Formation of attentional-associative networks in real time: Role of the hippocampus and implications for conditioning

Abstract

The function of the hippocampus in conditioning is portrayed in terms of an extension of Mackintosh's (1975) attention theory, which describes the evolution of the salience (associability) of each stimulus in the situation, including the context, and its predictive associative relationship to itself and all other stimuli. In terms of the model, the hippocampus is essential for computations that reduce salience when a stimulus is presented in the context of other stimuli that are better predictors of events. The model is applied to the phenomena of latent inhibition and blocking.