| Abstract: | Integrates aspects of infant development, psychobiology, and learning theory. Based on a large body of normative data, the author discusses levels of functioning in ontogeny, demonstrating the ages of first appearance in infancy of a number of reward-schedule effects. Levels of functioning in animals and humans are also examined, with reference to neuropsychological theories of memory function for humans. Findings from the author's work on the effects of hippocampal lesions and exposure to alcohol in utero on single alternation patterning and on the partial reinforcement extinction effect are also discussed. A modification of frustration theory is suggested, based on recent work relating differential hippocampal granule-cell genesis to exposure to a number of reward-schedule effects in infancy. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
