Abstract
Feedback is central to most forms of learning, and its reliability is therefore critical. Here, we investigated the effects of corrupted, and hence unreliable, feedback on perceptual inference. Within the framework of Bayesian inference, we hypothesised that corrupting feedback in a demanding perceptual task would compromise sensory information processing and bias inference towards prior information if available. These hypotheses were examined by a simulation and in two behavioural experiments with visual detection (experiment 1) and discrimination (experiment 2) tasks. Both experiments consisted of two sessions comprising intervention runs with either corrupted or uncorrupted (correct) feedback, and pre- and post-intervention tests to assess the effects of feedback. In the tests alone, additional prior beliefs were induced through predictive auditory cues to assess sustained effects of feedback on the balance between sensory evidence and prior beliefs. Both experiments and the simulation showed the hypothesised decrease in performance and increased reliance on prior beliefs after corrupted but not uncorrupted feedback. Exploratory analyses indicated reduced confidence regarding perceptual decisions during delivery of corrupted feedback. Our results suggest that corrupted feedback on perceptual decisions leads to sustained changes in perceptual inference, characterised by a shift from sensory likelihood to prior beliefs when those are accessible.
Highlights
Feedback is central to most forms of learning, and its reliability is critical
We asked whether corrupted feedback on performance in a demanding perceptual task would subsequently lead to an increased reliance on prior beliefs in a situation where predictive information inducing such prior beliefs is available
A key aspect of our investigation was to deliver corrupted feedback on perceptual performance when only the sensory evidence was available, and to measure the effects in subsequent runs where two sources of information were provided on each trial – [1] a learned predictive cue inducing a prior belief and [2] the actual sensory evidence11–13
Summary
Feedback is central to most forms of learning, and its reliability is critical. A key aspect of our investigation was to deliver corrupted feedback on perceptual performance when only the sensory evidence (and no additional predictive information) was available, and to measure the effects in subsequent runs where two sources of information were provided on each trial – [1] a learned predictive cue inducing a prior belief and [2] the actual sensory evidence. We hypothesised that as a result of such erroneous learning, corrupted feedback would subsequently lead to [1] a decrease in perceptual performance, and [2] when predictive information becomes available, to an increased reliance on prior beliefs. We collected confidence ratings on each trial in one of the experiments, to measure subjective awareness of changes in performance We tested these two hypotheses by studying the effects of corrupted feedback in two behavioural experiments and through simulations of misclassification-induced learning.
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