Attitudinal Effects of Stimulus Co-occurrence and Stimulus Relations: Paradoxical Effects of Cognitive Load

Research suggests that evaluations of an object can be jointly influenced by (a) the mere co-occurrence of the object with a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus (e.g., mere co-occurrence of object A and negative event B) and (b) the object’s specific relation to the co-occurring stimulus (e.g., object A starts vs. stops negative event B). Three experiments investigated the impact of cognitive load during learning on the effects of stimulus co-occurrence and stimulus relations. Counter to the shared prediction of competing theories suggesting that effects of stimulus relations should be reduced by cognitive load during learning, effects of stimulus relations were greater (rather than smaller) under high-load compared with low-load conditions. Effects of stimulus co-occurrence were not significantly affected by cognitive load. The results are discussed in terms of theories suggesting that cognitive load can influence behavioral outcomes via strategic shifts in resource allocation in response to task-specific affordances.

A Procedure for the Assessment of Individual Differences in Relational Discrimination Behavior in the Pigeon (Columba livia)

Raven’s progressive matrices (RPM) is a nonverbal intelligence test that examines abstract reasoning by asking subjects to correctly complete a stimulus matrix where transformations between stimuli in the matrix follow one or more relational rules. While this test has been used since 1936, and has been modified to accommodate a variety of humans, this is the first adaptation for non-human animals. We trained pigeons on a task in which the complexity of the rules could increase progressively. Pigeons initially were trained on one rule, and if discrimination reached criterion performance, were tested on novel exemplars to assess relational control. After learning one rule, some pigeons were trained on a second rule, followed by transfer tests. We chose pigeons because of their previous success in abstract and relational rule learning. Pigeons varied in how many rules could be learned and in how well they could transfer learning to novel images, indicating that this test can measure individual differences in learning abstract properties such as stimulus relations. One pigeon successfully learned and transferred two relational rules, and was tested on a matrix combining both rules together. In the future, our modified RPM procedure could be used to investigate abstract reasoning across species.

Attitudinal Effects of Stimulus Co-Occurrence and Stimulus Relations: Range and Limits of Intentional Control

Research suggests that evaluations of an object can be simultaneously influenced by (a) the mere co-occurrence of the object with a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus (e.g., mere co-occurrence of object A and negative event B) and (b) the object’s particular relation to the co-occurring stimulus (e.g., object A starts vs. stops negative event B). Using a multinomial modeling approach to disentangle the two kinds of influences on choice decisions, three experiments investigated whether learners can intentionally control the relative impact of stimulus co-occurrence and stimulus relations. An integrative analysis of the data from the three experiments ( N = 1,154) indicate that incentivized instructions to counteract effects of stimulus co-occurrence by focusing on stimulus relations increased the impact of stimulus relations without affecting the impact of stimulus co-occurrence. Implications for evaluative learning, intentional control, and public policy are discussed.

A reconstruction theory of relational schema induction

Learning transfer (i.e. accelerated learning over a series of structurally related learning tasks) differentiates species and age-groups, but the evolutionary and developmental implications of such differences are unclear. To this end, the relational schema induction paradigm employing tasks that share algebraic (group-like) structures was introduced to contrast stimulus-independent (relational) versus stimulus-dependent (associative) learning processes. However, a theory explaining this kind of relational learning transfer has not been forthcoming beyond a general appeal to some form of structure-mapping, as typically assumed in models of analogy. In this paper, we provide a theory of relational schema induction as a “reconstruction” process: the algebraic structure underlying transfer is reconstructed by comparing stimulus relations, learned within each task, for structural consistency across tasks—formally, the theory derives from a category theory version of Tannakian reconstruction. The theory also applies to non-human studies of relational concepts, thereby placing human and non-human transfer on common ground for sharper comparison and contrast. As the theory and paradigm do not depend on linguistic ability, we also have a way for pinpointing where aspects of human learning diverge from other species without begging the question of language.