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Force and Position Control in Humans - The Role of Augmented Feedback
Published on: June 19, 2016
Stress reduces use of negative feedback in a feedback-based learning task.
Antje Petzold1, Franziska Plessow, Thomas Goschke
1Department of Psychology, Technische Universität Dresden, D-01062 Dresden, Germany. antje@biopsych.tu-dresden.de
Behavioral Neuroscience
|April 7, 2010
Summary
Psychosocial stress impairs learning from negative feedback but not positive feedback. This study shows stress differentially impacts how individuals use feedback during learning.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Stress impacts declarative learning, but effects on feedback-based learning are less understood.
- Little research has examined how stress influences the use of positive versus negative feedback.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the effects of psychosocial stress on feedback-based learning.
- To specifically examine how stress influences the utilization of negative and positive feedback.
Main Methods:
- Participants performed a probabilistic selection task under stress and control conditions.
- The task quantified reliance on positive and negative feedback during learning.
Main Results:
- Stress did not affect overall task acquisition.
- Participants significantly reduced their use of negative feedback after stress compared to controls.
- Stress did not significantly enhance the use of positive feedback.
Conclusions:
- Psychosocial stress differentially affects the processing of negative and positive feedback during learning.
- Stress appears to impair learning from negative feedback more than it affects learning from positive feedback.
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