Behavioural evidence for parallel outcome-sensitive and outcome-insensitive Pavlovian learning systems in humans

Eva R. Pool (), Wolfgang M. Pauli, Carolina S. Kress and John P. O’Doherty
Additional contact information
Eva R. Pool: California Institute of Technology
Wolfgang M. Pauli: California Institute of Technology
Carolina S. Kress: California Institute of Technology
John P. O’Doherty: California Institute of Technology

Nature Human Behaviour, 2019, vol. 3, issue 3, 284-296

Abstract: Abstract There is a dichotomy in instrumental conditioning between goal-directed actions and habits that are distinguishable on the basis of their relative sensitivity to changes in outcome value. It is less clear whether a similar distinction applies in Pavlovian conditioning, where responses have been found to be predominantly outcome-sensitive. To test for both devaluation-insensitive and devaluation-sensitive Pavlovian conditioning in humans, we conducted four experiments combining Pavlovian conditioning and outcome-devaluation procedures while measuring multiple conditioned responses. Our results suggest that Pavlovian conditioning involves two distinct types of learning: one that learns the current value of the outcome, which is sensitive to devaluation, and one that learns about the spatial localization of the outcome, which is insensitive to devaluation. Our findings have implications for the mechanistic understanding of Pavlovian conditioning and provide a more nuanced understanding of Pavlovian mechanisms that might contribute to a number of psychiatric disorders.

Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0527-9 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:nathum:v:3:y:2019:i:3:d:10.1038_s41562-018-0527-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/nathumbehav/

DOI: 10.1038/s41562-018-0527-9

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Human Behaviour is currently edited by Stavroula Kousta

More articles in Nature Human Behaviour from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().