Speed-Accuracy Trade-off in Value-Driven Attentional Capture

Attention is traditionally divided into two types: voluntary, goal-directed attention and involuntary, stimulus-driven attention (Corbetta & Shulman, 2002; Theeuwes, 2010). Seminal work on value-driven attentional capture (VDAC) has shown that stimuli associated with reward during a reward learning phase slowed reaction time (RT) in a test phase even when task-irrelevant and non-salient (Anderson, Laurent, & Yantis, 2011). However, performance-contingent reward and a response deadline impose additional constraints in the VDAC paradigm: responding too quickly decreases reward likelihood and responding too late drops the reward probability to zero. Thus, to maximize reward, participants must carefully decide when to respond, potentially altering the strategic balancing of speed and accuracy and confounding attentional effects with decisional ones. We replicated the VDAC paradigm to address the influence of different response strategies. Using maximum likelihood estimation, RT distributions were fitted with an exGaussian model. We found that RT variability (σ) was significantly greater in the experimental group (p\u3c0.05), suggesting that reward learning produced a less stable strategy. Further, RT variability positively correlated with error rate (r=0.51, p\u3c0.001), reflecting a behavioral cost with greater RT variability. These results call into question the validity of the baseline trials used in the VDAC paradigm, as reward learning altered the response strategy even after the reward was removed

Water bathing alters the speed-accuracy trade-off of escape flights in European starlings

Birds of most species regularly bathe in water, but the function of this behaviour is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that water bathing is important in feather maintenance, and hence should enhance flight performance. We manipulated European starlings', Sturnus vulgaris, access to bathing water in a 2 × 2 design: birds were housed in aviaries either with or without water baths for a minimum of 3 days (long-term access) before being caught and placed in individual cages either with or without water baths for a further 24 h (short-term access). We subsequently assessed the speed and accuracy of escape flights through an obstacle course of vertical strings. Birds that had bathed in the short-term flew more slowly and hit fewer strings than birds that were deprived of bathing water in the short term, whereas long-term access to bathing water had no significant effect on flight performance. Thus recent access to bathing water alters flight performance by altering the trade-off between escape flight speed and accuracy. We hypothesize that lack of bathing water provision could increase anxiety in captive starlings because of an increase in their perceived vulnerability to predation. This study therefore potentially provides an important functional link between the expression of natural behaviours in captivity and welfare considerations. © 2009 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour

Integration of Impulse-Variability Theory and the Speed-Accuracy Trade-Off in Children\u27s Multijoint Ballistic Skill Performance

A major purpose of the motor learning and motor control literature is to provide principles and theories (e.g., speed-accuracy trade-off) that can inform the instruction of young learners in motor skill competence. To be optimally effective, these principles and theories must be understood and applied in relation to authentic instructional contexts, complex motor patterns, and specific developmental levels of young learners. It is insufficient, for instance, to generalize research results with adults learning simple movements in controlled laboratory settings to an understanding of how children learn from fundamental movement skills in physical education classes. Based on this premise, the work presented herein focuses on several limitations to the knowledge base on impulse-variability theory and the speed-accuracy trade-off. Specifically although an established research literature with adult learners has develop to test fundamental principles within both perspectives, little is known regarding the applicability of these principles to children learning multijoint ballistic skills, which are commonly taught in schools. Therefore, two studies conducted to examine impulse-variability theory and the speed-accuracy trade-off as they relate to children learning overarm throwing and kicking. In the first study 45 children ages 9 to 11 (mean age= 10.7 years; 21 girls) performed a total of 40 throwing trials at 45%, 65%, 85%, and 100% of their maximum speed at a target. Results indicated no statistical significance with either variable error or spatial error, failing to support either impulse-variability theory or the speed-accuracy trade-off. In the second study, 43 children ages 9 to 11 (mean age= 10.7 years, 19 girls) kicked a ball at 45%, 65%, 85%, and 100% of their maximum speed at a wall target. Results indicated a U-shaped relationship with variable error, where the participants were less variable at the 65% target speed condition compared to maximum speed, failing to support impulse-variability theory and findings in adult kicking performances (Chappell et al., in press). A statistically significant inverse linear relationship was indicated with the spatial error were the mean radial error of the speed bandwidths of \u3c59%, 60-69%, and 70-79% of maximum speed were greater than the \u3e90% bandwidth of maximum speed. These results are inconsistent with the tenants of the speed-accuracy trade-off. Overall, findings suggest that variability and accuracy of multijoint ballistic skills performance in children fail to support general movement principles (i.e., speed-accuracy trade-off and impulse-variability theory). Therefore, current policy and practice of physical educators and coaches related to instructional emphases may need to be re-evaluated

