Am I Winning or Losing? Probing the Appraisal of Partial Wins via Response Vigor

Attempts to obtain rewards are not always successful. Despite investing much time, effort, or money, sometimes individuals may not obtain any reward. Other times they may obtain some reward, but the obtained reward may be smaller than their initial investment, such as partial wins in gambling. It remains unclear how such ambiguous outcomes are appraised. To address this question, we systematically varied the payoffs for different outcomes in a computerized scratch card task across three experiments. To test outcome appraisal, we used response vigor as a novel proxy. In the scratch card task, participants turned three cards one by one. Depending on the turned cards, they either received an amount that was higher than the wager (win), an amount lower than the wager (partial win), or nothing (loss). Overall, participants responded to partial wins more slowly than losses, but more quickly than wins. Partial wins were therefore appraised to be better than losses, but worse than wins. Importantly, further analyses showed that outcome appraisal was not based on the net win or loss amount. Instead, participants primarily used the configuration of turned cards as a cue for the relative rank of an outcome within a specific game. Outcome appraisals thus utilize simple heuristic rules, rely on salient information (such as outcome-related cues in gambling), and are specific to a local context. Together, these factors may contribute to the misperception of partial wins as real wins in gambling. Future work may examine how outcome appraisal may be modulated by the salience of certain information, and investigate the appraisal process in contexts beyond gambling.

Instructing somebody else to act: motor co-representations in the instructor

Instructions enable humans to perform novel tasks quickly. This is achieved by creating and activating the instruction representation for upcoming tasks, which can then modulate ongoing task behaviour in an almost 'reflexive' manner, an effect called instruction-based reflexivity. While most research has focused on understanding how verbal instructions are represented within the 'instructed' (i.e. the person receiving instructions), here we focus on how the instructor's (i.e. the person giving instructions) behaviour is affected through instructing. In a series of three experiments and one pooled analysis, we extended the classical instruction-based reflexivity paradigm to a novel social variant in which the instructions are given by an instructor (rather than visual computer-generated instructions). We found an instruction-based reflexivity effect for the instructor, that is, the instructor's task performance was better on congruent compared to incongruent trials (i.e. Experiments 1 and 2, pooled analysis). This suggests that the instructor represents the instructions of the instructed in an action-oriented format. However, this did not depend on the specific task of the instructed (i.e. Experiment 1), nor is it exclusively social (i.e. Experiment 3).

Modeling urgency in the lab: Exploring the associations between self-reported urgency and behavioral responses to negative outcomes in laboratory gambling

Impulsivity is a multifaceted construct that relates to different behaviors in everyday life and has been associated with many psychopathological disorders and behavioral problems, such as problematic gambling behavior. One questionnaire to measure these several facets on a trait level is the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. Specifically, the UPPS-P investigates five distinct facets: (a) negative urgency, (b) lack of premeditation, (c) lack of perseverance, (d) sensation seeking, and (e) positive urgency. Negative urgency at a trait level in particular seems to be associated with the development of psychopathological disorders. To date, there are no established state measures of negative urgency. However, it was recently proposed that speeding after losses might be a suitable measure. Thus, in this study, we explored the possible relationship between a state measure of negative urgency modeled through a behavioral gambling task and a trait measure of negative urgency through the UPPS-P questionnaire. We used correlational and network analyses in an aggregated database of eight samples (total N = 1216) to explore the potential relationships between post-loss speeding on the behavioral gambling task and UPPS-P scores (by combining trait vs. item-based analyses). We found that the degree of speeding after losses (post-loss speeding) did not correlate with the trait measure of impulsivity in general and negative urgency specifically, either at the latent trait level or on an item-based level. This null finding indicates that our state measure of post-loss speeding and negative urgency on a trait level does not seem to capture the same underlying constructs. Implications for personality research are discussed.

When Response Selection Becomes Gambling: Post-error Slowing and Speeding in Self-paced Colour Discrimination Tasks

People tend to slow down after committing an error in many tasks. However, some studies failed to observe such post-error slowing. Furthermore, recent work found speeding after another type of sub-optimal outcomes: people often speed up after losses in gambling situations. What features determine whether people slow down or speed up after sub-optimal outcomes (error vs. loss)? To answer this question, we focused on the role of task characteristics and control over the outcome, by making a task where we previously observed post-error slowing more like tasks where we previously observed post-loss speeding. First, we made a color-discrimination task completely self-paced (Experiment 1A) and added reward/punishment (Experiment 1B). In both experiments, post-error slowing was observed, without modulation by reward/punishment. We then manipulated task difficulty to investigate the influence of control over the outcome. Consistent with our predictions, control over the outcome modulated post-error adjustments, as participants slowed down after controllable errors, but sped up after uncontrollable errors (Experiment 3). Importantly, this effect was global as post-error speeding was observed when controllable and ’uncontrollable’ errors were intermixed (Experiment 2), suggesting an influence of overall task context. Thus, responses to sub-optimal outcomes might depend on the control over the outcome.

The Psychological Science Accelerator's COVID-19 rapid-response dataset

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator coordinated three large-scale psychological studies to examine the effects of loss-gain framing, cognitive reappraisals, and autonomy framing manipulations on behavioral intentions and affective measures. The data collected (April to October 2020) included specific measures for each experimental study, a general questionnaire examining health prevention behaviors and COVID-19 experience, geographical and cultural context characterization, and demographic information for each participant. Each participant started the study with the same general questions and then was randomized to complete either one longer experiment or two shorter experiments. Data were provided by 73,223 participants with varying completion rates. Participants completed the survey from 111 geopolitical regions in 44 unique languages/dialects. The anonymized dataset described here is provided in both raw and processed formats to facilitate re-use and further analyses. The dataset offers secondary analytic opportunities to explore coping, framing, and self-determination across a diverse, global sample obtained at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which can be merged with other time-sampled or geographic data.

