Context modulation of learned attention deployment

In three experiments, we investigated the contextual control of attention in human discrimination learning. In each experiment, participants initially received discrimination training in which the cues from Dimension A were relevant in Context 1 but irrelevant in Context 2, whereas the cues from Dimension B were irrelevant in Context 1 but relevant in Context 2. In Experiment 1, the same cues from each dimension were used in Contexts 1 and 2, whereas in Experiments 2 and 3, the cues from each dimension were changed across contexts. In each experiment, participants were subsequently shifted to a transfer discrimination involving novel cues from either dimension, to assess the contextual control of attention. In Experiment 1, measures of eye gaze during the transfer discrimination revealed that Dimension A received more attention than Dimension B in Context 1, whereas the reverse occurred in Context 2. Corresponding results indicating the contextual control of attention were found in Experiments 2 and 3, in which we used the speed of learning (associability) as an indirect marker of learned attentional changes. Implications of our results for current theories of learning and attention are discussed

The role of common elements in the redundancy effect

In 2 experiments, participants received a predictive learning task in which the presence of 1 or 2 food items signaled the onset or absence of stomachache in a hypothetical patient. Their task was to identify the cues that signaled the occurrence, or nonoccurrence of this ailment. The 2 groups in Experiment 1 and the single group in Experiment 2 received a blocking treatment, where Cue A and a combination of Cues A and X both signaled stomachache, A+ AX+. These groups also received a simple discrimination where the outcome was signaled by one compound but not another, BY+ CY–. Subsequent test trials revealed the so-called redundancy effect, where X was regarded as a more reliable predictor of the outcome than Y. This result occurred when the trials with A+ preceded those with AX+ (Group E, Experiment 1 and Experiment 2), and when the trials with A+ and AX+ were intermixed (Group C, Experiment 1). The results challenge theories based on the assumption that cues presented together must compete for a limited pool of associative strength. Rather, they are said to support theories that assume changes in attention determine what is learned when two or more cues are presented together. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved

A test for a difference in the associability of blocked and uninformative cues in human predictive learning

In human predictive learning, blocking, A+ AB+, and a simple discrimination, UX+ VX–, result in a stronger response to the blocked, B, than the uninformative cue, X (where letters represent cues and + and – represent different outcomes). To assess whether these different treatments result in more attention being paid to blocked than uninformative cues, Stage 1 in each of three experiments generated two blocked cues, B and E, and two uninformative cues, X and Y. In Stage 2, participants received two simple discriminations: either BX+ EX– and BY+ EY–, or BX+ BY– and EX+ EY–. If more attention is paid to blocked than uninformative cues, then the first pair of discriminations will be solved more readily than the second pair. In contrast to this prediction, both discriminations were acquired at the same rate. These results are explained by the theory of Mackintosh, by virtue of the assumption that learning is governed by an individual rather than a common error term

The fate of redundant cues: Further analysis of the redundancy effect

Pearce, Dopson, Haselgrove, and Esber (Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 38, 167–179, 2012) conducted a series of experiments with rats and pigeons in which the conditioned responding elicited by two types of redundant cue was compared. One of these redundant cues was a blocked cue X from A+ AX+ training, whereas the other was cue Y from a simple discrimination BY+ CY–. Greater conditioned responding was elicited by X than by Y; we refer to this difference as the redundancy effect. To test an explanation of this effect in terms of comparator theory (Denniston, Savastano, & Miller, 2001), a single group of rats in Experiment 1 received training of the form A+ AX+ BY+ CY–, followed by an A– Y+ discrimination. Responding to the individual cues was tested both before and after the latter discrimination. In addition to a replication of the redundancy effect during the earlier test, we observed stronger responding to B than to X, both during the earlier test and, in contradiction of the theory, after the A– Y+ discrimination. In Experiment 2, a blocking group received A+ AX+, a continuous group received AX+ BX–, and a partial group received AX± BX± training. Subsequent tests with X again demonstrated the redundancy effect, but also revealed a stronger response in the partial than in the continuous group. This pattern of results is difficult to explain with error-correction theories that assume that stimuli compete for associative strength during conditioning. We suggest, instead, that the influence of a redundant cue is determined by its relationship with the event with which it is paired, and by the attention it is paid

Extinction of cognitive associations is preserved in patients with cerebellar disease

In the present study extinction and renewal of cognitive associations were assessed in two experiments in participants with focal and degenerative cerebellar disease. Using a predictive learning task, participants had to learn by trial and error the relationships between food items and the occurrence of stomach trouble in a hypothetical patient. In the first experiment, focus was on renewal effects. Participants with chronic cerebellar stroke (n = 14; mean age 50.9 ± 12 years), participants with degenerative cerebellar disease (n = 16; mean age 58 ± 12 years), age-, sex-, and education matched controls (n = 20; mean age 53.7 ± 10.8 years) and young controls (n = 19; mean age 23.2 ± 2.7 years) were tested. Acquisition and extinction of food-stomach trouble associations took part in two different contexts (represented by restaurants). In a subsequent test phase, food stimuli were presented in both contexts and no feedback was given. This allowed testing for renewal of the initially acquired associations in the acquisition context. Acquisition and extinction learning were not significantly different between groups. Significant renewal effects were present in young controls only. In the second experiment, focus was on extinction. To control for age effects, 19 young participants with chronic surgical lesions of the cerebellum (mean age 25.6 ± 6.1 years), and 24 age-, sex- and education-matched healthy controls were tested. Acquisition and extinction of food-stomach trouble associations took part in the same context. In the extinction phase, the relationship with stomach trouble was reversed in some of the food items. Acquisition and extinction learning were not significantly different between groups. The main finding of the present study was preserved extinction of learned cognitive associations in participants with chronic cerebellar disease. Findings agree with previous observations in the literature that cognitive abnormalities are frequently absent or weak in adults with cerebellar disease. This does not exclude a contribution of the cerebellum to extinction of learned associations. For example, findings may be different in more challenging cognitive tasks, and in participants with acute cerebellar disease with no time for compensation