Contingency Learning Research Articles

Reward and punishment contingency shifting reveals distinct roles for VTA dopamine and GABA neurons in behavioral flexibility.

In dynamic environments where stimuli predicting rewarding or aversive outcomes unexpectedly change, it is critical to flexibly update behavior while preserving recollection of previous associations. Dopamine and GABA neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are implicated in reward and punishment learning, yet little is known about how each population adapts when the predicted outcome valence changes. We measured VTA dopamine and GABA population activity while male and female rats learned to associate three discrete auditory cues to three distinct outcomes: reward, punishment, or no outcome within the same session. After learning, the reward and punishment cue-outcome contingencies were reversed, and subsequently rereversed. As expected, the dopamine population rapidly adapted to learning and contingency reversals by increasing the response to appetitive stimuli and decreasing the response to aversive stimuli. In contrast, the GABA population increased activity to all sensory events regardless of valence, including the neutral cue. Reversing learned contingencies selectively influenced GABA responses to the reward-predictive cue, prolonging increased activity within and across sessions. The observed valence-specific dissociations in the directionality and temporal progression of VTA dopamine and GABA calcium activity indicates that these populations are independently recruited and serve distinct roles during appetitive and aversive associative learning and contingency reversal.

Neural mechanisms of credit assignment for delayed outcomes during contingent learning.

Adaptive behavior in complex environments critically relies on the ability to appropriately link specific choices or actions to their outcomes. However, the neural mechanisms that support the ability to credit only those past choices believed to have caused the observed outcomes remain unclear. Here, we leverage multivariate pattern analyses of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data and an adaptive learning task to shed light on the underlying neural mechanisms of such specific credit assignment. We find that the lateral orbitofrontal cortex (lOFC) and hippocampus (HC) code for the causal choice identity when credit needs to be assigned for choices that are separated from outcomes by a long delay, even when this delayed transition is punctuated by interim decisions. Further, we show when interim decisions must be made, learning is additionally supported by lateral frontopolar cortex (FPl). Our results indicate that FPl holds previous causal choices in a "pending" state until a relevant outcome is observed, and the fidelity of these representations predicts the fidelity of subsequent causal choice representations in lOFC and HC during credit assignment. Together, these results highlight the importance of the timely reinstatement of specific causes in lOFC and HC in learning choice-outcome relationships when delays and choices intervene, a critical component of real-world learning and decision making.

Observation of conflict triggers conflict adaptation.

The conflict monitoring theory posits that the simultaneous activation of incompatible responses in the current trial leads to response conflict. Conflict occurrence signals to enhance attention to the target stimulus, reduce attention to distracting stimuli, and ultimately lead to conflict adaptation (i.e., reduced interference effect after conflict trials compared to nonconflict trials). However, this theory does not explicitly assume whether the involvement of response execution is necessary in the process of conflict occurrence. Research on the negative emotion theory suggests that even in the absence of response execution, incompatible response representations can induce conflict. Our present study aimed to provide direct behavioural evidence regarding whether conflict activated without response execution is sufficient to trigger conflict adaptation. In a word-colour Stroop task, this study employed the LOOK-to-DO transition design, in which participants refrained from responding in half of the trials (LOOK trials) and responded with key presses in the other half (DO trials). Across three experiments, we controlled for feature integration and contingency learning and manipulated the stimulus presentation duration in the previous trial. The results indicated a significant conflict adaptation effect in reaction time when the stimulus presentation duration was shorter in the previous trial. This finding suggested that in a confounding-minimal design with no response execution in the previous trial, conflict triggers control adjustments and leads to conflict adaptation. This finding aligns with and further elaborates on the original conflict monitoring theory by demonstrating that response execution is not a necessary condition for the generation of response conflict. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Humans flexibly use visual priors to optimize their haptic exploratory behavior