Proactively Adjusting Stopping: Response Inhibition is Faster when Stopping Occurs Frequently

People are able to stop actions before they are executed, and proactively slow down the speed of going in line with their expectations of needing to stop. Such slowing generally increases the probability that stopping will be successful. Surprisingly though, no study has clearly demonstrated that the speed of stopping (measured as the stop-signal reaction time, SSRT) is reduced by such proactive adjustments. In addition to a number of studies showing non-significant effects, the only study that initially had observed a clear effect in this direction found that it was artifactually driven by a confounding variable (specifically, by context-independence violations, which jeopardize the validity of the SSRT estimation). Here, we tested in two well-powered and well-controlled experiments whether the SSRT is shorter when stopping is anticipated. In each experiment, we used a Stop-Signal Task, in which the stop-trial frequency was either high (50%) or low (20%). Our results robustly show that the SSRT was shorter when stop signals were more anticipated (i.e., in the high-frequent condition) while carefully controlling for context-independence violations. Hence, our study is first to demonstrate a clear proactive benefit on the speed of stopping, in line with an ability to emphasize going or stopping, by trading off the speed of both.

Growing up in a crowd: social environment shapes the offspring's early exploratory phenotype in a colonial breeding species

In colonial breeding species, the number of adverse social interactions during early life typically varies with breeding density. Phenotypic plasticity can help deal with this social context, by allowing offspring to adjust their behaviour. Furthermore, offspring may not be unprepared since mothers can allocate resources to their embryos that may pre-adjust them to the post-hatching conditions. Thus, we hypothesize that lesser black-backed gull chicks raised in dense breeding areas, with greater exposure to intra-specific aggression, show higher levels of anxiety and lower levels of exploration compared to chicks in low-density areas, and that this is facilitated by prenatal effects. To test this, we cross-fostered clutches within and across pre-defined high- and low-breeding density areas. We measured chicks' anxiety and exploration activity in an open-field test that included a novel and a familiar object. We found that both pre- and post-natal social environment contributed nearly equally and shaped the offspring's exploratory behaviour, but not its anxiety, in an additive way. Post-natal effects could reflect a learned avoidance of intra-specific aggression, yet identifying the pathways of the prenatal effects will require further study.

Winning and losing in online gambling: Effects on within-session chasing

The tendency to continue or intensify gambling after losing (loss-chasing) is widely regarded as a defining feature of gambling disorder. However, loss-chasing in real gambling contexts is multifaceted, and some aspects are better understood than others. Gamblers may chase losses between multiple sessions or within a single session. Furthermore, within a session, loss-chasing can be expressed in the decision of (1) when to stop, (2) how much stake to bet, and (3) the speed of play after winning and losing. Using a large player-tracking data set (>2500 players, >10 million rounds) collected from the online commercial game Mystery Arena, we examined these three behavioral expressions of within-session loss-chasing. While the first two aspects (when to stop and how much stake to bet) have been examined previously, the current research is the first large-scale study to examine the effects of wins and losses on the speed of play in real gambling. The players were additionally assigned different involvement levels by the operator based on their gambling behavior on the operator’s own platform, which further allowed us to examine group differences in loss-chasing. We found that after winning, both the high- and low-involvement groups were less likely to stop, and increased the stake amount, thus showing win-chasing instead of loss-chasing in these two facets. After losing, both groups played more quickly though, which may reflect an urge to continue gambling (as an expression of loss-chasing). Wins and losses had a smaller influence on the speed of play for the high-involvement players, suggesting that they might have reduced sensitivity to wins and/or losses. Future work can further examine chasing in different gambling products and in people with gambling problems to assess the generalizability of these findings.

Post-error Slowing Reflects the Joint Impact of Adaptive and Maladaptive Processes During Decision Making

Errors and their consequences are typically studied by investigating changes in decision speed and accuracy in trials that follow an error, commonly referred to as “post-error adjustments”. Many studies have reported that subjects slow down following an error, a phenomenon called “post-error slowing” (PES). However, the functional significance of PES is still a matter of debate as it is not always adaptive. That is, it is not always associated with a gain in performance and can even occur with a decline in accuracy. Here, we hypothesized that the nature of PES is influenced by one’s speed-accuracy tradeoff policy, which determines the overall level of choice accuracy in the task at hand. To test this hypothesis, we had subjects performing a task in two distinct contexts (separate days), which either promoted speed (hasty context) or cautiousness (cautious context), allowing us to consider post-error adjustments according to whether subjects performed choices with a low or high accuracy level, respectively. Accordingly, our data indicate that post-error adjustments varied according to the context in which subjects performed the task, with PES being solely significant in the hasty context (low accuracy). In addition, we only observed a gain in performance after errors in a specific trial type, suggesting that post-error adjustments depend on a complex combination of processes that affect the speed of ensuing actions as well as the degree to which such PES comes with a gain in performance.

