Rewards and Memory: An Exploration of the Interaction
Rouhani, Norman "Niv (2018) pertinently pointed out that errors pertaining to reward-prediction tend to track the degree to which rewards are deviated from expectations and assist in learning. In this study, the researchers highlighted the significance of reward learning and attempted to explore the dissociable impact of rewards (surprising) on memory and learning. The researchers asked the question that how the errors focus on interacting with the memory for the episode (rewarding)? The researchers explored that present studies indicate both competitive and cooperative interactions between memory and learning mechanisms (Rouhani et al., 2018). This study was focused on evaluating whether learning about rewards in a context (high-risk) having large, frequent prediction errors, would lead to a higher reliability traces of memory for rewarding events as compared to learning within a context having low risk.
Experimental Design and Results
The researchers conducted 3 experiments. In the first experiment, the recognition was revealed to be better for elements related to larger prediction errors during the period of reward learning. However, there was no significant association found between the rate of learning for reward and recognition preciseness for specific items (Rouhani et al., 2018). This aspect recommended that these 2 prediction errors’ effects were sparked due to underlying distinct mechanisms. In the 2nd experiment, the obtained findings were replicated with a time-taking task that enabled more learning and posed stronger demand for memory. The 3rd experiment included controlling the reward learning’s difficulty within risk environments, which involved replication of the previous findings (Rouhani et al., 2018). Further, the control highlighted that the context having high-risk tend to improve the memory (item-recognition) beyond the prediction errors’ effect. The findings revealed that the prediction errors focus on boosting both incremental reward learning and episodic item memory; however, the 2 influences tend to be mediated through underlying separate mechanisms.
References
Rouhani, N., Norman, K. A., " Niv, Y. (2018). Dissociable effects of surprising rewards on learning and memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition. 44(9), 1430-1443.