Humans can use prior information to optimize their haptic exploratory behavior. Here, we investigated the usage of visual priors, which mechanisms enable their usage, and how the usage is affected by information quality. Participants explored different grating textures and discriminated their spatial frequency. Visual priors on texture orientation were given each trial, with qualities randomly varying from high to no informational value. Adjustments of initial exploratory movement direction orthogonal to the textures’ orientation served as an indicator of prior usage. Participants indeed used visual priors; the more so the higher the priors’ quality (Experiment 1). Higher task demands did not increase the direct usage of visual priors (Experiment 2), but possibly fostered the establishment of adjustment behavior. In Experiment 3, we decreased the proportion of high-quality priors presented during the session, hereby reducing the contingency between high-quality priors and haptic information. In consequence, even priors of high quality ceased to evoke movement adjustments. We conclude that the establishment of adjustment behavior results from a rather implicit contingency learning. Overall, it became evident that humans can autonomously learn to use rather abstract visual priors to optimize haptic exploration, with the learning process and direct usage substantially depending on the priors’ quality.

Supervised learning to covering cost risk through post-construction evaluation of transportation projects by project delivery methods

PurposeThe main objectives of this study are to (1) develop and test a cost contingency learning model that can generalize initially estimated contingency amounts by analyzing back the multiple project changes experienced and (2) uncover the hidden link of the learning networks using a curve-fitting technique for the post-construction evaluation of cost contingency amounts to cover cost risk for future projects.Design/methodology/approachBased on a total of 1,434 datapoints collected from DBB and DB transportation projects, a post-construction cost contingency learning model was developed using feedforward neural networks (FNNs). The developed model generalizes cost contingencies under two different project delivery methods (i.e. DBB and DB). The learning outputs of generalized contingency amounts were curve-fitted with the post-construction schedule and cost information, specifically aiming at uncovering the hidden link of the FNNs. Two different bridge projects completed under DBB and DB were employed as illustrative examples to demonstrate how the proposed modeling framework could be implemented.FindingsWith zero or negative values of change growth experienced, it was concluded that cost contingencies were overallocated at the contract stage. On the other hand, with positive values of change growth experienced, it was evaluated that set cost contingencies were insufficient from the post-construction standpoint. Taken together, this study proposed a tangible post-construction evaluation technique that can produce not only the plausible ranges of cost contingencies but also the exact amounts of contingency under DBB and DB contracts.Originality/valueAs the first of its kind, the proposed modeling framework provides agency engineers and decision-makers with tangible assessments of cost contingency coupled with experienced risks at the post-construction stage. Use of the proposed model will help them evaluate the allocation of appropriate contingency amounts. If an agency allocates a cost contingency benchmarked from similar projects on aspects of the base estimate and experienced risks, a set contingency can be defended more reliably. The main findings of this study contribute to post-construction cost contingency verification, enabling agency engineers and decision-makers to systematically evaluate set cost contingencies during the post-construction assessment stage and achieving further any enhanced level of confidence for future cost contingency plans.

Incidentally Acquiring Pitch-label Associations With a Musical Contingency Learning Task

Incidental learning occurs rather rapidly and effortlessly in a range of different domains, such as early language acquisition, motor learning, and a wide range of more arbitrary laboratory tasks. The present report explores the efficacy of an incidental learning task in the acquisition of pitch-label associations, that is, the ability to identify and name musical notes by ear. In experiment 1, 2 and 3 participants were asked to respond to the target (a note name) while ignoring the cues (either a tone or, in one experiment, a tone with a note position). In a pretest and posttest, we further analyzed their ability to guess the name of the tone in a tone naming task. We also explored the role of intentionality in acquiring and remembering pitch-label associations, but there were only small suggestive trends for slightly better performance for a group instructed to try to learn the contingencies compared to a purely incidental learning group (i.e., with no instructions about the contingencies), suggesting that learning is at least primarily incidental. Our research opens up new venues for the investigations of incidental learning related to the acquisition of musical features useful to performance (how to play).

Two sources of color-word contingency learning: Episodic retrieval of stimulus-response bindings and propositional knowledge.

