ArticleLearning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.)2018
Sign-tracking is an expectancy-mediated behavior that relies on prediction error mechanisms.
Article in Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.), 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 23 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
23 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- Phasic dopamine encodes persistent attraction to reward cues.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Extinction of outcome-specific Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT), instrumental outcome devaluation, and reward-related attentional capture are predicted by affect-driven impulsivity.Learning & behavior · 2025Article
- Behavioral microanalyses refine sign-tracking characterization and uncover different response dynamics during omission and extinction learning.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Understanding the shift to compulsion in addiction: insights from personality traits, social factors, and neurobiology.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Review
- The role of sex on sign-tracking acquisition and outcome devaluation sensitivity in Long Evans rats.Behavioural brain research · 2023Article
- Effects of predictive and incentive value manipulation on sign- and goal-tracking behavior.Neurobiology of learning and memory · 2023Article
- Article
- Nucleus accumbens core acetylcholine receptors modulate the balance of flexible and inflexible cue-directed motivation.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Reward-Mediated, Model-Free Reinforcement-Learning Mechanisms in Pavlovian and Instrumental Tasks Are Related.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2023Article
- A mechanical task for measuring sign- and goal-tracking in humans: A proof-of-concept study.Behavioural brain research · 2023Article
- Flexible control of Pavlovian-instrumental transfer based on expected reward value.Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition · 2023Article
- Sex-biased effects of outcome devaluation by sensory-specific satiety on Pavlovian-conditioned behavior.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2023Article
- Quantifying the instrumental and noninstrumental underpinnings of Pavlovian responding with the Price equation.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2022Review
- Attentional capture by signals of reward persists following outcome devaluation.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2022Article
- Reinforcer predictability and stimulus salience promote discriminated habit learning.Journal of experimental psychology. Animal learning and cognition · 2021Article
- Individual variation in the vigor and form of Pavlovian conditioned responses: Analysis of a model system.Learning and motivation · 2020Article
- Sign-tracking behavior is sensitive to outcome devaluation in a devaluation context-dependent manner: implications for analyzing habitual behavior.Learning & memory (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Mapping sign-tracking and goal-tracking onto human behaviors.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2020Review
- Effects of Limited and Extended Pavlovian Training on Devaluation Sensitivity of Sign- and Goal-Tracking Rats.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
- Basolateral Amygdala to Nucleus Accumbens Communication Differentially Mediates Devaluation Sensitivity of Sign- and Goal-Tracking Rats.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
When discrete localizable stimuli are used during appetitive Pavlovian conditioning, "sign-tracking" and "goal-tracking" responses emerge. Sign-tracking is observed when conditioned responding is directed toward the CS, whereas goal-tracking manifests as responding directed to the site of expected reward delivery. These behaviors seem to rely on distinct, though overlapping neural circuitries, and, possibly, distinct psychological processes as well, and are thought to be related to addiction vulnerability. One currently popular view is that sign-tracking reflects an incentive motivational process, whereas goal-tracking reflects the influence of more top-down cognitive processes. To test these ideas, we used illness-induced outcome-devaluation and Kamin blocking procedures to determine whether these behaviors rely on similar or distinct underlying associative mechanisms. In Experiments 1 and 2 we showed that outcome-devaluation reduced sign-tracking responses, demonstrating that sign-tracking is controlled by reward expectancies. We also observed that post-CS goal-tracking in these animals is also devaluation sensitive. To test whether these two types of behaviors rely on similar or different prediction error mechanisms, we next tested whether Kamin blocking effects could be observed across these two classes of behaviors. In Experiment 3 we asked if sign-tracking to a lever CS could block the development of goal-tracking to a tone CS; whereas in Experiment 4, we examined whether goal-tracking to a tone CS could block sign-tracking to a lever CS. In both experiments blocking effects were observed suggesting that both sign- and goal-tracking emerge via a common prediction error mechanism. Collectively, the studies reported here suggest that the psychological mechanisms mediating sign- and goal-tracking are more similar than is commonly acknowledged.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.