Development of the acquisition and control of action–effect associations

Time in action contexts: learning when an action effect occurs

“…Due to the compelling evidence on action-effect learning it is not reasonable to assume that actions' consequences are not acquired (e.g., Allan, 1993;Alloy & Abramson, 1979;Dickinson, Shanks, & Evenden, 1984;Dutzi & Hommel, 2009;Eenshuistra et al, 2004;Elsner & Hommel, 2001;Gibbon, Berryman, & Thompson, 1974;Hoffmann & Sebald, 2005;Hommel, 1996;Hommel et al, 2003;Pavlov & Anrep, 1927;Rescorla & Wagner, 1972;Shanks, 1985). Instead, we conjecture that the test task was unsuitable to demonstrate action-effect learning.…”

“…First, responses to the former effects are faster, when the mapping of stimuli and keys is the same in the acquisition and test phase than when the assignment of keys and stimuli is reversed. Second, when participants freely choose responses after the presentation of one of the former effects in the test phase, they tend to choose the key that produced this stimulus during the acquisition phase more often (Dutzi & Hommel, 2009;Eenshuistra, Weidema, & Hommel, 2004;Elsner & Hommel, 2001Hoffmann, Lenhard, Sebald, & Pfister, 2009;Hommel, 1996;Hommel, Alonso, & Fuentes, 2003;Pfister, Kiesel, & Hoffmann, 2011; but see also Herwig, Prinz & Waszak, 2007;Herwig & Waszak, 2009).…”

The developing cognitive substrate of sequential action control in 9- to 12-month-olds: Evidence for concurrent activation models

“…Whereas forced-and free-choice reaction time, and manual-response frequency (e.g., Elsner & Hommel, 2001) are reliable indicators in adults, choice errors in forced-choice versions of the task are more sensitive to pick up congruency effects in children (Eenshuistra et al, 2004;Verschoor, Eenshuistra, Kray, Biro & Hommel, 2012). In infants, reaction time is a sensitive measure in free-choice versions of the task (the only version that infants can handle ;Verschoor et al, 2010;Verschoor et al, in press), while response frequency reliably diagnoses congruency effects in older infants (from 18 months of age, only in manual versions of the task; see Verschoor et al, 2010).…”

Representations underlying social learning and cultural evolution

“…In fact, social facilitation requires no learning at all. However in the case where the social facilitation keeps happening in the same context, it may result in learning by increasing the probability of associating that context with a known action Eenshuistra et al, 2004). A possible example of learning resulting from social facilitation might be the gradual tuning of the context in which innate warning cries are expressed by vervet monkeys (Seyfarth et al, 1980).…”