Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Haas Business School, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
Commun Biol. 2023 Aug 24;6(1):871. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05199-x.
Expectations are often dynamic: sports fans know that expectations are rapidly updated as games unfold. Yet expectations have traditionally been studied as static. Here we present behavioral and electrophysiological evidence of sub-second changes in expectations using slot machines as a case study. In Study 1, we demonstrate that EEG signal before the slot machine stops varies based on proximity to winning. Study 2 introduces a behavioral paradigm to measure dynamic expectations via betting, and shows that expectation trajectories vary as a function of winning proximity. Notably, these expectation trajectories parallel Study 1's EEG activity. Studies 3 (EEG) and 4 (behavioral) replicate these findings in the loss domain. These four studies provide compelling evidence that dynamic sub-second updates in expectations can be behaviorally and electrophysiologically measured. Our research opens promising avenues for understanding the dynamic nature of reward expectations and their impact on cognitive processes.
体育迷都知道，随着比赛的展开，期望会迅速更新。然而，期望传统上被视为静态的。在这里，我们使用老虎机作为案例研究，提供了行为和电生理证据，证明了期望的亚秒级变化。在研究 1 中，我们证明了在老虎机停止之前，脑电图信号会根据与获胜的接近程度而变化。研究 2 通过下注引入了一种测量动态期望的行为范式，并表明期望轨迹随获胜接近程度而变化。值得注意的是，这些期望轨迹与研究 1 的脑电图活动平行。研究 3（脑电图）和 4（行为）在损失领域复制了这些发现。这四项研究提供了令人信服的证据，证明了期望的动态亚秒级更新可以通过行为和电生理来测量。我们的研究为理解奖励期望的动态性质及其对认知过程的影响开辟了有前途的途径。
