Rating expectations can slow aversive reversal learning.

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Psychology
• Learning Sciences

Background:

• Learning enables organisms to predict environmental outcomes.
• Learning involves both simple associations and complex knowledge.
• The impact of conscious expectancy on the learning process itself remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether consciously rating expectations influences arousal during classical conditioning.
• To determine if subjective expectancy judgments alter aversive learning and reversal.

Main Methods:

• Participants underwent an aversive classical conditioning task with a shock-paired stimulus (CS+) and a safe stimulus (CS-).
• Contingencies were reversed mid-task.
• One group rated shock probability (expectancy ratings), while a control group did not.
• Skin conductance response (SCR) and computational models of reinforcement learning were used to assess arousal and learning.

Main Results:

• Participants providing expectancy ratings showed slower learning and reduced SCR reversal compared to the control group.
• Mediation analysis indicated that associative learning influenced SCR solely through subjective expectancy in the rating group.
• Conscious expectancy judgments were found to directly impact arousal.

Conclusions:

• The act of rating expectations appears to slow down learning, potentially by modulating attention.
• Higher-order expectancy judgments can modify associative learning processes.
• Subjective expectations play a direct role in physiological arousal during learning.