Human overshadowing in a virtual pool: Simple guidance is a good competitor against locale learning

doi:10.1016/S0023-9690(03)00020-1

Learning and Motivation

Volume 34, Issue 3, August 2003, Pages 262-281

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0023-9690(03)00020-1 Get rights and content

Abstract

In four experiments a new virtual preparation for humans of the Morris water task (VMWT) was used. Psychology students were trained to locate a platform (either visible or invisible) in the presence of four landmarks (A, B, C, D), spaced at equal intervals around the edge of the pool. At the end of training one test trial was given in the presence of one or several landmarks, without the platform, and the time the students spent in the platform quadrant was registered. Experiment 1 used an invisible platform. It was designed to see how much the students had learned either of the whole set of four landmarks or of some subset of it when searching for the platform on test. When tested with four or two landmarks (either relatively near or far from the platform), the students’ performance was equivalent and significantly better than that obtained with one landmark only (either relatively near or far from the platform). In Experiment 2, for Group Experimental, the platform was visible, while for Group Control, it was invisible. On the test trial, a clear overshadowing effect was found: the Overshadowing group spent significantly less time in the platform quadrant than the Control group. A third group, Group Experimental-Slow, was subsequently added to eliminate an alternative explanation of spatial overshadowing in terms of differential experience with the landmarks during training. Finally, Experiments 3 and 4 were conducted to control for generalization decrement. The data are discussed within the growing body of evidence that suggests that the general laws of learning apply to many species, both in the spatial and temporal domains.

Section snippets

Experiment 1

By virtual navigation humans can locate a hidden goal using virtual landmarks in much the same way that rats do (Astur, Ortiz, & Sutherland, 1998). The aim of Experiment 1 was to see if our behavioural preparation, a virtual Morris task, would work with students. Specifically, we aimed to establish that students could learn to locate the platform when trained with four landmarks that were rotated with the platform from trial to trial(the test of such learning being that they would spend more

Experiment 2

The aim of Experiment 2 was to find out whether locale or landmark-based learning could be overshadowed by simple guidance when using a virtual Morris water task (VMWT) and students as subjects. This work expands on that of March et al. (1992, Experiment 3).

The experiment consisted of two groups of students, Group Experimental (with landmarks and a visible platform) and Group Control (with landmarks and a hidden platform). On the test trial, in the presence of the landmarks and without the

Experiment 3

Experiment 2 has an alternative explanation in terms of generalization decrement. It is arguable that in Experiment 2 the students trained with the visible platform (Group Experimental) may have performed less accurately on the test trial than the students trained with the invisible platform (Group Control) because the configuration of landmarks also included the sight of the platform. Thus, the response learned to the configuration formed by A, B, C, D, and the platform did not transfer

Experiment 4

In Experiment 3, no overshadowing effect was found and, equally importantly, the performance of the students in both groups did not reflect significant spatial learning on the test trial. We questioned the worth of both the acquisition task and the dependent variable we had used (i.e., time to reach the safe platform when two platforms are visible, one safe and one false). Therefore, in Experiment 4, the acquisition task used in Experiment 3 was converted into a discrimination task. In this

General discussion

Experiment 1 showed that students trained in a virtual Morris water task with four landmarks present that, along with the platform, virtually rotated from trial to trial, learned to locate the platform: they spent more time in the platform quadrant than expected by chance on a test trial. The control exerted by different subsets of these landmarks was different. When tested with four or two landmarks (either relatively near or far from the platform), the students’ performance was equivalent and

