Robert A. Rescorla
Robert A. Rescorla is an American experimental psychologist. He is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Swarthmore College and his Ph.D. under Richard Solomon at the University of Pennsylvania in 1966. He is the co-creator of the Rescorla–Wagner model of conditioning and is primarily interested in elementary learning processes, particularly Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental learning. He received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions in 1986, and he was elected to the Society of Experimental Psychologists in 1975 and to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1985.
Representative publications
- Rescorla, R.A. (1985) Conditioned Inhibition and Facilitation, in R.R. Miller & N.S. Spear (Eds.) Information Processing in Animals: Conditioned Inhibition. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum
- Colwill, R.M. & Rescorla, R.A. (1986) Associative structures in instrumental learning, in G.H. Bower (Ed.) The psychology of learning and motivation, Vol. 20, 55-104.
- Rescorla, R.A. (1988) Pavlovian conditioning: It's not what you think it is. American Psychologist, 43, 151-160.
- Rescorla, R.A. (1991) Associative relations in Instrumental learning: The eighteenth Bartlet Memorial Lecture. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 43B, 1-23.
- Rescorla, R.A. (1992) Hierarchical associative relations in Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental training. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 66-70.
- Swartzentruber, D., and Rescorla, R. A. (1994) Modulation of trained and extinguished stimuli by facilitators and inhibitors. Animal Learning and Behavior, 22, 309-316.
- Rescorla, R. A., and Coldwell, S. E. (1995) Summation in Autoshaping. Animal Learning and Behavior, 23, 314-326.
- Rescorla, R. A. (1996) Spontaneous recovery after training with multiple outcomes. Animal Learning and Behavior, 24, 11-18.
- Rescorla, R.A. (1997) Response-inhibition in extinction. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 50B, 238-252.
- Rescorla, R. A. (1998). Instrumental learning: Nature and Persistence. In M. Sabourin, F. I. M. Craig, & M. Roberts (Eds.), Proceedings of the XXVI International Congress of Psychology, Vol. 2. Advances in Psychological Science: Biological and Cognitive Aspects. (pp. 239–258). London: Psychology Press.
- Rescorla, R. A. (1999). Summation and overexpectation with qualitatively different outcomes. Animal Learning and Behavior, 27, 50-62.
- Rescorla, R. A. (2000). Associative changes in excitors and inhibitors differ when they are conditioned in compound. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 26, 428-438
- Rescorla, R. A. (2001). Experimental Extinction, In R. R. Mowrer & S. Klein (Eds.) Handbook of contemporary learning theories. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, 119-154.
- Rescorla, R. A. (2002). Savings Tests: Separating differences in rate of learning from differences in initial levels. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 28, 369-377.
- Rescorla, R. A. (2002). Comparison of the rates of associative change during acquisition and extinction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 28, 406-415.
- Rescorla, R. A. (2003). Contemporary study of Pavlovian conditioning. Spanish Journal of Psychology, 6, 185-195
- Rescorla, R. A. (2004). Spontaneous Recovery. Learning and Memory, 11, 501-509.
- Rescorla, R. A. (2005). Spontaneous recovery of excitation but not inhibition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 31, 277-288.