Workshop on Sign-Tracking and Goal-Tracking

Research on individual differences in Pavlovian conditioned approach has developed rapidly across several partly overlapping areas: animal work on the neural and neurochemical mechanisms underlying sign- and goal-tracking, computational accounts of why identical cue–reward contingencies can produce different conditioned responses across individuals, and a growing body of human research using measures such as eye-tracking, physical approach tasks and Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer. Although these approaches increasingly inform one another, researchers working with the different paradigms and levels of analysis do not often have the opportunity to meet in the same setting. The aim of this workshop is therefore to bring together researchers across these areas and create space for detailed discussion of how sign-tracking and goal-tracking are currently conceptualised, measured and modelled. The workshop is hosted by the CRC PIs Daniel Schad and Ralf Engbert.