ERP evidence for conflict in contingency learning

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (7) ◽  
pp. 1031-1039 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter S. Whitehead ◽  
Gene A. Brewer ◽  
Chris Blais
Keyword(s):  
Contingency Learning

Blocking Is Sensitive to Causal Structure in 4-Year-Old and 8-Year-Old Children

2005 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 264-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Beckers ◽  
Uschi Van den Broeck ◽  
Marij Renne ◽  
Stefaan Vandorpe ◽  
Jan De Houwer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Young Children ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Learning Theory ◽  
Causal Structure ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Contingency Learning

Abstract. In a contingency learning task, 4-year-old and 8-year-old children had to predict the outcome displayed on the back of a card on the basis of cues presented on the front. The task was embedded in either a causal or a merely predictive scenario. Within this task, either a forward blocking or a backward blocking procedure was implemented. Blocking occurred in the causal but not in the predictive scenario. Moreover, blocking was affected by the scenario to the same extent in both age groups. The pattern of results was similar for forward and backward blocking. These results suggest that even young children are sensitive to the causal structure of a contingency learning task and that the occurrence of blocking in such a task defies an explanation in terms of associative learning theory.

The Effect of Event Timing Characteristics on Causal Contingency Learning

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marci Sammons ◽  
Sharon Mutter ◽  
Leslie Plumlee ◽  
Laura Strain
Keyword(s):  
Contingency Learning ◽  
Event Timing

scholarly journals A test of Rescorla and Wagner’s (1972) prediction of nonlinear effects in contingency learning

2012 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 507-519 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joaquín Morís ◽  
Susana Carnero ◽  
Ignacio Loy
Keyword(s):  
Nonlinear Effects ◽  
Contingency Learning

scholarly journals Corticostriatothalamic reward prediction error signals and executive control in late-life depression

2014 ◽  
Vol 45 (7) ◽  
pp. 1413-1424 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Y. Dombrovski ◽  
K. Szanto ◽  
L. Clark ◽  
H. J. Aizenstein ◽  
H. W. Chase ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Executive Control ◽  
Late Life ◽  
Vascular Lesions ◽  
Contingency Learning ◽  
Late Life Depression ◽  
Vascular Depression ◽  
Fmri Study ◽  
Core Feature ◽  
Control Functional

BackgroundAltered corticostriatothalamic encoding of reinforcement is a core feature of depression. Here we examine reinforcement learning in late-life depression in the theoretical framework of the vascular depression hypothesis. This hypothesis attributes the co-occurrence of late-life depression and poor executive control to prefrontal/cingulate disconnection by vascular lesions.MethodOur fMRI study compared 31 patients aged ⩾60 years with major depression to 16 controls. Using a computational model, we estimated neural and behavioral responses to reinforcement in an uncertain, changing environment (probabilistic reversal learning).ResultsPoor executive control and depression each explained distinct variance in corticostriatothalamic response to unexpected rewards. Depression, but not poor executive control, predicted disrupted functional connectivity between the striatum and prefrontal cortex. White-matter hyperintensities predicted diminished corticostriatothalamic responses to reinforcement, but did not mediate effects of depression or executive control. In two independent samples, poor executive control predicted a failure to persist with rewarded actions, an effect distinct from depressive oversensitivity to punishment. The findings were unchanged in a subsample of participants with vascular disease. Results were robust to effects of confounders including psychiatric comorbidities, physical illness, depressive severity, and psychotropic exposure.ConclusionsContrary to the predictions of the vascular depression hypothesis, altered encoding of rewards in late-life depression is dissociable from impaired contingency learning associated with poor executive control. Functional connectivity and behavioral analyses point to a disruption of ascending mesostriatocortical reward signals in late-life depression and a failure of cortical contingency encoding in elderly with poor executive control.

scholarly journals Single- and Dual-Process Models of Biased Contingency Detection

2016 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Fernando Blanco ◽  
Ion Yarritu ◽  
Helena Matute
Keyword(s):  
Process Models ◽  
Dual Process ◽  
Contingency Learning ◽  
Contingency Detection ◽  
Dual Process Models ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
Single Process

Abstract. Decades of research in causal and contingency learning show that people’s estimations of the degree of contingency between two events are easily biased by the relative probabilities of those two events. If two events co-occur frequently, then people tend to overestimate the strength of the contingency between them. Traditionally, these biases have been explained in terms of relatively simple single-process models of learning and reasoning. However, more recently some authors have found that these biases do not appear in all dependent variables and have proposed dual-process models to explain these dissociations between variables. In the present paper we review the evidence for dissociations supporting dual-process models and we point out important shortcomings of this literature. Some dissociations seem to be difficult to replicate or poorly generalizable and others can be attributed to methodological artifacts. Overall, we conclude that support for dual-process models of biased contingency detection is scarce and inconclusive.

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