Learning
Do different learning types require separate mental processes?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
Informing people about how often stimuli will appear together changes their expectations of future events, but does not change how much they like those stimuli.
Key findings
In both studies, instructions about statistical contingency altered how much participants expected the negative sound, but did not alter how much they liked the nonword. The combined analysis revealed a significant interaction between stimulus type, contingency, and the measure used, with a p-value of .030.
Methodology
The researchers analyzed data from 181 participants in the first experiment and 208 participants in the second experiment. They instructed participants about the pairing of a nonword with an unpleasant scream, setting up four conditions that crossed high or low contingency with high or low co-occurrence. Participants then completed two trials where they rated their expectancy of the scream and their liking of the nonword.
Limitations
First, the study only used instructions rather than actual experiences of paired stimuli, meaning it does not directly compare instruction-based learning with experience-based learning. Second, because it is a single dissociation where contingency affected expectancy but not liking, it is possible that liking is simply less sensitive to the manipulation rather than driven by a completely different process. Finally, the researchers failed to find a strong, consistent effect for the number of co-occurrences on liking ratings, meaning their manipulation of 4 versus 8 pairings may have been too weak.
How this study connects
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