Learning
Does a signal help or hurt learning that my action caused an outcome?
Open access · cc by · source: Europe PMC
A brief signal between an action and its outcome hurt learning when the outcome came quickly but helped it when the outcome was delayed.
Study at a glance
- Design
- Human experiment — Three free-operant computer-game experiments manipulating action-outcome delay, signal timing and signal salience within subjects
- N
- N=81 · 81 undergraduates in Experiment 1 (30 in lab, 51 online), 81 in Experiment 2, 82 in Experiment 3
- Population
- Undergraduate students in the UK and Spain
- Outcome
- Rate of space-bar pressing (instrumental performance) and 0-100 causal judgments
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Key findings
In Experiment 1 the signal reduced pressing with the 2-second delay (overshadowing) but increased pressing and causal ratings with the 6-second delay (potentiation). In Experiment 2 the signal only helped when it came right after the action, not when it came just before the outcome. In Experiment 3 a bright, salient signal reduced pressing more than a dim one, but causal ratings were unaffected.
Methodology
Students played a game where pressing the space bar caused explosions after a 2-second or 6-second delay, sometimes with a brief grey sky flash (the signal) in between. They measured how often people pressed and how strongly they believed their pressing caused the explosions. Experiment 2 moved the signal to the start or end of a 6-second delay, and Experiment 3 made the signal dimmer or brighter under a 2-second delay.
Limitations
The samples were mostly female undergraduates, and part of Experiment 1 was run online on participants' own computers, so control over the setting was limited. Causal judgments often did not follow the pressing data, so the two measures seem to dissociate and the effect on beliefs is weaker than on behaviour. The signal was ambiguous (it could mean a comrade was shooting) and only ratio schedules were used, which the authors say may have favoured facilitation; interval schedules or clearer instructions might give different results.
How this study connects
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