scholarly journals Measuring habit formation through goal-directed response switching

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Luque ◽  
Sara Molinero ◽  
Poppy Watson ◽  
Francisco J. López ◽  
Mike Le Pelley
Keyword(s):  
Learning Theory ◽  
Switch Cost ◽  
Time Pressure ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Response Switching ◽  
Directed System ◽  
Habitual Behavior ◽  
Reliable Marker ◽  
Translational Models

Reward-learning theory views habits as stimulus–response links formed through extended reward training. Accordingly, animal research has shown that actions that are initially goal-directed can become habitual after operant overtraining. However, a similar demonstration is absent in human research, which poses a serious problem for translational models of behavior. We propose that response-time (RT) switch cost after operant training can be used as a new, reliable marker for the operation of the habit system in humans. Using a new method, we show that RT switch cost demonstrates the properties that would be expected of a habitual behavior: (1) it increases with overtraining; (2) it increases when rewards are larger, and (3) it increases when time pressure is added to the task, thereby hindering the competing goal-directed system. These results offer a promising new pathway for studying the operation of the habit system in humans.

Dissociation of Appetitive Overexpectation and Extinction in the Infralimbic Cortex

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (9) ◽  
pp. 3687-3701 ◽  
Author(s):  
Belinda P P Lay ◽  
Melissa Nicolosi ◽  
Alexandra A Usypchuk ◽  
Guillem R Esber ◽  
Mihaela D Iordanova
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Change ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Behavioral Modification ◽  
Test Drug ◽  
Infralimbic Cortex ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Conditioned Responses ◽  
Conditioned Responding ◽  
Drug Free

Abstract Behavioral change is paramount to adaptive behavior. Two ways to achieve alterations in previously established behavior are extinction and overexpectation. The infralimbic (IL) portion of the medial prefrontal cortex controls the inhibition of previously established aversive behavioral responses in extinction. The role of the IL cortex in behavioral modification in appetitive Pavlovian associations remains poorly understood. Here, we seek to determine if the IL cortex modulates overexpectation and extinction of reward learning. Using overexpectation or extinction to achieve a reduction in behavior, the present findings uncover a dissociable role for the IL cortex in these paradigms. Pharmacologically inactivating the IL cortex left overexpectation intact. In contrast, pre-training manipulations in the IL cortex prior to extinction facilitated the reduction in conditioned responding but led to a disrupted extinction retrieval on test drug-free. Additional studies confirmed that this effect is restricted to the IL and not dependent on the dorsally-located prelimbic cortex. Together, these results show that the IL cortex underlies extinction but not overexpectation-driven reduction in behavior, which may be due to regulating the expression of conditioned responses influenced by stimulus–response associations rather than stimulus–stimulus associations.

Teacher-Centred Delivery Approach in Uganda's Secondary School Education and Empowering Learners With Higher Order Skills

2019 ◽  
pp. 99-116
Author(s):  
Dorothy Businge Kabugo Kakongoro
Keyword(s):  
Secondary School ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Higher Order ◽  
School Education ◽  
Problem Solving Skills ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Secondary School Education ◽  
Effective Use ◽  
Delivery Approach

This chapter analyses the extent to which the teacher-centred delivery approach has influenced the quality of learning in private secondary school education in Uganda. Theories applied are: The Stimulus-Response (S-R) Learning theory, the Social Learning theory and the Transmission model. A Self-administered questionnaire, Focus Group discussion and interview guides were used to collect data. Discussion of the chapter centered on how the teacher's roles inside the classroom result into attainment of problem solving skills, interpersonal skills and preparing the learner for occupation. Findings showed that, to equip learners with higher order skills, teachers demonstrated all the five roles. However, effective use of this approach was encumbered by a number of limitations that recommendations are provided. Key among these is incorporating a number of activities to inter-marry the philosophies of the teacher-centred and the student-centred approaches in secondary school education.

scholarly journals Shifting Attention Between Visual Dimensions as a Source of Switch Costs

2017 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heike Elchlepp ◽  
Maisy Best ◽  
Aureliu Lavric ◽  
Stephen Monsell
Keyword(s):  
Switch Cost ◽  
Task Switch ◽  
Relevant Stimulus ◽  
Color Classification ◽  
Perceptual Dimension ◽  
Response Mapping ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Switch Costs ◽  
Residual Switch Cost ◽  
Letter Task

Task-switching experiments have documented a puzzling phenomenon: Advance warning of the switch reduces but does not eliminate the switch cost. Theoretical accounts have posited that the residual switch cost arises when one selects the relevant stimulus–response mapping, leaving earlier perceptual processes unaffected. We put this assumption to the test by seeking electrophysiological markers of encoding a perceptual dimension. Participants categorized a colored letter as a vowel or consonant or its color as “warm” or “cold.” Orthogonally to the color manipulation, some colors were eight times more frequent than others, and the letters were in upper- or lowercase. Color frequency modulated the electroencephalogram amplitude at around 150 ms when participants repeated the color-classification task. When participants switched from the letter task to the color task, this effect was significantly delayed. Thus, even when prepared for, a task switch delays or prolongs encoding of the relevant perceptual dimension.

Stimulus Complexity Mediation of Categorization Behavior

1968 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 723-732 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Reich
Keyword(s):  
Physical Properties ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Current Understanding ◽  
Stimulus Complexity ◽  
Differential Effects ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Complex Stimuli ◽  
Physical Objects

Some limitations on current understanding of the factors involved in categorization behavior are discussed. Theoretical conceptualizations provided by the mediational hypothesis in learning theory suggest that the physical properties of stimuli themselves should have differential effects on categorization. Using sets of actual physical objects, names of those objects, and a set of abstract verbal statements as representing varying degrees of stimulus-response complexity, the experiment required 34 Ss to sort the sets of stimuli by the own-categories technique. The results confirmed hypotheses predicting that more complex stimuli would result in more complex sorting behavior. The relevance of learning theory for categorization behavior is noted.

scholarly journals A Goal-Directed Account of Action Slips: The Reliance on Old Contingencies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eike Kofi Buabang ◽  
Massimo Anders Francesco Koester ◽  
Yannick Boddez ◽  
Pieter Van Dessel ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Time Pressure ◽  
Current Situation ◽  
Operating Conditions ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Training Schedule ◽  
The Past ◽  
Extensive Training ◽  
Outcome Information ◽  
Study Participants

People often keep engaging in behaviors that used to be successful in the past but which are knowingly no longer effective in the current situation, so called action slips. Such action slips are often explained with stimulus-driven processes in which behavior is caused by a stimulus-response association and without information about the outcome of the behavior. This process is contrasted with a goal-directed process in which behavior is selected because it is expected to lead to a desired outcome. Failing to act in line with changes in the outcome, is taken as evidence for stimulus-driven processes. Stimulus-driven processes are assumed to get installed after overtraining and to be deployed under poor operating conditions. In line with this, previous research has found that action slips are more likely to occur after extensive training and when under time pressure. We propose an alternative goal-directed explanation according to which action slips are not caused by a stimulus-driven process, but rather by a goal-directed process that relies on old, no longer accurate, outcome information. In the current study, participants learned four stimulus-response-outcome contingencies during a single (i.e., moderate training) or a four-day training schedule (i.e., extensive training). Afterwards two contingencies were reversed. Results show that after extensive training and when under time pressure, participants not only committed more action slips but also reported more old response-outcome contingencies in line with these action slips. This is consistent with the goal-directed explanation that action slips result from a reliance on old, no longer accurate outcome information.

scholarly journals Stress diminishes outcome but enhances response representations during instrumental learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Katharina Meier ◽  
Bernhard P. Staresina ◽  
Lars Schwabe
Keyword(s):  
Pattern Analysis ◽  
Instrumental Learning ◽  
Fundamental Question ◽  
Behavioural Control ◽  
Multivariate Pattern Analysis ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Directed System ◽  
Habitual Responding ◽  
Multivariate Pattern

AbstractStress may shift behavioural control from a goal-directed system that encodes action-outcome relationships to a habit system that learns stimulus-response associations. Although this shift to habits is highly relevant for stress-related psychopathologies, limitations of existing behavioural paradigms hindered previous research to answer the fundamental question of whether the stress-induced bias to habits is due to impaired goal-directed or enhanced habitual processing (or both). Here, we leveraged EEG-based multivariate pattern analysis to decode neural outcome representations, crucial for goal-directed control, and response representations, essential for habitual responding, during instrumental learning. We show that stress reduces outcome representations but enhances response representations, both of which were directly associated with a behavioural index of habitual responding. Further, changes in outcome and response representations were uncorrelated, suggesting that these may reflect distinct processes. Our findings indicate that habit behaviour under stress is the result of both enhanced habitual and diminished goal-directed processing.