There is an ongoing debate about the cognitive mechanisms behind human contingency learning (CL). Although, in some studies, episodic retrieval of previous responses fully explained the observed CL effects (C. G. Giesen et al., 2020; Schmidt et al., 2020), other findings suggest that global contingencies have an additional effect on behavior (Xu & Mordkoff, 2020). In a high-powered (N = 500), preregistered study, we investigated CL effects after controlling for episodic retrieval of distractor-target (S-S) and distractor-response (S-R) bindings. Retrieval explained a large part of the CL effect. However, we still found a reliable residual CL effect even after controlling for retrieval. Notably, the residual CL effect depended on contingency awareness: The residual CL effect only occurred for trials for which participants correctly detected the respective color-word contingency, whereas for trials without contingency awareness, there was no residual CL effect. Collectively, our findings suggest that human CL is driven by two independent sources: (a) episodic retrieval of S-S and S-R bindings and (b) propositional knowledge of the contingencies. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Instruction on the Scientific Method Provides (Some) Protection Against Illusions of Causality.

People tend to overestimate the efficacy of an ineffective treatment when they experience the treatment and its supposed outcome co-occurring frequently. This is referred to as the outcome density effect. Here, we attempted to improve the accuracy of participants' assessments of an ineffective treatment by instructing them about the scientific practice of comparing treatment effects against a relevant base-rate, i.e., when no treatment is delivered. The effect of these instructions was assessed in both a trial-by-trial contingency learning task, where cue administration was either decided by the participant (Experiments 1 & 2) or pre-determined by the experimenter (Experiment 3), as well as in summary format where all information was presented on a single screen (Experiment 4). Overall, we found two means by which base-rate instructions influence efficacy ratings for the ineffective treatment: 1) When information was presented sequentially, the benefit of base-rate instructions on illusory belief was mediated by reduced sampling of cue-present trials, and 2) When information was presented in summary format, we found a direct effect of base-rate instruction on reducing causal illusion. Together, these findings suggest that simple instructions on the scientific method were able to decrease participants' (over-)weighting of cue-outcome coincidences when making causal judgements, as well as decrease their tendency to over-sample cue-present events. However, the effect of base-rate instructions on correcting illusory beliefs was incomplete, and participants still showed illusory causal judgements when the probability of the outcome occurring was high. Thus, simple textual information about assessing causal relationships is partially effective in influencing people's judgements of treatment efficacy, suggesting an important role of scientific instruction in debiasing cognitive errors.

A thin line between conflict and reaction time effects on EEG and fMRI brain signals

Abstract The last two decades of electrophysiological and neuroimaging research converged that the activity in the medial frontal cortex plays a pivotal role in cognitive control processes. Notably, the midfrontal theta (MFT) oscillatory EEG power as well as activity in the anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC) or pre-supplementary motor area (preSMA) were consistently proclaimed as markers of conflict processing. However, these brain signals are strongly correlated with response time (RT) variability in various non-conflict tasks, which overshadows the true nature of their involvement. Our previous study (Beldzik et al., 2022) successfully identified these brain signals during a simultaneous EEG-fMRI experiment implementing Stroop and Simon tasks. Based on the assumption that overcoming the habitual prepotent response during high interference trials requires additional neural resources beyond simple decision variable represented in RTs, here we aim to verify if these markers exhibit a congruency effect beyond RT variations. Furthermore, we explored if these brain signals represent either proactive or reactive cognitive control mechanisms by investigating two widely known behavioral phenomena observed in conflict tasks: proportion congruency and congruency sequence effects. The results revealed partially null findings for MFT activity, yet a distinct cognitive control specialization between aMCC and preSMA. Our study provides novel evidence that the former is involved in proactive control mechanisms, possibly contingency learning, whereas the latter reflects reactive control mechanisms by exhibiting a strong congruency effect regardless of RT variation and responding to adaptive behavior.

Overburdening associations: The dependency of psychopathy-related acquisitional learning deficits on processing load

Psychopathic personality traits have been identified as an important predictor of associative learning capacity. Prior work has associated psychopathy with deficits when adapting learned associations in response to novel information. However, findings are inconsistent and are hypothesised to vary as a function of the processing load created by different experimental paradigms. We tested this hypothesis by examining the association between psychopathic traits and Stimulus-Response-Outcome contingency learning whilst manipulating contextual processing load. In experiments one and two, participants completed three versions of a configural object discrimination task that required participants to use increasingly multidimensional learning cues. Across both experiments, it was found that elevated levels of psychopathic traits were associated with a lesser capacity to form S-R-O associations in the bidimensional but not tridimensional versions of the learning task. This suggests psychopathy-related learning deficits may vary as a function of the processing load inherent to the bidimensional learning environment, rather than the type of learning taking place. This provides some of the first experimental evidence that psychopathic learning deficits are detectable during the acquisition phase of learning.

