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Conditioned place preferences in humans using secondary reinforcers
Robert S Astur1, Alexandra N Palmisano1, Andrew W Carew1
1Department of Psychology, University of Connecticut, United States.
Behavioural Brain Research
|October 7, 2015
Summary
Humans can develop a conditioned place preference (CPP) for virtual reality rooms associated with secondary reinforcers like points. This finding has implications for understanding behavioral addictions.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Psychology
- Virtual Reality Research
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Secondary reinforcers, such as points, can influence behavior even without inherent reward value.
- Understanding conditioned place preference (CPP) is crucial for behavioral research and addiction studies.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if a conditioned place preference (CPP) can be established in humans using a secondary reinforcer.
- To explore the role of secondary reinforcers in virtual reality (VR) environments.
- To assess the potential of these findings for understanding nontraditional addictions.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments utilized a VR environment with two distinct rooms.
- Experiment 1: Participants (n=244) experienced one room paired with points, the other without.
- Experiment 2: A biased conditioning approach (n=77) paired points with the participant's least-preferred room.
Main Results:
- Participants in Experiment 1 showed a significant CPP for the points-paired room, indicated by higher enjoyment ratings.
- In Experiment 2, participants spent significantly more time in the points-paired room, demonstrating preference via explicit and implicit measures.
- Both experiments successfully demonstrated CPP using points as a secondary reinforcer.
Conclusions:
- Secondary reinforcers can effectively establish conditioned place preference in humans within VR settings.
- The findings suggest novel methods for studying secondary reinforcement mechanisms.
- This research offers insights into the psychological underpinnings of behavioral addictions like internet, gaming, and gambling dependencies.
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