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Three experiments examined whether three factors (view of external targets, colored wall cues, previous exploration of room) facilitate orientation within a virtual building and whether the interaction between the first two factors align with predictions from associative learning. Participants were teleported into a virtual room and asked to face in the direction of an external occluded target using all, none, or a combination of these factors. Experiment 1 (n = 62) showed all 3 factors individually improved orientation. Experiment 2 (n = 28) illustrated that the interaction between external targets and colored wall cues was similar to an associative learning phenomenon, where more salient cues inhibit learning about less salient cues (called overshadowing). Previous research suggests salience of spatial cues can be moderated by familiarity with the cues. In both Experiment 1 and 2, participants were familiar with the external targets but not the colored wall cues. Experiment 3 (n = 92) manipulated familiarity with the external targets and found that when participants were not familiar with the external targets, they became overshadowed by colored wall cues. The results are a novel demonstration that spatial cues within a nested environment interact in a way predicted by associative learning.
Overshadowing, but not relative validity, between the elements of an outcome during human associative learning
2023, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
Overshadowing and relative validity constitute two phenomena that inspired the development of the Rescorla-Wagner model in 1972. They demonstrate that cues will interact with one another for an association with the presence or absence of an outcome. Here, three experiments sought to explore whether these two effects extended to outcomes using a food allergist paradigm with human participants. In Experiment 1 (overshadowing) participants received trials in which a cue was followed by a compound of two outcomes (A-O1O2). Test trials revealed that participants learned less about the A-O2 association than they did between a control cue C, which had been paired with O2 in isolation (C-O2) in training – thus demonstrating an outcome overshadowing effect. In Experiment 2 (relative validity) participants received true discrimination trials, in which A was paired with an O1O3 compound and B was paired with an O2O3 compound, and pseudo discrimination trials, in which C and D were paired on 50% of the trials with an O4O6 compound and on the remaining trials with an O5O6 compound. Consequently, O3 is less well predicted by A and B relative to O1 and O2, whereas O6 is equally well predicted by C and D relative to O4 and O5. Despite the relative validity of A and B for O3 being less than the relative validity of C and D for O6, the ratings of A and B for O3 were the same as C and D for O6. This failure to observe an outcome relative validity effect was reproduced in Experiment 3, which replicated Experiment 2, but with an adjustment made to the number of training trials given to participants. These results are discussed in terms of a real-time development of the Rescorla-Wagner model provided by Wagner (1981).
Passively learned spatial navigation cues evoke reinforcement learning reward signals
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Specifically, what was in question was whether cognitive maps automatically update (e.g., Doeller & Burgess, 2008; Wang, 2004) or whether they are updated via a reinforcement learning mechanism (e.g., Chamizo, 2003). The general consensus in the literature is that cognitive map learning does follow, on some level, the rules of reinforcement learning (Chamizo, Aznar-Casanova, & Artigas, 2003; Hamilton & Sutherland, 1999; Redhead & Hamilton, 2007; Roberts & Pearce, 1999) given that blocking and overshadowing can impact the learning of spatial cues (Kamin, 1968, 1969). However, the learning of cognitive maps and relative importance of reinforcement learning in this process may also depend on local task goals and how information is presented within an environment (Pearce, 2009; Wang & Brockmole, 2003).
Since the suggestion by Tolman (1948) that both rodents and humans create cognitive maps during navigation, the specifics of how navigators learn about their environment has been mired in debate. One facet of this debate is whether or not the creation of cognitive maps – also known as allocentric navigation – involves reinforcement learning. Here, we demonstrate a role for reinforcement learning during allocentric navigation using event-related brain potentials (ERPs). In the present experiment, participants navigated in a virtual environment that allowed the use of three different navigation strategies (allocentric, egocentric-response, & egocentric-cue), in which their goal was to locate and remember a hidden platform. Following the navigation phase of the experiment, participants were shown “cue images” representative of the three navigation strategies. Specifically, we examined whether or not these passively learned strategy images elicited a reward positivity – an ERP component associated with reinforcement learning and the anterior cingulate cortex. We found that when allocentric navigators were shown previously learned cues predicting the goal location a reward positivity was elicited. The present findings demonstrate that allocentric navigational cues carry long-term value after navigation and lend support to the claim that reinforcement learning plays a role in the acquisition of allocentric navigation and thus the generation of cognitive maps.
Navigation in Virtual Space: Psychological and Neural Aspects
2015, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences: Second Edition
Virtual, computerized spatial navigation tasks have become increasingly popular and important tools for the study of behavioral and cognitive processes involved in spatial navigation and the underlying neural systems. This article provides a broad overview of (1) commonly used virtual navigation tasks, (2) basic behavioral observations relevant to strategies, learning processes, and attention, (3) effects of sex and age, (4) performance in individuals with neurological disorders or brain damage, (5) relationships between measures of brain structure and performance, and (6) findings from functional neuroimaging studies of virtual navigation. The use of virtual navigation approaches in nonhuman animals is also briefly summarized.
Navigational strategy may be more a matter of environment and experience than gender
2014, Learning and Motivation
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In other words, this finding was the opposite of ours. Our results are more consistent with a rat study cited in Chamizo et al. (2003). Roberts and Pearce (1999) showed that in the MWM, prior cue learning can block learning of surrounding landmarks.
In the study of wayfinding there is considerable controversy about what factors determine when and how strategies are selected. Allocentric strategies rely on the presence of distal, relational stimuli whereas egocentric strategies rely on the presence of proximal or simple guidance stimuli. Strategy use has often been explained by studies of internal factors like gender but little weight has been given to the study of how strategies are selected. The present study examined the effects of recent experience on strategy selection in three specially designed versions of a virtual Morris water maze (vMWM). Thirty-seven participants were trained either in an allocentrically biased “Place” maze or an egocentrically biased “Cue” maze, and then tested in a “Dual-strategy” maze, in which both allocentric and egocentric strategies were equally efficient. All participants trained with the Cue maze selected an egocentric strategy whereas two thirds of participants trained in the Place maze chose an allocentric strategy. A verbal probe revealed that allocentric strategists were more aware of features in the virtual environment than were egocentric strategists. No evidence of gender differences in strategy selection or navigation performance was found.
Environment size and the use of feature and geometric cues for reorientation
2013, Acta Psychologica
Citation Excerpt :
Given the ubiquity of the use of feature and geometric cues for reorientation, much theoretical and empirical work has focused on the mechanism(s) by which these spatial cues are used for orientation; however, debate remains concerning the extent to which learning about feature and geometric cues can be accounted for by the same mechanisms as that of classical and instrumental conditioning (for a review, see Cheng, 2008). For example, research has provided evidence for associative cue-competition effects such as blocking, overshadowing, second-order conditioning, and sensory preconditioning within the spatial domain (e.g., Cheng & Spetch, 2001; Chamizo, Aznar-Casanova, & Artigas, 2003; Jacobs, Laurance, & Thomas, 1997; Molet, Jozefowiez, & Miller, 2010; Rodrigo, Chamizo, McLaren, & Mackintosh, 1997; Sawa, Leising, & Blaisdell, 2005; Spetch, 1995, for a review, see Chamizo, 2003), and these associative-based accounts of spatial learning have been extended to account for learning about feature and geometric cues (Alexander et al., 2009; Dawson, Kelly, Spetch, & Dupuis, 2010; Miller, 2009; Miller & Shettleworth, 2007; Ponticorvo & Miglino, 2010; Prados, 2011; Prados, Alvarez, & Reynolds, 2011; Wilson & Alexander, 2008). Associative-based accounts of orientation suggest that feature and geometric cues are learned collectively by a single system governed by associative processes such that feature and geometric cues acquire independent associative strength (e.g., see Miller & Shettleworth, 2007).
We tested associative-based accounts of orientation by investigating the influence of environment size on the use of feature and geometric cues for reorientation. Two groups of participants were trained in dynamic three-dimensional virtual rectangular environments that differed in size to find a distinctly colored bin located at one of the four corners. Subsequently, we probed the reliance on feature and geometric cues for reorientation during test trials by presenting six trial types: Small Geometry Only, Large Geometry Only, Small Cue Conflict, Large Cue Conflict, Small Distal, and Large Distal. During Geometry Only test trials, all bins were black; thus, all distinctive featural information was removed leaving only geometric cues. For Cue Conflict test trials, all colored bins were shifted counter-clockwise one corner; thus, the geometric cues from the trained corner and the trained color were in direct conflict. During Distal test trials, the bin in the geometrically incorrect corner farthest from the trained corner was colored the same as during training; the remaining three bins were black. Thus, only this distant feature cue could be used to determine the location of the goal bin. Results suggested that geometric cues were used across changes in environment size, featural cues exerted greater influence when in conflict with geometric cues, and the far featural cue was used to disambiguate the correct from the rotationally equivalent location. In short, both feature and geometric cues were used for reorientation, and environment size influenced the relative use of feature and geometric cues. Collectively, our results provide evidence against associative-based accounts of orientation.

