Honey, Rob  ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6870-1880
2026.
Serendipity, strategy and psychic secretions: From general processes to individual differences.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology
10.1177/17470218261484941
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Abstract
Pavlov observed that his dogs salivated not only when food was directly introduced into their mouths, but also when presented with other stimuli that had reliably co-occurred with food. This was a serendipitous observation. He called such cases of salivation psychic secretions or more prosaically conditional or conditioned responses. Our own research, born from a series of serendipitous interactions and findings, concerns reconciling general-process theories of associative learning with qualitative and quantitative individual differences in such conditioned behaviours; and in particular responses directed toward the conditioned stimulus (called sign-tracking) and those reflecting the unconditioned stimulus (called goal-tracking). The research is ongoing (i.e., incomplete), but has already prompted some revisions to received wisdom, including about the nature of associative structures involved, and the rules governing their acquisition and translation into behaviour.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Date Type: | Published Online |
| Status: | In Press |
| Schools: | Schools > Psychology |
| Additional Information: | Rights Retention Policy applied |
| Publisher: | Sage |
| ISSN: | 0033-555X |
| Date of First Compliant Deposit: | 7 September 2026 |
| Date of Acceptance: | 17 March 2026 |
| Last Modified: | 07 Sep 2026 09:15 |
| URI: | https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/189378 |
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