Measuring attention to reward as an individual trait: the value-driven attention questionnaire (VDAQ)

The effect of reward and punishment on the extinction of attentional capture elicited by value-related stimuli

Particular features of the stimuli that predict significant outcomes tend to capture our attention in a rather automatic and inflexible way. This form of attention has been described as a Pavlovian bias that mimics the phenomenon of sign-tracking described in animals, where reward-predictive cues become motivational magnets. In humans, Value-Modulated Attentional Capture (VMAC) refers to a phenomenon where distractors that signal high-value outcomes receive higher attentional priority. VMAC is particularly difficult to extinguish, showing a similar persistence often described in animal sign-tracking. In the present study, we evaluated to what extent VMAC would persist using a more specific extinction procedure than previous research, where instead of removing the possibility of obtaining rewards, the different discriminant stimuli that signal reward equate its value. Furthermore, we manipulated between experiments whether the high-value distractor predicted high-reward and high-punishment contingent to response accuracy (mimicking previous research; Experiment 1) or only high-reward (Experiment 2), and also explored the association of VMAC and its persistence with measures of emotional impulsivity employed in past research. Our results show that when both rewards and punishments are possible, VMAC does not extinguish after an extensive extinction stage, nor is it associated with measures of emotional impulsivity. When punishments were removed, we showed that VMAC gradually extinguished both in response times and accuracy and that the persistence of VMAC was significantly associated with positive urgency. We discussed these results on the potential of punishments to qualitatively alter learning and response strategies employed by participants.

Subjective Assessment of Rdoc-Related Constructs in Addiction and Compulsive Disorders: A Scoping Review

Objective

Obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs) and disorders due to addictive behavior (DABs) are prevalent conditions that share common neurobiological and behavioral characteristics. This scoping review aims to identify and map the range of subjective assessment tools (e.g., interviews and self-report instruments) for assessing Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) and related constructs underlying DABs and OCRDs, such as impaired response inhibition, habit formation, and compulsivity.

Method

A scoping review was performed following the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA ScR). The search was conducted in Medline, Web of Science, PsycINFO, and EMBASE databases. No constraints of data or document type were adopted.

Results

The search yielded 615 instruments, of which 79 were deemed transdiagnostic and capable of assessing at least one of the target constructs. Noteworthy tools included are the Cambridge-Chicago Compulsivity Trait Scale, the Self-report Habit Index, the Reward Probability Index, the Threat-Related Reassurance-Seeking Scale, and the recent Positive Valence Systems Scale.

Conclusions

Despite the growing body of literature on OCRDs and DABs as new diagnostic chapters and the number of tools with the potential to assess their transdiagnostic constructs clinically, most instruments were designed to capture dimensions or psychopathology not directly (or primarily) related to OCRDs, DABs and the concepts of impaired response inhibition, habit formation, and compulsivity in the context of these conditions. Further studies exploring the correlation between subjective assessments, corresponding behavior paradigms, and neuroimaging data would be of great value in the translation of RDoC constructs and domains into clinical settings.

Evaluating individual differences in rewarded Stroop performance: reliability and associations with self-report measures

In three separate experiments, we examined the reliability of and relationships between self-report measures and behavioral response time measures of reward sensitivity. Using a rewarded-Stroop task we showed that reward-associated, but task-irrelevant, information interfered with task performance (MIRA) in all three experiments, but individual differences in MIRA were unreliable both within-session and over a period of approximately 4 weeks, providing clear evidence that it is not a good individual differences measure. In contrast, when the task-relevant information was rewarded, individual differences in performance benefits were remarkably reliable, even when examining performance one year later, and with a different version of a rewarded Stroop task. Despite the high reliability of the behavioral measure of reward responsiveness, behavioral reward responsiveness was not associated with self-reported reward responsiveness scores using validated questionnaires but was associated with greater self-reported self-control. Results are discussed in terms of what is actually being measured in the rewarded Stroop task.

