientation discrimination in a case of cortical blindness

et al. 1995

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These results indicate that at some level in P.B.'s visual system orientation is being coded, but it is at a level that he is unable to use in making orientation judgements or in visuomotor control. Given the massive insult to the extrastriate cortex in P.B., it is likely that the anatomical locus of the mechanisms underlying the McCollough effect is within primary visual cortex or even earlier in the visual pathway.

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What is important about McCollough effects? Reply to Allan and Siegel.

Cited by 16 publications

References 40 publications

Causal Illusions in the Service of Political Attitudes in Spain and the United Kingdom

Causal Illusions in the Service of Political Attitudes in Spain and the United Kingdom

The widespread influence of the Rescorla-Wagner model

The McCollough effect reveals orientation discrimination in a case of cortical blindness

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