Rewards Evoke Learning of Unconsciously Processed Visual Stimuli in Adult Humans

Seitz, Aaron R.; Kim, Dongho; Watanabe, Takeo

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2009.01.016

Cited by 305 publications

(358 citation statements)

References 59 publications

(85 reference statements)

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“…This enhanced distraction was more evident on trials where spatial attention was directed by competing valid cues. On the other hand, many studies already reported a strong influence of stimuli with emotional significance that are not perceived consciously to induce behavioral and neurophysiological responses (Seitz et al, 2009;Vuilleumier, 2005). Therefore, is explicit knowledge of contingency required for reward learning to occur?…”

Section: Does Motivational Attention Require Consciousness?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, is explicit knowledge of contingency required for reward learning to occur? Seitz et al (2009) studied whether awareness is necessary for the formation of perceptual learning during conditioning. Participants were deprived of food and water, and passively viewed gratings while receiving occasional drops of water as rewards.…”

Section: Does Motivational Attention Require Consciousness?mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

How motivation and reward learning modulate selective attention

Bourgeois

Chelazzi

Vuilleumier

2016

Progress in Brain Research

107

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Section: Does Motivational Attention Require Consciousness?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Does Motivational Attention Require Consciousness?mentioning

confidence: 99%

How motivation and reward learning modulate selective attention

Bourgeois

Chelazzi

Vuilleumier

2016

Progress in Brain Research

107

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“…The typical distinction between primary and secondary rewards is that whereas secondary rewards like money or power acquire value or significance only through experiences and associative learning, primary rewards like food and odors have an innate value and biological significance (Gottfried, 2011). Although several studies revealed that primary rewards modify human's perceptual processes (e.g., Seitz, Kim, & Watanabe, 2009) they have never been used, to the best of our knowledge, to investigate attention toward reward-associated stimuli. There are two main advantages in using a primary reward in this particular context.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Where is the chocolate? Rapid spatial orienting toward stimuli associated with primary rewards

et al. 2014

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a b s t r a c tSome stimuli can orient attentional resources and access awareness even if they appear outside the focus of voluntary attention. Stimuli with low-level perceptual salience and stimuli with an emotional content can modulate attention independently of voluntary processes. In Experiment 1, we used a spatial cuing task to investigate whether stimuli that are controlled for their perceptual salience can modulate the rapid orienting of attention based exclusively on their affective relevance. Affective relevance was manipulated through a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm in which an arbitrary and affectively neutral perceptual stimulus was associated with a primary reward (i.e., a chocolate odor). Results revealed that, after conditioning, attentional resources were rapidly oriented toward the stimulus that was previously associated with the reward. In Experiment 2, we used the very same conditioning procedure, but we devaluated the reward after conditioning for half of the participants through a sensory-specific satiation procedure. Strikingly, when the reward was devaluated, attention was no longer oriented toward reward-associated stimuli. Our findings therefore suggest that reward associations rapidly modulate visual processing independently of both voluntary processing and the perceptual salience of the stimulus. This supports the notion that stimuli associated with primary rewards modulate rapid attention orienting on the basis of the affective relevance of the stimulus.

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“…However, there is growing evidence that these are not the only influences on attentional deployment. To promote survival and well-being, the brain is optimized to learn about perceptual stimuli that signal the potential for procuring reward (7,8). Voluntary attention to stimuli that predict reward is an effective mechanism for efficiently selecting valuable stimuli (9).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Value-driven attentional capture

Anderson

Laurent

Yantis

2011

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

986

137

1,350

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Attention selects which aspects of sensory input are brought to awareness. To promote survival and well-being, attention prioritizes stimuli both voluntarily, according to context-specific goals (e.g., searching for car keys), and involuntarily, through attentional capture driven by physical salience (e.g., looking toward a sudden noise). Valuable stimuli strongly modulate voluntary attention allocation, but there is little evidence that high-value but contextually irrelevant stimuli capture attention as a consequence of reward learning. Here we show that visual search for a salient target is slowed by the presence of an inconspicuous, taskirrelevant item that was previously associated with monetary reward during a brief training session. Thus, arbitrary and otherwise neutral stimuli imbued with value via associative learning capture attention powerfully and persistently during extinction, independently of goals and salience. Vulnerability to such valuedriven attentional capture covaries across individuals with working memory capacity and trait impulsivity. This unique form of attentional capture may provide a useful model for investigating failures of cognitive control in clinical syndromes in which value assigned to stimuli conflicts with behavioral goals (e.g., addiction, obesity).E ffective deployment of attention is critical to the successful performance of any cognitive task. Attention determines what aspects of the sensory input are selected for cognitive processing, memory storage, and awareness. Two modes of attentional control are widely believed to determine perceptual priority: a voluntary, goal-directed mode, in which attention is guided by contextually appropriate goals and intentions, and an involuntary, stimulus-driven mode, in which attention is captured by physically salient stimuli (1-4) or by task-irrelevant stimuli that share identifying features with a searched-for target (5, 6). Each of these modes of control present concomitant benefits and costs: voluntary control of attention is goal-specific but potentially slower to implement; involuntary attentional capture can rapidly orient the organism to unexpected changes that could signal danger or opportunity, but has the potential to cause distraction from intended acts of perception.Goal-directed and stimulus-driven modes of attentional control have long been a focus of intense investigation, and much has been learned about the operating principles of each mode of control and their interaction (1, 4). However, there is growing evidence that these are not the only influences on attentional deployment. To promote survival and well-being, the brain is optimized to learn about perceptual stimuli that signal the potential for procuring reward (7,8). Voluntary attention to stimuli that predict reward is an effective mechanism for efficiently selecting valuable stimuli (9). Many studies have shown that reward facilitates voluntary attention to task-relevant stimuli, and that reward-based strategies and priorities strongly influence attentional perf...

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Rewards Evoke Learning of Unconsciously Processed Visual Stimuli in Adult Humans

Cited by 305 publications

References 59 publications

How motivation and reward learning modulate selective attention

How motivation and reward learning modulate selective attention

Where is the chocolate? Rapid spatial orienting toward stimuli associated with primary rewards

Value-driven attentional capture

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