Torrents-Rodas David, Koenig Stephan, Uengoer Metin, Lachnit Harald
Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
Department of Psychology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany; Department of Psychology, Universität Koblenz-Landau, Landau, Germany.
Behav Processes. 2023 Mar;206:104843. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104843. Epub 2023 Feb 8.
It has been suggested that attention modulates the speed at which cues come to predict contingent outcomes, and that attention changes with the prediction errors generated by cues. Evidence for this interaction in humans is inconsistent, with divergent findings depending on whether attention was measured with eye fixations or learning speed. We included both measures in our experiment. Initially, predictive cues (A and B) were consistently followed by one outcome (o1), while nonpredictive cues (X and Y) were followed by two randomly alternating outcomes (o1 and o2). Consistent with an effect of prediction error, participants' fixated for longer on the nonpredictive cues than on the predictive ones. Then, the cues were combined in three pairs: AX, followed by o1, and AY and BX, followed by o2. Discrimination of AX and AY depended on the previously nonpredictive cues and, given that these received more attention during initial training, it should proceed faster than discrimination of AX and BX, which depended on the previously predictive cues. However, participants learned to predict the outcomes of AY and BX at a similar rate. The fixation times were similar for the previously predictive and previously nonpredictive cues. We discuss reasons that could explain these findings.
有人提出，注意力会调节线索预测偶然结果的速度，并且注意力会随着线索产生的预测误差而变化。关于这种相互作用在人类中的证据并不一致，根据注意力是通过注视还是学习速度来衡量，会有不同的结果。我们在实验中纳入了这两种测量方法。最初，预测性线索（A和B）之后总是跟着一个结果（o1），而非预测性线索（X和Y）之后跟着两个随机交替的结果（o1和o2）。与预测误差的影响一致，参与者对非预测性线索的注视时间比对预测性线索的注视时间更长。然后，线索被组合成三对：AX，之后跟着o1；AY和BX，之后跟着o2。对AX和AY的辨别取决于先前的非预测性线索，鉴于这些线索在初始训练期间受到更多关注，它应该比取决于先前预测性线索的AX和BX的辨别进行得更快。然而，参与者以相似的速度学会预测AY和BX的结果。先前的预测性线索和先前的非预测性线索的注视时间相似。我们讨论了可以解释这些发现的原因。
