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Is cultivating “biological blindness” a viable route to understanding behavioral phenomena?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Andreas Olsson  and
Ame Öhman
Andreas Olsson
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Psychology Section, Stockholm 17177, Sweden. [email protected]://www.psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/pages/[email protected]://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=15053&a=13512&l=sv
Ame Öhman
Affiliation:
Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Psychology Section, Stockholm 17177, Sweden. [email protected]://www.psych.nyu.edu/phelpslab/pages/[email protected]://ki.se/ki/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=15053&a=13512&l=sv
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Abstract

Mitchell et al. propose that associative learning in humans and other animals requires the formation of propositions by means of conscious and controlled reasoning. This approach neglects important aspects of current thinking in evolutionary biology and neuroscience that support the claim that learning, here exemplified by fear learning, neither needs to be conscious nor controlled.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 2 , April 2009 , pp. 220 - 221
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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