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.

scholarly journals Learning to synchronize: Midfrontal theta dynamics during rule switching

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pieter Verbeke ◽  
Kate Ergo ◽  
Esther De Loof ◽  
Tom Verguts
Keyword(s):  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Prediction Errors ◽  
Hierarchical Learning ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Negative Prediction ◽  
Theta Phase ◽  
The Brain

AbstractIn recent years, several hierarchical extensions of well-known learning algorithms have been proposed. For example, when stimulus-action mappings vary across time or context, the brain may learn two or more stimulus-action mappings in separate modules, and additionally (at a hierarchically higher level) learn to appropriately switch between those modules. However, how the brain mechanistically coordinates neural communication to implement such hierarchical learning, remains unknown. Therefore, the current study tests a recent computational model that proposed how midfrontal theta oscillations implement such hierarchical learning via the principle of binding by synchrony (Sync model). More specifically, the Sync model employs bursts at theta frequency to flexibly bind appropriate task modules by synchrony. 64-channel EEG signal was recorded while 27 human subjects (Female: 21, Male: 6) performed a probabilistic reversal learning task. In line with the Sync model, post-feedback theta power showed a linear relationship with negative prediction errors, but not with positive prediction errors. This relationship was especially pronounced for subjects with better behavioral fit (measured via AIC) of the Sync model. Also consistent with Sync model simulations, theta phase-coupling between midfrontal electrodes and temporo-parietal electrodes was stronger after negative feedback. Our data suggest that the brain uses theta power and synchronization for flexibly switching between task rule modules, as is useful for example when multiple stimulus-action mappings must be retained and used.Significance StatementEveryday life requires flexibility in switching between several rules. A key question in understanding this ability is how the brain mechanistically coordinates such switches. The current study tests a recent computational framework (Sync model) that proposed how midfrontal theta oscillations coordinate activity in hierarchically lower task-related areas. In line with predictions of this Sync model, midfrontal theta power was stronger when rule switches were most likely (strong negative prediction error), especially in subjects who obtained a better model fit. Additionally, also theta phase connectivity between midfrontal and task-related areas was increased after negative feedback. Thus, the data provided support for the hypothesis that the brain uses theta power and synchronization for flexibly switching between rules.

From Positivity to Negativity Bias: Ambiguity Affects the Neurophysiological Signatures of Feedback Processing

2016 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 542-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henning Gibbons ◽  
Robert Schnuerch ◽  
Jutta Stahl
Keyword(s):  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Negativity Bias ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Reward Positivity ◽  
Controlled Attention ◽  
Error Learning ◽  
Late Positive Complex ◽  
Positive Complex

Previous studies on the neurophysiological underpinnings of feedback processing almost exclusively used low-ambiguity feedback, which does not fully address the diversity of situations in everyday life. We therefore used a pseudo trial-and-error learning task to investigate ERPs of low- versus high-ambiguity feedback. Twenty-eight participants tried to deduce the rule governing visual feedback to their button presses in response to visual stimuli. In the blocked condition, the same two feedback words were presented across several consecutive trials, whereas in the random condition feedback was randomly drawn on each trial from sets of five positive and five negative words. The feedback-related negativity (FRN-D), a frontocentral ERP difference between negative and positive feedback, was significantly larger in the blocked condition, whereas the centroparietal late positive complex indicating controlled attention was enhanced for negative feedback irrespective of condition. Moreover, FRN-D in the blocked condition was due to increased reward positivity (Rew-P) for positive feedback, rather than increased (raw) FRN for negative feedback. Our findings strongly support recent lines of evidence that the FRN-D, one of the most widely studied signatures of reinforcement learning in the human brain, critically depends on feedback discriminability and is primarily driven by the Rew-P. A novel finding concerned larger frontocentral P2 for negative feedback in the random but not the blocked condition. Although Rew-P points to a positivity bias in feedback processing under conditions of low feedback ambiguity, P2 suggests a specific adaptation of information processing in case of highly ambiguous feedback, involving an early negativity bias. Generalizability of the P2 findings was demonstrated in a second experiment using explicit valence categorization of highly emotional positive and negative adjectives.

