Goal tracking in attentional-associative networks: Spatial learning and the hippocampus

Abstract

Moore and Stickney’s (1980) formalization of Mackintosh’s (1975) attention theory is applied to the general problem of goal tracking in spatial learning tasks. The model is stated, and computer simulations describe the evolution of attentional-associative networks for various scenarios of goal tracking. Both normal and abnormal cases are considered, the latter involving the failure of computations that normally reduce the salience of stimuli and other events. The resulting behavioral pathology, when observed, is likened to animals with deficits in spatial learning as described by O’Keefe and Nadel (1978) in their theory of the hippocampus as a cognitive map. © 1982, Psychonomic Society, Inc.. All rights reserved.