Associative Learning Versus Rule-Learning

After two different lines of research provided mixed results about whether or not rats can use rules or only associations to learn serial patterns, the Sequential Pairwise Associative Memory (SPAM) model, a computer program, was developed to help provide clearer evidence in support of one or the other view. The research reported here provided further testing of previous behavioral data using SPAM. Although the rat behavioral study simulated here was once thought to provide evidence that rats can learn rules, SPAM was able to replicate much of its data using only associative mechanisms, thus producing evidence against the rule learning theory. However, the results of the simulations reported here also suggest that additional research needs to be done to be sure that the output of the SPAM model truly matches the results produced by rats in serial pattern learning tasks. Advisors/Committee Members: Fountain, Stephen.