Reinforcement-Learning-Informed Queries Guide Behavioral Change.

ABSTRACT: Algorithmically defined aspects of reinforcement learning correlate with psychopathology symptoms and change with symptom improvement following cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT). Separate work in nonclinical samples has shown that varying the structure and statistics of task environments can change learning. Here, we combine these literatures, drawing on CBT-based guided restructuring of thought processes and computationally defined mechanistic targets identified by reinforcement-learning models in depression, to test whether and how verbal queries affect learning processes. Using a parallel-arm design, we tested 1,299 online participants completing a probabilistic reward-learning task while receiving repeated queries about the task environment (11 learning-query arms and one active contr

SUBMITTER: Brown VM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11617014 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature