Noncontingent Condition Research Articles

Acquisition and extinction of human avoidance behavior: attenuating effects of omission contingencies of appetitive, aversive and warning cues

Recently, there has been a renewed interest in avoidance behavior, and its applicability to clinical conditions such as anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction. In a computer-based avoidance task for humans, participants control an on-screen spaceship, shoot at enemy targets (appetitive cue) to gain points, and learn to respond to an on-screen warning signal (WS) by entering safe “hiding” areas to escape/avoid an aversive event (point loss and on-screen explosion) paired with an on-screen aversive cue (bomb). Prior research on active avoidance in rodents suggests that avoidance learning is facilitated if the response also terminates the WS. Here, we adapted the computer-based task to investigate this idea in healthy humans. Two hundred and twenty-two young adults completed one of three conditions of the task: a non-contingent condition, where hiding caused omission/avoidance of the aversive event but did not terminate the WS; a fully-contingent condition, where hiding also caused omission/termination of all on-screen appetitive and aversive cues as well as terminating the WS; and a partially-contingent condition where hiding caused omission of the appetitive and aversive cues, but did not affect the WS. Both contingency manipulations decreased escape/avoidance behavior, as compared to the non-contingent condition where the WS and other cues are not affected by the avoidance behavior. This study has implications for the basic understanding of the mechanisms that affect avoidance behavior in humans.

Manipulating feedback on schizophrenia: Evidence from a Posner task

Individuals with schizophrenia show difficulties in achieving vital objectives. Abnormal behavioral and emotional responses to environmental feedback may be some of the psychological mechanisms underlying this lack of goal attainment in schizophrenia. The present study aims to assess how different types of feedback may affect performance in a computerized affective Posner task (non-monetary vs. monetary rewards; contingent vs. non-contingent feedback). The sample was composed of 32 patients with schizophrenia and 35 controls. Reaction times and error rates were the behavioral measurements. The emotional experience was assessed through self-reported affective scales. The results indicated that: ii) the performance with monetary rewards was better than with non-monetary ones in all participants, especially in patients with schizophrenia when higher attentional resources are required (invalid trials). Second, all participants demonstrated faster reaction times, but higher error rates, with non-contingent feedback (frustration condition). Significantly, the schizophrenia group only equaled the controls performance in the non-contingent condition with monetary rewards. Additionally, the higher the negative symptoms were in patients, the worse performance they had under frustration. Third, discrepancies between performance and self-report affect were found in patients. Specifically, after the induction of frustration, the patients reported feeling better and having no arousal changes. Therefore, the findings suggest that, in schizophrenia: i) non-monetary rewards are relatively less important; ii) monetary rewards lessen the negative effects of frustration, iii) discrepancies in self-reported affective scales suggest an unrealistic self-evaluation made under frustration. These findings shed light on the underlying mechanisms of the lack of goal attainment in schizophrenia.

Strategies to Reduce Procrastination in College Students

College students’ procrastination patterns and strategies to decrease procrastination were investigated. Each week, participants alternated between two schedules of delivery of practice quizzes while preparing for weekly quizzes. In Study 1, one practice quiz was available per day in the noncontingent condition. In the contingent condition, participants had to submit one practice quiz per day to access the subsequent practice quiz. In Study 2, two practice quizzes were available every other day in the noncontingent condition. In the contingent condition, participants had to submit two practice quizzes every other day to access subsequent practice quizzes. Six of 25 participants stopped procrastinating at the end of the contingent condition. Both conditions yielded high scores on weekly quizzes even when participants procrastinated. These results indicate that college students’ procrastination patterns can be changed, although it does not necessarily lead to increased quiz scores.

Interactive live fNIRS reveals engagement of the temporoparietal junction in response to social contingency in infants

Live social interaction is the dominant form of human social activity, but it remains unclear if brain processing of live interactive social stimuli differs substantially from processing of non-interactive social stimuli, mainly because of technical difficulties measuring brain activity during natural social interactions. This distinction is particularly important during infancy considering the importance of real-life interactions for various forms of learning. To assess the impact of live social interaction accompanied by ostensive social signals on infant cortical processing, the present study measured the cortical activities of 6–8-month-old and 10−12-month-old infants using functional near-infrared spectroscopy under contingent and non-contingent conditions (appropriately timed versus delayed responsiveness). We found greater activation over the right temporoparietal junction region in response to contingent interactions relative to non-contingent interactions in 6–8-month-old and 10–12-month-old infants. Our study indicates a critical role of contingent responsiveness for differential processing of live interactive social stimuli.

A hard to read font reduces the causality bias

AbstractPrevious studies have demonstrated that fluency affects judgment and decision-making. The purpose of the present research was to investigate the effect of perceptual fluency in a causal learning task that usually induces an illusion of causality in non-contingent conditions. We predicted that a reduction of fluency could improve accuracy in the detection of non-contingency and, therefore, could be used to debias illusory perceptions of causality. Participants were randomly assigned to either an easy-to-read or a hard-to-read condition. Our results showed a strong bias (i.e., overestimation) of causality in those participants who performed the non-contingent task in the easy-to-read font, which replicated the standard causality bias effect. This effect was reduced when the same task was presented in a hard-to-read font. Overall, our results provide evidence for a reduction of the causality bias when presenting the problem in a hard-to-read font. This suggests that perceptual fluency affects causal judgments.

Inferring power and dominance from dyadic nonverbal interactions in autism spectrum disorder.

Research studies to date have revealed conflicting results with respect to the processing of nonverbal cues from social interactions in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the contribution of two important factors for the perception of dyadic social interactions, namely (a) the movement contingency and (b) the spatial context. To this end, 26 adult participants with ASD and 26 age-, sex-, and IQ-matched typically developed control participants observed animations presenting nonverbal interactions between two human virtual characters enacting power relationships. We manipulated (a) movement contingency by exchanging one of the two original agents with an agent from another dyad and (b) spatial context by changing agents' spatial orientation to a back-to-back position. Participants were asked to rate dominance and submissiveness of these agents. Results showed that the movement contingency manipulation affected accuracy and consistency of power perception and that the spatial context manipulation slowed down reaction times comparably in both groups. With regard to group differences, individuals with ASD were found to judge power relationships slower compared to control participants, potentially suggesting a more explicit processing style in ASD. Furthermore, the spatial context manipulation slowed down the reaction times more in the contingent compared to the non-contingent conditions only in the ASD group. These findings contribute to the ongoing debate whether individuals with ASD have difficulties in understanding nonverbal cues in a dyadic context by suggesting that they do so in more subtle ways than previously investigated. Autism Res 2019, 12: 505-516 © 2019 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc. LAY SUMMARY: This study shows that the ability and speed of judging who is dominant in a social interaction depends on two factors: (a) whether their movements are matched and (b) whether they are facing each other or not. This is similarly the case for participants with and without autism. Interestingly, however, individuals with autism seem to judge generally slower, suggesting a more explicit processing style. The two factors seem to interact, suggesting that nonverbal processing difficulties are subtler than previously thought.

Promoting smoking abstinence among patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: Initial feasibility

