Journal article 131 views
Human causality detection and judgment with unsignaled and signaled delayed outcomes.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, Volume: 50, Issue: 3, Pages: 210 - 224
Swansea University Author:
Phil Reed
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DOI (Published version): 10.1037/xan0000382
Abstract
Four experiments examined human ratings of causal effectiveness, and ability to detect causal relationships, in a nonverbal paradigm. Participants responded on a concurrent random interval, extinction schedule. In the presence of one stimulus, responses produced an outcome (triangle flash); in the p...
| Published in: | Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition |
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| ISSN: | 2329-8456 2329-8464 |
| Published: |
American Psychological Association (APA)
2024
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| Online Access: |
Check full text
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa66504 |
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| Abstract: |
Four experiments examined human ratings of causal effectiveness, and ability to detect causal relationships, in a nonverbal paradigm. Participants responded on a concurrent random interval, extinction schedule. In the presence of one stimulus, responses produced an outcome (triangle flash); in the presence of the other stimulus, they did not. Following making a judgment of causal effectiveness, two further stimuli were presented simultaneously with one another, and participants had to select one depending on which of the previous two stimuli were associated with effective responses. In all experiments, immediate outcomes were associated with higher causal ratings and better causal detection than outcomes delayed by 3 s. A signal inserted between response and outcome improved ratings and detection (Experiments 2 and 4), even when it was contiguous with the response but not the outcome (Experiments 2 and 3). Stimuli associated with both components (marking cues) did not impact judgments or detection (Experiment 3). Stimuli signaling the availability of an outcome if a response was made (signaled reinforcement) did not improve causal judgments, but did improve detection of stimuli associated with the outcome (Experiment 4). Responses during the delay interfered with detection of the actual relationship when delays were unsignaled (Experiments 1–4), but not with fully or briefly signaled delays (Experiments 2–4), or with signaled reinforcement (Experiment 4). The results suggest a delay stimulus serves to signal the response has been successful and demark the delay period by serving a discriminative function. These findings mirror those seen in nonhuman conditioning. |
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| Keywords: |
human causal judgment, causal detection, concurrent schedule, matching-to-sample |
| College: |
Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences |
| Issue: |
3 |
| Start Page: |
210 |
| End Page: |
224 |