Relevance-based updates to contexts memorized during implicit statistical learning

Abstract

The model is provided nearly identical stimulus as in an experiment from (Jiang & Leung, 2005). This experiment was chosen because of its focus on the role of attention in both implicit statistical learning and the retrieval of memories formed during implicit statistical learning. Provided nearly identical visual stimulus as human subjects, the model successfully simulates the contextual cueing effect (Chun & Jiang, 1998). Critically, the model also reproduces a key anomaly observed in (Jiang & Leung, 2005) and provides an alternative explanation appealing to relevance-based updates to the memory formed during implicit statistical learning versus Jiang and Leung’s appeal to a lack of learning due to associative blocking (Kamin, 1969). The modelling effort availed some interesting theoretical implications for implicit statistical learning regarding the interaction of reward, attention, and memory. The model’s results and implications are discussed at the end.