Resource predictability drives interannual variation in migratory behavior in a long-lived bird

There is a growing awareness that experience may play a major role in migratory decisions, especially in long-lived species. However, empirical support remains to date scarce. Here, we use multiyear GPS-tracking data on 28 adult Lesser Black-backed Gulls (Larus fuscus), a long-lived species for which migratory strategies typically consist of a series of long stopovers, to assess how experience affects interannual variation in stopover selection. We expect that food source reliability should play a pivotal role, as it both reduces the uncertainty on food availability across years, and enables for more efficient foraging during stopovers by reducing searching efforts. We found that during stopovers gulls indeed developed high fidelity to particular foraging locations, which strongly reduced the daily distance travelled for foraging. When revisiting stopovers in consecutive years, birds used over 80% of foraging locations from the previous year. Although the average fidelity to stopovers across years was a high as 85%, stopovers where birds showed high foraging site fidelity were up to 60% more likely to be revisited compared to stopover with low foraging site fidelity. Accordingly, birds using more stopovers with reliable foraging opportunities showed significantly less interannual variation in their stopover use than birds using stopovers with less reliable foraging opportunities. Our results thus highlight the need to further deepen our understanding of the role of cognitive processes in individual variation in migratory behavior.

Benefits and costs of self-paced preparation of novel task instructions

Rapidly executing novel instructions is a critical ability. However, it remains unclear whether longer preparation of novel instructions improves performance, and if so, whether this link is modulated by performance benefits and costs of preparation. Regarding the first question, we reanalysed previous data on novel instruction implementation and ran Experiment 1. Experiment 1 consisted of multiple mini-blocks, in which participants prepared four novel stimulus-response (S-R) mappings in a self-paced instruction phase. After participants indicated they were ready, one of the four stimuli was presented and they responded. The reanalysis and Experiment 1 showed that longer preparation indeed led to better performance. To examine if preparation was modulated when the benefits of preparation were reduced, we presented the correct response with the stimulus on some trials in Experiments 2 and 3. Preparation was shorter when the probability that the correct response was presented with the stimulus increased. In Experiment 4, we manipulated the costs of preparation by changing the S-R mappings between the instruction and execution phases on some trials. This had only limited effects on preparation time. In conclusion, self-paced preparation of novel instructions comes with performance benefits and costs, and participants adjust their preparation strategy to the task context.

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world. PROTOCOL REGISTRATION: The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 12 May 2020. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4878591.v1.

Exploring Strategies to Optimise the Impact of Food-Specific Inhibition Training on Children's Food Choices

Food-specific inhibition training (FSIT) is a computerised task requiring response inhibition to energy-dense foods within a reaction-time game. Previous work indicates that FSIT can increase the number of healthy foods (relative to energy-dense foods) children choose, and decrease calories consumed from sweets and chocolate. Across two studies, we explored the impact of FSIT variations (e.g., different response signals, different delivery modes) on children's food choices within a time-limited hypothetical food-choice task. In Study 1, we varied the FSIT Go/No-Go signals to be emotive (happy vs. sad faces) or neutral (green vs. red signs). One-hundred-and-fifty-seven children were randomly allocated to emotive-FSIT, neutral-FSIT, or a non-food control task. Children participated in groups of 4-15. No significant FSIT effects were observed on food choices (all values of p > 0.160). Healthy-food choices decreased over time regardless of condition (p < 0.050). The non-significant effects could be explained by lower accuracy on energy-dense No-Go trials than in previous studies, possibly due to distraction in the group-testing environment. In Study 2, we compared computer-based FSIT (using emotive signals) and app-based FSIT (using neutral signals) against a non-food control with a different sample of 206 children, but this time children worked one-on-one with the experimenter. Children's accuracy on energy-dense No-Go trials was higher in this study. Children in the FSIT-computer group chose significantly more healthy foods at post-training (M = 2.78, SE = 0.16) compared to the control group (M = 2.02, SE = 0.16, p = 0.001). The FSIT-app group did not differ from either of the other two groups (M = 2.42, SE = 0.16, both comparisons p > 0.050). Healthy choices decreased over time in the control group (p = 0.001) but did not change in the two FSIT groups (both p > 0.300) supporting previous evidence that FSIT may have a beneficial effect on children's food choices. Ensuring that children perform FSIT with high accuracy (e.g., by using FSIT in quiet environments and avoiding group-testing) may be important for impacts on food choices though. Future research should continue to explore methods of optimising FSIT as a healthy-eating intervention for children.

Behavioral Reluctance in Adopting Open Access Publishing: Insights From a Goal-Directed Perspective

Despite growing awareness of the benefits of large-scale open access publishing, individual researchers seem reluctant to adopt this behavior, thereby slowing down the evolution toward a new scientific culture. We outline and apply a goal-directed framework of behavior causation to shed light on this type of behavioral reluctance and to organize and suggest possible intervention strategies. The framework explains behavior as the result of a cycle of events starting with the detection of a discrepancy between a goal and a status quo and the selection of behavior to reduce this discrepancy. We list various factors that may hinder this cycle and thus contribute to behavioral reluctance. After that, we highlight potential remedies to address each of the identified barriers. We thereby hope to point out new ways to think about behavioral reluctances in general, and in relation to open access publishing in particular.

