Roles of context in acquisition of human instrumental learning: Implications for the understanding of the mechanisms underlying context-switch effects

Four experiments in human instrumental learning explored the associations involving the context that develop after three trials of training on simple discriminations. Experiments 1 and 4 found a deleterious effect of switching the learning context that cannot be explained by the context-outcome binary associations commonly used to explain context-switch effects after short training in human predictive learning and in animal Pavlovian conditioning. Evidence for context-outcome (Experiment 2), context-discriminative stimulus (Experiment 3), and context-instrumental response (Experiment 4) binary associations was found within the same training paradigm, suggesting that contexts became associated with all the elements of the situation, regardless of whether those associations played a role in a specific context-switch effect detected on performance.This research was funded by Grants PSI2010-15215 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and PSI2014-52263-C2-1-P from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness

Mechanisms of Contextual Control when Contexts are Informative to Solve the Task

An experiment was conducted using a human instrumental learning task with the goal of evaluating the mechanisms underlying the deleterious effect of context-switching on responding to an unambiguous stimulus when contexts are informative to solve the task. Participants were trained in a context-based reversal discrimination in which two discriminative stimuli (X and Y) interchange their meaning across contexts A and B. In context A, discriminative stimulus Z consistently announced that the relationship between a specific instrumental response (R1) and a specific outcome (O1) was in effect. Performance in the presence of stimulus Z was equally deteriorated when the test was conducted outside the training context, regardless of whether the test context was familiar (context B) or new (context C). This result is consistent with the idea that participants code all the information presented in an informative context as context-specific with the context playing a role akin to an occasion setter

Language proficiency and immigrants’ labor market outcomes in post-crisis Spain

This paper analyses the impact of Spanish proficiency on first generation immigrants’ labor market outcomes, based on the Labor Force Survey 2014 ad hoc module on the “Labor market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants”. A very high level of proficiency in Spanish is found to enhance immigrants’ employability, particularly for non Spanish-speaking immigrants. The impact increases when potential endogeneity in language skills is addressed via IV variables. Still, proficiency in Spanish does not help to get higher ranked occupations, measured via ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index) – and language skills neither contribute to explain occupational status, nor are endogenous to it, even after control for sample selection. The first result confirms the downward bias of the impact of the language proficiency on employment probabilities when the endogeneity problem is not accounted while the second responds to the particular occupational segregation in Spain amongst workers from different areas of the world

Language proficiency and immigrants’ labor market outcomes in post-crisis Spain

This paper analyses the impact of Spanish proficiency on first generation immigrants’ labor market outcomes, based on the Labor Force Survey 2014 ad hoc module on the “Labor market situation of migrants and their immediate descendants”. A very high level of proficiency in Spanish is found to enhance immigrants’ employability, particularly for non Spanish-speaking immigrants. The impact increases when potential endogeneity in language skills is addressed via IV variables. Still, proficiency in Spanish does not help to get higher ranked occupations, measured via ISEI (International Socio-Economic Index) – and language skills neither contribute to explain occupational status, nor are endogenous to it, even after control for sample selection. The first result confirms the downward bias of the impact of the language proficiency on employment probabilities when the endogeneity problem is not accounted while the second responds to the particular occupational segregation in Spain amongst workers from different areas of the world

The state of transfer of stimulus control after extinction in human instrumental conditioning: A key factor in therapy strategies based in nonhuman animal research

Link to data in OSF: https://osf.io/pbuxj/Previous research has shown that instrumental training can encourage the formation of binary associations between the representations of the elements present at the time of learning, that is, between the discriminative stimulus and the instrumental response (the S–R association), between the stimulus and outcome (the S–O association), and between the response and outcome (the R–O association). Studies with rats have used transfer procedures to explore the effects of discriminative extinction (i.e., extinction that is carried out in the presence of the discriminative stimuli) on these three binary associations. Thus, a reduction in the response rate of the extinguished response (R) can be detected in situations involving a different discriminative stimulus that was associated with the same outcome, and to unextinguished responses controlled by the discriminative stimulus (S) and associated with the outcome (O). These transfer effects suggest that R-O and S-O associations remain active after extinction in non-human animals. We carried out an experiment to explore these post-extinction transfer effects in humans using a within-subject design. Contrary to non-human reports, the S-O association was affected by discriminative extinction, suggesting differences in the associative structure of instrumental conditioning in human and nonhuman animals that should be considered by those therapeutic strategies based in nonhuman animal research aimed to reduce unhealthy instrumental behaviors in human beings.Research was made possible by Grants PGC2018-097769-B-C22 and RTI2018-096700-J-I00 from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation, and Universities and European Regional Development Fund (FEDER)

