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

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

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)

Within-compound associations in cue competition and retrosepective revaluation

Retrospective revaluation occurs when posttraining associative inflation or deflation of a cue results in changes in the response potential of an absent stimulus. For example, in backward blocking situations, Phase 1 AX+ followed by Phase 2 A+ trials result in weaker responding to X at test than a comparable control cue. Relatedly, cue competition involves reduced learning when cues are trained together than when they are trained separately. For example, in forward blocking, A+ before AX+ trials reduce learning about X. In both cue competition and retrospective revaluation, animals may learn about and respond based on direct associations with the outcome (e.g., X-outcome associations) or within-compound e.g., X-A) associations. Attempts to reveal the role of within-compound associations in cue competition and retrospective revaluation have produced divergent conclusions. Towards resolving these discrepancies in the literature, we conducted computer simulations of models that varied in their treatment of within-compound associations in cue competition and retrospective revaluation. Our simulations revealed that a model that uses within-compound associations in both retrospective revaluation and in conventional cue competition is able to explain the central results as well as models that assume a selective role for within-compound associations in retrospective revaluation

Determinants of extinction in a streamed trial procedure

The strength of an association between a cue and its outcome is influenced by both the probability of the outcome given the cue and the probability of the outcome in the absence of the cue. Once an association has been formed, extinction is the procedure for reducing responding indicative of the association by repeated presentation of the cue without the outcome. The present experiments tested whether cumulative frequency and/or cumulative duration of these events affects associative extinction in a streamed trial extinction procedure with human participants. Experiment 1 assessed the effects of parametric manipulations of the frequency and duration of either the cue by itself or cue-outcome co-absence. In Experiment 1, participants proved relatively insensitive to manipulation of the event's duration. In contrast, judgements of the association by participants decreased when the frequency of cue-alone events was increased, even when the durations of those events were decreased so that cumulative exposure to the cue was equated. No effect of either the duration or the frequency of cue-outcome co-absence was observed. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the effect of cue-alone (i.e., extinction trial) frequency generalises across a wide range of parameters for initial acquisition achieved by cue-outcome pairings. Experiment 3 tested for an interaction between event duration during initial learning and event duration during extinction. Collectively, these results indicate that the cumulative frequency, and not the cumulative duration, of extinction trials as well as the duration of the cue-outcome co-absences between extinction trials control the effectiveness of an extinction procedure