An Associative Account of Avoidance

Gillan, Claire M.; Urcelay, Gonzalo P.; Robbins, Trevor W.

doi:10.1002/9781118650813.ch17

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 99 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…There has been a growing recognition that any comprehensive account of avoidance needs to accommodate both associative accounts (two-factor theory and safety-state reinforcement ( Dinsmoor, 2001 ; Mowrer, 1947 )) and cognitive accounts (for free-operant avoidance ( Mineka, 1979 )). The latter invoked more sophisticated internal representations of the structure of avoidance, incorporating the capacity to generate expectancies ( Gillan et al, 2016 ; Seligman and Johnston, 1973 ). The results formally support a two-system account of avoidance, with the two systems reflecting the core difference between model-free and model-based learning: since the model-free lacks any way of incorporating the re-evaluation of outcome states given the outcome rule, it remains purely by the learned values of the cues at the decision points, that is, it cannot ‘see ahead’.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This is especially true in the case of avoidance learning, in which decisions are made that lead to the reduction, delay or omission of an otherwise expected punishment. The control of acquisition and expression of avoidance has been the topic of debate for decades, not least because of the difficulty of any single model to account for the range of experimental findings ( Dinsmoor, 2001 ; Gillan et al, 2016 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Model-based and model-free pain avoidance learning

Wang

Lee

O’Doherty

et al. 2018

Brain and Neuroscience Advances

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background: While there is good evidence that reward learning is underpinned by two distinct decision control systems – a cognitive ‘model-based’ and a habitbased ‘model-free’ system, a comparable distinction for punishment avoidance has been much less clear. Methods: We implemented a pain avoidance task that placed differential emphasis on putative model-based and model-free processing, mirroring a paradigm and modelling approach recently developed for reward-based decision-making. Subjects performed a two-step decision-making task with probabilistic pain outcomes of different quantities. The delivery of outcomes was sometimes contingent on a rule signalled at the beginning of each trial, emulating a form of outcome devaluation. Results: The behavioural data showed that subjects tended to use a mixed strategy – favouring the simpler model-free learning strategy when outcomes did not depend on the rule, and favouring a model-based when they did. Furthermore, the data were well described by a dynamic transition model between the two controllers. When compared with data from a reward-based task (albeit tested in the context of the scanner), we observed that avoidance involved a significantly greater tendency for subjects to switch between model-free and model-based systems in the face of changes in uncertainty. Conclusion: Our study suggests a dual-system model of pain avoidance, similar to but possibly more dynamically flexible than reward-based decision-making.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Model-based and model-free pain avoidance learning

Wang

Lee

O’Doherty

et al. 2018

Brain and Neuroscience Advances

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is good evidence for both these processes [29], but they lead to a problem: can they sustain behavior after repeated avoidance success, because the inhibitory learning process should extinguish? One possibility is that a simple habit-based system might take over, which stamps in the repetitive behavior as if it were a reward [30].…”

Section: From Loss Prediction To Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

When is a loss a loss? Excitatory and inhibitory processes in loss-related decision-making

Seymour

Maruyama

Martino

2015

Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…One of the most interesting aspects of avoidance behavior is that it requires an explanation of its persistence in the absence of an explicit reinforcing event (for a recent review, see Gillan, Urcelay, & Robbins, 2016). In our model, once the response rate is sufficient to avoid all scheduled outcomes within a memory cycle, the goal-direct strength will remain frozen at the established g value and thereby produce sustained avoidance in the absence of the aversive outcomes.…”

Section: A Dual-system Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

A theory of actions and habits: The interaction of rate correlation and contiguity systems in free-operant behavior.

Pérez¹,

Dickinson²

2020

Psychological Review

112

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Contemporary theories of instrumental performance assume that responding can be controlled by two behavioral systems, one goal-directed that encodes the outcome of an action, and one habitual that reinforces the response strength of the same action. Here we present a model of free-operant behavior in which goal-directed control is determined by the correlation between the rates of the action and the outcome whereas the total prediction error generated by contiguous reinforcement by the outcome controls habitual response strength. The outputs of these two systems summate to generate a total response strength. This cooperative model addresses the difference in the behavioral impact of ratio and interval schedules, the transition from goaldirected to habitual control with extended training, the persistence of goal-directed control under choice procedures and following extinction, among other phenomena. In these respects, this dual-system model is unique in its account of free-operant behavior.

show abstract

An Associative Account of Avoidance

Cited by 13 publications

References 99 publications

Model-based and model-free pain avoidance learning

Model-based and model-free pain avoidance learning

When is a loss a loss? Excitatory and inhibitory processes in loss-related decision-making

A theory of actions and habits: The interaction of rate correlation and contiguity systems in free-operant behavior.

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About