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Pupil dilation tracks divergent learning processes in aware versus unaware Pavlovian conditioning
Johannes B Finke1, Tobias Stalder1, Tim Klucken1
1Department of Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, University of Siegen, Siegen, Germany.
Psychophysiology
|March 12, 2023
Summary
This study shows that pupil dilation reveals implicit learning during conditioning, even without conscious awareness. Early pupil responses reflect outcome value in unaware individuals, suggesting dual learning processes.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Psychology
- Learning and Memory
Background:
- Contingency awareness effects on human conditioning are not fully understood, especially for appetitive learning.
- Phasic pupil dilation responses (PDR) may offer a sensitive measure of implicit learning compared to skin conductance responses (SCR).
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of contingency awareness in both aversive and appetitive conditioning using PDR.
- To differentiate implicit and explicit learning processes in associative learning.
Main Methods:
- Two delay conditioning experiments were conducted with aversive (shocks) and appetitive (rewards) unconditioned stimuli (UCS).
- Phasic pupil dilation responses (PDR), skin conductance responses (SCR), and subjective assessments were recorded.
- Participants were either fully instructed (Exp. 1) or not informed (Exp. 2) about the stimulus-outcome contingencies.
Main Results:
- Differential conditioning was observed in Exp. 1 (instructed) and aware participants in Exp. 2.
- Unaware participants in Exp. 2 showed differential early PDR modulation by appetitive cues, indicating implicit learning of outcome value.
- Aware participants' early PDR appeared to reflect attentional processes, such as uncertainty or prediction error.
Conclusions:
- Findings support a dual-process model of associative learning.
- Value-related processing can occur independently of conscious awareness and explicit memory formation.
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