Two Views of the Addiction Elephant: Comment on McSweeney, Murphy, and Kowal (2005)

F. K. McSweeney, E. S. Murphy, and B. P. Kowal present a convincing case that the literature on habituation and sensitization to the sensory properties of conventional reinforcers is relevant to understanding a variety of addictive behaviors. They note that their model has advantages over a number of alternative formulations. However, in discussing one particular such alternative, a Pavlovian conditioning analysis of drug tolerance and withdrawal, F. K. McSweeney et al. overstate the advantages of their reinforcer habituation/sensitization model.