Trial-to-trial Carryover Effects on Spatial Attentional Bias

Visual Probe Tasks (VPTs) have been extensively used to measure spatial attentional biases, but as usually analysed, VPTs do not consider trial-to-trial carryover effects of probe location: Does responding to a probe on, e.g., the location of a threat cue affect the bias on the subsequent trial? The aim of the current study was to confirm whether this kind of carryover exists, using a novel task version, the diagonalized VPT, designed to focus on such trial-to-trial interactions. Two versions of the task were performed by a sample of college students. In one version cues were coloured squares; in the other, cues were threat-related and neutral images. Both versions included partially random positive or negative response feedback and varying Cue-Probe Intervals (200 or 600 ms). Carryover effects were found in both versions. Responding to a probe at the location of a cue of a given colour induced an attentional bias on the subsequent trial in the direction of that colour. Responding to a threat-related cue induced an attentional bias towards threat on the subsequent trial. The results provide evidence that trial-to-trial carryover effects on spatial attentional bias indeed exist. A methodological implication is that previous probe location could be considered in analyses or re-analyses of spatial visual attention tasks

Predictive cues and spatial attentional bias for alcohol: manipulations of cue-outcome mapping

Previous studies suggest that cues predicting the outcome of attentional shifts provide a measure of anticipatory alcohol-related attentional bias that is correlated with risky drinking and has high reliability. However, this is complicated by potential contributions of visual features of cues to reliability, unrelated to their predictive value. Further, little is known of the sensitivity of the bias to variations in cue-outcome mapping manipulations, limiting our theoretical and methodological knowledge: Does the bias robustly follow varying cue-outcome mappings, or are there automatic cue-related associative processes involved? The current studies aimed to address these issues. Participants performed variations of the cued Visual Probe Task (cVPT) in which cues were non-predictive; in which there were multiple cue pairs, used simultaneously and serially; and in which the cue-outcome mapping was reversed. The major findings were, first, that previously found reliability cannot be attributed to aspects of the cues not related to outcome-prediction; second, that reliability of the bias does not survive deviations from a simple, consistent cue-outcome mapping; third, that all predictive versions of the task showed a bias towards alcohol; fourth, that the bias did not simply follow awareness of the cue-outcome mapping; and finally, that only in the case of simultaneous multiple cue pairs, an association with risky drinking was replicated. The results provide support for the reliability of the anticipatory attentional bias for alcohol, suggest that relatively persistent associative processes underlie the bias in the alcohol context, and provide a foundation for future work using the cVPT

The neurocomputational link between defensive cardiac states and approach-avoidance arbitration under threat

Avoidance, a hallmark of anxiety-related psychopathology, often comes at a cost; avoiding threat may forgo the possibility of a reward. Theories predict that optimal approach-avoidance arbitration depends on threat-induced psychophysiological states, like freezing-related bradycardia. Here we used model-based fMRI analyses to investigate whether and how bradycardia states are linked to the neurocomputational underpinnings of approach-avoidance arbitration under varying reward and threat magnitudes. We show that bradycardia states are associated with increased threat-induced avoidance and more pronounced reward-threat value comparison (i.e., a stronger tendency to approach vs. avoid when expected reward outweighs threat). An amygdala-striatal-prefrontal circuit supports approach-avoidance arbitration under threat, with specific involvement of the amygdala and dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC) in integrating reward-threat value and bradycardia states. These findings highlight the role of human freezing states in value-based decision making, relevant for optimal threat coping. They point to a specific role for amygdala/dACC in state-value integration under threat

Correction: Protocol of the Healthy Brain Study:An accessible resource for understanding the human brain and how it dynamically and individually operates in its bio-social context

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260952.]

Informationsintegration beim Umgang mit Risiko : entwicklungs-, kognitions- und motivationspsychologische Aspekte

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersuchte riskante Entscheidungen und die ihnen zugrundeliegenden Informationsintegrationsprozesse bei Jugendlichen und Erwachsenen sowie den Einfluss verschiedener Verarbeitungsmodi ('heiss' emotional- motivational versus 'kalt' kognitiv-rational) auf diese Entscheidungen. In 4 Experimenten füllten 342 Jugendliche und Erwachsene (12 bis 57 Jahre) einen Motivfragebogen aus und spielten ein Computerkartenspiel, bei dem sie riskante Entscheidungen treffen und Informationen zu möglichen Gewinnen, Verlusten und deren Eintretenswahrscheinlichkeiten berücksichtigen mussten. Die Integrationsmuster auf der Gruppenebene folgten weitestgehend additiven Modellen, auf der Individualebene ergaben sich dagegen grosse individuelle Unterschiede in den verfolgten Strategien. Als weiteres Ergebnis zeigte sich die Bedeutung der Unterscheidung heisser und kalter Entscheidungsprozesse beim riskanten Entscheiden sehr deutlich: Nur in den heissen, nicht aber den kalten Bedingungen konnte bei den jüngeren Altersgruppen - insbesondere den männlichen Teilnehmern - eine erhöhte Risikobereitschaft beobachtet werden; diese ging ausserdem mit einer geringeren Komplexität in der Informationsintegration einher. Die Korrelationsmuster zwischen dem Kartenspielverhalten und dem Motivfragebogen belegten weiter die bedeutsame Rolle, die insbesondere heisse Formen der Informationsverarbeitung bei der Entstehung riskanten Verhaltens bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen spielen. The thesis investigates risky decision making and risk taking as well as the underlying information integration processes from youth to adulthood. Further, it explores the influence of 'hot' emotional-motivational versus 'cold' cognitive-rational decision modes on risky decision making. In 4 experiments, 342 participants (12 to 57 years of age) completed a motivational questionnaire and played a computer card game in which they made risky decisions based on varying information regarding potential wins and losses and the probabilities of winning or losing. On the group level, information integration mainly followed additive patterns while, on the individual level, large individual differences in the strategies were found. The results highlighted the importance of differentiating hot and cold information processing in risky decision making: marked age and gender differences were found only in the hot but not in the cold conditions - with the younger males being most risk seeking and showing less complex patterns of information integration in the hot conditions. The observed correlations between strategies in the card game and measures of the motivational questionnaire further underscore the importance of considering hot modes of information processing to explain risk taking in adolescents and young adults

An illustrative implementation of reflectivity emerging from temporal dynamics and learning history

Dual systems models have been highly influential and productive in generating research related to impulsive and reflective behaviour. However, there is also long-standing criticism of such models, and, in response, attempts have been made to find possible improvement in theoretical frameworks. The current study presents a simple abstraction of one such attempt, the Reinforcement and Reprocessing model of Reflectivity, or R3 model. Simulations were run to illustrate and explore the conceptual model. First, results demonstrated how a parameter controlling the speed of decay of a response threshold can, in interaction with other temporal dynamics, generate impulsive and reflective behaviour defined, not by qualitatively different systems, but by the time spent selecting a response. Second, it was shown how reinforcement history could train a system to be more versus less reflective versus impulsive based on its experience with response pressure. The results are discussed in terms of their use for illustrating alternative ways of thinking about dual systems and for generating new hypotheses