Latent inhibition and conditioned attention theory.

TLDR

Latent inhibition is a robust, pervasive phenomenon where organisms learn more slowly to previously irrelevant stimuli, yet integrating it into modern conditioning theories remains challenging, making it a valuable topic for researchers and students. The book proposes a Conditioned Attention Theory and applies it to learned helplessness and schizophrenia. Lubow surveys latent inhibition data, reviews existing theories, and develops his own Conditioned Attention Theory. Latent inhibition has been observed across many species, including humans, in diverse learning tasks.

Abstract

Latent inhibition is an exquisitely simple, robust and pervasive behavioural phenomenon - the reduced ability of an organism to learn new associations to previously inconsequential stimuli. It has been demonstrated in a variety of animals, including humans, across many different learning tasks. The ease of demonstrating the latent inhibition effect, on the one hand, is matched by the difficulty of incorporating it into contemporary conditioning and learning theories, on the other. R. E. Lubow offers a complete survey of the basic data that comprise the latent inhibition effect and a review of theories that attempt to explain it. He then elaborates his own Conditioned Attention Theory and derives applications for learned helplessness and schizophrenia. A wide range of experimental psychologists and neuroscientists will find this a stimulating and useful book for themselves and their students.