Associative Learning and Conditioning Theory

Organisms survive and succeed because of their ability to learn and adapt to changing circumstances and new demands. As discussed in the chapters of the present volume, an appreciation of the mechanisms and principles of learning and conditioning is fundamental to any analysis of normal behavior as well as to an informed understanding of our well being (including examination of such issues as anxiety and fear, brain-immune system interactions, drug addiction and abuse, emotional learning, and social behavior) and mental health (for example, autism, depression, helplessness and schizophrenia). The twenty-three chapters in this volume, written by a distinguished collection of internationally renowned scholars, articulate the basic, yet sophisticated, way in which learning and conditioning processes influence our everyday behaviors, both normal and maladaptive, and help explain a variety of clinically important phenomena and disorders.

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.