Face the (trigger) failure: Trigger failures strongly drive the effect of reward on response inhibition

Response inhibition is typically understood as the ability to stop inappropriate actions and is often investigated using the stop-signal task, in which a go response, triggered by a go signal, has to be inhibited upon the onset of a stop signal. In this task, response inhibition has been formalized as a race between a go and a stop process, which allows the latency of the stop process (stop-signal reaction time; SSRT) to be estimated. Yet, non-parametric SSRT estimations assume that the stop process is initiated without fail, which appears problematic as it is known that participants fail to do so on a subset of trials ("trigger failures"). Importantly, non-parametric methods systematically overestimate SSRT when trigger failures are present, and a growing literature is demonstrating that reported SSRT differences between groups and individuals are also (or rather) driven by differential trigger-failure rates. In the present study, we extend this line of research to a within-individual manipulation, namely the influence of reward on stop performance. We first reanalyzed four data sets of studies that had reported a facilitating effect of stimulus-based reward on SSRTs. Reanalyzing this data, we found that reward decreased the rates of trigger failures. When accounting for these differential trigger-failure rates, the effect of reward on SSRTs (i.e., stop latency) appeared to be virtually abolished. We then conducted a preregistered online follow-up study, implementing a typical block-based reward manipulation. The results of this study indicated simultaneous reward effects on trigger-failure rates and on SSRT. In sum, the present results indicate that trigger failures are an important source of variance in response inhibition, dovetailing with an evolving multicomponential view of response inhibition.

Intraspecific variation in inhibitory motor control in guppies, Poecilia reticulata

Inhibitory control (IC) is the ability to overcome impulsive or prepotent but ineffective responses in favour of more appropriate behaviours. The ability to inhibit internal predispositions or external temptations is vital in coping with a complex and variable world. Traditionally viewed as cognitively demanding and a main component of executive functioning and self-control, IC was historically examined in only a few species of birds and mammals but recently a number of studies has shown that a much wider range of taxa rely on IC. Furthermore, there is growing evidence that inhibitory abilities may vary within species at the population and individual levels owing to genetic and environmental factors. Here we use a detour-reaching task, a standard paradigm to measure motor inhibition in nonhuman animals, to quantify patterns of interindividual variation in IC in wild-descendant female guppies, Poecilia reticulata. We found that female guppies displayed inhibitory performances that were, on average, half as successful as the performances reported previously for other strains of guppies tested in similar experimental conditions. Moreover, we showed consistent individual variation in the ability to inhibit inappropriate behaviours. Our results contribute to the understanding of the evolution of fish cognition and suggest that IC may show considerable variation among populations within a species. Such variation in IC abilities might contribute to individual differences in other cognitive functions such as spatial learning, quantity discrimination or reversal learning.

Proximity and Expectancy Modulate Response Vigor After Reward Omission

Both humans and some non-human animals tend to respond more vigorously after failing to obtain rewards. Such response invigoration becomes more pronounced when individuals have increased expectations of obtaining rewards during reward pursuit (expectancy), and when they perceive the eventual loss to be proximal to reward receipt (proximity). However, it was unclear whether proximity and expectancy may have distinct influences on response vigor. To investigate this question, we developed a computerized ’scratch card’ task, in which participants turned three cards one by one and won points when all three cards matched (AAA). After each game, they pressed keys to confirm the outcome and start a new game. We included three types of losses: AAB, where participants had increased expectancy of winning as the game evolved, and the final outcome was proximal to winning; ABB and ABA, with reduced expectancy, but high proximity to winning; and ABC, with reduced expectancy and low proximity to winning. In three online studies, we consistently observed that participants confirmed losses more quickly than wins. Importantly, detailed analyses of the different types of losses revealed that proximity reduced vigor, whereas expectancy increased it. Together, these findings are in line with general appraisal theories: the adjustments of response vigor may be triggered by the appraised discrepancy between the current state and a reference state (e.g., attaining one’s goal), and serve to close the gap and facilitate goal pursuit. These findings may also have implications for the effect of ‘near miss’ on gambling persistence. Further exploring how reward omission impacts response vigor may help us better understand the goal pursuit process, and how it becomes maladaptive under certain circumstances.

Reward does not modulate corticospinal excitability in anticipation of a Stroop trial

Action preparation is associated with a transient decrease of corticospinal excitability just before target onset. We have previously shown that the prospect of reward modulates preparatory corticospinal excitability in a Simon task. While the conflict in the Simon task strongly implicates the motor system, it is unknown whether reward prospect modulates preparatory corticospinal excitability in tasks that implicate the motor system less directly. To that effect, we examined reward-modulated preparatory corticospinal excitability in the Stroop task. We administered a rewarded cue-target delay paradigm using Stroop stimuli that afforded a left or right index finger response. Single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation was administered over the left primary motor cortex and electromyography was obtained from the right first dorsal interosseous muscle. In line with previous findings, there was a preparatory decrease in corticospinal excitability during the delay period. In contrast to our previous study using the Simon task, preparatory corticospinal excitability was not modulated by reward. Our results indicate that reward-modulated changes in the motor system depend on specific task-demands, possibly related to varying degrees of motor conflict.

Are post-error adjustments influenced by beliefs in free will? A failure to replicate Rigoni, Wilquin, Brass and Burle, 2013

In this pre-registered study, we tried to replicate the study by Rigoni et al. 2013 Cognition 127, 264-269. In the original study, the authors manipulated the participants' belief in free will in a between-subject design and subsequently measured post-error slowing (i.e. slower responses after an incorrect trial compared with a correct trial) as a marker of cognitive control. They found less post-error slowing in the group with reduced belief in free will (anti-free will group) compared with a control group in which belief in free will was not manipulated. In the present study, we used the same task procedure and the same free will manipulation (Crick text) in an attempt to replicate these findings. However, we used an online procedure and a larger sample size in order to address concerns about statistical power. Similar to the original study, we also used a questionnaire to measure beliefs in free will as an independent manipulation check. We found a difference in the scores on the questionnaire, thus a reduced belief in free will, after reading the Crick text. However, we did not find any difference in post-error slowing between the anti-free will and control groups. Our findings are in line with several other recent findings suggesting that the Crick text manipulation affects the participants' self-reported belief in free will but not their behaviour. The present study can be considered a high-powered failed replication attempt.

