Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive Learning

Cognitive learning is based on purposive behavior, incidental learning, and insight 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...

The Influence of Affect on Cognition

The Influence of Affect on Cognition

Positive affect significantly influences cognitive processes, including evaluation, memory, creativity, and social judgments. Compared to negative affect, positive emotional states promote more favorable interpretations of stimuli, cognitive flexibility, and heuristic processing. These effects highlight emotions' powerful role in shaping how individuals perceive, remember, and interact with the world.Influence on Evaluation and AttributionWhen individuals experience positive affect, they are...

Purposive Learning

Purposive Learning

E. C. Tolman emphasized the purposiveness of behavior — the idea that much of our behavior is goal-directed. For instance, employees who aim for a promotion work diligently to meet their targets. Tolman argued that when classical conditioning and operant conditioning occur, the organism acquires certain expectations. In classical conditioning, a child might fear a dog because they expect it to bite. In operant conditioning, a person might consistently work overtime because they expect a bonus...

Causes of Social Behavior II: Cognitive Processes

Causes of Social Behavior II: Cognitive Processes

Cognitive processes affect social behavior by guiding how individuals perceive, interpret, and respond to social stimuli. These mental processes enable individuals to assess others' behaviors, attribute causes to their actions, and form expectations based on past experiences.Causes of Behavior and Social JudgmentsIndividuals determine the causes of others' behaviors by distinguishing between personal traits and external circumstances. For example, if a friend frequently arrives late, an...

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

Timing and Consequences on Behavior

In operant conditioning, the timing of reinforcement is crucial. For animals like rats and cats, immediate reinforcement (within a few seconds) is much more effective than delayed reinforcement. For example, a food reward for a rat needs to follow within 30 seconds of pressing a bar to be effective.
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...

The Influence of Cognition on Affect

The Influence of Cognition on Affect

Cognition plays a pivotal role in shaping emotional experiences, as demonstrated by Schachter and Singer’s two-factor theory of emotion. According to this model, emotion arises from a combination of physiological arousal and cognitive interpretation. The body’s physiological response to stimuli is ambiguous and only gains emotional significance through cognitive labeling. For instance, an increased heart rate and adrenaline surge while standing near an attractive person may be interpreted as...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Affiliation in human-AI interactions is based on shared psychological traits.

Communications psychology·2026

Same author

Contemporary Role for Blue Light Cystoscopy Across the Bladder Cancer Disease Spectrum.

Current urology reports·2026

Same author

Bullshit jobs and bullshit job holders: a defence.

Brain : a journal of neurology·2025

Same author

Contingency learning of social cues: neural engagement and emotional modulation by facial expressions.

Frontiers in human neuroscience·2025

Same author

Symmetrical "super learning": Enhancing causal learning using a bidirectional probabilistic outcome.

Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition·2025

Same author

A novel 14mer peptide, T14, is associated with age-dependent behaviour in female mice.

Neurobiology of aging·2024

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 11, 2026

Olfactory Context Dependent Memory: Direct Presentation of Odorants

Olfactory Context Dependent Memory: Direct Presentation of Odorants

Published on: September 18, 2018

Context and time in causal learning: contingency and mood dependent effects.

Rachel M Msetfi¹, Caroline Wade, Robin A Murphy

¹Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland. rachel.msetfi@ul.ie

|May 22, 2013

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

This study reveals how depressed mood impacts causal judgments. Non-dysphoric individuals contextualize causality, while dysphoric individuals show altered sensitivity to time cues in causal learning.

More Related Videos

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

Published on: April 18, 2017

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: May 11, 2026

Olfactory Context Dependent Memory: Direct Presentation of Odorants

Olfactory Context Dependent Memory: Direct Presentation of Odorants

Published on: September 18, 2018

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

Task Interruption and Resumption Paradigm for Testing the Activation and Pursuit of an Abstract Thinking Goal

Published on: April 18, 2017

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Experimental Paradigm for Measuring the Effect of Induced Emotion on Grammar Learning

Published on: January 29, 2020

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Experimental Psychology

Background:

Causal learning relies on temporal, spatial, and contingency cues.
Depressed mood is known to influence the processing of these causal cues.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how temporal and contextual factors influence causal judgments.
To examine the effects of dysphoria on causal cue processing.

Main Methods:

Conducted causal learning experiments manipulating time and context.
Used positive and negative contingency conditions.
Compared causal judgments between non-dysphoric and mildly dysphoric participants.

Main Results:

Non-dysphoric participants' judgments were contextualized and sensitive to temporal spacing in generative, but not preventative, contingencies.
Dysphoric participants made less contextualized judgments but were more sensitive to temporal manipulations across contingencies.
Findings suggest depression affects causal learning via altered time experience and context exposure.

Conclusions:

Causal judgments are influenced by temporal and contextual cues.
Dysphoria alters causal learning by affecting sensitivity to temporal information.
Results support associative models of causal judgment.