AP31974

Science Daily

In this article, graduate student, Jeffrey Cockburn in the research group of associate professor, Michael Frank, said “We weren’t looking to explain anything about choice bias to start off with” (Brown University, 2014). “This just happened to be the behavioral phenomenon we thought would emerge out of this credit assignment model” (Brown University, 2014). This was also linked to cognitive learning and reinforcement. In the textbook, cognitive process is the mental processes such as thinking, knowing, and problem solving, remembering, and forming mental representations (Wood, Wood, Boyd, 2011). The research is merely about how the dopamine is released into the striatum and the connection between the cortex and striatum. The dopamine effects provide the reinforcement by the responses of connections between cells, so that a reward behavior is easily repeated in the future. Genetic tests have focused on which governs how well cells in the striatum response to the reinforcing influences of the dopamine. In previous research, people were less able to learn from rewards, while others were less driven by the rewards (Brown University, 2014). It is the gene called DARPP-32 that is predominant in the striatum and affects the synaptic plasticity by increasing the dopamine signals (Brown University, 2014). In Cockburn’s and Frank’s study, they found that people who are predisposed to this gene are responsive to big rewards. They also have found that the reward learning imbalances from positive vs negative outcomes. For example some people, the plums are sweeter if they picked them (Brown University, 2014).

References:

Brown University. (2014, July 24). A reward is valued more if you choose it yourself: New quirky byproduct of learning from reward. ScienceDaily. Retrieved July 26, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140724124431.htm

Wood, Samuel E., Ellen R. Green. Wood, and Denise Roberts. Boyd. //Mastering the World of Psychology//. Fourth ed. Boston: Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2011. Print.

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