Department of Psychology, Swansea University.
J Exp Psychol Anim Learn Cogn. 2023 Jul;49(3):179-193. doi: 10.1037/xan0000356.
Three experiments examined the impact of delayed outcomes on stimulus control of causal judgments using an interdimensional generalization procedure. Human participants rated the causal effectiveness of responses on multiple schedules, and then underwent a generalization test. In Experiment 1, a 3 s unsignaled outcome delay reduced ratings of causal effectiveness, relative to an immediate outcome, but had higher ratings compared to a component lacking outcomes. In a generalization test, incremental generalization gradients, indicating inhibitory control, were found for the stimulus associated with delayed outcomes when comparison was with immediate outcomes; but decremental gradients, indicating excitatory control, were found when the comparator lacked outcomes. In Experiment 2, signaled 3 s outcome delays produced higher causal ratings than unsignaled delays; with unsignaled delays producing incremental (inhibitory) and signaled delays producing decremental (excitatory), generalization gradients when compared against each other. In Experiment 3, relative to immediate outcomes, unsignaled delays produced incremental (inhibitory) gradients and signaled delays produced no gradient. These findings suggest similar factors may control judgments of causality as control conditioned responding. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
三项实验采用跨维度推广程序，考察了延迟结果对因果判断的刺激控制的影响。人类参与者在多个时间表上对反应的因果效力进行评分，然后进行推广测试。在实验 1 中，与即时结果相比，3 秒未标记的结果延迟降低了因果效力的评分，但与缺乏结果的成分相比，评分更高。在推广测试中，当与即时结果进行比较时，与延迟结果相关的刺激表现出递增的推广梯度，表明存在抑制控制；而当比较项缺乏结果时，则表现出递减的推广梯度，表明存在兴奋控制。在实验 2 中，与未标记的延迟相比，有信号的 3 秒结果延迟产生了更高的因果评分；与未标记的延迟产生递增（抑制）和信号延迟产生递减（兴奋）的推广梯度相比，当相互比较时，产生递增（抑制）和信号延迟产生递减（兴奋）的推广梯度。在实验 3 中，与即时结果相比，未标记的延迟产生递增（抑制）梯度，而有信号的延迟则没有梯度。这些发现表明，控制条件反应的类似因素可能控制着因果判断。
