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Caught in the act: False on-task contingency beliefs reverse the color-word contingency learning effect
Matthäus Rudolph1, Carina G Giesen2
1Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany.
Consciousness and Cognition
|July 19, 2026
Summary
Human contingency learning (CL) is driven by active reasoning, not automatic associations. Increased awareness, prompted by on-task assessments, amplifies residual CL effects, demonstrating the role of propositional reasoning in learning environmental regularities.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Learning Science
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Contingency learning (CL) research explores how individuals learn relationships between events.
- While episodic retrieval explains much of CL, a residual effect suggests other mechanisms are at play.
- The role of awareness in residual CL remains a key question in learning research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the role of awareness in residual contingency learning (CL) effects.
- To examine if active, on-task awareness assessment influences residual CL.
- To determine if residual CL is driven by automatic associations or propositional reasoning.
Main Methods:
- A high-powered (N=168), pre-registered study was conducted.
- An on-task awareness measure prompted participants to actively identify contingencies.
- Comparison between an on-task assessment group and an off-task control group.
Main Results:
- The residual CL effect was amplified in participants completing the on-task assessment due to increased awareness.
- No residual CL effect was observed in the absence of awareness, irrespective of assessment method.
- A reversed residual CL effect emerged in participants with persistent false beliefs about low contingencies.
Conclusions:
- Genuine human contingency learning is fundamentally driven by active propositional reasoning, not automatic association formation.
- Awareness plays a critical role in mediating the impact of environmental regularities on behavior.
- On-task awareness assessment can enhance residual CL effects, highlighting the importance of active cognitive processes.
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