Tests of neurobiologically-inspired Model of the Motivation-Learning Interface

描述(由申请者提供)：心理学区分了动机--驱使个人行动的过程--和认知--信息处理的过程。尽管它们在心理学中是分开的，但对动机和认知的研究需要结合在一起，因为没有动机的影响就没有认知。此外，认知神经科学和临床神经心理学表明，负责动机影响的大脑区域在解剖学或功能上与负责信息处理的区域不能分开。我们建议的工作将动机和认知的研究重新结合起来。这一目标对于理解正常功能以及我们理解和治疗临床患者的认知障碍的能力至关重要。我们的激励框架(源自监管焦点理论)假设人们的激励状态可以集中在潜在的收益(促进的重点)或潜在的损失(预防的重点)上。我们的重点是动机对分类学习的影响。分类学习为我们的研究提供了一个理想的试验台，因为(A)对所涉及的神经生物学系统和认知过程有很多了解，(B)这些神经生物学系统与临床疾病患者所涉及的神经生物学系统广泛重叠，以及(C)PI在这一领域拥有超过25年的综合经验。具体目的是考察调节焦点对外显假设检验学习和基于内隐相似性的学习的影响。我们还将社会关注引入了监管关注-学习框架。社会动机因素可能对了解许多神经心理障碍(如焦虑和抑郁)至关重要。这项工作对公共卫生的影响是多方面的。首先，在不了解正常功能的情况下，我们无法确定临床患者(例如，患有焦虑、抑郁、精神分裂症等的患者)表现不佳是因为他们的障碍导致认知障碍，还是因为他们的障碍导致动机不匹配。其次，对动机-学习接口的更详细的了解将有助于改进神经心理测试措施和康复训练策略。临床障碍中的动机因素和动机-认知界面知之甚少。这项建议将动机和认知的研究结合起来，以更好地了解它们对临床人群功能的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Psychology makes a distinction between motivation-processes that drive an individual to act-and cognition-processes by which information is processed. Despite their separation within Psychology, research on motivation and cognition need to be brought together because there is no cognition in the absence of motivational influences. Furthermore, cognitive neuroscience and clinical neuropsychology suggest that the brain areas responsible for motivational influences are not anatomically or functionally separable from those responsible for information processing. Our proposed work reunites research on motivation and cognition. This goal is crucial for understanding of normal functioning and for our ability to understand and treat cognitive deficits in clinical patients. Our motivational framework (derived from regulatory focus theory) assumes that people's motivational states can be focused on potential gains (a promotion focus) or on potential losses (a prevention focus). Our emphasis in on motivational influences on classification learning. Classification learning provides an ideal testbed for our studies because (a) much is known about the neurobiological systems and cognitive processes involved, (b) these neurobiological systems overlap extensively with those implicated in patients with clinical disorders, and (c) the Pis have over 25 years of combined experience in this field. The specific aims are to examine the effects of regulatory focus on explicit hypothesis-testing learning and implicit similarity-based learning. We also introduce social focus into the regulatory focus-learning framework. Social motivational factors are likely critical to an understanding of many neuropsychological disorders (e.g., anxiety and depression). The public health implications of this work are many. First, without understanding normal functioning, we cannot determine whether clinical patients (e.g., those with anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, etc) perform poorly because their disorder leads to cognitive impairments, or because it leads to a motivational mismatch. Second, a more detailed understanding of the motivation-learning interface will lead to improved neuropsychological testing measures and rehabilitation training strategies. Little is known about the motivational factors in clinicial disorders and about the motivation-cognition interface. This proposal reunites research on motivation and cognition to better understanding their effects on functioning in clinical populations.