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Rumination Derails Reinforcement Learning With Possible Implications for Ineffective Behavior
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Rumination Derails Reinforcement Learning With Possible Implications for Ineffective Behavior

Peter Hitchcock, Evan Forman, Nina Rothstein, Fengqing Zhang, John Kounios, Yael Niv and Chris Sims
Clinical psychological science, v 10(4), pp 714-733
01 Nov 2021
url
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9354806View
Accepted (AM)Open Access (License Unspecified) Open

Abstract

Life Sciences & Biomedicine Psychiatry Psychology Psychology, Clinical Science & Technology Social Sciences
How does rumination affect reinforcement learning-the ubiquitous process by which people adjust behavior after error to behave more effectively in the future? In a within-subjects design (N = 49), we tested whether experimentally manipulated rumination disrupts reinforcement learning in a multidimensional learning task previously shown to rely on selective attention. Rumination impaired performance, yet unexpectedly, this impairment could not be attributed to decreased attentional breadth (quantified using a decay parameter in a computational model). Instead, trait rumination (between subjects) was associated with higher decay rates (implying narrower attention) but not with impaired performance. Our task-performance results accord with the possibility that state rumination promotes stress-generating behavior in part by disrupting reinforcement learning. The trait-rumination finding accords with the predictions of a prominent model of trait rumination (the attentional-scope model). More work is needed to understand the specific mechanisms by which state rumination disrupts reinforcement learning.

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14 citations in Scopus

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychiatry
Psychology
Psychology, Clinical
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