Supplemental Material for Two Sources of Color–Word Contingency Learning: Episodic Retrieval of Stimulus-Response Bindings and Propositional Knowledge

Supplemental Material for Two Sources of Color–Word Contingency Learning: Episodic Retrieval of Stimulus-Response Bindings and Propositional Knowledge

Examining the reliability of the emotional conflict resolution and adaptation effects in the emotional conflict task via secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis.

The emotional conflict task measures emotional conflict resolution and adaptation, but some studies are unable to find resolution or adaptation effects using this task. We examined boundary conditions and replicability of the emotional conflict resolution and adaptation effects through secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis of studies in the field. In our data, we were unable to fully replicate the emotional conflict resolution or adaptation effects and found that most studies using this task (n = 94) do not report analysis of emotional conflict resolution, with only 28% (n = 26) studies doing so. Our meta-analysis suggests that studies reporting emotional conflict resolution and adaptation analyses overall report significant but small effects, suggesting the effect is difficult to consistently replicate. Our meta-analysis revealed that controlling for contingency learning may impact the ability of studies to identify conflict resolution. These findings have implications for assessment and interpretation of the emotional conflict task. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Both congruent and incongruent trials drive the congruency sequence effect: Novel support for an episodic retrieval view of adaptive control in the prime-probe task.

The congruency effect in Stroop-like tasks-a popular measure of distraction-is smaller after incongruent relative to congruent trials. However, it is unclear whether this congruency sequence effect (CSE)-a popular index of coping with distraction-reflects adjustments of control after congruent trials, incongruent trials, or both. The episodic retrieval account of the CSE posits adjustments of control after both congruent and incongruent trials. In this account, retrieving a memory of the previous trial's congruency (i.e., congruent or incongruent) biases control processes to prepare for an upcoming trial with the same congruency (i.e., congruent or incongruent). In contrast, the default setting account posits adjustments of control after a single trial type. For example, control processes might increase inhibition of the response cued by the distractor after incongruent trials but make no adjustments after congruent trials. To distinguish between these accounts for the first time while (a) using long distractor-target intervals and (b) excluding prevalent feature integration and contingency learning confounds, we employed a confound-minimized prime-probe task with neutral trials. We usually observed adjustments of control after both trial types. Furthermore, whether the reduction of the congruency effect after incongruent trials indexed (a) inhibition of the distractor-congruent response or (b) activation of the distractor-incongruent response depended on whether the distractor and target were same-sized or different-sized, respectively. These findings favor the episodic retrieval account of the CSE over the default setting account. They also indicate that "low-level" stimulus properties may influence the nature of "high-level" control adjustments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Cue duration and trial spacing effects in contingency assessment in the streaming procedure with humans.

According to the cycle/trial (C/T) rule, the rate of associative learning is a function of the ratio between the overall rate of U.S. presentation (C) and its rate in the presence of the conditioned stimulus (CS; [T]). This rule is well supported in studies with nonhumans. The present study was conducted to test whether it also applies to human contingency learning. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed to rapid streams of trials. Sensitivity to the cue-outcome contingency varied with both intertrial interval (ITI, which captures C) and cue duration, but the C/T rule was not respected, notably because the effect of ITI was much larger than the effect of cue duration. Experiment 2 showed that mere suppression of verbal strategies did not alter the magnitude of the ITI effect. Experiment 3 replicated Experiment 1 but with cue duration and ITI varied between 1,000 and 3,000 ms instead of between 100 and 1,000 ms. Performance was insensitive to both cue duration and ITI. This was not the consequence of Experiment 3 only varying the cue duration to ITI ratio by a factor of 3; in Experiment 4 where the cue duration was 100 ms, a 300-ms ITI was sufficient to observe an ITI effect. The lack of an ITI effect with a 1,000-ms cue and an ITI varying between 1,000 and 3,000 ms was replicated in Experiment 5. These results are discussed in light of how processes underlying associative learning might break down when events occur very rapidly. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Insular cortex subregions have distinct roles in cued heroin seeking after extinction learning and prolonged withdrawal in rats