Of Rats and People: A Select Comparative Analysis of Cue Competition, the Contents of Learning, and Retrieval

Select literature regarding cue competition, the contents of learning, and retrieval processes is summarized to demonstrate parallels and differences between human and nonhuman associative learning. Competition phenomena such as blocking, overshadowing, and relative predictive validity are largely analogous in animal and human learning. In general, strong parallels are found in the associative structures established during learning, as well as in the basic phenomena associated with information retrieval. Some differences arise too, such as retrospective evaluation, which seems easier to observe in human than in nonhuman animals. However, the parallels are sufcient to indicate that the study of learning in animals continues to be relevant to human learning and memory.This work was funded by grants PSI2014-52263-C2-1-P and PSI2014-52263-C2-2-P from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitivida

Associations in human instrumental conditioning

Four experiments were conducted to study the contents of human instrumental conditioning. Experiment 1 found positive transfer between a discriminative stimulus (SD) and an instrumental response (R) that shared the outcome (O) with the response that was originally trained with the SD, showing the formation of an SD → O association. Experiment 2 found that post-acquisition devaluation of an outcome selectively reduced the response trained with that outcome, showing the formation of a R → O association. In Experiment 3, changing the outcome did not prevent participants from giving the response learned with each SD, even though none of the responses was appropriate for the new outcome, showing evidence of the formation of SD → R associations in instrumental learning. The three binary associations were shown within the same basic experimental situation. Finally, Experiment 4 found evidence of the formation of the higher order association SD(R → O) in human instrumental conditioning

The role of learning in the oviposition behavior of the silkworm moth (Bombyx mori)

One of the most relevant behaviors in the life of some insects is oviposition, because reproductive fitness largely depends on the choice of egg-laying site. We report one experiment that explored the influence of Pavlovian conditioning on oviposition choices of the silkworm. Our results show that moths that jointly experienced an odor (conditioned stimulus) and mulberry leaves (the preferred oviposition place for the moths) preferred to lay their eggs near the odor when it was present, whereas moths in which the odor and the mulberry leaves never appeared together showed no preference. This result provides evidence of the important role that a psychological process such as Pavlovian conditioning has for the survival of this species

The reoccurrence of voluntary behavior in humans is reduced by retrieval cues from extinction

Changes in the temporal as well as the physical context produces the reappearance of extinguished behaviors. Furthermore, combining both kinds of contextual stimuli often causes greater levels of recovery. The current experiment explored the impact of extinction reminders on spontaneous recovery, renewal, and a combination of both effects using an instrumental learning task with humans. All participants learned to shoot at enemies in a videogame. Then, throughout extinction, the instrumental response was eliminated. We found a return of the extinguished behavior by introducing a retention interval of 48 h, by changing the physical background and by testing participants in a spatiotemporal context different from the extinction context. However, we also found that the presentation of a stimulus directly associated with extinction attenuates all three forms of operant reoccurrence. These results are consistent with the perspective that emphasizes that context plays a key role in response-recovery phenomena. Moreover, our findings may be promissory for therapeutic strategies involving relapse treatment

Relevancia de las revistas españolas incluidas en las bases de datos del Institute for Scientific Information medida a través del factor de impacto renormalizado

Actualmente se emplea el Factor de Impacto (FI) como medida de la relevancia o la calidad de la producción científica de una institución, un proyecto o un grupo de investigación, o un investigador particular, independientemente del campo científico al que pertenecen. En este estudio se presenta una clasificación de las publicaciones españolas indexadas en las bases de datos del Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) en función de su relevancia. Se propone para la medida de esta relevancia el Factor de Impacto Renormalizado (Fr) en lugar del FI. Los resultados encontrados muestran que el 12.64% de las revistas españolas incluidas en el ISI pueden ser consideradas relevantes dentro de sus categorías y que un alto FI no indica necesariamente un alto nivel de relevancia de la revista, por lo que el FI no es un índice adecuado para evaluar actividades científicas pertenecientes a campos diferentes