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Poster Session A: Tuesday, August 12, 1:30 – 4:30 pm, de Brug & E‑Hall

Not Just Habits: How Feedback Sensitivity and Belief Updating Shape OCD

Lev Kiar Avberšek¹, Tom Beckers, Agnes Moors¹; ¹KU Leuven

Presenter: Lev Kiar Avberšek

OCD research has undergone several paradigmatic shifts – from cognitivism that emphasizes cognitive biases and threat-reducing function of compulsions, to the dual-process paradigm that views compulsions as habits. In our study, we build on recent ideas that focus on the relationship between aberrant feedback processing, model-based learning and OCD. Using a probabilistic contingency reversal task on two large online samples and computational modelling, we show that OCD is associated with diminished processing of certain types of feedback (i.e., rewards and valid feedback) and ability to distinguish valid from noise feedback, inflated mental model volatility and excessive epistemic uncertainty. Our results implicate the involvement of biased goal-directed mechanisms in OCD, challenging the habitual view. In future, we want to expand our ideas by investigating the neural correlates of these mechanisms.

Topic Area: Memory, Spatial Cognition & Skill Learning

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF