Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-gb8f7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T05:19:07.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Saliences, propositions, and amalgams: Emergent learning in nonhumans

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Heidi Lyn  and
Duane M. Rumbaugh
Heidi Lyn
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA [email protected]://userwww.service.emory.edu/~whopkin/Heidipage.html
Duane M. Rumbaugh
Affiliation:
Great Ape Trust of Iowa, Des Moines, IA [email protected]://www.greatapetrust.org/research/drumbaugh/drumbaugh.php Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Decatur, GA 30034
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We comment on the similarities and differences of Mitchell et al.'s framework for understanding classical and operant conditioning and the theoretical framework put forth by Rumbaugh et al. (2007). We propose that all nonhuman and human learning may be based on amalgams created by co-occurring stimuli that share their response-eliciting properties and that these amalgams may be propositional in nature.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 213 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Lyn, H. (2007) Mental representation of symbols as revealed by vocabulary errors in two bonobos (Pan paniscus). Animal Cognition 10:461–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lyn, H., Greenfield, P. M. & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2006) The development of representational play in chimpanzees and bonobos: Evolutionary implications, pretense, and the role of interspecies communication. Cognitive Development 21:199–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lyn, H. & Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S. (2000) Observational word learning by two bonobos: Ostensive and non-ostensive contexts. Language and Communication 20:255–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumbaugh, D. M., King, J. E., Beran, M. J., Washburn, D. A. & Gould, K. L. (2007) A salience theory on learning and behavior: With perspectives on neurobiology and cognition. International Journal of Primatology 28:973–96.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rumbaugh, D. M. & Washburn, D. A. (2003) The intelligence of apes and other rational beings. Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Savage-Rumbaugh, E. S., McDonald, K., Sevcik, R. A., Hopkins, W. D. & Rupert, E. (1986) Spontaneous symbol acquisition and communicative use by pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus). Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 115:211–35.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed