Criterial Learning and Feedback Delay: Insights from Computational Models and Behavioral Experiments

The notion of a response criterion is ubiquitous in psychology, yet its cognitive and neural underpinnings remain poorly understood. To address this shortcoming, three computational models that capture different hypotheses about criterial learning were developed and tested. The time-dependent drift model assumes the criterion is stored in working memory and that its value drifts over time. The delay-sensitive learning model assumes that the magnitude of criterial learning is temporally discounted by feedback delay. The reinforcement-learning model assumes that criterial learning emerges from stimulus-response association learning without an explicit representation of the criterion, with learning rate also temporally discounted by feedback delay. The performance of these models was investigated under varying feedback delay and intertrial interval (ITI) durations. The time-dependent drift model predicted that long ITIs and feedback delays both impair criterial learning. In contrast, the delay-sensitive and reinforcement-learning models predicted impairments only with feedback delays. Two behavioral experiments, which tested these predictions, showed that human criterial learning is impaired by delayed feedback but not by long ITIs. These results support the delay-sensitive and reinforcement-learning models, and suggest that even in tasks that appear to rely on explicit, rule-based reasoning, criterial learning may have strong associative underpinnings.