Associative Learning and Conditioning Therapy: Human and Non-Human Applications

Although many professionals in psychology (including the sub-disciplines of human learning and memory, clinical practice related to psychopathology, neuroscience, educational psychology and many other areas) no longer receive training in learning and conditioning, the influence of this field remains strong. Therefore, many researchers and clinicians have little knowledge about basic learning theory and its current applications beyond their own specific research topic. The primary purpose of the present volume is to highlight ways in which basic learning principles, methodology, and phenomena underpin, and indeed guide, contemporary translational research. With contributions from a distinguished collection of internationally renowned scholars, this 23-chapter volume contains specific research issues but is also broad in scope, covering a variety of topics in which associative learning and conditioning theory apply, such as drug abuse and addiction, anxiety, fear and pain research, advertising, attribution processes, acquisition of likes and dislikes, social learning, psychoneuroimmunology, and psychopathology (e.g., autism, depression, helplessness and schizophrenia). This breadth is captured in the titles of the three major sections of the book: Applications to Clinical Pathology; Applications to Health and Addiction; Applications to Cognition, Social Interaction and Motivation. The critically important phenomena and methodology of learning and conditioning continue to have a profound influence on theory and clinical concerns related to the mechanisms of memory, cognition, education, and pathology of emotional and consummatory disorders. This volume is expected to have the unique quality of serving the interests of many researchers, educators and clinicians including, for example, neuroscientists, learning and conditioning researchers, psychopharmacologists, clinical psychopathologists, and practitioners in the medical field.

Todd Schachtman obtained his Ph.D. from SUNY-Binghamton examining research on conditioning and associative learning. He then served as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of York in England for 18 months and then for 18 months at the University of Rochester Medical School. He has been a faculty member at the University of Missouri since 1988. Dr. Schachtman’s research is on animal learning and conditioning and the role of metabotropic glutamate receptors on learning and memory as well as additional research using human subjects.

Steve Reilly obtained his D.Phil. from the University of York, England, for research concerning the neural basis of learning and memory. He has held positions in Canada and the USA (Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine) and, since 1996, has been in the Department of Psychology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research focuses on the neural mechanisms and functional neuroanatomy of conditioned taste aversion learning and incentive learning. Dr. Reilly is currently on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Comparative Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience.