Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 24, 2026

Studying Food Reward and Motivation in Humans
Published on: March 19, 2014
Rewards evoke learning of unconsciously processed visual stimuli in adult humans
Aaron R Seitz1, Dongho Kim, Takeo Watanabe
1Department of Psychology, Boston University, 64 Cummington Street, Boston, MA 02215, USA.
Abstract:
The study of human learning is complicated by the myriad of processing elements involved in conducting any behavioral task. In the case of visual perceptual learning, there has been significant controversy regarding the task processes that guide the formation of this learning. However, there is a developing consensus that top-down, task-related factors are required for such learning to take place. Here we challenge this idea by use of a novel procedure in which human participants, who were deprived of food and water, passively viewed visual stimuli while receiving occasional drops of water as rewards. Visual orientation stimuli, which were temporally paired with the liquid rewards, were viewed monocularly and rendered imperceptible by continuously flashing contour-rich patterns to the other eye. Results show that visual learning can be formed in human adults through stimulus-reward pairing in the absence of a task and without awareness of the stimulus presentation or reward contingencies.
Related Concept Videos
Cognitive Learning
E. C. Tolman's theory of purposive behavior emphasizes that much behavior is goal-directed. He argued that to understand behavior, we must look at the entire sequence of actions leading to a goal. For instance, high school students study hard, not just due to past reinforcement but also to achieve the goal of getting into a good college.
Tolman introduced the idea that behavior is influenced by...
Purposive Learning
Vision
Behaviorism
The core premise of behaviorism is its focus on observable behavior rather than internal thoughts or feelings. This approach argues that true scientific...
Associative Learning
Classical conditioning, also known...
Higher Mental Functions of Brain: Learning and Memory

