A search for context-stimulus associations in latent inhibition

Six experiments investigated the effects of pre-exposure to a tone on the subsequent acquisition of conditioned suppression by rats. In Experiments 1-3 the response suppressed was drinking; in Experiments 4-6 it was food-rewarded lever pressing. Repeated exposure to the tone resulted in latent inhibition, i.e., a retardation in the acquisition of suppression. The size of the latent inhibition effect was reduced when a different context was used for conditioning from that used for pre-exposure (Experiment 2). When the context remained the same throughout, a phase of exposure to the context alone, interposed between pre-exposure and conditioning, had no influence on the size of the latent inhibition effect ultimately observed. This last result casts doubt upon Wagner's (1976, 1979) theory of the role of contextual factors in latent inhibition, and alternative accounts are considered.     

Book review section: Computer intelligence and human intelligence

Great Ideas in Information Theory, Language, and Cybernetics Jagjit Singh New York: Dover Publications, 1966 pp. viii + 338, Paperbound, $2.00     

NEED FOR EXPLANATIONS IN GRAPHIC ORGANIZER RESEARCH

ABSTRACT

Research relating to graphic organizers was reviewed. The findings suggest that currently there is no systematic approach to analyzing graphic organizer research resulting in a lack of explanations for why graphic organizers work or do not work. The primary difficulty to provide explanations was found to be due to the lack of consistent operational criteria in studies using graphic organizers. Further, instructional implications are tenuous at best due to the lack of explanations of how graphic organizers work or do not work. One method of analysis would be to examine previous graphic organizer studies using a relational grammar. This would allow for identifying the structure and content of text used in graphic organizer studies, the graphic organizer itself, and the measurement or evaluation instrument. This analysis would allow for a comparison of the structure and content of the different organizer studies and allow for an explanation of the cognitive processes that readers evoke in developing mental representations of ideas contained in text.