A speed-accuracy trade-off in children’s processing of scalar implicatures

Scalar implicatures—inferences from a weak description (“Iate some of the cookies”) that a stronger alternative is true(“I didn’t eat all”)—are paradigm cases of pragmatic infer-ence. Children’s trouble with scalar implicatures is thus animportant puzzle for theories of pragmatic development, giventheir communicative competence in other domains. Previousresearch has suggested that access to alternatives might be key.Here, we explore children’s reaction times in a new paradigmfor measuring scalar implicature processing. Alongside fail-ures on scalar implicatures with “some,” we replicate previ-ous reports of failures with “none,” and find evidence of aspeed-accuracy trade-off for both quantifiers. Motivated bythese findings, we explore the relationship between accuracyand reaction time with a Drift Diffusion Model. We find evi-dence consistent with the hypothesis that preschoolers lack ac-cess to the alternatives for scalar implicature computation, al-though this set of alternatives may be broader than previouslyassumed

Speed/Accuracy Trade-Off between the Habitual and the Goal-Directed Processes

Instrumental responses are hypothesized to be of two kinds: habitual and goal-directed, mediated by the sensorimotor and the associative cortico-basal ganglia circuits, respectively. The existence of the two heterogeneous associative learning mechanisms can be hypothesized to arise from the comparative advantages that they have at different stages of learning. In this paper, we assume that the goal-directed system is behaviourally flexible, but slow in choice selection. The habitual system, in contrast, is fast in responding, but inflexible in adapting its behavioural strategy to new conditions. Based on these assumptions and using the computational theory of reinforcement learning, we propose a normative model for arbitration between the two processes that makes an approximately optimal balance between search-time and accuracy in decision making. Behaviourally, the model can explain experimental evidence on behavioural sensitivity to outcome at the early stages of learning, but insensitivity at the later stages. It also explains that when two choices with equal incentive values are available concurrently, the behaviour remains outcome-sensitive, even after extensive training. Moreover, the model can explain choice reaction time variations during the course of learning, as well as the experimental observation that as the number of choices increases, the reaction time also increases. Neurobiologically, by assuming that phasic and tonic activities of midbrain dopamine neurons carry the reward prediction error and the average reward signals used by the model, respectively, the model predicts that whereas phasic dopamine indirectly affects behaviour through reinforcing stimulus-response associations, tonic dopamine can directly affect behaviour through manipulating the competition between the habitual and the goal-directed systems and thus, affect reaction time

A behavioural syndrome, but less evidence for a relationship with cognitive traits in a spatial orientation context

Final LMMs with significant confounding factors on personality and cognitive traits in harvest mice. Table S2. Between-individual correlations among personality and cognitive traits (spatial recognition and spatial learning performance) in harvest mice, calculated from a multivariate mixed model. Table S3. Within-individual correlations between personality and cognitive traits (spatial recognition and spatial learning performance) in harvest mice, calculated from a multivariate mixed model. Table S4. Test for a cognitive syndrome caused by a speed-accuracy trade-off in harvest mice: Between-individual correlations among personality traits and decision styles (decision speed and accuracy) calculated from a multivariate mixed model. Table S5. Test for a cognitive syndrome caused by a speed-accuracy trade-off in harvest mice: Within-individual correlations between personality traits and decision styles (decision speed and accuracy) calculated from a multivariate mixed model. (PDF 324 kb