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

Environmental Conflict Modulates Pavlovian Bias: A Computational Account

Priyanshu¹; ¹Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur

Presenter: Priyanshu

While actions are often modeled as instrumental responses shaped by reinforcement learning, behavior is also controlled by stimulus-outcome associations known as Pavlovian responses. When these Pavlovian biases align with instrumental goals, behavior is facilitated but when they conflict, decision-making can become suboptimal. Such conflicts are particularly relevant in psychopathologies like anxiety, addiction, and depression, where exaggerated Pavlovian biases contribute to maladaptive behaviors. These biases are notoriously difficult to suppress, and current training-based interventions have shown limited success, even with training. To address this, we developed a novel approach-avoidance task with probabilistic outcomes, systematically varying the level of conflict both across trials and in the environment. Participants exhibited Pavlovian avoidance bias in the absence of any conflict in low environmental conflict situations. However, interestingly, as environmental conflict increased this bias was suppressed. Notably, individuals with high trait anxiety showed the strongest initial biases but also demonstrated the greatest improvement in high-conflict environment. These findings highlight environmental conflict as a powerful modulator of maladaptive Pavlovian biases, offering new insights into the development of more effective behavioral interventions for psychopathology.

Topic Area: Memory, Spatial Cognition & Skill Learning

Extended Abstract: Full Text PDF