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*Add section on neural science. Use the cog psych book.

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NOTE FOR PEER REVIEWERS: Please see the original article for most of the citations. Most of the citations came from other contributors and did not copy into my sandbox. (I know it looks mostly not cited here)

Association in psychology refers to a mental relationship between concepts, events, or mental states that usually results from specific experiences.^[1] Associations are seen throughout several schools of thought in psychology including behaviorism, associationism, psychoanalysis, social psychology, and structuralism. ~~The idea stems from Plato and Aristotle, especially with regard to the succession of memories, and it was carried on by philosophers such as John Locke, David Hume, David Hartley, James Mill.~~ It finds its place in modern psychology in such areas as behaviorism, learning, memory.

Learned associations

Associative learning is when a subject creates an relationship between stimuli or behavior and stimulus. This view of learning assumes that the acquisition of associations is the basis for learning.^[2] This learning is seen in classical and operant conditioning.

Law of Effect

Edward Thorndike did research in this area and developed the law of effect, where associations between a stimulus and response are affected by the consequence of the response.^[3] For example, behaviors increase in strength and/or frequency when they have been followed by reward. This occurs because of an association between the behavior and a mental representation of the reward (such as food). Conversely, receiving a negative consequence lowers the frequency of the behavior due to the negative association.^[3] An example of this would be a rat in a cage with a bar lever. If pressing the lever results in a food pellet, the rat will learn to press the lever to receive food. If pressing the lever resulted in an electric shock on the floor of the cage, the rat would learn to avoid pressing the lever.

Classical Conditioning

Classical conditioning is an example of a learned association. There are four elements to the classical conditioning process: unconditioned stimulus (UCS), unconditioned response (UCR), conditioned stimulus (CS), and conditioned response (CR).

Without conditioning, there is already a relationship between the unconditioned stimulus and the unconditioned response. When a second stimulus is paired with the unconditioned stimulus, the response becomes associated with both stimuli. The secondary stimulus is known as the conditioned stimulus and elicits a conditioned response.^[1]

The strength of the response to the conditioned stimulus increases over the period of learning, as the CS becomes associated with UCS. The strength of the response can diminish if CS is presented without UCS.^[1] In his famous experiment, Pavlov used the unconditioned response of dogs salivating at the sight of food (UCS), and paired the sound of a bell (CS) with receiving food, and later the dog salivated (CR) to the bell alone, indicating that an association had been established between the bell and food.

Operant Conditioning

In operant conditioning, behaviors are changed due to the experienced outcomes of those behaviors. Stimuli do not cause behavior, as in classical conditioning, but instead the associations are created between stimulus and consequence, as an extension by Thorndike on his Law of Effect.^[1]

B.F. Skinner was well known for his studies of reinforcers on behavior. His studies included the aspect of contingency, which refers to the connection between a specific action and the following consequence or reinforcement.^[1] There are three contingencies as described by Skinner: positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, and punishment. Reinforcements create a positive association between the action and consequence in order to promote the continuation of the action. This is done in one of two ways, positive reinforcers introduce a rewarding stimulus, whereas negative reinforcers remove an aversive stimulus to make the environment less aversive. Punishments create a negative relationship between the action and the consequence so that the action does not continue.^[1]

Mood

Mood and conditioning.

Watson introduced a white fluffy rabbit to an infant, and created a connection between the rabbit and a loud noise. This experience for Little Albert associated a feeling of fear with the rabbit.^[2]

Memory

Memory seems to operate as a sequence of associations: concepts, words, and opinions are intertwined, so that stimuli such as a person’s face will call up the associated name. Understanding the relationships between different items is fundamental to episodic memory, and damage to the hippocampal region of the brain has been found to hinder learning of associations between objects.

Associative memory

Testing associations

Associations in humans can be measured with the Implicit Association Test, a psychological test which measures the implicit (subconscious) relation between two concepts. It has been used in investigations of subconscious racial bias. The test measures the associations between different ideas, such as race and crime. Reaction time is used to distinguish associations; faster reaction time is an indicator of a stronger association.

The Associationist School

The following discussion assumes the point of view of associationistic theory. Some modern theorists disagree with this approach; they argue that it is very misleading to try to understand mental or brain function as a network of associations.^[4]

Notes

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Klein, Stephen (2012). Learning: Principles and Applications (6 ed.). SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4129-8734-9.
^ ^a ^b Eich, Eric; Forgas, Joseph (2003). "Mood, Cognition, and Memory". In Healy, Alice; Proctor, Robert (eds.). Handbook of Psychology. Vol. 4. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
^ ^a ^b Miller, Ralph; Grace, Randolph (2003). "Conditioning and Learning". In Healy, Alice (ed.). Handbook of Psychology. Vol. 4. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
^ Gallistel, C. R. & Gibbon, J. (2002)

[:0-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Klein, Stephen (2012). Learning: Principles and Applications (6 ed.). SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-1-4129-8734-9.

[:1-2] Eich, Eric; Forgas, Joseph (2003). "Mood, Cognition, and Memory". In Healy, Alice; Proctor, Robert (eds.). Handbook of Psychology. Vol. 4. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

[:2-3] Miller, Ralph; Grace, Randolph (2003). "Conditioning and Learning". In Healy, Alice (ed.). Handbook of Psychology. Vol. 4. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

[4] Gallistel, C. R. & Gibbon, J. (2002)

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