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Abstract
There is substantial evidence that dopamine is involved in reward learning and appetitive
conditioning. However, the major reinforcement learning-based theoretical models of
classical conditioning (crudely, prediction learning) are actually based on rules
designed to explain instrumental conditioning (action learning). Extensive anatomical,
pharmacological, and psychological data, particularly concerning the impact of motivational
manipulations, show that these models are unreasonable. We review the data and consider
the involvement of a rich collection of different neural systems in various aspects
of these forms of conditioning. Dopamine plays a pivotal, but complicated, role.