Preparing or Executing the Wrong Task: The Influence on Switch Effects

2012 ◽  
Vol 65 (6) ◽  
pp. 1172-1184 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charlotte Desmet ◽  
Wim Fias ◽  
Marcel Brass
Keyword(s):  
Task Switching ◽  
Switch Cost ◽  
Original Study ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Task Preparation ◽  
Response Execution ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Response Errors ◽  
Bivalent Stimulus ◽  
Task Activation

In a previous study, it was proposed that executing a task leads to task strengthening. In other words, task activation at the moment of response execution determines subsequent switch effects (Steinhauser & Hübner, 2006). The authors investigated this issue by comparing switch effects after task and response errors. However, the use of bivalent stimulus–response mappings might have obscured some of the effects. Therefore, we replicated the experiment using univalent stimulus–response mappings. With this adjusted design, which overcomes some shortcomings of the original study, we were able to replicate the finding of switch benefits after task errors. Closer inspection of the data showed the importance of preexecution processes on subsequent switch effects. In a second experiment, we further elaborated on these preexecution processes. More precisely, we investigated the effect of task preparation on subsequent switch effects. Taken together, our data extend current accounts of task switching by showing that the preparatory processes occurring before the response on trial n influence the switch cost on trial n + 1.

scholarly journals Stable Encoding of Task Structure Coexists With Flexible Coding of Task Events in Sensorimotor Striatum

2009 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 2142-2160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasuo Kubota ◽  
Jun Liu ◽  
Dan Hu ◽  
William E. DeCoteau ◽  
Uri T. Eden ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Activity Patterns ◽  
Task Structure ◽  
Sensory Stimuli ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Flexible System ◽  
Fine Grain ◽  
Clinical Syndromes ◽  
Habitual Behavior ◽  
The Stability ◽  
Dual Forms

The sensorimotor striatum, as part of the brain's habit circuitry, has been suggested to store fixed action values as a result of stimulus-response learning and has been contrasted with a more flexible system that conditionally assigns values to behaviors. The stability of neural activity in the sensorimotor striatum is thought to underlie not only normal habits but also addiction and clinical syndromes characterized by behavioral fixity. By recording in the sensorimotor striatum of mice, we asked whether neuronal activity acquired during procedural learning would be stable even if the sensory stimuli triggering the habitual behavior were altered. Contrary to expectation, both fixed and flexible activity patterns appeared. One, representing the global structure of the acquired behavior, was stable across changes in task cuing. The second, a fine-grain representation of task events, adjusted rapidly. Such dual forms of representation may be critical to allow motor and cognitive flexibility despite habitual performance.

scholarly journals Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Neural Dynamics in Theta Oscillations Related to the Inhibition of Habitual Behavior

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 368
Author(s):  
Jae-Hwan Kang ◽  
Junsuk Kim ◽  
Yang Seok Cho ◽  
Sung-Phil Kim
Keyword(s):  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Theta Oscillations ◽  
Neural Dynamics ◽  
Inappropriate Behaviors ◽  
Theta Power ◽  
Stimulus Response ◽  
Specific Goal ◽  
Habitual Behavior ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Goal Directed Behavior

The human brain carries out cognitive control for the inhibition of habitual behaviors by suppressing some familiar but inappropriate behaviors instead of engaging specific goal-directed behavior flexibly in a given situation. To examine the characteristics of neural dynamics related to such inhibition of habitual behaviors, we used a modified rock–paper–scissors (RPS) task that consisted of a basic, a lose-, and a win-conditioned game. Spectral and phase synchrony analyses were conducted to examine the acquired electroencephalogram signals across the entire brain during all RPS tasks. Temporal variations in frontal theta power activities were directly in line with the stream of RPS procedures in accordance with the task conditions. The lose-conditioned RPS task gave rise to increases in the local frontal power and global phase-synchronized pairs of theta oscillations. The activation of the global phase-synchronized network preceded the activation of frontal theta power. These results demonstrate that the frontal regions play a pivotal role in the inhibition of habitual behaviors—stereotyped and ingrained stimulus–response mappings that have been established over time. This study suggests that frontal theta oscillations may be engaged during the cognitive inhibition of habitual behaviors and that these oscillations characterize the degree of cognitive load required to inhibit habitual behaviors.

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