Pleasure, Reward, Preference

Pleasure, Reward, Preference: Their Nature, Determinants, and Role in Behavior covers the proceedings of a symposium by the same title, held at the Klarskovgaard Training Institute, near Korsør, Denmark, on June 5-9 1972, organized under the auspices of the Advisory Group on Human Factors of the Scientific Affairs Division of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

This book is composed of 11 chapters, and starts with a historical perspective and review of the principal problems related to understanding the principles of pleasure, reward, and preference. The next chapters explore neurophysiological research with animals and the human cognitive phenomena. These topics are followed by discussions of the concept of exploratory choice, verbal judgment, the law of effects and an adaptation-level model for affectivity and perception. The concluding chapters provide examples of behavioristic theories and describe a process model of motivation to understand the complexity of cognition and predictability of behavior. These chapters also tackle the role of pleasure and reward in human motivation and learning, as well as present a metascientific frame of motivation.

This text will prove useful to psychologists, behaviorist, and researchers.

Frontispiece

List of Contributors

Preface

Chapter 1 The Vicissitudes of Aplopathematic and Thelematoscopic Pneumatology (or The Hydrography of Hedonism)

The Hedonistic Tradition

After the Behaviorist Revolution

Determinants of Hedonic Value

Hedonic Factors in Learning

Aplopathematic and Thelematoscopic Pneumatology?

References

Chapter 2 Brain Mechanisms of Reinforcement Learning

Theories of Reinforcement

References

Chapter 3 Psychological Complexity and Preference: A Hedgehog Theory of Behavior

Why a Hedgehog?

Psychological Complexity and Preference Theory

Experimental Studies of Complexity and Preference

Context for and Some Implication of the Hedgehog

References

Chapter 4 Meaning of Perceptual Complexity

Meaning of Perceptual Complexity

Information Theory

Discussion and Conclusions

Hierarchy

Interaction

Summary

References

Chapter 5 Exploratory Choice and Verbal Judgment

Semantic Analysis

Exploratory Choice

A Replication Experiment

Final Discussion

References

Chapter 6 Personality and the Law of Effect

Chapter 7 A Common Model for Affectivity and Perception: An Adaptation-Level Approach

Adaptation Level and Psychophysical Judgments

Adaptation Level and Affective Judgments

Measurement of Affective Responses

References

Chapter 8 Acquired Pleasantness and Conditioned Incentives in Verbal Learning

Introduction

What Is Being Transferred to P-Paired Syllables?

When Are P-Paired Syllables Not Learned Faster?

What Is the Relation of Incentive Value to Pleasantness?

Conclusions: Conditioned Incentive Value as a Performance Effect

References

Chapter 9 Intervening Cognitions in Motivation

Cognitions Intervening between Stimulus and Response

Cognitions Intervening between Drive State and Response

Cognitions Intervening between Performance Outcome (or Consequence) and Subsequent Response

Cognitions Intervening between Performance Outcome and Consequences

Motive-Linked Differences in the Reward Value of Money

References

Chapter 10 Pleasure and Reward in Human Motivation and Learning

Pleasure in Its Behavioral Context

Reward, Successful Outcome, and Human Learning

References

Chapter 11 Patterns of Preference and Models of Motivation

Introduction

The Frame of Reference

Patterns of Preferences

Models of Motivation

References

Author Index

Subject Index