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The Orientation Reaction as a Mediator in Sensory Preconditioning
Abstract
In 1939 Brogden performed an experiment which yielded results especially difficult for S-R learning theorists to explain. Using 16 mongrel dogs he was able to establish and demonstrate an association between two stimuli by first presenting the two stimuli simultaneously a number of times, then conditioning a leg flexion response to one of the stim- uli and finally showing that the other stimulus would elicit the leg flexion even though it had not itself been condition- ed to the response. This transfer of a conditioned response from one stimulus to another as a consequence of the previous pairing of the two stimuli is now a recognized empirical phenomenon referred to as sensory preconditioning (SPC). The special importance of SPC rests in its demonstration that the learning of an association between two stimuli is apparently contingent upon neither the occurrence of a response nor the presentation of a reinforcement. This apparent learning of S-S relations in the absence of either a response or a rein- forcement is particularly difficult to explain in terms of an S-R reinforcement theory, and thus provides special impetus to the formulation and acceptance of S-S or cognitive theories.
Subject Area
Experimental psychology|Psychology
Recommended Citation
PARKS, ELDON ROY, "The Orientation Reaction as a Mediator in Sensory Preconditioning" (1963). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI6402634.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI6402634