Response: Commentary: Acetaminophen Enhances the Reflective Learning Process

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Jason Shumake¹  Rahel Pearson¹  Seth Koslov¹  Bethany Hamilton¹  Charles S. Carver²  Christopher G. Beevers¹ 

[1] Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, United States;Department of Psychology, University of Miami, United States

关键词: acetaminophen;    comment;    COVIS;    reflexive learning;    reflective learning;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.02099

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

We are writing in response to a commentary by McPhetres (2019), who misrepresented our workregarding the differential impact of acetaminophen on reflexive vs. reflective learning (Pearsonet al., 2018). His commentary begins with a summary that fails to discuss or even acknowledgeour actual theoretical framework. Instead, McPhetres discusses an unreasonable extrapolation ofour findings that he has imagined: namely, a “smart pill” that improves learning writ large.Our actual research hypothesis and findings are not remotely this extraordinary. On thecontrary, they are grounded in theory emphasizing the contribution of serotonin to the balancebetween two modes of self-regulation, namely the Competition between Verbal and ImplicitSystems model (COVIS) of learning and decision making. Our hypothesis was that serotonin—notacetaminophen per se—biases neural systems toward reflective learning at the expense of reflexivelearning. Acetaminophen was a convenient tool for manipulating serotonin without the logisticalhurdles of administering a prescription SSRI, with the obvious caveat of having non-serotonergiceffects as well.

【 授权许可】

CC BY