
doi: 10.1037/emo0001212
pmid: 36913278
Acting in a goal-directed manner requires an ability to accurately predict the outcomes of one's actions. However, not much is known regarding how threat-related cues influence our ability to form action-outcome associations according to the environment's known causal structure. Here, we examined the extent to which threat-related cues influence individuals' tendency to form and act in accordance with action-outcome associations that do not exist in the external environment (i.e., outcome-irrelevant learning). Forty-nine healthy participants completed an online multi-armed reinforcement-learning bandit task in which they were asked to help a child safely cross a street. Outcome-irrelevant learning was estimated as a tendency to assign value to response keys that did not predict an outcome but were used to report participants' choices. We first replicated previous findings showing that individuals tend to form and act in accordance with irrelevant action-outcome associations, across experimental conditions, and despite explicit knowledge regarding the environment's true structure. Importantly, results of a Bayesian regression analysis suggest that the presentation of threat-related images, compared with neutral or no visual cues at trial initiation, increased outcome-irrelevant learning. We discuss outcome-irrelevant learning as a possible theoretical mechanism that may lead to altered learning in the face of perceived threat. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).
Cognition, Humans, Learning, Bayes Theorem, Cues, Child, Reinforcement, Psychology
Cognition, Humans, Learning, Bayes Theorem, Cues, Child, Reinforcement, Psychology
| selected citations These citations are derived from selected sources. This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | 1 | |
| popularity This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network. | Average | |
| influence This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically). | Average | |
| impulse This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network. | Average |
