SENSORY PRECONDITIONING, THE ESPINET EFFECT, AND HEIDER'S BALANCE THEORY: NOTE ON ANIMAL REASONING OF EVENT RELATIONS

Sensory preconditioning and the Espinet effect illustrate that animals can reason about event relations. In sensory preconditioning, a combination of positive A-B and B-C relations yields a positive A-C relation. In the Espinet effect, a combination of a negative A-B relation and a positive B-C relation yields a negative A-C relation. Using analogies of Heider's balance theory of human attitudes, we predict that nonhuman animals would also infer a positive A-C relation from negative A-B and B-C relations.