Evidence indicates that the anterior (aIC), but not posterior (pIC), insular cortex promotes cued reinstatement of cocaine seeking after extinction in rats. It is unknown whether these subregions also regulate heroin seeking and whether such involvement depends on prior extinction learning. To address these questions, we used baclofen and muscimol (BM) to inactivate the aIC or pIC bilaterally during a seeking test after extinction or prolonged withdrawal from heroin. Male Sprague-Dawley rats in the extinction groups underwent 10+ days of heroin self-administration, followed by 6+ days of extinction sessions, and subsequent cued or heroin-primed reinstatement. Results indicate that aIC inactivation increased cued reinstatement of heroin seeking after extinction, whereas pIC inactivation prevented cued reinstatement. To determine whether these effects were extinction-dependent, we conducted a subsequent study using both sexes with prolonged withdrawal. Male and female rats in the withdrawal groups underwent 10+ days of heroin self-administration, followed by cued seeking tests after 1 and 14 days of homecage withdrawal to measure incubation of heroin craving. In this case, the findings indicate that aIC inactivation had no effect on incubation of heroin craving after withdrawal in either sex, whereas pIC inactivation decreased heroin craving only in males. These findings suggest that the aIC and pIC have opposing roles in suppressing vs promoting cued heroin seeking after extinction and that these roles are distinct from those in cocaine seeking. Moreover, the incubation of craving results suggest that new contingency learning is necessary to recruit the aIC in cued heroin seeking.

Proactive response preparation contributes to contingency learning: novel evidence from force-sensitive keyboards.

Contingency learning can involve learning that the identity of one stimulus in a sequence predicts the identity of the next stimulus. It remains unclear, however, whether such learning speeds responses to the next stimulus only by reducing the threshold for triggering the expected response after stimulus onset or also by preparing the expected response before stimulus onset. To distinguish between these competing accounts, we manipulated the probabilities with which each of two prime arrows (Left and Right) were followed by each of two probe arrows (Up and Down) in a prime-probe task while using force-sensitive keyboards to monitor sub-threshold finger force. Consistent with the response preparation account, two experiments revealed greater force just before probe onset on the response key corresponding to the direction in which the probe was more (versus less) likely to point (e.g., Up vs. Down). Furthermore, mirroring sequential contingency effects in behavior, this pre-probe force effect vanished after a single low-probability trial. These findings favor the response preparation account over the threshold only account. They also suggest the possibility that contingency learning in our tasks indexes trial-by-trial expectations regarding the utility of the prime for predicting the upcoming probe.

Release from response interference in color-word contingency learning

In identifying the print colors of words when some combinations of color and word occur more frequently than others, people quickly show evidence of learning these associations. This contingency learning effect is evident in faster and more accurate responses to high-contingency combinations than to low-contingency combinations. Across four experiments, we systematically varied the number of response-irrelevant word stimuli connected to response-relevant colors. In each experiment, one group experienced the typical contingency learning paradigm with three colors linked to three words; other groups saw more words (six or twelve) linked to the same three colors. All four experiments disconfirmed a central prediction derived from the Parallel Episodic Processing (PEP 2.0) model (Schmidt et al., 2016)—that the magnitude of the contingency learning effect should remain stable as more words are added to the response-irrelevant dimension, as long as the color-word contingency ratios are maintained. Responses to high-contingency items did slow down numerically as the number of words increased between groups, consistent with the prediction from PEP 2.0, but these changes were unreliable. Inconsistent with PEP 2.0, however, overall response time did not slow down and responses to low-contingency items actually sped up as the number of words increased across groups. These findings suggest that the PEP 2.0 model should be modified to incorporate response interference caused by high-probability associations when responding to low-probability combinations.

Does perceptual disfluency affect the illusion of causality?

