Abstract
Effective functioning in a complex environment requires adjusting of behavior according to changing situational demands. To do so, organisms must learn new, more adaptive behaviors by extracting the necessary information from externally provided feedback. Not surprisingly, feedback-guided learning has been extensively studied using multiple research paradigms. The purpose of the present study was to test the newly designed Paired Associate Deterministic Learning task (PADL), in which participants were presented with either positive or negative deterministic feedback. Moreover, we manipulated the level of motivation in the learning process by comparing blocks with strictly cognitive, informative feedback to blocks where participants were additionally motivated by anticipated monetary reward or loss. Our results proved the PADL to be a useful tool not only for studying the learning process in a deterministic environment, but also, due to the varying task conditions, for assessing differences in learning patterns. Particularly, we show that the learning process itself is influenced by manipulating both the type of feedback information and the motivational significance associated with the expected monetary reward.
Highlights
Functioning in a complex and unpredictable environment forces organism to adjust behavior according to changing situational demands
The aim of our study was to test whether the Paired Associate Deterministic Learning task (PADL), an experimental paradigm operating on the rules of deterministic environment with feedback information limited to either positive or negative, is suitable to provide data describing the dynamics of the deterministic learning process
These results suggest that participants gathered all the necessary knowledge through the learning process and, as a consequence, responded with close to perfect accuracy
Summary
Functioning in a complex and unpredictable environment forces organism to adjust behavior according to changing situational demands. In deterministic learning the response to certain stimulus is associated with only correct or incorrect feedback, but not both (the probability of a certain outcome equals 1). Besides this obvious distinction, learning in probabilistic and deterministic conditions differs in other ways. To identify the optimal response, a participant has to integrate the outcomes of multiple trials featuring the same stimulus; probabilistic learning paradigms are associated with higher cognitive demands (Reed et al, 2014), whereas deterministic learning seems to mirror the pure contingency learning process (Vanes et al, 2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
