Attribution Theory: A Conditioning Interpretation

Abstract

Rescorla and Wagner's 1972 theory of conditioning can account for some types of causal attributions described in the literature. The model is based on the use of learned associations as the mechanism for change of attributions, the magnitude of which is governed by principles of classical conditioning. The development of attributions and their decay are explicitly and symmetrically treated. It is shown that known attribution phenomena are derivable from the present model.