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

描述（由申请人提供）：心理学区分了动机（驱动个人行动的过程）和认知（处理信息的过程）。尽管动机和认知在心理学中是分离的，但它们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与负责信息处理的大脑区域在解剖学或功能上是不可分离的。我们提出的工作将动机和认知的研究结合起来。这个目标对于理解正常功能以及我们理解和治疗临床患者认知缺陷的能力至关重要。我们的动机框架（源自调节焦点理论）假设人们的动机状态可以集中在潜在的收益（促进焦点）或潜在的损失（预防焦点）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测试平台，因为(a)对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的神经生物学系统有广泛的重叠，(c) Pis在这一领域有超过25年的综合经验。具体目的是研究调节焦点对外显假设检验学习和内隐相似性学习的影响。我们还将社会焦点引入到监管焦点-学习框架中。社会动机因素可能是理解许多神经心理障碍（如焦虑和抑郁）的关键因素。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（例如那些患有焦虑症、抑郁症、精神分裂症等）表现不佳是因为他们的疾病导致认知障碍，还是因为它导致动机不匹配。其次，更详细地了解动机-学习界面将有助于改进神经心理测试措施和康复训练策略。对临床障碍的动机因素和动机-认知界面知之甚少。该建议将动机和认知的研究结合起来，以更好地理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.