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One experiment in human predictive learning explored the impact of a context change on attention to contexts and predictive ratings controlled by the cue. In Context A: cue X was paired with an outcome four times, while cue Y was presented without an outcome four times in Context B:. In both contexts filler cues were presented without the outcome. During the test, target cues X and Y were presented either in the context where they were trained, or in the alternative context. With the context change expectation of the outcome X, expressed as predictive ratings, decreased in the presence of X and increased in the presence of Y. Looking at the contexts, expressed as a percentage of the overall gaze dwell time on a trial, was high across the four training trials, and increased with the context change. Results suggest that the presentation of unexpected information leads to increases in attention to contextual cues. Implications for contextual control of behavior are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An experiment on taste sensory analysis was conducted to explore the effects of manipulating signal intensity and response incentives on sensitivity and decision processes when evaluating basic tastes under high ecological validity conditions. Salt concentration (0.07%, 0.1% or 0.75%) and payoff matrices that were intended to produce lenient, conservative, or neutral response strategies were manipulated in a full factorial between-subjects design. Salt concentration only affected the sensory process (sensory index A’) while payoffs only affected the decision process (decision index B’ D ). The effect of the payoff manipulation on the decision index was symmetrical for lenient and conservative induced response strategies, though less extreme than the values predicted by Signal Detection Theory for an optimal performance under unbalanced payoffs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participants were trained in a human predictive learning task in which they had to predict whether the ingestion of a given food (cue) by the imaginary customer of an imaginary restaurant (context) was followed by gastric malaise (outcome). One food was always followed by gastric malaise in one of the contexts, while other foods were not followed by gastric malaise in the same, or in an alternative context. Predictive responses and eye-fixations were recorded throughout the 48 training trials with each cue involved in the task. In agreement with the predictions of the Attentional Theory of Context Processing, attention to the contexts measured through eye-fixations decreased while attention to the cues increased as training progressed. The results of this study give support to the idea that contexts are actively processed at the beginning of acquisition, and that this processing decreases as training increases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: An experiment evaluated a Signal Detection Theory (SDT) approach to olive oil tasting research within laboratory conditions akin to ecological tasting situations. Participants confronted a tasting situation in which olive oil concentration (0.4%, 0.8% or 1.6%) and instructions (lenient or conservative) were manipulated in a full factorial between-subjects design. Results were analyzed using a variety of measures of sensitivity and bias, both parametric and non-parametric, as well as robust statistics. Olive oil concentration only affected sensory processes while instructions only affected decision processes. Non-parametric indices of sensitivity A′ and bias B′D, and robust analysis of variance were, both conceptually and methodologically, the most suitable for separately measuring sensory and decision processes in the context of olive oil tasting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Training schedules including progressive increments of difficulty lead to a better performance on a harder version of a discrimination task than non-progressive schedules that only include the hardest level of difficulty. A detection task in which participants had to detect whether the samples that they tasted contained a small amount of olive oil was used to test the relevance of this phenomenon in an olive oil tasting context. Two groups of participants received three training sessions with this task before receiving a final test of performance. In group hard-to-hard, olive oil concentration was kept low and constant throughout sessions and testing. In group easy-to-hard, olive oil concentration was high in the first training session. Olive oil concentration was progressively decreased across sessions, reaching the same level of the hard-to-hard group at the time of testing. Results showed better ability for detecting olive oil when participants were trained with progressively lower concentrations of olive oil than when the training program involved only the lowest (most difficult) one. Progressive training led participants to show a conservative bias that did not appear when training was only conducted with the most difficult discrimination. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Experimental research in Psychology is characterized by ensuring a method that guarantees objectivity, reliability, validity and replication of results. In this theoretical study we propose a set of criteria for the preparation and review of quasi-experimental and experimental research manuscripts, which follows such methodological objective dictates. These criteria are based on a review of structural aspects in experimental research, in the modern theory of psychological theorization, and in the validity theory of scientific research. All these aspects are complemented with those proposed in revisions about empirically-based, statistically-based peer-review systems, and recently refined according to the expert judgment approach. We distinguish between essential, obligatory, complementary, and methodological criteria. These norms are organized according to a measuring tool -the ExperimenCheck2 system-, including report characteristics, antecedents, theoretical development, design, analysis and interpretation of results, format and bibliographical sources, also summarized in the form of a conceptual map. We also introduce the general guidelines of a reviewing process that fulfils scientific criteria, using the proposed evaluative guideline as the main organizing principle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Context change impairs expression of acquisition in the absence of interference. • Switching the context reduces predictive ratings and response speed. • Experiencing interference enhances the effect of changing the context on acquisition. • The Extinction Makes Acquisition Context Specific effect is demonstrated using images rather than verbally defined contexts. One experiment evaluated the effect of extinction on the context dependence of non-extinguished information in a situation in which physical (images), rather than predominantly verbal, contexts were used in human predictive learning. Participants received training in which different foods (Cues) were associated with the presence or the absence of gastric illness (outcome) in customers of different restaurants (contexts). One cue was associated with the gastric illness while a different cue was either extinguished or not between groups. A change in the context at test led to a general decrease in both predictive judgments and the speed of responding to the non-extinguished cue. However, these decreases were greater when training was conducted during extinction of the different cue demonstrating the extinction makes acquisition context-specific (EMACS) effect. Results are contrasted with failures to find the effect in other reports and discussed in terms of extinction leading to an allocation of attentional resources to the context, facilitating the context dependence of information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Sensory evaluation of olive oil has been conducted by using the Classical Threshold Theory perspective. This approach does not allow the separation of purely sensory processes from other factors that may affect performance such as tasters’ cognitive biases. Two experiments were conducted with the goal of developing a task that, using the logic of Signal Detection Theory (SDT), would allow sensory and decision processes to be separately assessed within an olive oil tasting task, overcoming the shortcomings of the traditional Classical Threshold Theory approach. Experiment 1a used classic psychophysics theory to establish the olive oil concentrations that were used later in Experiment 1b. Experiment 1b presents a taste task based on SDT (by using signal and noise stimuli) that allowed establishing ROC curves and the separate calculation of sensory and decision indexes. Non-parametric detection and sensory indexes, and robust analyses of variance are proposed to overcome the problems associated with the use of a limited number of trials involved. The advantages of the SDT approach in olive oil tasting are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]