Robert Rescorla, PhD

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				Robert Rescorla, Ph.D. James Skinner Professor of Science, Department of Psychology School of Arts and Sciences 3815 Walnut Street/6196 (215) 898-5096 FAX: (215) 898-7301 email: rescorla@cattell.psych.upenn.edu Click here for selected publications since Dr. Rescorla's arrival at Penn RESEARCH INTERESTS Behavioral study of elementary learning processes, especially Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental training RESEARCH TECHNIQUES Autoshaping; conditioned suppression; flavor-aversion learning; operant conditioning RESEARCH SUMMARY Our laboratory focuses on the behavioral study of the elementary learning processes of Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental learning. The analysis proceeds to address three questions. What are the circumstances that produce the learning? What are the contents of that learning, and how does that learning map into the behavior of the organism? Of particular current interest are certain cases of hierarchical organization. In many learning situations one event becomes associated with another resulting in a two-term association. However, in other situations the learning structure appears to involve multiple terms hierarchically arranged. For instance, one stimulus may signal not simply an outcome but rather the relation between another stimulus or a response and that outcome. Analysis of such more complex learning structures in terms of their associative bases will greatly enrich our understanding of learning at a behavioral level. KEY WORDS: Pavlovian conditioning; instrumental learning