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^☆: The software for this study was designed by J.A. Aznar-Casanova. We are very grateful both to T. Rodrigo for her helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript, and also to an anonymous referee for his/her suggestion to run Group Experimental-Slow in Experiment 2. This research was supported by grants from the Spanish ‘Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologı́a’ (Refs. No. BSO2001-3264 and BSO2001-3639).

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Human overshadowing in a virtual pool: Simple guidance is a good competitor against locale learning☆

Abstract

Section snippets

Experiment 1

Experiment 2

Experiment 3

Experiment 4

General discussion

Behavioral Brain Research

Cognition

Behavioural Brain Research

Learning & Motivation

Learning & Motivation

Landmark stability is a prerequisite for spatial but not discrimination learning

Nature

Landmark stability: Further studies pointing to a role in spatial learning

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

No evidence for overshadowing or facilitation of spatial pattern learning by visual cues

Animal Learning & Behavior

Blocking and overshadowing between intra-maze and extra-maze cues: A test of the independence of locale and guidance learning

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

Acquisition of knowledge about spatial location: Assessing the generality of the mechanism of learning

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

The organization of learning

Predictability, surprise, attention and conditioning

Overshadowing and stimulus intensity

Animal Learning & Behavior

A theory of attention: Variations in the associability of of stimuli with reinforcement

Psychological Review