When a subjective experience of difficulty is associated with a mental task, people tend to engage in systematic and deliberative reasoning, which can reduce the usage of intuitive and effortless thinking that gives rise to cognitive biases. One such bias is the illusion of causality, where people perceive a causal link between two unrelated events. In 2019, Díaz-Lago and Matute found that a superficial perceptual feature of the task could modulate the magnitude of the illusion (i.e., a hard-to-read font led to a decrease in the magnitude of the illusion). The present study explored the generalisability of the idea that perceptual disfluency can lead to a decrease in the magnitude of the illusion. In the first experiment, we tested whether a physical-perceptual manipulation of the stimuli, specifically the contrast between the written text and the background, could modulate the illusion in a contingency learning task. The results of the online experiment (N = 200) showed no effect of contrast on the magnitude of the illusion, despite our manipulation having successfully induced task fluency or disfluency. Building upon this null result, our second experiment (N = 100) focused on manipulating the font type, in an attempt to replicate the results obtained by Díaz-Lago and Matute. In contrast to their findings, we found no discernible effect of font type on the magnitude of the illusion, even though this manipulation also effectively induced variations in task fluency or disfluency. These results underscore the notion that not all categories of (dis)fluency in cognitive processing wield a modulatory influence on cognitive biases, and they call for a re-evaluation and a more precise delineation of the (dis)fluency construct.

How evaluative pairings improve body dissatisfaction in adult women: evidence from a randomized-controlled online study

BackgroundMany young women are dissatisfied with their bodies. This study investigated the effect on current body dissatisfaction levels of a newly developed evaluative conditioning procedure that paired self-similar and self-dissimilar images of bodies with positive and neutral affective images, respectively. We hypothesized that learning the contingency that self-similar bodies predict positive affectivity is one process that could aid in explaining how these procedures function.MethodsAdult women without disordered eating pathology participated in an online experiment with random assignment to an intervention or a control condition. All participants initially rated body images in self-similarity and were subsequently asked to categorize positive and neutral images by valence as quickly and accurately as possible. In the intervention condition, self-similar bodies systematically preceded positive images, and self-dissimilar images preceded neutral images, creating a similar body → positive contingency. Pairings in the control condition were unsystematic such that no contingency was present. We measured categorization latencies and accuracies to infer contingency learning as well as current body dissatisfaction immediately before and after exposure to the pairings. All participants further completed measures of trait body image concerns and disordered eating psychopathology at baseline, which we examined as moderators of an expected relation between condition assignment, contingency learning, and body dissatisfaction improvements.ResultsWe analyzed data from N = 173 women fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Moderated mediation analyses showed that assignment to the intervention (vs. control) condition predicted increased similar body → positive contingency learning, which in turn predicted improved body dissatisfaction post-intervention, but only among women with higher pre-existing trait body image concerns or disordered eating levels.ConclusionsThe findings point toward the relevancy of further exploring the utility of pairing procedures. Similar body → positive contingency learning predicted improved body dissatisfaction in individuals with normatively high body image concerns, which suggests pairing procedures could help inform future research on reducing body dissatisfaction.

Aging effects on the encoding/retrieval flip in associative memory: fMRI evidence from incidental contingency learning.

Associative memory is arguably the most basic memory function and therein constitutes the foundation of all episodic and semantic memory processes. At the same time, the decline of associative memory represents a core feature of age-related cognitive decline in both, healthy and pathological (i.e., dementia-related) aging. The neural mechanisms underlying age-related impairments in associative memory are still not fully understood, especially regarding incidental (i.e., non-intentional) learning. We investigated the impact of age on the incidental learning and memory retrieval of face-name combinations in a total sample of 46 young (N = 23; mean age = 23.39 years) and elderly (N = 22, mean age = 69.05 years) participants. More specifically, particular interest was placed in age-related changes in encoding/retrieval (E/R) flips, which denote a neural antagonism of opposed activation patterns in the same brain region during memory encoding and retrieval, which were assessed using fMRI. According to our hypothesis, the results showed a significant age-related decline in the retrieval performance in the old group. Additionally, at the neural level, we discovered an abolished E/R flip in the right anterior insula and a joint but reduced E/R flip activation magnitude in the posterior middle cingulate cortex in older subjects. In conclusion, the present findings suggest that the impaired neural modulation of the E/R flip in the right aIC might be a sensitive marker in the early detection of neural aging.