Resolving the Associative Learning Paradox
How powerful is associative learning? On the one hand, it powers amazing feats of artificial intelligence. On the other hand, it is deemed to be a simple and limited form of learning.
In the March 2023 issue of Current Biology, Wasserman et al. show that, via associative learning, pigeons learn a categorization task that can stump more sophisticated forms of learning.
2024
Wasserman, E. A., Turner, B. M., & Güntürkün, O. (2024). The Pigeon as a Model of Complex Visual Processing and Category Learning. Neuroscience Insights, 19, 26331055241235918.
2023
Wasserman, E. A. (2023). A deep dive into innovation. American Scientist, 111, 50-54. https://www.americanscientist.org/article/a-deep-dive-into-innovation
Wasserman, E. A., Kain, A. G., & O’Donoghue, E. M. (2023). Resolving the associative learning paradox by category learning in pigeons. Current Biology, 33, 1112-1116.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.024
Wasserman, E. A. (2023). On the origin of the Post-it note: Intelligently designed? Skeptical Inquirer, 47, 52-56. https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/06/on-the-origin-of-the-post-it-note-intelligently-designed/
Wasserman, E. A. (2023). The lightbulb moment, innovation’s most misleading meme. Association for Psychological Science Observer, https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/the-lightbulb-moment
Turner, B. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2023). The pigeon as a machine: Complex category structures can be acquired by a simple associative model. iScience, 26, 107998.
Diaz, F., & Wasserman, E. A. (2023). The role of numerical and nonnumerical magnitudes in pigeons’ conditional discrimination behavior. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 49, 253-272.
2022
O’Donoghue, E. M., Broschard, M. B., Freeman, J. F., & Wasserman, E. A. (2022). The Lords of the Rings: People and pigeons take different paths mastering the Concentric-Rings categorization task. Cognition, 218, 104920.
O’Donoghue, E. M., Diaz, F., Navarro, V. M. & Wasserman, E. A. (2022). It’s not all the same to pigeons: Representations of difference may be shared across species. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 29, 882-890.
Wasserman, E. A., & Castro, L. (2022). The Rescorla-Wagner Model: The culmination of Hume’s theory of causation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 48, 315-320.
O’Donoghue, E. M., Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2022). Hierarchical and configural control in conditional discrimination learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 48, 370-382.
2021
Hochmann, J-R., Wasserman, E., & Carey, S. (2021). Editorial overview: Same-different conceptualization. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 37, iii-v.
Wasserman, E. A., Young, M. E., & Castro, L. (2021). Mechanisms of same–different conceptualization: entropy happens! Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 37, 19-28.
O’Donoghue, E. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2021). Pigeons proficiently switch among four tasks without cost. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 47, 150-162.
Castro, L., Yang, S., Savic, O., Sloutsky, V., & Wasserman, E. (2021). Not all exceptions are created equal: Learning of exceptions in pigeons’ categorization. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 28, 1344-1353.
Broschard, M. B., Kim, J., Love, B. C., Wasserman, E. A., & Freeman, J. H. (2021). Prelimbic cortex maintains attention to category-relevant information and flexibly updates category representation. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 185, 1-14.
Delamater, A. R., & Wasserman, E. A. (2021). Comparative cognition—Conceptual and methodological advancements. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 47, 219-222.
Castro, L., Wiger, E. R., & Wasserman, E. A. (2021). Focusing and shifting attention in pigeon category learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 47, 371-383.
Diaz, F., O’Donoghue, E. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2021). Two-item conditional same-different categorization in pigeons: Finding differences. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 47, 455-463.
Wasserman, E. A., & Castro, L. (2021). Assessing attention in category learning by animals. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30, 495-502.
Smirnova, A. A., Obozova, T. A., Zorina, Z. A., & Wasserman, E. A. (2021). How do crows and parrots come to spontaneously perceive relations-between-relations? Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 37, 109-117.
Chandel, H., Boring, M., Zentall, T. R., & Wasserman, E. A. (2021). Should I stay or should I go? Pigeons’ (Columba livia) performance of a foraging task has implications for optimal foraging theory and serial pattern learning. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 135, 266-272.
2020
Castro, L., Savic, O., Navarro, V. M., Sloutsky, V., & Wasserman, E. (2020). Selective and distributed attention in human and pigeon category learning. Cognition, 204, 104350.
Navarro, V. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2020). Bidirectional conditioning: Revisiting Asratyan’s ‘alternating’ training technique. Neurobiology of Learning and Memory, 171, 1-9.
Navarro, V. M., Wasserman, E. A., & Slomka, P. (2020). Taking pigeons to heart: Birds proficiently diagnose human cardiac disease. Learning and Behavior, 48, 9-21.
O’Donoghue, E. M., Broschard, M. B., & Wasserman, E. A. (2020). Pigeons exhibit flexibility but not rule formation in dimensional learning, stimulus generalization, and task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 46, 107-123.
2019
Peissig, J. J., Young, M. E., Wasserman, E. A., & Biederman, I. (2019). Pigeons spontaneously form three-dimensional shape categories. Behavioural Processes, 158, 70-76.
Broschard, M. B., Kim, J., Love, B. C., Wasserman, E. A., & Freeman, J. H. (2019). Selective attention in rat visual category learning. Learning and Memory, 26, 84-92.
Wasserman, E., Levenson, R., & Navarro, V. (2019). Principle behind Google’s April Fools’ pigeon prank proves more than a joke. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/principle-behind-googles-april-fools-pigeon-prank-proves-more-than-a-joke-99565
Navarro, V. M., Jani, R., & Wasserman, E. A. (2019). Pigeon category learning: Revisiting the Shepard, Hovland, and Jenkins (1961) tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 45, 174-184.
