Relations between stimuli (contingencies, dependencies, etc.) provide valuable information about regularities and uncertainties in the environment. Statistical and associative mechanisms thought to be responsible for learning such information are commonly assumed to be passive and automatic. The feasibility of such learning mechanisms is questionable, however, because the magnitude of the possible associative links exceeds the neurological potential for stimulus relation encoding. Constraints are needed to limit learning processes to profitable stimulus information. The current research explores two such constraints. The first one yields successful learning of a relation between stimuli only when they are actively co-processed in a manner that adjoins them, for example, by means of a comparison. Secondly, relations between stimuli are better learned when they or (some of) their features are relevant to completing a goal directed task. These constraints provide and powerful and effective means to demarcate target information for learning processes. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / March 30, 2012. / Associative Learning, Selective Attention, Statistical Learning / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael P. Kaschak, Professor Directing Dissertation; Bruce M. Menchetti, University Representative; Colleen M. Kelley, Committee Member; Walter R. Boot, Committee Member; Carol M. Connor, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_183501 |
| Contributors | Jones, John L. (authoraut), Kaschak, Michael P. (professor directing dissertation), Menchetti, Bruce M. (university representative), Kelley, Colleen M. (committee member), Boot, Walter R. (committee member), Connor, Carol M. (committee member), Department of Psychology (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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