Part of Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 12 (NIPS 1999)
Sham Kakade, Peter Dayan
Quantitative data on the speed with which animals acquire behav(cid:173) ioral responses during classical conditioning experiments should provide strong constraints on models of learning. However, most models have simply ignored these data; the few that have attempt(cid:173) ed to address them have failed by at least an order of magnitude. We discuss key data on the speed of acquisition, and show how to account for them using a statistically sound model of learning, in which differential reliabilities of stimuli playa crucial role.