Drive Discrimination Learning under Conflict Situations

It is a common-sense notion in psychology that behavior is under the motivation of drives arising in the behavioral field of the organism(12). Drives tend to persist until the organic need with which they are associated has been satisfied. The drive stimulus will be associated with every part-reaction making up a behavioral sequence and at the same time will be associated with external stimuli on the way to the goal. If the external stimulus determines when, where, and how an organism will respond, then the stimulus may be called a cue(21). Cues function as leading the organism to correct responses which satisfy its drive. In learning theory the connection of drives and cues is the most important problem. Gestalt theory, however, emphasizes that the important problem is rather a perceptual one, a problem of cognition.