When people learn that surrounding visuals and sounds may signify specific choice outcomes, these cues can become guides for decision making. For people with compulsive disorders, addictions, or anxiety, the associations between cues and choice outcomes can eventually promote poor decisions as they come to favor or avoid cues in a more biased manner. Giuseppe di Pellegrino, from the University of Bologna, led a study to explore associative learning and maladaptive decision making in people.
As reported in their JNeurosci paper, the researchers discovered that some people rely on surrounding cues to make decisions more than others. Furthermore, these individuals may have a harder time updating their beliefs and unlearning these associations when the cues change to signify riskier outcomes. This leads to more disadvantageous decision making that persists over time.
According to the researchers, this work suggests that some people have stronger cue sensitivity and less of an ability to update their beliefs about cues than others. The researchers aim to continue exploring associative learning in patient populations and probing whether harmful decision patterns—which characterize addictions, compulsive disorders, and anxiety—are more likely in those with heightened sensitivity to visuals and sounds that guide their choices.
