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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 22, 2026

New Variations for Strategy Set-shifting in the Rat

New Variations for Strategy Set-shifting in the Rat

Published on: January 23, 2017

[Second-order retrospective revaluation in human contingency learning].

Keitaro Numata¹, Tsuneo Shimazaki

¹Department of Integrated Psychological Sciences, Graduate School of Humanities, Kwansei Gakuin University, Uegahara, Nishinomiya 662-8501, Japan. k.numata@kwansei.ac.jp

Shinrigaku Kenkyu : the Japanese Journal of Psychology

|June 4, 2009

Summary

Second-order retrospective revaluation was demonstrated in human contingency learning. The findings support advanced learning models over traditional ones.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Human Learning

Context:

Investigated second-order retrospective revaluation in human contingency learning.
Utilized a PC-controlled video game simulating missile firing and tank destruction.

Purpose:

To demonstrate second-order retrospective revaluation effects (unovershadowing and backward blocking) in human contingency learning.
To test the robustness of these effects against variations in training phase order.

Summary:

Participants showed altered judgments of cue predictive value after subsequent training phases.
C+ training led to higher T2 predictive value (unovershadowing), while C- training lowered it (backward blocking).
These effects remained consistent regardless of the initial training phase order.

Impact:

Results challenge traditional associative learning models.
Findings are explained by the extended comparator hypothesis and probabilistic contrast model.
Demonstrates the complexity of human causal reasoning and learning mechanisms.