Essay Questions
2. When and why is predictive power important in conditioning?
Key Points:
- Consideration of the notion of predictive power, not only from the perspective of blocking but also with respect to the concept of the learning asymptote, which has also been discussed in the chapter.
- Consideration of how predictiveness relates to other principles discussed, such as contiguity.
- Extra credit should be received for a consideration of how and when predictiveness is important in other contexts, such as in instrumental conditioning paradigms.
- Further credit should be received for offering examples of learning phenomena beyond those presented in this chapter.
