A conditioning model of delusion.

"Delusions" are beliefs that are false and persistent. It is suggested here that these characteristics can emerge from interplays between two fundamental learning processes: (1) the allocation of attentional resources among stimuli; and (2) the effects of feedback on learning. The former of these has been operationalized in the learned irrelevance and latent inhibition paradigms; the latter in studies of the effects of persistence-training.