Threat Learning Shapes the Kinematics of Goal-Directed Actions

Starita, Francesca; Garofalo, Sara; Dalbagno, Daniela; Degni, L.A.E.; Pellegrino, Giuseppe di

doi:10.2139/ssrn.4081664

Cited by 1 publication

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“…Indeed, the presence (or absence) of affordance-like information associated with the CS modulated neither the probability nor strength of the general transfer effect. This indicated that, at least behaviorally, previous experience with the action or the motor program that leads to the desired outcome does not impact the effect that an environmental cue can have on choice ( Starita et al, 2022 ). To answer our initial research question, even seeing the logo of food that we never purchased before can drive us to get some food.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

General Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in humans: Evidence from Bayesian inference

Degni

Dalbagno

Starita

et al. 2022

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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When repeatedly paired with rewarding outcomes (i.e., Pavlovian conditioning), environmental cues may acquire predictive and motivational significance and later enhance instrumental responding for the same (i.e., outcome-specific transfer) or motivationally similar (i.e., general transfer) outcomes. Although outcome-specific and general Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) are characterized by different neural substrates and behavioral mechanisms, general transfer has never been studied in isolation from outcome-specific transfer in humans. The first aim of the present study was to test whether the general transfer effect could emerge in isolation and independently of outcome-specific transfer. Our results showed that general transfer can be elicited without the concurrent presence of outcome-specific transfer, supporting the idea that outcome-specific and general transfer can be studied independently of each other. The second aim of the present study was to clarify whether the affordance-like properties of the outcomes can affect the general transfer. In fact, a critical difference in current studies on general transfer concerns the use of cues associated with outcomes for which an action was previously learned (or not) during the instrumental training. This apparently minor difference affects the affordance-like properties of the outcome and may also be transferred to the cue, in turn impacting general transfer. Results revealed a general transfer of the same magnitude regardless of whether cues were associated with reward earned or not during instrumental conditioning. These findings increase the current knowledge on the incentive motivational mechanism behind general transfer, indicating that it is independent of the motor features of the outcome.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%