Does alcohol cue inhibitory control training survive a context shift?

Inhibitory control training (ICT) is a novel psychological intervention that aims to improve inhibitory control in response to alcohol-related cues through associative learning. Laboratory studies have demonstrated reductions in alcohol consumption following ICT compared with control/sham training, but it is unclear if these effects are robust to a change of context. In a preregistered study, we examined whether the effects of ICT would survive a context shift from a neutral context to a seminaturalistic bar setting. In a mixed design, 60 heavy drinkers (40 female) were randomly allocated to receive either ICT or control/sham training in a neutral laboratory over 2 sessions. We developed a novel variation of ICT that used multiple stop signals to establish direct stimulus-stop associations. The effects of ICT/control were measured once in the same context and once following a shift to a novel (alcohol-related) context. Our dependent variables were ad libitum alcohol consumption following training, change in inhibitory control processes, and change in alcohol value. ICT did not reduce alcohol consumption in either context compared with the control group. Furthermore, we demonstrated no effects of ICT on inhibitory control processes or alcohol value. Bayesian analyses demonstrated overall support for the null hypotheses. This study failed to find any effects of ICT on alcohol consumption or candidate psychological mechanisms. These findings illustrate the difficulty in training alcohol-inhibition associations and add to a growing body of literature suggesting that ICT holds little evidential value as a psychological intervention for alcohol use disorders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

Cortical and subcortical functional specificity associated with response inhibition

Is motor response inhibition supported by a specialised neuronal inhibitory control mechanism, or by a more general system of action updating? This pre-registered study employed a context-cueing paradigm requiring both inhibitory and non-inhibitory action updating in combination with functional magnetic resonance imaging to test the specificity of responses under different updating conditions, including the cancellation of actions. Cortical regions of activity were found to be common to multiple forms of action updating. However, functional specificity during response inhibition was observed in the anterior right inferior frontal gyrus. In addition, fronto-subcortical activity was explored using a novel contrast method. These exploratory results indicate that the specificity for response inhibition observed in right prefrontal cortex continued downstream and was observed in right hemisphere subcortical activity, while left hemisphere activity was associated with right-hand response execution. Overall, our findings reveal both common and distinct correlates of response inhibition in prefrontal cortex, with exploratory analyses supporting putative models of subcortical pathways and extending them through the demonstration of lateralisation.

A direct and conceptual replication of post-loss speeding when gambling

To investigate the response to suboptimal outcomes, Verbuggen et al. (Verbruggen F, Chambers CD, Lawrence NS, McLaren IPL. 2017 Winning and losing: effects on impulsive action. J. Exp. Psychol.: Hum. Percept. Perform. 43, 147. (doi:10.1037/xhp0000284)) conducted a study in which participants chose between a gamble and a non-gamble option. The non-gamble option was a guaranteed amount of points, whereas the gamble option was associated with a higher amount but a lower probability of winning. The authors observed that participants initiated the next trial faster after a loss compared to wins or non-gambles. In the present study, we directly replicated these findings in the laboratory and online. We also designed another task controlling for the number of trials per outcome. In this task, participants guessed where a reward was hidden. They won points if they selected the correct location, but lost points if they selected the incorrect location. We included neutral trials as a baseline. Again, participants sped up after a loss relative to wins and neutral trials (but only with a response choice in neutral trials and a large sample size). These findings appear inconsistent with cognitive-control frameworks, which assume that suboptimal outcomes typically lead to slower responses; instead, they suggest that suboptimal outcomes can invigorate behaviour, consistent with accounts of frustrative non-reward and impulsive action.

Clarifying the Role of Negative Emotions in the Origin and Control of Impulsive Actions

This critical review elaborates on the origin of impulsive actions and how these can be controlled. We focus in particular on the role of negative events. First, we outline how impulsive actions often originate from negative events that are (emotionally) appraised. A discrepancy between this current state and a desired goal state leads to action tendencies. The urgency of the resulting action depends on the importance of the goal and the size of the discrepancy. Second, we discuss how such impulsive actions can be regulated or controlled e.g. by biasing competition between different options, or by completely suppressing all motor output. Importantly, such control mechanisms might also depend on emotional factors. To reconcile these findings, we present a coherent theoretical framework, taking into account various cognitive, affective, and motivational mechanisms as well as contextual factors that play a crucial role in the origin and control of impulsive actions.

Pigeons' performance in a tracking change-signal procedure is consistent with the independent horse-race model

In many cognitive tasks where humans are thought to rely on executive functioning, pigeons' behavior can be explained by associative processes. A key form of executive functioning is inhibiting prepotent responses, often investigated in humans by means of "Stop-Signal" or "Change-Signal" procedures. In these procedures, execution of a well-practiced ("Go") response to a stimulus is occasionally interrupted by a signal to withhold or alter the practiced response. Performance in such tasks is usually described by the "independent horse horse-race model." This model assumes that the processes that cause the Go and inhibitory responses occur independently; the process that finishes first determines the response observed. We further tested this model by training pigeons to track the circular movement of a colored patch around a touchscreen by pecking it; the spot occasionally deviated from its normal path (the Change signal). The pigeons had to inhibit the habitual movement of their heads to land a peck on the spot in its unexpected position. The key predictions of the independent horse-race model were confirmed in the pigeons' latency data. Thus, the independent race model can also successfully describe Stop-change performance of subjects that do not rely on executive control. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Does Learning Influence the Detection of Signals in a Response-Inhibition Task?

