ERIC Number: EJ934229
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-May
Pages: 9
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0278-7393
EISSN: N/A
Prediction and Uncertainty in Human Pavlovian to Instrumental Transfer
Trick, Leanne; Hogarth, Lee; Duka, Theodora
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, v37 n3 p757-765 May 2011
Attentional capture and behavioral control by conditioned stimuli have been dissociated in animals. The current study assessed this dissociation in humans. Participants were trained on a Pavlovian schedule in which 3 visual stimuli, A, B, and C, predicted the occurrence of an aversive noise with 90%, 50%, or 10% probability, respectively. Participants then went on to separate instrumental training in which a key-press response canceled the aversive noise with a 0.5 probability on a variable interval schedule. Finally, in the transfer phase, the 3 Pavlovian stimuli were presented in this instrumental schedule and were no longer differentially predictive of the outcome. Observing times and gaze dwell time indexed attention to these stimuli in both training and transfer. Aware participants acquired veridical outcome expectancies in training--that is, A greater than B greater than C, and these expectancies persisted into transfer. Most important, the transfer effect accorded with these expectancies, A greater than B greater than C. By contrast, observing times accorded with uncertainty--that is, they showed B greater than A = C during training, and B less than A = C in the transfer phase. Dwell time bias supported this association between attention and uncertainty, although these data showed a slightly more complicated pattern. Overall, the study suggests that transfer is linked to outcome prediction and is dissociated from attention to conditioned stimuli, which is linked to outcome uncertainty. (Contains 6 figures, 1 table and 3 footnotes.)
Descriptors: Classical Conditioning, Prediction, Visual Stimuli, Acoustics, Attention, Cognitive Processes, Foreign Countries
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: United Kingdom
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A