Donahoe, J. W., & Burgos, J. E. (2000).
Behavior analysis and revaluation.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior,
74, 331-346.
Revaluation refers to phenomena in which the strength of an
operant is altered by reinforcer-related manipulations that take
place outside the conditioning situation in which the operant was
selected. As an example, if lever pressing is acquired using food
as a reinforcer and food is later paired with an aversive
stimulus, the frequency of lever pressing decreases when
subsequently tested. Associationist psychology infers from such
findings that conditioning produces a response–outcome
(i.e., reinforcer) association and that the operant decreased in
strength because pairing the reinforcer with the aversive
stimulus changed the value of the outcome. Here, we present an
approach to the interpretation of these and related findings that
employs neural network simulations grounded in the experimental
analysis of behavior and neuroscience. In so doing, we address
some general issues regarding the relations among behavior
analysis, neuroscience, and associationism.
Key words: associationism, devaluation, neural network,
respondent feedback, revaluation, simulation