Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Causal order does not affect cue selection in human associative learning

D R Shanks1, F J Lopez

  • 1Department of Psychology, University College, London, England. david.shanks@psychol.ucl.ac.uk

Memory & Cognition
|July 1, 1996
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Correction: The Open Anchoring Quest Dataset: Anchored Estimates from 96 Studies on Anchoring Effects.

Journal of open psychology data·2025
Same author

The genomic landscape of familial glioma.

Science advances·2023
Same author

Genome sequencing reveals underdiagnosis of primary ciliary dyskinesia in bronchiectasis.

The European respiratory journal·2022
Same author

Removal efficiency for emerging contaminants in a WWTP from Madrid (Spain) after secondary and tertiary treatment and environmental impact on the Manzanares River.

The Science of the total environment·2021
Same author

The role of analytical chemistry in exposure science: Focus on the aquatic environment.

Chemosphere·2019
Same author

Cognitive function in patients on androgen suppression: A prospective, multicentric study.

Actas urologicas espanolas·2017
Same journal

The properties of personal semantics.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Music enhances associative generalization: Evidence from a memory integration task.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Video, text, and memory: An emotional verbal overshadowing effect.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Limited protective effects of multilingualism against age-related cognitive decline.

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

Validation of illustrated texts: Can pictures raise awareness of inconsistencies?

Memory & cognition·2026
Same journal

4I remember (and forget) your happy smiling face: Directed forgetting of emotionally expressive faces of in-group and out-group members.

Memory & cognition·2026
See all related articles

This study challenges the idea that cue selection only occurs in specific learning tasks. New experiments show cue selection happens regardless of causal direction, supporting associationist learning theories.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Learning Theory

Background:

  • Previous research suggested cue selection in human learning is limited to specific "diagnostic" tasks where cues are effects and outcomes are causes.
  • This finding was interpreted as a challenge to associationist learning theories and support for causal model theories.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To re-evaluate the claim that cue selection is absent in diagnostic learning tasks.
  • To test the validity of previous experimental procedures and findings regarding cue selection.
  • To determine whether associationist or causal model theories better explain human learning.

Main Methods:

  • Critiqued the experimental procedures of Waldmann and Holyoak (1992).
  • Conducted three new experiments investigating cue selection under varying conditions.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Manipulated causal order and cue specificity (abstract vs. concrete).
  • Included tasks where participants predicted causes from effects.

    • Main Results:

    • Cue selection was observed irrespective of the causal order between cues and outcomes.
    • Cue selection occurred whether cues were abstractly or concretely presented.
    • Participants demonstrated cue selection when predicting causes from effects.

    Conclusions:

    • The findings contradict the causal model theory proposed by Waldmann and Holyoak.
    • Results are consistent with and support simple associationist theories of learning.
    • Human cue selection appears more flexible than previously suggested.