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How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer

Research shows that stimuli in the environment can trigger behavior via the activation of goal representations. This process can be tested in the Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm, where stimuli can only affect behavior through the activation of the representation of its desired outc...

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Autores principales: Qin, Kaiyang, Marien, Hans, Custers, Ruud, Aarts, Henk
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10088748/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37359629
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04612-2
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author Qin, Kaiyang
Marien, Hans
Custers, Ruud
Aarts, Henk
author_facet Qin, Kaiyang
Marien, Hans
Custers, Ruud
Aarts, Henk
author_sort Qin, Kaiyang
collection PubMed
description Research shows that stimuli in the environment can trigger behavior via the activation of goal representations. This process can be tested in the Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm, where stimuli can only affect behavior through the activation of the representation of its desired outcome (i.e., the PIT effect). Previous research has demonstrated that the PIT effect is stronger when the goal is more desirable. While this research only looked at actions that have single outcomes (e.g., obtaining a snack to satisfy appetite), in the present paper, we reason that actions that are instrumental in obtaining outcomes that are desirable in multiple ways (e.g., obtaining a snack to satisfy one’s appetite, giving it to a friend, trading it for money) should produce stronger PIT effects. In two experiments, participants learned to perform left and right key presses to earn a snack, either framed as having a single function or multiple functions. Participants also learned to associate the two differently framed snacks with two cues. In a PIT test, they were required to press the keys as fast as possible upon exposure to the cues (i.e., the PIT effect). We found that cues associated with the multi-functional snack facilitated the actions that earned those snacks before, while cues associated with the single-functional snack did not facilitate such actions. We discuss these findings in the context of research on free choice and personal autonomy and how people appreciate the multi-functional nature of their goal-directed behavior in the environment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04612-2.
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spelling pubmed-100887482023-04-12 How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer Qin, Kaiyang Marien, Hans Custers, Ruud Aarts, Henk Curr Psychol Article Research shows that stimuli in the environment can trigger behavior via the activation of goal representations. This process can be tested in the Pavlovian-to-Instrumental Transfer (PIT) paradigm, where stimuli can only affect behavior through the activation of the representation of its desired outcome (i.e., the PIT effect). Previous research has demonstrated that the PIT effect is stronger when the goal is more desirable. While this research only looked at actions that have single outcomes (e.g., obtaining a snack to satisfy appetite), in the present paper, we reason that actions that are instrumental in obtaining outcomes that are desirable in multiple ways (e.g., obtaining a snack to satisfy one’s appetite, giving it to a friend, trading it for money) should produce stronger PIT effects. In two experiments, participants learned to perform left and right key presses to earn a snack, either framed as having a single function or multiple functions. Participants also learned to associate the two differently framed snacks with two cues. In a PIT test, they were required to press the keys as fast as possible upon exposure to the cues (i.e., the PIT effect). We found that cues associated with the multi-functional snack facilitated the actions that earned those snacks before, while cues associated with the single-functional snack did not facilitate such actions. We discuss these findings in the context of research on free choice and personal autonomy and how people appreciate the multi-functional nature of their goal-directed behavior in the environment. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-023-04612-2. Springer US 2023-04-11 /pmc/articles/PMC10088748/ /pubmed/37359629 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04612-2 Text en © The Author(s) 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Article
Qin, Kaiyang
Marien, Hans
Custers, Ruud
Aarts, Henk
How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
title How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
title_full How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
title_fullStr How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
title_full_unstemmed How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
title_short How the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
title_sort how the environment evokes actions that lead to different goals: the role of object multi-functionality in pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10088748/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37359629
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-023-04612-2
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