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Associative Relationships in Human Predictive Learning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2013

A. Matías Gámez*
Affiliation:
Universidad de Jaén (Spain)
Rafael Martos
Affiliation:
Universidad de Jaén (Spain)
María J.F. Abad
Affiliation:
Universidad de Jaén (Spain)
Juan M. Rosas
Affiliation:
Universidad de Jaén (Spain)
*
*Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to A. Matías Gámez. Departamento de Psicología, Universidad de Jaén. 23071 Jaén (Spain). E-mail: mgmartin@ujaen.es

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to explore the associations involved in human predictive learning. Experiment 1 found that post-training devaluation of one of the outcomes by instructing participants that one of the attackers was indestructible, led to a significant decrease in participants’ predictive responses to the cue that was initially followed by the devalued outcome, suggesting that cue-outcome associations play a major role in human simple predictive learning. In Experiment 2, immediately after receiving cue-outcome predictive judgment training, participants were instructed to destroy the attackers by using the same responses previously used to give predictive judgments, but they were not informed as to which response should be used on each attacker. During a test in which both attackers were present at the same time, when the cue was present, participants preferentially chose the instrumental response alternative that was previously used as a predictive judgment about the relationship between the present cue and its outcome. In the absence of cues, participants equally chose either response alternative. This transfer of control shows that participants also establish judgment-outcome associations during predictive training.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Universidad Complutense de Madrid and Colegio Oficial de Psicólogos de Madrid 2013 

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Footnotes

We deeply thank C. Paredes-Olay for her assistance running the experiments, and her valuable comments to a previous version of this paper. We also thank James B. Nelson for his comments and assistance on preparing the final version of this paper. This research was financially supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Research Grant PSI2010-15215.

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