Detection of invariants in probabilistic relations between events through exploratory behaviors

Research has demonstrated that individuals are sensitive to contingent probabilistic relations between events in the environment. However, the factors that underlie this adaptation are not fully understood. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess whether repetitions and variations in participants’ responses contributed to the detection of invariance in probabilistic environments. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed to relations between the initial and final trajectories of an arrow under probabilities of 1.0, 0.9 and 0.8. In the first half of the session, the arrows followed predominantly straight trajectories, but in the second half they changed to broken ones, or vice versa . In Experiment 2, sessions began with no relation between the arrows’ initial and final trajectories (p= 0.5), but in the second half probabilities of 1.0, 0.9 and 0.8 were presented for straight or broken trajectories. In both experiments, as the relation between the arrow’s initial and final trajectories became more changeable variations of behavior increased, while under more constant relations repetitions increased. Results support the notion that adaptation to probabilistic relations between events entails exploratory behaviors performed to detect invariant information of the environment.