Prior Experience Modifies Acquisition Trajectories Via Response-Strategy Sampling

Abstract

Signal detection as a theoretical framework has been a boon to psychological science, uniting many effects in mathematically tractable theories. Few studies, however, have considered acquisition within a signal-detection framework. The periods of acquisition and the dynamics of signal detection parameters (discriminability and criterion) are unclear, thus obscuring both the pliability and the evolution of these periods and parameters. We addressed this gap by training mice with differential prior experience in an auditory signal detection task. Briefly, naïve mice (Naïve), mice given separate experience with each of the later correct choice options (Correct Choice Response Transfer, CCRT), and mice experienced in conditional discriminations but not auditory signal detection (Conditional Discrimination Transfer, CDT) were trained to detect the presence or absence of a tone in white-noise. We found that a two-period (pre-solution and solution; see Heinemann, 1983) model of acquisition described the data well and that the pre-solution period was characterized not by several response strategies, but by a selective sampling of biased response strategies until adoption of a conditional responding strategy as mice transitioned into the solution period. Signal detection parameters reflected these dynamics: discriminability remained low until adoption of the conditional responding strategy indicating discriminability is sensitive to feedback and thus acquired; criterion took excursions reflecting selective sampling but not sensitivity to feedback. Prior experience affected the length and composition of the pre-solution period. CCRT and CDT mice had shorter pre-solution periods than naïve mice, CDT and Naïve mice developed substantial criterion biases and acquired asymptotic discriminability faster than CCRT mice. We discuss these data in terms of implications for signal detection and learning theories, proposing a modification of learning theories in which inferential processing during the pre-solution period may facilitate acquisition.

Assessing complex odor discrimination in mice using a novel instrumental patterning task.

“…Additionally, these findings are largely consistent with extant stimulus representation theories (Delamater et al, 1999.;Rescorla, 1973Rescorla, , 1997. Although the present data cannot adjudicate between these theories, we believe this task offers a robust method by which to explore both the psychological (e.g., Daniels & Balsam, 2020;Gershman & Niv, 2010) and neurological (e.g., Dalal et al, 2020;Sayin et al, 2018) mechanisms of both acquisition and complex odor stimulus representation.…”