Individual differences are more than a gene × environment interaction: The role of learning

TY - JOUR

T1 - Individual differences are more than a gene × environment interaction

T2 - The role of learning

AU - Byrom, Nicola C.

AU - Murphy, Robin A.

PY - 2018/1/1

Y1 - 2018/1/1

N2 - Individual differences in behavior are understood generally as arising from an interaction between genes and environment, omitting a crucial component. The literature on animal and human learning suggests the need to posit principles of learning to explain our differences. One of the challenges for the advancement of the field has been to establish how general principles of learning can explain the almost infinite variation in behavior. We present a case that: (a) individual differences in behavior emerge, in part, from principles of learning; (b) associations provide a descriptive mechanism for understanding the contribution of experience to behavior; and (c) learning theories explain dissociable aspects of behavior. We use 4 examples from the field of learning to illustrate the importance of involving psychology, and associative theory in particular, in the analysis of individual differences, these are (a) fear learning; (b) behavior directed to cues for outcomes (i.e., sign- and goal- tracking); (c) stimulus learning related to attention; and (d) human causal learning.

AB - Individual differences in behavior are understood generally as arising from an interaction between genes and environment, omitting a crucial component. The literature on animal and human learning suggests the need to posit principles of learning to explain our differences. One of the challenges for the advancement of the field has been to establish how general principles of learning can explain the almost infinite variation in behavior. We present a case that: (a) individual differences in behavior emerge, in part, from principles of learning; (b) associations provide a descriptive mechanism for understanding the contribution of experience to behavior; and (c) learning theories explain dissociable aspects of behavior. We use 4 examples from the field of learning to illustrate the importance of involving psychology, and associative theory in particular, in the analysis of individual differences, these are (a) fear learning; (b) behavior directed to cues for outcomes (i.e., sign- and goal- tracking); (c) stimulus learning related to attention; and (d) human causal learning.

KW - Associative learning

KW - Causal learning

KW - Fear learning

KW - Gene × Environment interactions

KW - Individual differences

KW - Sign tracking

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85040546765&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1037/xan0000157

DO - 10.1037/xan0000157

M3 - Review article

AN - SCOPUS:85040546765

SN - 2329-8456

VL - 44

SP - 36

EP - 55

JO - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition

JF - Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition

IS - 1

ER -