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The Rescorla – Wagner model is a model of classical conditioning in which the animal is theorized to learn from the discrepancy between what is expected to happen and what actually happens.

This is a trial-level model in which each stimulus is either present or not present at some point in the trial.

The prediction of the unconditioned stimulus for a trial can be represented as the sum of all the associative strengths for the conditioned stimuli present during the trial.

This is the feature of the model that represents a major advance over previous models, and allowed a straightforward explanation of important experimental phenomena such as blocking.

For this reason, the Rescorla – Wagner model has become one of the most influential models of learning, though it has been frequently criticized since its publication.

It has attracted considerable attention in recent years, as many studies have suggested that the phasic activity of dopamine neurons in mesostriatal DA projections in the midbrain encodes for the type of prediction error detailed in the model.