Rosenbaum, D. A., Fournier, L. R., Levy-Tzedek, S., McBride, D. M., Rosenthal, R., Sauerberger, K., VonderHaar, R. L., Wasserman, E. A., & Zentall, T. R. (2019). Sooner rather than later: Precrastination rather than procrastination. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 28, 229-233.
Sheridan, C. L., Castro, L., Fonseca, S., & Wasserman, E. A. (2019). The role of category density in pigeons’ tracking of relevant information. Learning and Behavior, 47, 234-244.
De Corte, B. J., & Wasserman, E. A. (2019). Nonhuman sequence learning findings argue against Hoerl and McCormack’s two systems of temporal cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 42, e248.
Wasserman, E. A. (2019). Precrastination: The fierce urgency of now. Learning and Behavior, 47, 7-28.
2018
Castro, L., Wasserman, E. A., & Lauffer, M. C. (2018). Unsupervised learning of complex associations in an animal model. Cognition, 178, 28-33.
Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2018). Retrospective revaluation. In J. Vonk & T. K. Shackelford (Eds.), Encyclopedia of animal cognition and behavior. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Vyazovska, O. V., Navarro, V. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2018). Pigeons deploy selective attention to efficiently learn a stagewise multidimensional visual discrimination task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 44, 162-167.
Darby, K. P., Castro, L., Wasserman, E. A., & Sloutsky, V. M. (2018). Cognitive flexibility and memory in pigeons, human children, and adults. Cognition, 177, 30-40.
Kim, J., Castro, L., Wasserman, E. A., & Freeman, J. H. (2018). Dorsal hippocampus is necessary for visual categorization in rats. Hippocampus, 28, 392-405.
2017
Wasserman, E. A., Castro, L., & Fagot, J. (2017). Relational thinking in animals and humans: From percepts to concepts. American Psychological Association Handbook of Comparative Cognition, Vol. 2, J. Call (Editor-in-Chief), pp. 359-384.
Lauffer, M. C., Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Chrysippus’ pigeon: Exclusion-based responding in an avian model. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 43, 139-146.
Wasserman, E. A., & Thompson, R. K. R. (2017). Capuchin monkeys can make and use stone tools. Learning and Behavior, 45, 103-104.
García-Gallardo, D., Navarro, V. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Assessing the acquisition of anticipatory responding in the pigeon using reaction time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 43, 197-203.
Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Feature predictiveness and selective attention in pigeons’ categorization learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 43, 231-242.
Wasserman, E. A., & Scerri, E. R. (2017). Forget the insight of a lone genius – innovation is an evolving process of trial and error. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/forget-the-insight-of-a-lone-genius-innovation-is-an-evolving-process-of-trial-and-error-77760
Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Relational concept learning in birds. In C. ten Cate & S. D. Healy (Eds.), Avian cognition. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 229-248.
Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Perceptual and abstract category learning in pigeons. In Handbook of categorization in cognitive science. In H. Cohen & C. Lefebvre (Eds.). Cambridge, MA: Elsevier. Pp. 709-732.
De Corte, B. J., Navarro, V. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Non-cortical magnitude coding of space and time by pigeons. Current Biology, 27, R1249–R1267.
Wasserman, E. A. (2017). He’s Pavlov and we’re the dogs: How Pavlovian conditioning really works in human psychology. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/hes-pavlov-and-were-the-dogs-how-associative-learning-really-works-in-human-psychology-86191
Lazareva, O. F., & Wasserman, E. A. (2017). Categories and concepts in animals. In R. Menzel (Ed.), Learning theory and behavior. Learning and memory: A comprehensive reference 2e, Vol. 1 (J. Byrne, Ed.), pp. 111-139. Oxford: Elsevier.
2016
Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Executive control and task switching in pigeons. Cognition, 146, 121-135.
Navarro, V. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Stepwise conceptualization in pigeons. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 42, 44-50.
Wasserman, E. A., & Cullen, P. (2016). Evolution of the violin: The Law of Effect in action. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 42, 116-122.
Couto, K. C., Navarro, V. M., Smith, T. R., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Concept learning without differential reinforcement in pigeons by means of contextual cueing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 42, 221-227.
Wasserman, E. A. (Ed.). (2016). Comparative cognition. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 105, 1-229. (Special Issue).
Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Conceptualization in pigeons: The evolution of a paradigm. Behavioural Processes, 123, 4-14.
Castro, L., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Attentional shifts in categorization learning: Perseveration but not learned irrelevance. Behavioural Processes, 123, 63-73.
Lazareva, O. F., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). No evidence for feature binding by pigeons in a change detection task. Behavioural Processes, 123, 90-106.
Soto, F. A., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Promoting rotational-invariance in object recognition despite experience with only a single view. Behavioural Processes, 123, 107-113.
Kim, J., Wasserman, E. A., Castro, L., & Freeman, J. H. (2016). Anterior cingulate cortex inactivation impairs rodent visual selective attention and prospective memory. Behavioral Neuroscience, 130, 75-90.
Wasserman, E. A. (2016). What we make and do can evolve with no end in sight. This View of Life, https://thisviewoflife.com/what-we-make-and-do-can-evolve-with-no-end-in-sight/
Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Thinking abstractly like a duck(ling). Science, 353, 222-223.
Vyazovska, O. V., Navarro, V. M., & Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Stagewise multidimensional visual discrimination by pigeons. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 106, 58-74.
Roembke, T. C., Wasserman, E. A., & McMurray, B. (2016). Learning in rich networks involves both positive and negative associations. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 145, 1062-1074.
Wasserman, E. A. (2016). Face facts: Even nonhuman animals discriminate human faces. Learning and Behavior, 44, 307-308.