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the third leading cause of death in the U.S., with the majority of COPD deaths attributable to cigarette smoking. Despite this, individuals with COPD have a higher prevalence of smoking, poorer quit rates, and higher relapse rates compared to smokers without a COPD diagnosis. We examined the feasibility of an incentives-based intervention for producing an initial period of biochemically-verified smoking abstinence among daily smokers with COPD. Participants were randomly assigned to a Contingent (n = 13) or Noncontingent (n = 16) incentives condition and visited the clinic for 14 consecutive days. Contingent participants earned vouchers with monetary value contingent on breath carbon monoxide (CO) levels during Study Days 1–5 and urinary cotinine during Days 6–14. Voucher earnings began at $9.00 and increased by $1.50 with each subsequent negative sample for maximum possible of $362.50. Noncontingent participants received vouchers of comparable value independent of smoking status. Differences between conditions varied across study days for daily smoking abstinence (X2 = 45.27, p < 0.0001), CO (F(13, 280) = 1.95, p = 0.025), and cotinine (F(13, 279) = 2.20, p = 0.010), with generally higher rates of abstinence and lower CO and cotinine levels observed in the Contingent vs. Noncontingent conditions. Results from this randomized pilot study support the potential efficacy of an incentives-based intervention for reducing cigarette smoking among individuals with COPD. Further research efforts should seek to promote and evaluate longer-term abstinence and associated changes in respiratory function.

Software for web-based tic suppression training.

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) is a first-line behavior therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder, and has also been tested in Tourette syndrome (TS). However, ERP for tic disorders requires intentional tic suppression, which for some patients is difficult even for brief periods. Additionally, practical access to behavior therapy is difficult for many patients, especially those in rural areas. The authors present a simple, working web platform (TicTrainer) that implements a strategy called reward-enhanced exposure and response prevention (RE-ERP). This strategy sacrifices most expert therapist components of ERP, focusing only on increasing the duration of time for which the user can suppress tics through automated differential reinforcement of tic-free periods (DRO). RE-ERP requires an external tic monitor, such as a parent, during training sessions. The user sees increasing digital rewards for longer and longer periods of successful tic suppression, similar to a video game score. TicTrainer is designed with security in mind, storing no personally identifiable health information, and has features to facilitate research, including optional masked comparison of tics during DRO vs. noncontingent reward conditions. A working instance of TicTrainer is available from https://tictrainer.com/.

Effects of adults’ contingent responding on infants’ behavior in ambiguous situations

We examined the effect of adults’ contingency in responding to infants’ behavior in an ambiguous situation in two experiments. In Experiment 1, forty-four 12-month-old infants were exposed to an ambiguous toy. An unfamiliar adult responded either contingently or non-contingently to the infant’s bids and then presented the toy and provided positive information. During toy presentation, infants in the non-contingent condition looked less at the experimenter than infants in the contingent condition. In a concluding free-play situation infants in the non-contingent condition played less and tended to touch the toy less. In Experiment 2 (forty-four 12-month-old infants), the parent either responded promptly or with a delay each time the infant made contact initiatives and then presented an ambiguous toy and delivered the positive information. The infants in the non-contingent condition tended to look less at the parent during toy presentation and also tended to play less with the toy during the concluding free-play situation. The findings show that adults’ contingency in responding influences infants’ behavior in ambiguous situations.

Are Children with ASD more Prone to Test the Intentions of the Robonova Robot Compared to a Human?

This study proposes an innovative device specifically designed for investigating the ability of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to test the intention of a partner in a dyadic interactive game. Twenty one children with ASD were exposed to both a contingent and a noncontingent interaction condition with either a human agent or the Robonova robot as partners. The statistical analysis indicates a strong tendency toward a significant higher frequency of testing behaviors in the robot noncontingent condition and no difference between the two groups (robot/human) for the contingent condition. Children with ASD showed significantly more eye gaze to the robot compared to the human agent in both contingent and noncontingent conditions, but no difference in affect was found. The high level of initiations recorded in all conditions suggests that the game has a high motivational value for ASD children. Further longitudinal studies should investigate if such synchronous interaction games lead to improved shared intentionality in children with ASD.

Individuals Who Believe in the Paranormal Expose Themselves to Biased Information and Develop More Causal Illusions than Nonbelievers in the Laboratory.

