An Adaptation of Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) Methodology to Examine the Energizing Effects of Reward-Predicting Cues on Behavior in Young Adults

Abstract

There is growing recognition that much of human behavior is governed by the presence of classically conditioned cues. The Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm offers a way to measure the effects of classically conditioned stimuli on behavior. In the current study, a novel behavioral task, an adaptation of the PIT framework, was developed for use in conjunction with an fMRI classical conditioning task. Twenty-four healthy young adults completed (1) instrumental training, (2) Pavlovian conditioning, and (3) a Transfer test. During instrumental training, participants learned to apply force to a handgrip to win money from slot machines pictured on a computer screen. During Pavlovian conditioning, slot machines appeared with one of two abstract symbols (cues), one symbol was predictive of monetary reward. During the Transfer test, participants again applied force to a handgrip to win money. This time, the slot machines were presented with the Pavlovian cues, but with the outcomes hidden. The results indicated increased effort on the instrumental task, i.e., higher response frequency and greater force, in the presence of the reward-predicting cue. Our findings add to the growing number of studies demonstrating PIT effects in humans. This new paradigm is effective in measuring the effects of a conditioned stimulus on behavioral activation.

Motor response vigour and visual fixation patterns reflect subjective valuation during intertemporal choice

“…Further, comparing the results for conflict and subjective value differences and total value, respectively, it appears that total value was most strongly associated with grip force amplitude and number of fixation shifts. These effects share some similarity with other modulatory effects of pavlovian cues, such as pavlovian instrumental transfer, where conditioned stimuli affect the vigour with PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY which an action is executed [47,48]. However, the present effects of value sum on motor response vigour were not instrumental, as grip force was decoupled from outcome.…”

Unpacking the cognitive processes of the boundedly rational newsvendor

“…The same is true for most academic assignments or corporate presentations. Academically trained decision makers (or in general, decision makers who have a broad experience working with quantitative data as described above) would have the tendency to forecast demand by dynamically updating their forecast of the market demand over a finite planning horizon whenever they are presented with longitudinal data (Wang et al., 2012), thus—from the point of view of behavioral science—following a classical conditioned response (Da Costa et al., 2020; Pavlov, 1927). Specifically, the longitudinal data presented would act as conditioned stimuli, triggering a learned behavior—the tendency to search for patterns in the presented data.…”

Development of a Classical Conditioning Task for Humans Examining Phasic Heart Rate Responses to Signaled Appetitive Stimuli: A Pilot Study

“…If the food pictures evoke a positive motivational state, heart rate acceleration would be expected. Pleasant and rewarding stimuli are associated with increases in sympathetic activity (Pribram and McGuinness, 1975;Braesicke et al, 2005;Critchley, 2009;Rudebeck et al, 2014) as well as behavioral activation (Schad et al, 2019b;Watson et al, 2019;da Costa et al, 2020). On the other hand, if the heart rate changes in response to food pictures are reflective of attentional/orienting responses, then deceleration would be expected.…”