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Project 5: Prediction error and overt attention to relevant and irrelevant cues

Prof. Dr. Harald Lachnit

PhD Student: David Torrents Rodas

Through the joint operation of learning and attention, animals form adequate expectations about important events occurring in their environment. Following theories of associative learning, we take prediction error as the process underlying both the formation of expectations and the dynamic allocation of attention. Prediction error is the discrepancy between the expectation of an event, evoked by sensory cues present in a given situation, and the actual event. We use eye-tracking to measure changes in attention to visual cues while participants experience prediction errors. We want to study the specific ways in which prediction error produces those attentional changes.

Publications

Torrents-Rodas, D., Koenig, S., Uengoer, M., & Lachnit, H. (2021). A rise in prediction error increases attention to irrelevant cues. Biological Psychology, 159, 108007. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.108007

Torrents-Rodas, D., Koenig, S., Uengoer, M., & Lachnit, H. (2021). Evidence for two attentional mechanisms during learning. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218211019308

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