Much research has been dedicated to understanding the psychological and neural bases of
goal-directed action, yet the relationship between context and goal-directed action is not …

Contemporary theories guiding the search for neural mechanisms of learning and memory
assume that associative learning results from the temporal pairing of cues and reinforcers …

Substance abuse research depends on precise and sensitive assessments of reinforcer
efficacy in animal models. However, conventional methods often lack theoretical rigor and …

From an associative perspective the acquisition of new goal-directed actions requires the
encoding of specific action-outcome (AO) associations and, therefore, sensitivity to the …

The acquisition and performance of goal-directed actions has long been argued to depend
on the integration of glutamatergic inputs to the posterior dorsomedial striatum (pDMS) …

Habitual instrumental behaviour is believed to rely on stimulus–response (S–R)
associations. However, the method most commonly used to identify habitual behaviour …

The field of associative learning theory was forever changed by the contributions of Robert
A. Rescorla. He created an organizational structure that gave us a framework for thinking …

Anticipating rewards is fundamental for decision-making. Animals often use cues to assess
reward availability and to make predictions about future outcomes. The gustatory region of …

Adaptive behaviour often necessitates that animals learn about events in a manner that is
specific to a particular context or environment. These hierarchical organisations allow the …

Our theory of positively reinforced free-operant behavior (Perez & Dickinson, 2020) assumes
that responding is controlled by two systems. One system is sensitive to the correlation …