Pavlovian to instrumental transfer of control over fight or flight decisions

This study investigated outcome-selective Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer (PIT) in fight-or-flight decision making. Participants learned to attack or retreat from monsters (instrumental phase) and to associate environments with specific monsters without responding (Pavlovian phase). In the transfer phase, they chose responses to unseen monsters while exposed to conditioned stimuli (CSs). Study 1 (n = 86) found that CSs influenced fight-or-flight decisions, demonstrating both outcome-selective and outcome-general PIT effects. Study 2 (n = 76) tested the operation of cognitive beliefs with post-training instructions that reversed the CS-outcome relations, revealing a reversed PIT effect. Study 3 (n = 83) manipulated threat levels by featuring highly dangerous monsters. Results showed a larger specific PIT under low versus high threat with standard instructions but not with reversal instructions. Findings suggest that associative knowledge about upcoming threats is integrated with knowledge of defensive actions into cognitive beliefs about which response is most effective for coping with danger.