title: Sensory preconditioning, the Espinet effect, and Heider's balance theory: note on animal reasoning of event relations.
abstract: Sensory preconditioning and the Espinet effect illustrate that animals can reason about event relations. In sensory preconditioning, a combination of positive A-B and B-C relations yields a positive A-C relation. In the Espinet effect, a combination of a negative A-B relation and a positive B-C relation yields a negative A-C relation. Using analogies of Heider's balance theory of human attitudes, we predict that nonhuman animals would also infer a positive A-C relation from negative A-B and B-C relations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Integrated Psychological Science Kwansei Gakuin University. nakajima@kwansei.ac.jp
authors.forename: Sadahiko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakajima
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D003071:Cognition; D003213:Conditioning, Psychological; D004777:Environment; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012677:Sensation