Conditioning and timing studies have evolved under separate traditions, which is exemplified in both traditional theories (e.g. the Rescorla–Wagner model of conditioning vs. Scalar Timing Theory) and in a dual process model (Gibbon, J., Balsam, P., 1981. In: Autoshaping and Conditioning Theory. Academic Press, New York.). Other lines of theoretical development in both timing and conditioning fi...

The conditioning theory of fear-acquisition is outlined and the supporting evidence and arguments presented. It is argued that the theory lacks comprehensiveness and is also inadequate in other respects. Six arguments against acceptance of the theory are advanced. People fail to acquire fears in what are theoretically fear-evoking situations (e.g. air raids). It is difficult to produce conditio...

We frame behavior in classical conditioning experiments as the product of normative statistical inference. According to this theory, animals learn an internal model of their environment from experience. The basic building blocks of this internal model are latent causes—explanatory constructs inferred by the animal that partition observations into coherent clusters. Generalization of conditioned...