Balleine & Dickinson (1998)

Goal-directed instrumental action: contingency and incentive learning and their cortical substrates

Neuropharmacology, 37(4-5), 407-419

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DOI

Abstract

Instrumental behaviour is controlled by two systems: a stimulus–response habit mechanism and a goal-directed process that involves two forms of learning. The first is learning about the instrumental contingency between the response and reward, whereas the second consists of the acquisition of incentive value by the reward. Evidence for contingency learning comes from studies of reward devaluation and from demonstrations that instrumental performance is sensitive not only the probability of contiguous reward but also to the probability of unpaired rewards. The process of incentive learning is evident in the acquisition of control over performance by primary motivational states. Preliminary lesion studies of the rat suggest that the prelimibic area of prefrontal cortex plays a role in the contingency learning, whereas the incentive learning for food rewards involves the insular cortex.

Reference

Balleine, B. W., & Dickinson, A. (1998). Goal-directed instrumental action: Contingency and incentive learning and their cortical substrates. Neuropharmacology, 37(4-5), 407-419.

What Rests on This

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Instrumental Learning Memory Systems

Definition

Goal-directed action rests on two kinds of learning, contingency learning (which action leads to which outcome) and incentive learning (how valuable that outcome is), whereas a separate stimulus–response habit mechanism does not track outcome value