1,720,967 research outputs found
Specific Pavlovian-instrumental transfer: relationship with instrumental reward probabilities
Appetitive pavlovian-instrumental transfer: a review
Reward-related cues are an important part of our daily life as they often influence and guide our actions. This paper reviews one of the experimental paradigms used to study the effects of cues, the Pavlovian to Instrumental Transfer paradigm. In this paradigm, cues associated with rewards through Pavlovian conditioning alter motivation and choice of instrumental actions. The first transfer experiments date back to the 1940s, but only in the last decade has it been fully recognised that there are two types of transfer, specific and general. This paper presents a systematic review of both the neural substrates and the behavioral factors affecting both types of transfer. It also examines the recent application of the paradigm to study the effect of cues on human participants, both in normal and pathological conditions, and the interactions of transfer with drugs of abuse. Finally, the paper analyses the theoretical aspects of transfer to build an overall picture of the phenomenon, from early theories to recent hierarchical accounts
A Bayesian model for a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer hypothesis
A Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (CS) associated with a reward can enhance an instrumental response directed to the same or other rewards. This effect is called Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT). In recent years, lesion studies using rats have gained insight into its neural substrates dissociating between specific PIT (where CS and instrumental response share the same reward) and general PIT (where they do not) (Corbit and Balleine, 2005, 2011). Despite these advances, the functional differences between specific and general PIT and how Pavlovian cues interact with instrumental response are still not clear. Here we try to explain Pavlovian-instrumental transfer effects by using a latent causes Bayesian model. Previous work in the Pavlovian conditioning literature (Courville et al., 2005) suggests that during Pavlovian conditioning rats do not simply learn associations between two events (CS and reward); instead, they actually try to figure out the real hidden causes behind them by constructing a latent cause model. We expanded that view to include instrumental actions and so explain the interactions between Pavlovian conditioning and instrumental conditioning. Our model correctly reproduces both the presence of specific and general PIT and the absence of general PIT when the CS is associated to the reward of another instrumental action. By framing the PIT effects explanation in Bayesian terms, our model offers a new integrated view on their functional mechanisms and new testable predictions
The three principles of action: a Pavlovian-instrumental transfer hypothesis
Pavlovian conditioned stimuli can influence instrumental responding, an effect called Pavlovian-instrumental transfer (PIT).During the last decade, PIT has been subdivided into two types: specific PIT and general PIT, each having its own neural substrates.Specific PIT happens when a conditioned stimulus (CS) associated with a reward enhances an instrumental response directed to the same reward.Under general PIT instead, the CS enhances a response directed to a different reward.While important progress has been made into identifying the neural substrates, the function of specific and general PIT and how they interact with instrumental responses, are still not clear.In the experimental paradigm that distinguishes specific and general PIT an effect of PIT inhibition has also been observed and is waiting for an explanation.Here we propose an hypothesis that links these three PIT effects (specific PIT, general PIT and PIT inhibition) to three aspects of action evaluation.These three aspects, which we call "principles of action" are: context, efficacy, and utility.In goal-directed behavior, an agent has to evaluate if the context is suitable to accomplish the goal, the efficacy of his action in getting the goal and the utility of the goal itself:we suggest that each of the three PIT effects is related to one of these aspects of action evaluation.In particular, we link specific PIT with the estimation of efficacy, general PIT with the evaluation of utility and PIT inhibition with the adequacy of context.We also provide a latent cause Bayesian computational model that exemplifies this hypothesis.This hypothesis and the model provide a new framework and new predictions to advance knowledge about PIT functioning and its role in animal adaptation
Integrating unsupervised and reinforcement learning in human categorical perception: A computational model
Categorical perception identifies a tuning of human perceptual systems that can occur during the execution of a categorisation task. Despite the fact that experimental studies and computational models suggest that this tuning is influenced by task-independent effects (e.g., based on Hebbian and unsupervised learning, UL) and task-dependent effects (e.g., based on reward signals and reinforcement learning, RL), no model studies the UL/RL interaction during the emergence of categorical perception. Here we have investigated the effects of this interaction, proposing a system-level neuro-inspired computational architecture in which a perceptual component integrates UL and RL processes. The model has been tested with a categorisation task and the results show that a balanced mix of unsupervised and reinforcement learning leads to the emergence of a suitable categorical perception and the best performance in the task. Indeed, an excessive unsupervised learning contribution tends to not identify task-relevant features while an excessive reinforcement learning contribution tends to initially learn slowly and then to reach sub-optimal performance. These results are consistent with the experimental evidence regarding categorical activations of extrastriate cortices in healthy conditions. Finally, the results produced by the two extreme cases of our model can explain the existence of several factors that may lead to sensory alterations in autistic people
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
The present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
We provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
We conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
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