In the reasoning literature, paranormal beliefs have been proposed to be linked to two related phenomena: a biased perception of causality and a biased information-sampling strategy (believers tend to test fewer hypotheses and prefer confirmatory information). In parallel, recent contingency learning studies showed that, when two unrelated events coincide frequently, individuals interpret this ambiguous pattern as evidence of a causal relationship. Moreover, the latter studies indicate that sampling more cause-present cases than cause-absent cases strengthens the illusion. If paranormal believers actually exhibit a biased exposure to the available information, they should also show this bias in the contingency learning task: they would in fact expose themselves to more cause-present cases than cause-absent trials. Thus, by combining the two traditions, we predicted that believers in the paranormal would be more vulnerable to developing causal illusions in the laboratory than nonbelievers because there is a bias in the information they experience. In this study, we found that paranormal beliefs (measured using a questionnaire) correlated with causal illusions (assessed by using contingency judgments). As expected, this correlation was mediated entirely by the believers' tendency to expose themselves to more cause-present cases. The association between paranormal beliefs, biased exposure to information, and causal illusions was only observed for ambiguous materials (i.e., the noncontingent condition). In contrast, the participants' ability to detect causal relationships which did exist (i.e., the contingent condition) was unaffected by their susceptibility to believe in paranormal phenomena.

The Selection of Cultural Units by Non-Contingent Cultural Events

We assessed the effects of non-contingent cultural events on the recurrence of the coordinated behaviors of groups of individuals (interlocking behavioral contingencies—IBCs). Laboratory microcultures (three participants each) performed an experimental task, which consisted of selecting rows of a matrix. After each 20 cycles of sequences of choices of rows, a new participant replaced an old one, thus creating a “generational shift .” Individual consequences (plastic coins exchangeable for money) were contingent on the choice of odd-numbered rows. Cultural events (printed stamps exchangeable for school supplies to be donated) occurred after the three participants had made their choices, but these events were not contingent on any particular sequence of rows (IBCs, and the aggregate product produced). During the first 60 cycles, the cultural events occurred after 80% of the cycles, independently of the aggregate product. Next, there was a sequence of 30 cycles in which no cultural event occurred. Finally, the experimental conditions returned to the initial non-contingent occurrence of cultural events. The results show the strengthening of operant individual behaviors, as well as of IBCs in the non-contingent conditions. Cultural transmission was also observed. We discuss the parallel between the observed recurrence of IBCs and previous studies on superstitious individual behavior. The results add to the acknowledged selection of cultural practices by long-term contingent products the possible selection of “superstitious” cultural practices by non-contingent cultural events. Such a possibility should be further investigated, with original or similar experimental designs.

Role of contingency in striatal response to incentive in adolescents with anxiety.

This study examines the effect of contingency on reward function in anxiety. We define contingency as the aspect of a situation in which the outcome is determined by one's action-that is, when there is a direct link between one's action and the outcome of the action. Past findings in adolescents with anxiety or at risk for anxiety have revealed hypersensitive behavioral and neural responses to higher value rewards with correct performance. This hypersensitivity to highly valued (salient) actions suggests that the value of actions is determined not only by outcome magnitude, but also by the degree to which the outcome is contingent on correct performance. Thus, contingency and incentive value might each modulate reward responses in unique ways in anxiety. Using fMRI with a monetary reward task, striatal response to cue anticipation is compared in 18 clinically anxious and 20 healthy adolescents. This task manipulates orthogonally reward contingency and incentive value. Findings suggest that contingency modulates the neural response to incentive magnitude differently in the two groups. Specifically, during the contingent condition, right-striatal response tracks incentive value in anxious, but not healthy, adolescents. During the noncontingent condition, striatal response is bilaterally stronger to low than to high incentive in anxious adolescents, while healthy adolescents exhibit the expected opposite pattern. Both contingency and reward magnitude differentiate striatal activation in anxious versus healthy adolescents. These findings may reflect exaggerated concern about performance and/or alterations of striatal coding of reward value in anxious adolescents. Abnormalities in reward function in anxiety may have treatment implications.

