The Peripheral Image

There is a curious, and at times absurd, function to the appearance of images at the edge, the periphery, of web pages. The most defining characteristics of these images are not their literal, spatial peripherality, but rather their conceptual peripherality: their de-centered, yet economically central, role on the web. These images are de-centered insofar as they aren't the media ends for Internet users (i.e. they aren't what users are "online" for), and as such they constitute a sort of Internet detritus – thumbnails, banner ads, swipe-up-for-mores – they are image reproduction run grotesque and amok, towards seemingly inconsequential ends, negligible in form and content. Despite this, the information one might glean from their visual language is strikingly relevant in the context of affective economics (the marketing theory concerned with the relation between emotion and consumption) and the peripheral image, as we will see, signifies, and modulates in a very material sense, the exploitation of the cognitive surplus and pre-personal desires of Internet users through curious affective forms. Image as carrot on a stick, leading users into a sort of mis-en-abyme of similarly formulated images and articles that one might follow and interact with to no particular end. In considering the appearance and relevance of the peripheral image we might best understand the implications of their form as a multivalent material for the study of cultural production, affect, consumer cultures, and Internet platforms.Purchase College SUNYNew MediaBachelor of ArtsBell-Smith, Michae

Slow learning about inhibitors in human contingency learning

Conditioned inhibition is observed after training in which a stimulus signals the absence of an otherwise expected outcome. For example, in Pavlov’s (1927) procedure for conditioned inhibition, A+ trials are interspersed with AX- trials, where (+) indicates reinforcement and (-) notes non-reinforcement. Most models of learning assume that the surprisingness of the outcome is important for learning. Such models predict weaker terminal responding to a previous inhibitor than to a previously neutral stimulus after cue-outcome pairings. Such models also predict that learning about the inhibitor will be faster than learning about the neutral stimulus because the inhibitor is more surprising. To empirically test these different predictions, a 2 (Inhibitor vs. Neutral stimulus) X 3 (Number of Trials [Zero vs. One vs. Two] mixed design was conducted in a human contingency learning procedure. Our experiment revealed faster excitatory learning for a previously neutral stimulus than for a previous inhibitory stimulus, which is inconsistent with the view that surprise drives learning

Trial frequency outweighs trial duration in associative learning: generality and boundary conditions

Perceived contingency of a single cue and outcome is based on the relative exposure to four types of events: Cue-outcome pairings (A events), cue-alone presentations (B events), outcomealone presentations (C events), and events in which neither the cue nor the outcome is presented (D events). Previous experiments found increases in the frequency of an event affected ratings of the perceived contingency between the cue and outcome, even compared to conditions with proportional decreases in the duration of trials (i.e, adjusted frequency conditions). The present experiments tested the generality and boundaries of this adjusted frequency effect by examining whether it generalizes to ratings of multiple cue-outcome dyads, to a cued-recall test, and to both sequential and simultaneous cue-outcome presentations. Experiment 1 revealed a strong effect of frequency but no effect of duration after training with a single cue-outcome dyad; however, a duration effect emerged when training consisted of five cue-outcome dyads. Experiment 2 showed an effect of duration as well as an adjusted frequency effect in contingency ratings after training with five dyads. Experiment 3 extended these observations to a cued-recall test after training with ten cue-outcome dyads. Experiment 4 used five dyads and found a withinexperiment effect of duration on both contingency ratings and cued-recall scores. Whereas Experiments 1-4 varied the A events, Experiment 5 varied frequency and duration of the D events with ten cue-outcome dyads and revealed effects of duration as well as frequency on both cued recall and cue-outcome contingency ratings. In summary, these experiments detected an increase in the importance of event duration with increases in the number of dyads. Moreover, subject ratings of contingency closely tracked results in a cued-recall test, suggesting that a common mechanism underlies these two measures

Performance Factors in Associative Learning: Assessment of the Sometimes Competing Retrieval Model

