On the Generality of the Laws of Learning

On the Generality of the Laws of Learning

Seligman, Martin
Psychological Review 77, no. 5 (1970): 406.
https://doi.org/10.1037/h0029790

“Sometimes we forget why psychologists ever trained white rats to press bars for little pellets of flour or sounded metronomes followed by meat powder for domestic dogs. After all, when in the real world do rats encounter levers which they learn to press in order to eat, and when do our pet dogs ever come across metronomes whose clicking signals meat powder? It may be useful now to remind ourselves about a basic premise which gave rise to such bizarre endeavors, and to see if we still have reason to believe this premise.”

— Martin Seligman