scholarly journals The redundancy effect in human causal learning: No evidence for changes in selective attention

2018 ◽  
Vol 71 (8) ◽  
pp. 1748-1760 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter M Jones ◽  
Tara Zaksaite
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Eye Tracker ◽  
Initial Training ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Redundancy Effect ◽  
Overt Attention ◽  
Human Causal Learning

Several recent papers have reported a difference in associative learning for two kinds of redundant cues, such that a blocked cue (e.g., X in A+ AX+) apparently forms a stronger association with the outcome than an uncorrelated cue (e.g., Y in BY+ CY-). This difference is referred to as the redundancy effect, and is of interest because it is contrary to the predictions of a number of popular learning models. One way of reconciling these models with the redundancy effect is to assume that the amount of attention paid to redundant cues changes as a result of experience, and that these changes in attention influence subsequent learning. Here, we present two experiments designed to evaluate this idea, in which we measured overt attention using an eye tracker while participants completed a learning task that elicited the redundancy effect. In both experiments, gaze duration was longer for uncorrelated cues than for blocked cues, but this difference disappeared when we divided gaze durations by trial durations. In Experiment 2, we failed to observe any difference in gaze duration when blocked and uncorrelated cues were subsequently presented together. While the observed difference in gaze duration for the two types of redundant cue may contribute to differences in learning during initial training, we suggest that the principal causes of the redundancy effect are likely to lie elsewhere.

Blocking of Human Causal Learning Involves Learned Changes in Stimulus Processing

2007 ◽  
Vol 60 (11) ◽  
pp. 1468-1476 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Le Pelley ◽  
T. Beesley ◽  
M. B. Suret
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Human Learning ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Direct Test ◽  
Stimulus Processing ◽  
Human Causal Learning

Several theories of associative learning propose that blocking reflects changes in the processing devoted to learning about cues. The results of the only direct test of this suggestion in human learning (Kruschke & Blair, 2000) could equally well be explained in terms of, among others, interference in learning or memory. The present study tested this suggestion in a situation in which processing-change and interference accounts predict opposing results. Results support the idea that blocking in human learning can reflect a change in processing of the cues involved.

scholarly journals Feedback-related Brain Potential Activity Complies with Basic Assumptions of Associative Learning Theory

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 794-808 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Luque ◽  
Francisco J. López ◽  
Josep Marco-Pallares ◽  
Estela Càmara ◽  
Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Error Term ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Models ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Predictive Learning ◽  
Positive And Negative Feedback ◽  
Potential Activity

Feedback-related negativity (FRN) is an ERP component that distinguishes positive from negative feedback. FRN has been hypothesized to be the product of an error signal that may be used to adjust future behavior. In addition, associative learning models assume that the trial-to-trial learning of cue–outcome mappings involves the minimization of an error term. This study evaluated whether FRN is a possible electrophysiological correlate of this error term in a predictive learning task where human subjects were asked to learn different cue–outcome relationships. Specifically, we evaluated the sensitivity of the FRN to the course of learning when different stimuli interact or compete to become a predictor of certain outcomes. Importantly, some of these cues were blocked by more informative or predictive cues (i.e., the blocking effect). Interestingly, the present results show that both learning and blocking affect the amplitude of the FRN component. Furthermore, independent analyses of positive and negative feedback event-related signals showed that the learning effect was restricted to the ERP component elicited by positive feedback. The blocking test showed differences in the FRN magnitude between a predictive and a blocked cue. Overall, the present results show that ERPs that are related to feedback processing correspond to the main predictions of associative learning models.

Learned Associability and Associative Change in Human Causal Learning

2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (1b) ◽  
pp. 68-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Le Pelley ◽  
I. P. L. McLaren
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Human Causal Learning ◽  
Good Support ◽  
Causal Judgement

The Mackintosh (1975) model of associative learning specifies that processing of both the cues presented on a trial and the outcome of that trial will interact to determine the amount of associative change undergone by a given cue. Experiments looking at the distribution of associative change among the elements of a reinforced compound in animal conditioning studies indicate that processing of the outcome of a trial does indeed influence associative change. The work reported here investigates the distribution of associative change among the elements of a reinforced compound in a human causal judgement paradigm, and it indicates that processing of the cues presented on a trial also plays a role in determining associative change (in terms of changes in the associability of cues as a result of experience). Taken in combination, these results provide good support for Mackintosh (1975) and the characterizations of both cue and outcome processing that it offers.

Short Article: Extinction in human learning and memory

2008 ◽  
Vol 61 (10) ◽  
pp. 1472-1478 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alana L. Scully ◽  
Chris J. Mitchell
Keyword(s):  
Learning And Memory ◽  
Causal Attributions ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Human Learning ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Short Article ◽  
Outcome Relationship ◽  
Human Causal Learning ◽  
Causal Judgement

In two experiments, participants were given extinction training in a human causal learning task. In both experiments, three critical experimental cues were paired with different outcomes in a first phase of training and were then extinguished in a second phase. Three control cues were given the same treatment in the first phase of training, but were not then presented in the second phase. Participants’ ability to correctly identify the outcome with which each cue had been paired in the first phase was lower for extinguished than for control cues. Causal attributions to the extinguished cues were also lower than those to the control cues, a difference that correlated with outcome memory. These data are consistent with the idea that extinction in causal judgement is due, at least in part, to a failure to remember the cue–outcome relationship encoded in the first phase of training.

scholarly journals The redundancy effect is related to a lack of conditioned inhibition: Evidence from a task in which excitation and inhibition are symmetrical