Learning can modulate various forms of action control, including response inhibition. People may learn associations between specific stimuli and the acts of going or stopping, influencing task performance. The present study tested whether people also learn associations between specific stimuli and features of the stop or no-go signal used in the task. Across two experiments, participants performed a response-inhibition task in which the contingencies between specific stimuli and the spatial locations of the 'go' and 'withhold' signals were manipulated. The contingencies between specific stimuli and either going or withholding were also manipulated, such that a subset of stimuli were associated with responding and another subset with withholding a response. Although there was clear evidence that participants learned to associate specific stimuli with the acts of going or withholding, there was no evidence that participants acquired the spatial signal-location associations. The absence of signal learning was supported by Bayesian analyses. These findings challenge our previous proposals that learning always influences signal-detection processes in response-inhibition tasks where features of the signal remain the same throughout the task.

Reward anticipation changes corticospinal excitability during task preparation depending on response requirements and time pressure

The preparation of an action is accompanied by transient corticospinal (CS) excitability changes. Motivation can modulate these changes. Specifically, when a cue indicates that a reward can be obtained, CS excitability initially increases, followed by a pronounced decrease. This dynamic could reflect processes related to reward expectancy, processes related to action preparation, or a combination of both. Here we set up two experiments to dissociate these accounts. A rewarded choice reaction time task was used in which individuals were cued at the beginning of each trial whether or not a response would be required at target onset and whether or not a reward could be obtained. We used single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (spTMS) over the left primary motor cortex (M1) early (shortly after cue onset) or late (shortly before target onset) preceding target onset to examine CS excitability during motivated action preparation. Electromyography (EMG) was obtained from the right first dorsal interosseous (FDI) muscle. In the first experiment, we used a lenient response deadline, whereas a strict response time-out procedure was employed in the second experiment. Reward modulated CS excitability differentially only in the second experiment: CS excitability was highest during reward anticipation for the early stimulation epoch and was reduced for the late stimulation epoch when individuals were required to prepare a response, while CS excitability remained unchanged during non-reward anticipation. Our findings suggest that the reward effect on CS excitability is dependent on the actual implementation of effort to attain reward (i.e., the preparation of an actual action), as well as on temporal requirements (i.e., time pressure) invoked by the task.

A consensus guide to capturing the ability to inhibit actions and impulsive behaviors in the stop-signal task

Response inhibition is essential for navigating everyday life. Its derailment is considered integral to numerous neurological and psychiatric disorders, and more generally, to a wide range of behavioral and health problems. Response-inhibition efficiency furthermore correlates with treatment outcome in some of these conditions. The stop-signal task is an essential tool to determine how quickly response inhibition is implemented. Despite its apparent simplicity, there are many features (ranging from task design to data analysis) that vary across studies in ways that can easily compromise the validity of the obtained results. Our goal is to facilitate a more accurate use of the stop-signal task. To this end, we provide 12 easy-to-implement consensus recommendations and point out the problems that can arise when they are not followed. Furthermore, we provide user-friendly open-source resources intended to inform statistical-power considerations, facilitate the correct implementation of the task, and assist in proper data analysis.

Instructed and Acquired Contingencies in Response-Inhibition Tasks

Inhibitory control can be triggered directly via the retrieval of previously acquired stimulus-stop associations from memory. However, a recent study suggests that this item-specific stop learning may be mediated via expectancies of the contingencies in play (Best, Lawrence, Logan, McLaren, & Verbruggen, 2016). This could indicate that stimulus-stop learning also induces strategic proactive changes in performance. We further tested this hypothesis in the present study. In addition to measuring expectancies following task completion, we introduced a between-subjects expectancy manipulation in which one group of participants were informed about the stimulus-stop contingencies and another group did not receive any information about the stimulus-stop contingencies. Moreover, we combined this instruction manipulation with a distractor manipulation that was previously used to examine strategic proactive adjustments. We found that the stop-associated items slowed responding in both conditions. Furthermore, participants in both conditions generated expectancies following task completion that were consistent with the stimulus-stop contingencies. The distractor manipulation was ineffective. However, we found differences in the relationship between the expectancy ratings and task performance: in the instructed condition, the expectancies reliably correlated with the response slowing for the stop-associated items, whereas in the uninstructed condition we found no reliable correlation. These differences between the correlations were reliable, and our conclusions were further supported by Bayesian analyses. We conclude that stimulus-stop associations that are acquired either via task instructions or via task practice have similar effects on behaviour but could differ in how they elicit response slowing.

