BEGIN:VCALENDAR PRODID: 1 VERSION:2.0 METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-TIMEZONE: America/Los_Angeles DTSTAMP: 20260531T131758 BEGIN:VEVENT UID: info@vconferenceonline.com SUMMARY:Learning Papers II: Cues, Contingencies, and Surprise PRIORITY:0 CATEGORIES:SESSION CLASS:PUBLIC DTSTART:20200618T140000 DTEND:20200618T152000 URL: https://event.vconferenceonline.com DESCRIPTION:CHAIR: DAVID KEARNS

2:00pm - 2:15pm
STIMULUS SALIENCE AND REINFORCER PREDICTABILITY IN THE FORMATION OF HABITS
NOELLE MICHAUD, ERIC THRAILKILL, MARK BOUTON (UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT)
Previous research suggests (1) that the “salience” of a discriminative stimulus may influence a response’s insensitivity to reinforcer devaluation and therefore promote habitual behavior, and (2) that habit develops mainly when the stimulus predicts that the behavior will be reinforced with a 100%, rather than 50%, certainty. Five experiments examined these ideas. The results confirm that reinforcer predictability affects habit formation and that salience of the stimulus might also have a role.

2:20pm - 2:35pm
RETURNING HABIT BACK TO GOAL-DIRECTED ACTION WITH SURPRISING REINFORCERS
MATTHEW BROOMER, MARK BOUTON (UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT)
Habits are considered inflexible and perhaps permanent. Here, however, we demonstrate that unexpected presentation of a food reinforcer before test can return a habit to goal-directed action. Following extended instrumental training, rats underwent outcome devaluation (the reinforcer was paired or unpaired with LiCl). Then, before testing the instrumental response in extinction, half received a 30-minute exposure to a non-averted reinforcer. At test, pre-fed animals exhibited sensitivity to outcome devaluation (action), whereas controls exhibited insensitivity (habit).

2:40pm - 2:55pm
PLAYING OFF NUMBER OF TRIALS AGAINST DURATION OF TRIALS IN CONTINGENCY
DORIANN MARIE ALCAIDE AMADOR (BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY), SANTIAGO CASTIELLO DE OBESO (UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD), JIM WITNAUER (STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK- THE COLLEGE AT BROCKPORT), AUDREY LI, ANDREW COOK (BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY), ROBIN MURPHY (UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD), RALPH MILLER (BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY)
In contingency learning, do trials on which the cue and outcome are both absent (D events) function as intertrial intervals to enhance learning? We assessed the influence of duration and number of D events on contingency judgments. Using human subjects, we found that the effect of number of D events is far greater than that of duration of D events. Thus, signaling more D events, even when event durations are inversely shorter, yields better performance.

3:00pm - 3:15pm
THE EFFECT OF CUE PRE-EXPOSURE SURVIVES CONDITIONING IN A MULTI-OUTCOME VIDEO-GAME TASK.
MANUEL ARANZUBIA, JAMES NELSON, MARIA DEL CARMEN SANJUAN (UNIVERSITY OF THE BASQUE COUNTRY [UPV/EHU]), JEFFREY LAMOUREUX (BOSTON COLLEGE)
In E1, R-O1 conditioning was conducted to asymptote in a video game followed by R-O1O2 conditioning. O2 was an added simultaneous outcome to which participants could independently respond. Conditioning with O1 delayed conditioning with O2(negative transfer). Pre-exposure to R retarded conditioning to both O1, and O2. Experiment 2 showed that R-O1 training did not make R inhibitory for O2. Implications for theories of latent inhibition are discussed. LOCATION: END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR