Synopses & Reviews
R.E. Lubow offers a complete survey of the basic data that comprise the latent inhibition effect, and a review of theories that attempt to explain it. He then elaborates on his own Conditioned Attention Theory and derives applications for learned helplessness and schizophrenia. Latent inhibition is an exquisitely simple, robust, and pervasive behavioral phenomenon--the reduced ability of an organism to learn new associations to previously inconsequential stimuli. It has been demonstrated in a variety of animals, including humans, across many different learning tasks. The ease of demonstrating the latent inhibition effect, on the one hand, is matched by the difficulty of incorporating it into contemporary conditioning and learning theories, on the other hand. A wide range of experimental psychologists and neuroscientists will find this a stimulating and useful book for themselves and their students.
Description
Includes bibliographical references (p. 273-310) and index.
Table of Contents
Preface; Part I. Introduction: Part II. Latent Inhibition Testing Procedures: Part III. Variables Affecting Latent Inhibition: Part IV. Organismic Variables Affecting Latent Inhibition: Part V. Associative Learning Tests of the Effects of Stimulus Preexposure in Children and Adults: Part VI. Neural Substrates of Latent Inhibition: Part VII. Theories and Explanations of Latent Inhibition in Animals: Part VIII. Conditioned Attention Theory of Latent Inhibition: Part IX. Conditioned Attention Theory as Applied to Latent Inhibition in Humans: Part X. Some Applications of Conditioned Attention Theory: learned helplessness and schizophrenia; Notes; References; Author index; Subject index.