A Psychophysical Approach to Test: “The Bignetti Model”

Abstract

The cognitive “Bignetti Model” (TBM) thoroughly discussed elsewhere, shares a strong analogy with “Learning Through Experience” (LTE) and Bayesian Learning Process (BLP). Here, TBM’s theory is challenged by means of a psychophysical press/no-press decision task (DT). Participants must press a computer key in response to sweet food image (SWEET) or refrain from doing it with a salted food image (SALTED) (24 trials each, mixed at random in a 48-trial DT). Reaction times (RT) plotted as a function of trials decrease exponentially according to a well-known “intertrial priming” effect. When 1 SWEET is repeated 24 times per DT, RTs tend to a minimal value that corresponds to the fastest, instinctive RT the participant can exhibit when engaged in a traffic light-based task. Interestingly, the more we change SWEET images, the greater are the final RTs in a DT (this disturbance is not seen by changing SALTED images). It is proposed that the increase of motivational incentives along the task may foster the learning process. In the presence of SWEET distractors this process is impaired due to a short-term memory mismatch between increasing targets of similar semantics. These results are compatible both with the current literature and TBM.