Instrumental learning in social interactions: Trait learning from faces and voices

Recent research suggests that reinforcement learning may underlie trait formation in social interactions with faces. The current study investigated whether the same learning mechanisms could be engaged for trait learning from voices. On each trial of a training phase, participants (N = 192) chose from pairs of human or slot machine targets that varied in the (1) reward value and (2) generosity of their payouts. Targets were either auditory (voices or tones; Experiment 1) or visual (faces or icons; Experiment 2) and were presented sequentially before payout feedback. A test phase measured participant choice behaviour, and a post-test recorded their target preference ratings. For auditory targets, we found a significant effect of reward only on target choices, but saw higher preference ratings for more generous humans and slot machines. For visual targets, findings from previous studies were replicated: participants learned about both generosity and reward, but generosity was prioritised in the human condition. These findings provide one of the first demonstrations of reinforcement learning of reward with auditory stimuli in a social learning task, but suggest that the use of auditory targets does alter learning in this paradigm. Conversely, reinforcement learning of reward and trait information with visual stimuli remains intact even when sequential presentation introduces a delay in feedback.