AUTHOR=Valentin Vivian V. , Maddox W. Todd , Ashby F. Gregory 

TITLE=A computational model of the temporal dynamics of plasticity in procedural learning: sensitivity to feedback timing

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=Volume 5 - 2014

YEAR=2014

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00643

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00643

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=The evidence is now good that different memory systems mediate the learning of different types of category structures. In particular, declarative memory dominates rule-based (RB) category learning and procedural memory dominates information-integration (II) category learning. For example, several studies have reported that feedback timing is critical for II category learning, but not for RB category learning – results that have broad support within the memory systems literature. Specifically, II category learning has been shown to be best with feedback delays of 500ms compared to delays of 0 and 1000ms, and highly impaired with delays of 2.5 seconds or longer. In contrast, RB learning is unaffected by any feedback delay up to 10 seconds. We propose a neurobiologically detailed theory of procedural learning that is sensitive to different feedback delays. The theory assumes that procedural learning is mediated by plasticity at cortical-striatal synapses that are modified by dopamine-mediated reinforcement learning. The model captures the time-course of the biochemical events in the striatum that cause synaptic plasticity, and thereby accounts for the empirical effects of various feedback delays on II category learning.