Contingency Management for Patients With Serious Mental Illness and Stimulant Dependence

Contingency Management for Patients With Serious Mental Illness and Stimulant Dependence

Effects of smoking cessation with voucher‐based contingency management on birth outcomes

This study examined whether smoking cessation using voucher-based contingency management (CM) improves birth outcomes. Data were combined from three controlled trials. Each of the trials was conducted in the same research clinic devoted to smoking and pregnancy. Participants (n=166) were pregnant women who participated in trials examining the efficacy of voucher-based CM for smoking cessation. Women were assigned to either a contingent condition, wherein they earned vouchers exchangeable for retail items by abstaining from smoking, or to a non-contingent condition where they received vouchers independent of smoking status. Birth outcomes were determined by review of hospital delivery records. Antepartum abstinence was greater in the contingent than non-contingent condition, with late-pregnancy abstinence being 34.1% versus 7.4% (P<0.001). Mean birth weight of infants born to mothers treated in the contingent condition was greater than infants born to mothers treated in the non-contingent condition (3295.6 ± 63.8 g versus 3093.6 ± 67.0 g, P = 0.03) and the percentage of low birth weight (<2500 g) deliveries was less (5.9% versus 18.5%, P = 0.02). No significant treatment effects were observed across three other outcomes investigated, although each was in the direction of improved outcomes in the contingent versus the non-contingent condition: mean gestational age (39.1 ± 0.2 weeks versus 38.5 ± 0.3 weeks, P = 0.06), percentage of preterm deliveries (5.9 versus 13.6, P = 0.09), and percentage of admissions to the neonatal intensive care unit (4.7% versus 13.8%, P = 0.06). These results provide evidence that smoking-cessation treatment with voucher-based CM may improve important birth outcomes.

Effect of PTSD Diagnosis and Contingency Management Procedures on Cocaine Use in Dually Cocaine‐ and Opioid‐Dependent Individuals Maintained on LAAM: A Retrospective Analysis

This randomized clinical trial retrospectively examined the effect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and contingency management (CM) on cocaine use in opioid and cocaine dependent individuals maintained on high or low-dose LAAM randomly assigned to CM or a yoked-control condition. Cocaine-positive urines decreased more rapidly over time in those without PTSD versus those with PTSD in the noncontingency condition. In participants with PTSD, CM resulted in fewer cocaine-positive urines compared to the noncontingent condition. This suggests that CM may help improve the potentially worse outcomes in opioid- and cocaine-dependent individuals with PTSD compared to those without PTSD. (Am J Addict 2010;00:1-9).

A Non-Humanoid Robot in the “Uncanny Valley”: Experimental Analysis of the Reaction to Behavioral Contingency in 2–3 Year Old Children

Infants' sensitivity to social or behavioral contingency has been examined in the field of developmental psychology and behavioral sciences, mainly using a double video paradigm or a still face paradigm. These studies have shown that infants distinguish other individuals' contingent behaviors from non-contingent ones. The present experiment systematically examined if this ability extends to the detection of non-humanoids' contingent actions in a communicative context. We examined two- to three-year-olds' understanding of contingent actions produced by a non-humanoid robot. The robot either responded contingently to the actions of the participants (contingent condition) or programmatically reproduced the same sequence of actions to another participant (non-contingent condition). The results revealed that the participants exhibited different patterns of response depending on whether or not the robot responded contingently. It was also found that the participants did not respond positively to the contingent actions of the robot in the earlier periods of the experimental sessions. This might reflect the conflict between the non-humanlike appearance of the robot and its humanlike contingent actions, which presumably led the children to experience the uncanny valley effect.