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-278
Author(s):  
Tara Zaksaite ◽  
Peter M Jones
Keyword(s):  
Associative Strength ◽  
Individual Variation ◽  
Conditioned Inhibition ◽  
Causal Learning ◽  
Learning Effects ◽  
Inhibitory Effects ◽  
Wagner Model ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Redundancy Effect ◽  
Human Causal Learning

Rescorla and Wagner’s model of learning describes excitation and inhibition as symmetrical opposites. However, tasks used in human causal learning experiments, such as the allergist task, generally involve learning about cues leading to the presence or absence of the outcome, which may not reflect this assumption. This is important when considering learning effects which provide a challenge to this model, such as the redundancy effect. The redundancy effect describes higher causal ratings for the blocked cue X than for the uncorrelated cue Y in the design A+/AX+/BY+/CY–, the opposite pattern to that predicted by the Rescorla–Wagner model, which predicts higher associative strength for Y than for X. Crucially, this prediction depends on cue C gaining some inhibitory associative strength. In this article, we used a task in which cues could have independent inhibitory effects on the outcome, to investigate whether a lack of inhibition was related to the redundancy effect. In Experiment 1, inhibition for C was not detected in the allergist task, supporting this possibility. Three further experiments using the alternative task showed that a lack of inhibition was related to the redundancy effect: the redundancy effect was smaller when C was rated as inhibitory. Individual variation in the strength of inhibition for C also determined the size of the redundancy effect. Given that weak inhibition was detected in the alternative scenario but not in the allergist task, we recommend carefully choosing the type of task used to investigate associative learning phenomena, as it may influence results.

Blocking Is Sensitive to Causal Structure in 4-Year-Old and 8-Year-Old Children

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Beckers ◽  
Uschi Van den Broeck ◽  
Marij Renne ◽  
Stefaan Vandorpe ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Contingency Learning

Abstract. In a contingency learning task, 4-year-old and 8-year-old children had to predict the outcome displayed on the back of a card on the basis of cues presented on the front. The task was embedded in either a causal or a merely predictive scenario. Within this task, either a forward blocking or a backward blocking procedure was implemented. Blocking occurred in the causal but not in the predictive scenario. Moreover, blocking was affected by the scenario to the same extent in both age groups. The pattern of results was similar for forward and backward blocking. These results suggest that even young children are sensitive to the causal structure of a contingency learning task and that the occurrence of blocking in such a task defies an explanation in terms of associative learning theory.

scholarly journals No sex differences in learning in wild bumblebees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity Muth ◽  
Amber D Tripodi ◽  
Rene Bonilla ◽  
James P Strange ◽  
Anne S Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Males And Females

Abstract Females and males often face different sources of selection, resulting in dimorphism in morphological, physiological, and even cognitive traits. Sex differences are often studied in respect to spatial cognition, yet the different ecological roles of males and females might shape cognition in multiple ways. For example, in dietary generalist bumblebees (Bombus), the ability to learn associations is critical to female workers, who face informationally rich foraging scenarios as they collect nectar and pollen from thousands of flowers over a period of weeks to months to feed the colony. While male bumblebees likely need to learn associations as well, they only forage for themselves while searching for potential mates. It is thus less clear whether foraging males would benefit from the same associative learning performance as foraging females. In this system, as in others, cognitive performance is typically studied in lab-reared animals under captive conditions, which may not be representative of patterns in the wild. In the first test of sex and species differences in cognition using wild bumblebees, we compared the performance of Bombus vancouverensis nearcticus (formerly bifarius) and Bombus vosnesenskii of both sexes on an associative learning task at Sierra Nevada (CA) field sites. Across both species, we found that males and females did not differ in their ability to learn, although males were slower to respond to the sucrose reward. These results offer the first evidence from natural populations that male bumblebees may be equally as able to learn associations as females, supporting findings from captive colonies of commercial bees. The observed interspecific variation in learning ability opens the door to using the Bombus system to test hypotheses about comparative cognition.

Morphological Knowledge as an Aid to Word Learning: A Cross-Situational Word Learning Study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Finley
Keyword(s):  
Word Learning ◽  
Word Meaning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Artificial Language ◽  
Initial Training ◽  
Experimental Conditions ◽  
Morphological Knowledge ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
English Speaking ◽  
Morphological Cues

The present study explores morphological bootstrapping in cross-situational word learning. Adult, English-speaking participants were exposed to novel words from an artificial language from three different semantic categories: fruit, animals, and vehicles. In the Experimental conditions, the final CV syllable was consistent across categories (e.g., /-ke/ for fruits), while in the Control condition, the endings were the same, but were assigned to words randomly. After initial training on the morphology under various degrees of referential uncertainty, participants were given a cross-situational word learning task with high referential uncertainty. With poor statistical cues to learn the words across trials, participants were forced to rely on the morphological cues to word meaning. In Experiments 1-3, participants in the Experimental conditions repeatedly outperformed participants in the Control conditions. In Experiment 4, when referential uncertainty was high in both parts of the experiment, there was no evidence of learning or making use of the morphological cues. These results suggest that learners apply morphological cues to word meaning only once they are reliably available.

Medial orbitofrontal deactivation during a visual associative learning task: fMRI study

NeuroImage ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 692
Author(s):  
Yukiko Kikuchi-Yorioka ◽  
Toshiyuki Sawaguchi ◽  
Jun Okamoto ◽  
Satoru Miyauchi
Keyword(s):  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Fmri Study
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