The past, present, and future of selection history

The last ten years of attention research have witnessed a revolution, replacing a theoretical dichotomy (top-down vs. bottom-up control) with a trichotomy (biased by current goals, physical salience, and selection history). This third new mechanism of attentional control, selection history, is multifaceted. Some aspects of selection history must be learned over time whereas others reflect much more transient influences. A variety of different learning experiences can shape the attention system, including reward, aversive outcomes, past experience searching for a target, target‒non-target relations, and more. In this review, we provide an overview of the historical forces that led to the proposal of selection history as a distinct mechanism of attentional control. We then propose a formal definition of selection history, with concrete criteria, and identify different components of experience-driven attention that fit within this definition. The bulk of the review is devoted to exploring how these different components relate to one another. We conclude by proposing an integrative account of selection history centered on underlying themes that emerge from our review.

Awareness is necessary for attentional biases by location-reward association

Many studies have reported attentional biases based on feature-reward associations. However, the effects of location-reward associations on attentional selection remain less well-understood. Unlike feature cases, a previous study that induced participants' awareness of the location-reward association by instructing them to look for a high-reward location has suggested the critical role of goal-driven manipulations in such associations. In this study, we investigated whether the reward effect occurred without goal-driven manipulations if participants were spontaneously aware of the location-reward association. We conducted three experiments using a visual search task that included four circles where participants received rewards; one possible target location was associated with a high reward, and another with a low reward. In Experiment 1, the target was presented among distractors, and participants had to search for the target. The results showed a faster reaction time in the high-reward rather than the low-reward locations only in participants aware of the location-reward association, even if they were not required to look for the association. Moreover, in Experiment 2, we replicated the main findings of Experiment 1, even when the target had an abrupt visual onset to restrict goal-driven manipulations. Furthermore, Experiment 3 confirmed that the effect observed in Experiment 2 could not be attributed to the initial eye position. These findings suggest that goal-driven manipulations are unnecessary for inducing reward biases to high-reward locations. We concluded that awareness of the association rather than goal-driven manipulations is crucial for the location-reward effect.

Relating value-driven attention to psychopathology

Reward-associated objects receive preferential attention, reflecting a bias in information processing that develops automatically following associative learning. Mounting evidence suggests that such value-driven attention operates abnormally in certain psychopathologies, with attentional biases for reward-associated objects being either exaggerated or blunted compared to healthy controls. Here, I review the evidence linking value-driven attention to psychopathology, including drug addiction, depression, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), compulsivity, and impulsive and risky decision-making. I conclude by offering an integrative framework for conceptualizing the link between value-driven attention and psychopathology, along with suggestions for future research into this burgeoning area of investigation, including research on object attachment.

Arousal-Biased Competition Explains Reduced Distraction by Reward Cues under Threat

Anxiety is an adaptive neural state that promotes rapid responses under heightened vigilance when survival is threatened. Anxiety has consistently been found to potentiate the attentional processing of physically salient stimuli. However, a recent study demonstrated that a threat manipulation reduces attentional capture by reward-associated stimuli, suggesting a more complex relationship between anxiety and the control of attention. The mechanisms by which threat can reduce the distracting quality of stimuli are unknown. In this study, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) on human subjects, we examined the neural correlates of attention to previously reward-associated stimuli with and without the threat of unpredictable electric shock. We replicate enhanced distractor-evoked activity throughout the value-driven attention network (VDAN) in addition to enhanced stimulus-evoked activity generally under threat. Importantly, these two factors interacted such that the representation of previously reward-associated distractors was particularly pronounced under threat. Our results from neuroimaging fit well with the principle of arousal-biased competition (ABC), although such effects are typically associated with behavioral measures of increased attention to stimuli that already possess elevated attentional priority. The findings of our study suggest that ABC can be leveraged to support more efficient ignoring of reward cues, revealing new insights into the functional significance of ABC as a mechanism of attentional control, and provide a mechanistic explanation of how threat reduces attention to irrelevant reward information.