Abstract

Attention determines which cues receive processing and are learned about. Learning, however, leads to attentional biases. In the study of animal learning, in some circumstances, cues that have been previously predictive of their consequences are subsequently learned about more than are nonpredictive cues, suggesting that they receive more attention. In other circumstances, cues that have previously led to uncertain consequences are learned about more than are predictive cues. In human learning, there is a clear role for predictiveness, but a role for uncertainty has been less clear. Here, in a human learning task, we show that cues that led to uncertain outcomes were subsequently learned about more than were cues that were previously predictive of their outcomes. This effect occurred when there were few uncertain cues. When the number of uncertain cues was increased, attention switched to predictive cues. This pattern of results was found for cues (1) that were uncertain because they led to 2 different outcomes equally often in a nonpredictable manner and (2) that were used in a nonlinear discrimination and were not predictive individually but were predictive in combination with other cues. This suggests that both the opposing predictiveness and uncertainty effects were determined by the relationship between individual cues and outcomes rather than the predictive strength of combined cues. These results demonstrate that learning affects attention; however, the precise nature of the effect on attention depends on the level of task complexity, which reflects a potential switch between exploration and exploitation of cues.

Highlights

  • There is a reciprocal relationship between attention and learning

  • We report a series of experiments that demonstrate that non-predictive, uncertain cues do receive more attention than predictive cues, under particular conditions, as measured by the extent to which the cues can enter into associations with new outcomes, in a human learning procedure

  • This suggests that a factor that determines whether attention is paid to uncertain cues or predictive cues is the number of uncertain cues in stage 1 training

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Summary

Introduction

There is a reciprocal relationship between attention and learning. Attention determines which cues are selected for processing and are learnt about. The outcome may be present on some occasions but not others or the cue may lead to different outcomes or different quantities of an outcome in a random manner Both the predictiveness and uncertainty effects may reflect potential heuristics for efficient information processing given that attention is a limited resource. The formation of stereotypes of social groups can be the result of differences in the previous degree of predictiveness of social group characteristics for evaluatively neutral information (Le Pelley et al, 2010; Spiers, Love, Le Pelley, Gibb, & Murphy, 2017) This suggests that the attentional biases that occur as a consequence of learning are likely to have a profound effect on many aspects of cognition such as beliefs, attitudes and decision making.

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