Blocking of human causal learning involves learned changes in stimulus processing

Le Pelley, M.E. and Beesley, T. and Suret, M.B. (2007) Blocking of human causal learning involves learned changes in stimulus processing. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 60 (11). pp. 1468-1476. ISSN 1747-0218

Abstract

Several theories of associative learning propose that blocking reflects changes in the processing devoted to learning about cues. The results of the only direct test of this suggestion in human learning (Kruschke & Blair, 2000) could equally well be explained in terms of, among others, interference in learning or memory. The present study tested this suggestion in a situation in which processing-change and interference accounts predict opposing results. Results support the idea that blocking in human learning can reflect a change in processing of the cues involved.