Blunted feedback processing during risky decision making in adolescents with a parental history of substance use disorders

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (4pt1) ◽  
pp. 1119-1136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anja S. Euser ◽  
Kirstin Greaves-Lord ◽  
Michael J. Crowley ◽  
Brittany E. Evans ◽  
Anja C. Huizink ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Substance Use ◽  
Substance Use Disorders ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Risky Decision Making ◽  
Risky Decision ◽  
Parental History ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
History Of ◽  
Positive And Negative Feedback

AbstractRisky decision making, a hallmark phenotype of substance use disorders (SUD), is thought to be associated with deficient feedback processing. Whether these aberrations are present prior to SUD onset or reflect merely a consequence of chronic substance use on the brain remains unclear. The present study investigated whether blunted feedback processing during risky decision making reflects a biological predisposition to SUD. We assessed event-related potentials elicited by positive and negative feedback during performance of a modified version of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART) among high-risk adolescents with a parental history of SUD (HR; n = 61) and normal-risk controls (NR; n = 91). HR males made significantly more risky and faster decisions during the BART than did NR controls. Moreover, HR adolescents showed significantly reduced P300 amplitudes in response to both positive and negative feedback as compared to NR controls. These differences were not secondary to prolonged substance use exposure. Results are discussed in terms of feedback-specific processes. Reduced P300 amplitudes in the BART may reflect poor processing of feedback at the level of overall salience, which may keep people from effectively predicting the probability of future gains and losses. Though conclusions are tentative, blunted feedback processing during risky decision making may represent a promising endophenotypic vulnerability marker for SUD.

scholarly journals Conformist social learning inoculates against adverse risk aversion

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wataru Toyokawa ◽  
Wolfgang Gaissmaier
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Learning ◽  
Risk Aversion ◽  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Informational Cascades ◽  
Minority Influence ◽  
Positive And Negative Feedback ◽  
Error Learning

AbstractGiven the ubiquity of potentially adverse biases incurred by trial-and-error learning, it seems paradoxical that improvements in decision-making performance through conformist social learning, a process widely considered to be bias amplification, still prevail in animal behaviour. Here we show, through model analyses and online experiments with 467 adult human subjects, that conformity can promote favourable risk taking in repeated decision making, even though many individuals are systematically biased towards suboptimal risk aversion owing to the myopia of reinforcement learning. Although positive feedback conferred by conformity could result in suboptimal informational cascades, our dynamic model of behaviour identified a key role for negative feedback that arises when a weak minority influence undermines the inherent behavioural bias. This ‘collective behavioural rescue’, emerging through coordination of positive and negative feedback, highlights a benefit of social learning in a broader range of environmental conditions than previously assumed and resolves the ostensible paradox of adaptive collective flexibility through conformity.

scholarly journals Increased Anxiety is Associated with Better Learning from Negative Feedback

2020 ◽  
pp. 147572572096576
Author(s):  
Daniella L. Jones ◽  
Jonathan D. Nelson ◽  
Bertram Opitz
Keyword(s):  
Negative Feedback ◽  
Positive Feedback ◽  
Mental Health Problems ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Feedback Communication ◽  
Teacher Student ◽  
Penn State ◽  
State Worry

Anxiety is one of the most prevalent mental health problems; it is known to impede cognitive functioning. It is believed to alter preferences for feedback-based learning in anxious and non-anxious learners. Thus, the present study measured feedback processing in adults ( N = 30) with and without anxiety symptoms using a probabilistic learning task. Event-related potential (ERP) measures were used to assess how the bias for either positive or negative feedback learning is reflected by the feedback-related negativity component (FRN), an ERP extracted from the electroencephalogram. Anxious individuals, identified by means of the Penn State Worry Questionnaire, showed a diminished FRN and increased accuracy after negative compared to positive feedback. Non-anxious individuals exhibited the reversed pattern with better learning from positive feedback, highlighting their preference for positive feedback. Our ERP results imply that impairments with feedback-based learning in anxious individuals are due to alterations in the mesolimbic dopaminergic system. Our finding that anxious individuals seem to favor negative as opposed to positive feedback has important implications for teacher–student feedback communication.

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 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.

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