Research interests
My research interests are in cognitive psychology, especially human associative learning and memory.
Current projects
Pavlovian-instrumental interactions
This research project seeks to understand the how cues in our environment bias our behaviour, particularly for rewarding outcomes such as food or money. Some research suggests that reward-associated cues can automatically trigger responses that are associated with receiving those rewards, in a habit-like fashion. Other research suggests that reward-associated cues guide behaviour in a more controlled, goal-directed fashion. This research seeks to understand the role of habitual and goal-directed processes in the Pavlovian-instrumental transfer paradigm.
Publications:
Mahlberg, J., Seabrooke, T., Weidemann, G., Hogarth, L., Mitchell, C. J., Moustafa, A. A. (2019). Human Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer: a goal-directed account. Psychological Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00426-019-01266-3
Seabrooke, T., Hogarth, L., Edmunds, C. E. R., & Mitchell, C. J. (2019). Goal-directed control in Pavlovian-instrumental transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 45, 95–101. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000191
Seabrooke, T., Wills, A. J., Hogarth, L., & Mitchell, C. J. (2019). Automaticity and cognitive control: Effects of cognitive load on cue-controlled reward choice. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 1507-1521. https://doi.org/10.1177/1747021818797052
Seabrooke, T., Le Pelley, M. E., Porter, A., & Mitchell, C. J. (2018). Extinguishing cue-controlled reward choice: Effects of Pavlovian extinction on outcome-selective Pavlovian-instrumental transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 44, 280–292. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000176
Seabrooke, T., Le Pelley, M. E., Hogarth, L., & Mitchell, C. J. (2017). Evidence of a goal-directed process in human Pavlovian-instrumental transfer. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Learning and Cognition, 43, 377–387. https://doi.org/10.1037/xan0000147
Hardy, L., Mitchell, C. J., Seabrooke, T., & Hogarth, L. (2017). Drug cue reactivity involves hierarchical instrumental learning: Evidence from a biconditional Pavlovian to instrumental transfer task. Psychopharmacology, 234, 1977–1984. https://doi.org/10.1007/s0021
Seabrooke, T., Hogarth, L., & Mitchell, C. J. (2016). The propositional basis of cue-controlled reward seeking. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 69, 2452–2470. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470218.2015.1115885
Test-potentiated learning
It is well-established that tests are not only useful for assessment purposes, but also serve as potent tools to improve learning. This project seeks to understand the effects of a different type of test, called pretesting, on learning and memory. In a pretest scenario, students are asked to answer questions about a topic that they have yet to study. These pretests usually result in many errors, which allows a close investigation into the effects of errors on learning and memory.
Publications:
Seabrooke, T., Mitchell, C. J., Wills, A. J., & Hollins, T. J. (2020). Incorrect guessing boosts recognition, but not recall, of unrelated answers presented as feedback. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13423-020-01810-y
Seabrooke, T., Mitchell, C. J., Wills, A. J., Waters, J. L., & Hollins, T. J. (2019). Selective effects of errorful generation on recognition memory: The role of motivation and surprise. Memory, 9, 1250-1262. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2019.1647247
Seabrooke, T., Hollins, T. J., Kent, C., Wills, A. J., & Mitchell, C. J. (2019). Learning from failure: Errorful generation improves memory for items, not associations. Journal of Memory and Language, 104, 70–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2018.10.001
Research group
Centre for Perception and Cognition (CPC)