INCENTIVE EFFECTS AND PUPILLARY CHANGES IN ASSOCIATION LEARNING

Obtained pupillary measurements for 10 undergraduate Ss during a learning task. On a trial, 8 digit-noun pairs were presented aurally for immediate recall. The digit, even or odd, determined the monetary incentive for retaining the pair. The same nouns were paired to the Digits 2-9 for 8 trials, with a different pairing on every trial. High-reward (HR) items were learned more often than low-reward (LR) items, and occasioned larger pupillary dilations following the presentation of the response noun. Within an incentive class, pupil responses at study did not predict recall. The differential pupil response of Ss to HR and LR items corresponded closely to a behavioral index of preference for HR items. (21 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved). © 1969 American Psychological Association.