Associative repetition priming as a measure of human contingency learning: evidence of forward and backward blocking

Associative theories have been widely used to explain human contingency learning. Standard experimental procedures in the field have requested verbal judgments as a measure of the cue-outcome relationships learned. According to these theories, knowledge retrieval is based on spreading activation processes. However, verbal judgments may allow or even promote the engagement of high-order processes that may hinder the interpretation of verbal judgments as the output of automatic retrieval processes like those posited. However, previous studies on human associative memory have shown that priming tests, under the right conditions, can minimize the engagement of high-order processes and serve as a measure of low-level automatic retrieval processes. Thus, a new human contingency learning task that incorporates a recognition priming test was developed and tested here. The results showed that, as predicted by associative theories, repetition priming was found after training. In addition, the results showed that relevant learning phenomena such as forward and backward blocking could also be detected using this test. Finally, training based on instructions did not modulate the priming effect. The relevance of these findings for theories of human contingency learning and priming is discussed.