Value-based attentional capture influences context-dependent decision-making

Abstract

Normative theories posit that value-based decision-making is context independent. However, decisions between two high-value options can be suboptimally biased by the introduction of a third low-value option. This context-dependent modulation is consistent with the divisive normalization of the value of each stimulus by the total value of all stimuli. In addition, an independent line of research demonstrates that pairing a stimulus with a high-value outcome can lead to attentional capture that can mediate the efficiency of visual information processing. Here we tested the hypothesis that value-based attentional capture interacts with value-based normalization to influence the optimality of decision-making. We used a binary-choice paradigm in which observers selected between two targets and the color of each target indicated the magnitude of their reward potential. Observers also had to simultaneously ignore a task-irrelevant distractor rendered in a color that was previously associated with a specific reward magnitude. When the color of the task-irrelevant distractor was previously associated with a high reward, observers responded more slowly and less optimally. Moreover, as the learned value of the distractor increased, electrophysiological data revealed an attenuation of the lateralized N1 and N2Pc responses evoked by the relevant choice stimuli and an attenuation of the late positive deflection (LPD). Collectively, these behavioral and electrophysiological data suggest that value-based attentional capture and value-based normalization jointly mediate the influence of context on free-choice decision-making.

The attention habit: how reward learning shapes attentional selection

“…Reward‐associated targets are preferentially processed as early as V1, and subliminally pairing reward with a particular orientation can give rise to perceptual learning . Preferential processing of an irrelevant but previously reward‐associated stimulus is reflected in the early P1 component of the event‐related potential over occipital electrodes using electroencephalography, and value‐driven attentional capture can influence the early visual processing of a target as reflected in the N1 component . Although consistent with the value‐based modulation of early visual processing in a bottom‐up fashion, the role of feedback in these modulations is difficult to assess, and more direct tests of value‐modulated perceptual learning are needed.…”

What is abnormal about addiction-related attentional biases?

“…Value-driven attentional capture by an irrelevant stimulus impairs the ability to choose between two differently-valued options in a speeded forced-choice task, resulting in less optimal choice performance (Itthipuripat et al, 2015). Attentional processing of reward-associated stimuli also predicts related economic risk-taking, with greater attentional bias for a high-value cue associated with larger wagers in a gambling task (San Martin et al, 2016).…”

Mechanisms of habitual approach: Failure to suppress irrelevant responses evoked by previously reward-associated stimuli.

“…Value-driven attentional biases are also more pronounced in adolescence, a period of life marked by increases in risky reward-motivated behavior (Roper, Vecera, & Vaidya, 2014). In non-clinical samples, attentional processing of reward-associated stimuli predicts related economic risk-taking (San Martin, Appelbaum, Huettel, & Woldorff, 2016), and value-driven attentional capture can interfere with the process of value-based decision-making (Itthipuripat, Cha, Rangsipat, & Serences, 2015). …”

“…Such a mechanism, if it were to play a role in the sort of problematic reward-motivated behavior described above, would need to involve more than changes in the strength of perceptual input. Such perceptual modulation could explain biases in deciding between multiple potentially rewarding options (e.g., Itthipuripat et al, 2015; San Martin et al, 2016), but has difficulty explaining how people might come to make decisions that are in opposition to their current goals. Were associative reward learning capable of exerting such a powerful and direct influence on approach behavior, it would imply a change in the nature of the processing of the response code itself, such that the response code generated by a previously reward-associated stimulus is afforded a competitive advantage.…”