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Mechanisms of Habitual Approach: Failure to Suppress Irrelevant Responses Evoked by Previously Reward-Associated Stimuli
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Mechanisms of Habitual Approach: Failure to Suppress Irrelevant Responses Evoked by Previously Reward-Associated Stimuli

Brian A Anderson, Charles L Folk, Rebecca Garrison and Leeland Rogers
Journal of experimental psychology. General, v 145(6), pp 796-805
01 Jun 2016
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000169
PMID: 27054684
url
https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000169View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

reward learning inhibition habit learning selective attention addiction
Reward learning has a powerful influence on the attention system, causing previously reward-associated stimuli to automatically capture attention. Difficulty ignoring stimuli associated with drug reward has been linked to addiction relapse, and the attention system of drug-dependent patients seems especially influenced by reward history. This and other evidence suggests that value-driven attention has consequences for behavior and decision-making, facilitating a bias to approach and consume the previously reward-associated stimulus even when doing so runs counter to current goals and priorities. Yet, a mechanism linking value-driven attention to behavioral responding and a general approach bias is lacking. Here we show that previously reward-associated stimuli escape inhibitory processing in a go/no-go task. Control experiments confirmed that this value-dependent failure of goal-directed inhibition could not be explained by search history or residual motivation, but depended specifically on the learned association between particular stimuli and reward outcome. When a previously high-value stimulus is encountered, the response codes generated by that stimulus are automatically afforded high priority, bypassing goal-directed cognitive processes involved in suppressing task-irrelevant behavior.

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38 citations in Web of Science
37 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Experimental
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