Prefrontal brain stimulation during food-related inhibition training: effects on food craving, food consumption and inhibitory control

Modulation of dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) activity using non-invasive brain stimulation has been shown to reduce food craving as well as food consumption. Using a preregistered design, we examined whether bilateral transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) of the DLPFC could reduce food craving and consumption in healthy participants when administered alongside the cognitive target of inhibitory control training. Participants (N = 172) received either active or sham tDCS (2 mA; anode F4, cathode F3) while completing a food-related Go/No-Go task. State food craving, ad-lib food consumption and response inhibition were evaluated. Compared with sham stimulation, we found no evidence for an effect of active tDCS on any of these outcome measures in a predominantly female sample. Our findings raise doubts about the effectiveness of single-session tDCS on food craving and consumption. Consideration of individual differences, improvements in tDCS protocols and multi-session testing are discussed.

Structure and Implementation of Novel Task Rules: A Cross-Sectional Developmental Study

Rule-based performance improves remarkably throughout childhood. The present study examined how children and adolescents structured tasks and implemented rules when novel task instructions were presented in a child-friendly version of a novel instruction-learning paradigm. Each miniblock started with the presentation of new stimulus-response mappings for a go task. Before this mapping could be implemented, subjects had to make responses in order to advance through screens during a preparatory (" next") phase. Children (4-11 years old) and late adolescents (17-19 years old) responded more slowly during the next phase when the next response was incompatible with the instructed stimulus-response mapping. This instruction-based interference effect was more pronounced in young children than in older children. We argue that these findings are most consistent with age-related differences in rule structuring. We discuss the implications of our findings for theories of rule-based performance, instruction-based learning, and development.

Mackintosh lecture—: Association and cognition: Two processes, one system

This article argues that the dual-process position can be a useful first approximation when studying human mental life, but it cannot be the whole truth. Instead, we argue that cognition is built on association, in that associative processes provide the fundamental building blocks that enable propositional thought. One consequence of this position is to suggest that humans are able to learn associatively in a similar fashion to a rat or a pigeon, but another is that we must typically suppress the expression of basic associative learning in favour of rule-based computation. This stance conceptualises us as capable of symbolic computation but acknowledges that, given certain circumstances, we will learn associatively and, more importantly, be seen to do so. We present three types of evidence that support this position: The first is data on human Pavlovian conditioning that directly support this view. The second is data taken from task-switching experiments that provide convergent evidence for at least two modes of processing, one of which is automatic and carried out “in the background.” And the last suggests that when the output of propositional processes is uncertain, the influence of associative processes on behaviour can manifest.

Transfer of learned category-response associations is modulated by instruction

Although instructions often emphasize categories (e.g., odd number→left hand response) rather than specific stimuli (e.g., 3→left hand response), learning is often interpreted in terms of stimulus-response (S-R) bindings or, less frequently, stimulus-classification (S-C) bindings with little attention being paid to the importance of category-response (C-R) bindings. In a training-transfer paradigm designed to investigate the early stages of category learning, participants were required to classify stimuli according to the category templates presented prior to each block (Experiments 1-4). In some transfer blocks the stimuli, categories and/or responses could be novel or repeated from the preceding training phase. Learning was assessed by comparing the transfer-training performance difference across conditions. Participants were able to rapidly transfer C-R associations to novel stimuli but evidence of S-C transfer was much weaker and S-R transfer was largely limited to conditions where the stimulus was classified under the same category. Thus, even though there was some evidence that learned S-R and S-C associations contributed to performance, learned C-R associations seemed to play a much more important role. In a final experiment (Experiment 5) the stimuli themselves were presented prior to each block, and the instructions did not mention the category structure. In this experiment, the evidence for S-R learning outweighed the evidence for C-R learning, indicating the importance of instructions in learning. The implications for these findings to the learning, cognitive control, and automaticity literatures are discussed.

Effects of reward and punishment on the interaction between going and stopping in a selective stop-change task

Inhibition of no-longer relevant go responses supports flexible and goal-directed behavior. The present study explored if the interaction between going and stopping is influenced by monetary incentives. Subjects (N = 108) performed a selective stop-change task, which required them to stop and change a go response if a valid signal occurred, but to execute the planned go response if invalid signals or no signals occurred. There were two incentive groups: the punishment group lost points for unsuccessful valid-signal trials, whereas the reward group gained points for successful valid-signal trials. There was also a control group that could not win or lose points on any trials. We found that, compared with the control group, incentives encouraged subjects to slow down on no-signal trials, suggesting proactive control adjustments. Furthermore, latencies of valid change responses were shorter in the incentive groups than in the control group, suggesting improvements in executing an alternative response. However, incentives did not modulate stop latency or the interaction between going and stopping on valid-signal trials much. Finally, Bayesian analyses indicated that there was no difference between the reward and punishment groups. These findings are inconsistent with the idea that reward and punishment have distinct effects on stop performance.

Evidence for parallel activation of the pre-supplementary motor area and inferior frontal cortex during response inhibition: a combined MEG and TMS study

This pre-registered experiment sought to uncover the temporal relationship between the inferior frontal cortex (IFC) and the pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA) during stopping of an ongoing action. Both regions have previously been highlighted as being central to cognitive control of actions, particularly response inhibition. Here we tested which area is activated first during the stopping process using magnetoencephalography, before assessing the relative chronometry of each region using functionally localized transcranial magnetic stimulation. Both lines of evidence pointed towards simultaneous activity across both regions, suggesting that parallel, mutually interdependent processing may form the cortical basis of stopping. Additional exploratory analysis, however, provided weak evidence in support of previous suggestions that the pre-SMA may provide an ongoing drive of activity to the IFC.

