| Resumo: | In a learning environment, with multiple predictive cues for a single outcome,
cues interfere with or enhance each other during the acquisition process (e.g., Baker et
al., 1993). Previous experiments have focussed on cues that signal the presence or
absence of binary outcomes. This introduces a perceptual and perhaps motivational
asymmetry between excitatory and inhibitory learning. Here using a bidirectional
outcome, we asked whether learning about both generative (incremental positive
outcome) and preventative (incremental negative outcome) causal cues show similar
enhancement effects in opposite directions. In three experiments with humans using
predictive learning tasks, participants (N = 133) were exposed to probabilistic
predictive cues for opposite polarity events. Generative cues caused an increase in
outcome likelihood, while preventative cues decreased it. An analysis of explicit
predictive ratings found evidence for symmetrical learning and enhanced learning for
both generative and preventative cues. The results are discussed in relation to super
learning, an effect derived from theories of competitive learning based on error
correction, and from theories of contrasting probability estimates.
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