Previous simulations revealed that the sometimes competing retrieval model (SOCR; Stout & Miller, 2007), which assumes local error reduction, can explain many cue interaction phenomena that elude traditional associative theories based on total error reduction. Here we applied SOCR to a new set of Pavlovian phenomena. Simulations used a single set of fixed parameters to simulate each basic effect (e.g., blocking) and, for specific experiments using different procedures, used fitted parameters discovered through hillclimbing. In Simulation 1, SOCR was successfully applied to basic acquisition, including the ‘overtraining effect,’ which is context dependent. In Simulation 2, we applied SOCR to basic extinction and renewal. SOCR anticipated these effects with both fixed parameters and best fitting parameters, although the renewal effects were weaker than those observed in some experiments. In Simulation 3a, feature negative training was simulated, including the often observed transition from second-order conditioning to conditioned inhibition. In Simulation 3b, SOCR predicted the observation that conditioned inhibition after feature-negative and differential conditioning depends on intertrial interval. In Simulation 3c, SOCR successfully predicted failure of conditioned inhibition to extinguish with presentations of the inhibitor alone under most circumstances. In Simulation 4, cue competition, including blocking (4a), recovery from relative validity (4b), and unblocking (4c), were simulated. In Simulation 5, SOCR correctly predicted that inhibitors gain more behavioral control than excitors when they are trained in compound. Simulation 6 demonstrated that SOCR explains the slower acquisition observed following CS-weak shock pairings

Performance Factors in Associative Learning: Assessment of the Sometimes Competing Retrieval Model

Previous simulations revealed that the sometimes competing retrieval model (SOCR; Stout & Miller, 2007), which assumes local error reduction, can explain many cue interaction phenomena that elude traditional associative theories based on total error reduction. Here we applied SOCR to a new set of Pavlovian phenomena. Simulations used a single set of fixed parameters to simulate each basic effect (e.g., blocking) and, for specific experiments using different procedures, used fitted parameters discovered through hillclimbing. In Simulation 1, SOCR was successfully applied to basic acquisition, including the ‘overtraining effect,’ which is context dependent. In Simulation 2, we applied SOCR to basic extinction and renewal. SOCR anticipated these effects with both fixed parameters and best fitting parameters, although the renewal effects were weaker than those observed in some experiments. In Simulation 3a, feature negative training was simulated, including the often observed transition from second-order conditioning to conditioned inhibition. In Simulation 3b, SOCR predicted the observation that conditioned inhibition after feature-negative and differential conditioning depends on intertrial interval. In Simulation 3c, SOCR successfully predicted failure of conditioned inhibition to extinguish with presentations of the inhibitor alone under most circumstances. In Simulation 4, cue competition, including blocking (4a), recovery from relative validity (4b), and unblocking (4c), were simulated. In Simulation 5, SOCR correctly predicted that inhibitors gain more behavioral control than excitors when they are trained in compound. Simulation 6 demonstrated that SOCR explains the slower acquisition observed following CS-weak shock pairings.SUNY BrockportPsychology Faculty Publication

Further Comparisons of Extinction, Counterconditioning, and Novelty-facilitated Extinction: ABA vs. ABC Renewal Designs

The main file is the ReadMe file, with a dataset added in the additional file section

Renewal of Retroactive Interference in Pavlovian conditioning: The Effect of Outcome Valence on Expectancy Learning and Evaluative Conditioning

This site includes the README for Neutral CC Appendix study, the Neutral CC Appendix data, the README for Neutral CC studies, and the Neutral CC data

Renewal in the cognitive and emotional domains: comparing novelty-facilitated extinction with counterconditioning and extinction

The primary file is a ReadMe file and additional file is the dataset

Comparing associative interspersed interference with proactive and retroactive interference

The main file is the ReadMe file, with four dataset files added in the additional file section

Benefiting from trial spacing without the cost of prolonged training: frequency, not duration, of trials with absent stimuli enhances perceived contingency

The statistical relation between two events influences the perception of how one event relates to the presence or absence of another. Interestingly, the simultaneous absence of both events, just like their mutual occurrence, is relevant for describing their contingency. In three experiments, we explored the relevance of coabsent events by varying the duration and frequency of trials without stimuli. We used a rapid trial streaming procedure and found that the perceived association between events is enhanced with increasing frequency of coabsent events, unlike the duration of coabsent events, which had little effect. These findings suggest ways in which the benefits of trial spacing, during which both events are absent, could be obtained without increasing total training time. Centrally, this can be done by frequent repeating of shortened coabsent events, each marked by a trial contextual cue. We discuss four potential accounts of how coabsent experience might be processed contributing to this effect: (a) contingency sensitivity, (b) testing effect, (c) reduced associative interference by the context, and (d) reduced encoding interference. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)