The effect of interference in the early processing stages on response inhibition in the stop signal task

In the present study, the relation between interference at the early processing stages and response inhibition was investigated. In previous studies, response stopping appeared to be slowed down when irrelevant distracting information was presented. The purpose of the present study was to further explore the relationship between interference control and response inhibition. In Experiment 1, a stop signal paradigm was combined with a global/local task. The typical global-to-local interference effect is generally attributed to early processing stages, such as stimulus perception and identification. Results of this experiment demonstrated a congruency effect for both reaction time data and stopping performance. In Experiment 2, these results were replicated with a flanker task that used stimulus-incongruent but response-congruent flankers. Results of both experiments suggest that response inhibition and interference at the early processing stages interact.

Development of between-trial response strategy adjustments in a continuous action control task: A cross-sectional study

Response strategies are constantly adjusted in ever-changing environments. According to many researchers, this involves executive control. This study examined how children (aged 4-11years) and young adults (aged 18-21years) adjusted response strategies in a continuous action control task. Participants needed to move a stimulus to a target location, but on a minority of the trials (change trials) the target location changed. When this happened, participants needed to change their movement. We examined how performance was influenced by the properties of the previous trial. We found that no-change performance was impaired, but change performance was improved, when a change signal was presented on the previous trial. Extra analyses revealed that the between-trial effects on no-change trials were not influenced by the repetition of the previous stimulus. Combined, these findings provide support for the idea that response strategies were adjusted on a trial-by-trial basis. Importantly, we observed large age-related differences in overall change and no-change latencies but observed no differences in response strategy adjustments. This is consistent with findings obtained with other paradigms and suggests that adjustment mechanisms mature at a faster rate than other "executive" action control mechanisms.

Training response inhibition to reduce food consumption: Mechanisms, stimulus specificity and appropriate training protocols

Training individuals to inhibit their responses towards unhealthy foods has been shown to reduce food intake relative to a control group. Here we aimed to further explore these effects by investigating the role of stimulus devaluation, training protocol, and choice of control group. Restrained eaters received either inhibition or control training using a modified version of either the stop-signal or go/no-go task. Following training we measured implicit attitudes towards food (Study 1) and food consumption (Studies 1 and 2). In Study 1 we used a modified stop-signal training task with increased demands on top-down control (using a tracking procedure and feedback to maintain competition between the stop and go processes). With this task, we found no evidence for an effect of training on implicit attitudes or food consumption, with Bayesian inferential analyses revealing substantial evidence for the null hypothesis. In Study 2 we removed the feedback in the stop-signal training to increase the rate of successful inhibition and revealed a significant effect of both stop-signal and go/no-go training on food intake (compared to double-response and go training, respectively) with a greater difference in consumption in the go/no-go task, compared with the stop-signal task. However, results from an additional passive control group suggest that training effects could be partly caused by increased consumption in the go control group whereas evidence for reduced consumption in the inhibition groups was inconclusive. Our findings therefore support evidence that inhibition training tasks with higher rates of inhibition accuracy are more effective, but prompt caution for interpreting the efficacy of laboratory-based inhibition training as an intervention for behaviour change.

Executive Control of Actions Across Time and Space

Many popular psychological accounts attribute adaptive human behavior to an "executive-control" system that regulates a lower-level "impulsive" or "associative" system. However, recent findings argue against this strictly hierarchical view. Instead, executive control of impulsive and inappropriate actions depends on an interplay between multiple basic cognitive processes. The outcome of these processes can be biased in advance. Executive-action control is also strongly influenced by personal experiences in the recent and distant past. Thus, executive control emerges from an interactive and competitive network. Main challenges for future research are to describe and understand these interactions and to put executive-action control in a wider sociocultural and evolutional context.

Winning and losing: Effects on impulsive action

In the present study, we examined the effect of wins and losses on impulsive action in gambling (Experiments 1-3) and nongambling tasks (Experiments 4-5). In each experiment, subjects performed a simple task in which they had to win points. On each trial, they had to choose between a gamble and a nongamble. The gamble was always associated with a higher amount but a lower probability of winning than the nongamble. After subjects indicated their choice (i.e., gamble or not), feedback was presented. They had to press a key to start the next trial. Experiments 1-3 showed that, compared to the nongambling baseline, subjects were faster to initiate the next trial after a gambled loss, indicating that losses can induce impulsive actions. In Experiments 4 and 5, subjects alternated between the gambling task and a neutral decision-making task in which they could not win or lose points. Subjects were faster in the neutral decision-making task if they had just lost in the gambling task, suggesting that losses have a general effect on action. Our results challenge the dominant idea that humans become more cautious after suboptimal outcomes. Instead, they indicate that losses in the context of potential rewards are emotional events that increase impulsivity. (PsycINFO Database Record

How to withhold or replace a prepotent response: An analysis of the underlying control processes and their temporal dynamics

The present study isolated and compared ERP components associated with flexible behavior in two action-control tasks. The 'withhold' groups had to withhold all responses when a signal appeared. The 'change' groups had to replace a prepotent go response with a different response on signal trials. We proposed that the same chain of processes determined the effectiveness of action control in both tasks. Consistent with this idea, lateral (Experiment 1) and central (Experiment 2) signal presentation elicited the same perceptual and response-related components in both tasks with similar latencies. Thus, completely withholding a response and replacing a response required a similar chain of processes. Furthermore, latency analyses revealed intra-individual differences: When the signal occurred in the periphery, differences between fast and slow change trials arose at early perceptual stages; by contrast, differences arose at later processing stages when signal detection was easy but stimulus discrimination and response selection were harder.