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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2016 Jun 24.
Published in final edited form as: J Neurophysiol. 2016 Apr 6;115(6):3195–3203. doi: 10.1152/jn.00046.2016

Figure 1. Task Schematic.

Figure 1

Participants completed a multi-armed bandit task, with an experiential and an observational learning condition. Individual slot machines were played on forced-choice trials and participants made choices between pairs of slot machines on free-choice trials. Each slot machine paid out a reward (€0.20) or nothing, with a reward probability that changed independently across machines and continuously throughout the task. On experiential forced-choice trials, the participant played the slot machine and earned the amount paid out, while on observational forced-choice trials they watched video of an observee playing the slot machine and earning the amount paid out. On all trials, a slot machine was selected for play within 2 seconds of the onset of a trial, after which the reels of that slot machine spun for 4 seconds. On forced-choice trials, the amount paid out was displayed for 2 seconds. On free-choice trials, the amount paid out was not displayed to the participant but was added to the participant’s earnings. All trials were followed by an ITI whose duration was drawn randomly from a discrete uniform distribution (min=1s, max=7s).