Effects of voucher‐based incentives on abstinence from cigarette smoking and fetal growth among pregnant women

This study examined whether voucher-based reinforcement therapy (VBRT) contingent upon smoking abstinence during pregnancy is an effective method for decreasing maternal smoking during pregnancy and improving fetal growth. A two-condition, parallel-groups, randomized controlled trial was conducted in a university-based research clinic. A total of 82 smokers entering prenatal care participated in the trial. Participants were assigned randomly to either contingent or non-contingent voucher conditions. Vouchers exchangeable for retail items were available during pregnancy and for 12 weeks postpartum. In the contingent condition, vouchers were earned for biochemically verified smoking abstinence; in the non-contingent condition, vouchers were earned independent of smoking status. Smoking outcomes were evaluated using urine-toxicology testing and self-report. Fetal growth outcomes were evaluated using serial ultrasound examinations performed during the third trimester. Contingent vouchers significantly increased point-prevalence abstinence at the end-of-pregnancy (41% versus 10%) and at the 12-week postpartum assessment (24% versus 3%). Serial ultrasound examinations indicated significantly greater growth in terms of estimated fetal weight, femur length and abdominal circumference in the contingent compared to the non-contingent conditions. These results provide further evidence that VBRT has a substantive contribution to make to efforts to decrease maternal smoking during pregnancy and provide new evidence of positive effects on fetal health.

Learned helplessness in children and adolescents with juvenile rheumatic disease

Objective To examine a learned helplessness conceptualization of psychological sequela in children and adolescents with juvenile rheumatic diseases (JRD) via an experimental procedure utilizing behavior–outcome contingent and noncontingent feedback. Methods Thirty-eight children and adolescents with JRD completed measures of transient affect, self-efficacy for functional ability, and causal attributions prior to and immediately following a computerized learned helplessness induction procedure. Results Children across contingent and noncontingent feedback conditions experienced decreased positive affect with a slightly more pronounced decline in the noncontingent condition. Noncontingent feedback resulted in poorer internalization of success for problem solving, while contingent feedback resulted in greater internalization of success for problem solving. Additionally, posttreatment control self-efficacy was significantly greater for children in the contingent condition that initially endorsed higher levels of internal task attributions. Conclusions Children with JRD who experience behavior–outcome contingency in their environment may develop increased perceptions of control over functional ability. Furthermore, environmental noncontingency may result in poorer internalization of success, whereas contingent reinforcement may enhance cognitive appraisal mechanisms (i.e., causal attributions) associated with favorable disease outcome. Despite a modest decline in positive affect for children in the noncontingent condition, mood dysfunction is not entirely explicable within the context of noncontingent reinforcement.

A pilot study on voucher‐based incentives to promote abstinence from cigarette smoking during pregnancy and postpartum

We report results from a pilot study examining the use of vouchers redeemable for retail items as incentives for smoking cessation during pregnancy and postpartum. Of 100 study-eligible women who were still smoking upon entering prenatal care, 58 were recruited from university-based and community obstetric practices to participate in a smoking cessation study. Participants were assigned to either contingent or noncontingent voucher conditions. Vouchers were available during pregnancy and for 12 weeks postpartum. In the contingent condition, vouchers were earned for biochemically verified smoking abstinence. In the noncontingent condition, vouchers were earned independent of smoking status. Abstinence monitoring and associated voucher delivery was conducted daily during the initial 5 days of the cessation effort, gradually decreased to every other week antepartum, increased to once weekly during the initial 4 weeks postpartum, and then decreased again to every other week for the remaining 8 weeks of the postpartum intervention period. Contingent vouchers increased 7-day point-prevalence abstinence at the end-of-pregnancy (37% vs. 9%) and 12-week postpartum (33% vs. 0%) assessments. That effect was sustained through the 24-week postpartum assessment (27% vs. 0%), which was 12 weeks after discontinuation of the voucher program. Total mean voucher earnings across antepartum and postpartum were 397 US dollars (SD=414 US dollars) and 313 US dollars (SD=142 dollars) in the contingent and noncontingent conditions, respectively. The magnitude of these treatment effects exceed levels typically observed with pregnant and recently postpartum smokers, and the maintenance of effects through 24 weeks postpartum extends the duration beyond those reported previously.