The contributions of Pavlovian conditioning and information-seeking to value-modulated attentional capture.

Abstract

Value-modulated attentional capture (VMAC) is when the attention-capturing property of a stimulus increases upon its association with value (e.g., money, food, drugs). Because VMAC may facilitate or exacerbate certain psychopathologies, a better understanding of the processes responsible for it could provide remedial implications. The purpose of this thesis was to examine whether VMAC arises from a Pavlovian conditioning process, where value imbues a stimulus with additional salience that enhances reflexive attentional capture, or an instrumental conditioning process where attention is strategically oriented to a stimulus to acquire rewarding information about outcome value. Participants identified the orientation of a line inside a diamond within a stimulus array and received 1 or 10 points depending on which of two colour singletons (green or red) was present. Response times on low-value trials were subtracted from high- to measure VMAC. Experiments 1 – 5 compared VMAC effects based on whether participants were aware or unaware of the colour-point associations. Between-subjects comparisons found VMAC for aware participants only. A within-subjects analysis found VMAC before participants became aware that did not increase after they became aware. The combination of results was consistent with a weak single-process model of Pavlovian conditioning. Experiment 6 told participants of the associations and manipulated whether reward feedback was provided, and Experiment 7 whether reward information was devalued before trials. VMAC was established when points feedback was not received, and only when no devaluation occurred, consistent with information-seeking. However, Experiments 8 and 9 arranged standard training conditions before any devaluation and found VMAC on devaluation trials, consistent with Pavlovian conditioning. Our findings suggest that VMAC will arise from Pavlovian conditioning unless this process is disrupted and/or information-seeking is encouraged.