Stimulus control and delayed outcomes in a human causality judgment task.

Abstract

Three experiments examined the impact of delayed outcomes on stimulus control of causal judgments using an interdimensional generalization procedure. Human participants rated the causal effectiveness of responses on multiple schedules, and then underwent a generalization test. In Experiment 1, a 3 s unsignaled outcome delay reduced ratings of causal effectiveness, relative to an immediate outcome, but had higher ratings compared to a component lacking outcomes. In a generalization test, incremental generalization gradients, indicating inhibitory control, were found for the stimulus associated with delayed outcomes when comparison was with immediate outcomes; but decremental gradients, indicating excitatory control, were found when the comparator lacked outcomes. In Experiment 2, signaled 3 s outcome delays produced higher causal ratings than unsignaled delays; with unsignaled delays producing incremental (inhibitory) and signaled delays producing decremental (excitatory), generalization gradients when compared against each other. In Experiment 3, relative to immediate outcomes, unsignaled delays produced incremental (inhibitory) gradients and signaled delays produced no gradient. These findings suggest similar factors may control judgments of causality as control conditioned responding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).