Exciting news! Our groundbreaking work conducted by Kanen et al. (2022) has garnered recognition in the realm of science communication by PsyPost.

Recently, our research on the effects of LSD on learning and exploratory behavior in humans was featured on the highly regarded blog PsyPost. PsyPost is an independent science news website dedicated to reporting the latest research on human behaviour, cognition, and society. The article delves into our placebo-controlled study, revealing that LSD can enhance both learning and exploratory behavior. This breakthrough not only expands our understanding of psychedelic substances but also highlights their potential for positive cognitive impacts.

Our study titled “Goal-directed recruitment of Pavlovian biases through selective visual attention.” is now posted online in Journal of experimental psychology. Here, we examined prospective outcomes bias behavior in a "Pavlovian" manner, namely reward prospect invigorates action, while punishment prospect suppresses it.

Theories have posited Pavlovian biases as global action "priors" in unfamiliar or uncontrollable environments. However, this account fails to explain the strength of these biases-causing frequent action slips-even in well-known environments. We propose that Pavlovian control is additionally useful if flexibly recruited by instrumental control. Specifically, instrumental action plans might shape selective attention to reward/punishment information and thus the input to Pavlovian control.

In two eye-tracking samples (N = 35/64), we observed that Go/NoGo action plans influenced when and for how long participants attended to reward/punishment information, which in turn biased their responses in a Pavlovian manner. Participants with stronger attentional effects showed higher performance. Thus, humans appear to align Pavlovian control with their instrumental action plans, extending its role beyond action defaults to a powerful tool ensuring robust action execution