Skip to main content
bioRxiv
  • Home
  • About
  • Submit
  • ALERTS / RSS
Advanced Search
New Results

Decreased confidence in loss-avoidance contexts is a primary meta-cognitive bias of human reinforcement learning

Chih-Chung Ting, View ORCID ProfileStefano Palminteri, View ORCID ProfileJan B. Engelmann, View ORCID ProfileMaël Lebreton
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/593368
Chih-Chung Ting
1Department of Economics, University of Amsterdam
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
Stefano Palminteri
2INSERM and École Normale Supérieure
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Stefano Palminteri
Jan B. Engelmann
1Department of Economics, University of Amsterdam
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Jan B. Engelmann
Maël Lebreton
3Department of Basic Neurosciences and Swiss Center for Affective Science, University of Geneva
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • ORCID record for Maël Lebreton
  • For correspondence: mael.lebreton@unige.ch
  • Abstract
  • Full Text
  • Info/History
  • Metrics
  • Preview PDF
Loading

Abstract

In simple probabilistic instrumental-learning tasks, humans learn to seek reward and to avoid punishment equally well. Despite this remarkable symmetry in choice accuracy between gain and loss contexts, two recent effects of valence have been independently documented in reinforcement learning. First, decisions in a loss-context are slower, which is consistent with the Pavlovian-instrumental transfer hypothesis. Second, the loss context decreases individuals’ confidence in their choices. Whether these two effects are two facets of a single process or two independent effects of valence is still unknown. Here, across five experiments, we assessed the relative merit of the two hypotheses. Our results show that, in loss-contexts, the decrease in confidence in one’s choices can be robustly observed in the absence of the response time bias. This suggests that the effects of valence on motor and metacognitive responses, although concomitant in most cases, are dissociable. Jointly, these results highlight new important constraints that should be incorporated in mechanistic models of decision-making that integrate choice, reaction times and confidence.

Footnotes

  • Author note: This work was supported by startup funds from the Amsterdam School of Economics, awarded to JBE. JBE and ML are grateful for support from Amsterdam Brain and Cognition (ABC). ML is supported by an NWO Veni Fellowship (Grant 451-15-015), and the Swiss National Fund Ambizione Grant (PZ00P3_174127). SP is supported by an ATIP-Avenir grant (R16069JS), the Programme Emergence(s) de la Ville de Paris, the Fyssen foundation and a Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience ANR-NSF grant (ANR-16-NEUC-0004). The authors declare that they have no competing interests. Designed the study: CCT, ML, SP and JBE. Collected the data: CCT; Analyzed the data: CCT, ML. Interpreted the results: CCT, ML and JBE. Drafted the manuscript: ML. Edited and finalized the manuscript: CCT, ML, SP and JBE.

  • ↵* Co last-authorship

Copyright 
The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
Back to top
PreviousNext
Posted April 04, 2019.
Download PDF
Email

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word about bioRxiv.

NOTE: Your email address is requested solely to identify you as the sender of this article.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Decreased confidence in loss-avoidance contexts is a primary meta-cognitive bias of human reinforcement learning
(Your Name) has forwarded a page to you from bioRxiv
(Your Name) thought you would like to see this page from the bioRxiv website.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Share
Decreased confidence in loss-avoidance contexts is a primary meta-cognitive bias of human reinforcement learning
Chih-Chung Ting, Stefano Palminteri, Jan B. Engelmann, Maël Lebreton
bioRxiv 593368; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/593368
Reddit logo Twitter logo Facebook logo LinkedIn logo Mendeley logo
Citation Tools
Decreased confidence in loss-avoidance contexts is a primary meta-cognitive bias of human reinforcement learning
Chih-Chung Ting, Stefano Palminteri, Jan B. Engelmann, Maël Lebreton
bioRxiv 593368; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/593368

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Subject Area

  • Animal Behavior and Cognition
Subject Areas
All Articles
  • Animal Behavior and Cognition (4384)
  • Biochemistry (9602)
  • Bioengineering (7100)
  • Bioinformatics (24889)
  • Biophysics (12626)
  • Cancer Biology (9968)
  • Cell Biology (14365)
  • Clinical Trials (138)
  • Developmental Biology (7966)
  • Ecology (12116)
  • Epidemiology (2067)
  • Evolutionary Biology (15997)
  • Genetics (10932)
  • Genomics (14746)
  • Immunology (9875)
  • Microbiology (23684)
  • Molecular Biology (9486)
  • Neuroscience (50911)
  • Paleontology (370)
  • Pathology (1540)
  • Pharmacology and Toxicology (2684)
  • Physiology (4022)
  • Plant Biology (8669)
  • Scientific Communication and Education (1510)
  • Synthetic Biology (2397)
  • Systems Biology (6442)
  • Zoology (1346)