How are pictures registered in memory?

Three experiments tested the hypothesis that pictorial memory is much less dependent on rehearsal than is verbal memory. Experiment I examined incidental learning since this is assumed to reflect learning with little or no rehearsal. Following a classification task, intentional and incidental learning for pictures and for words was compared. The superiority of pictorial memory was especially marked in incidental learning. Experiment II showed that this result was not due to differences in the amount of processing required to classify pictures and words. RTs to classify words and pictures did not differ, and incidental learning was again superior for pictures. In Experiment III rehearsal opportunity was restricted by a concurrent task during presentation of word and picture lists, and the decrement was very much greater for word learning than for picture learning. It was concluded that manipulation of rehearsal opportunity has relatively little effect on pictorial memory.     

Contextual dependencies in motor skills

The development of contextual dependencies during motor skill acquisition was examined. Environmental context was varied along intentional and incidental dimensions. Intentional stimuli were defined as essential for achieving skilled performance, whereas incidental stimuli were defined as those that have the potential to become associated with specific tasks due to their selective presence in the learning environment. Experiment 1 demonstrated the occurrence of contextual dependencies for the learning of four-key typing sequences. Contextual dependencies were diminished in Experiment 2 when the number of keys used in the sequences was reduced. In Experiment 3, a retention condition was incorporated, in which both the intentional and the incidental stimuli were not available; this confirmed that task difficulty mediated the development of contextual dependencies. These findings are discussed with respect to the incorporation of environmental contextual stimuli with memorial representations of movement information.     

Oculomotor and manual indexes of incidental and intentional spatial sequence learning during middle childhood and adolescence

The goal of this study was to examine incidental and intentional spatial sequence learning during middle childhood and adolescence. We tested four age groups (8-10 years, 11-13 years, 14-17 years, and young adults [18+ years]) on a serial reaction time task and used manual and oculomotor measures to examine incidental sequence learning. Participants were also administered a trial block in which they were explicitly instructed to learn a sequence. Replicating our previous study with adults, oculomotor anticipations and response times showed learning effects similar to those in the manual modality. There were few age-related differences in the sequence learning indexes during incidental learning, but intentional learning yielded differences on all indexes. Results indicate that the search for regularities and the ability to learn a sequence rapidly under incidental conditions are mature by 8 to 10 years of age. In contrast, the ability to learn a sequence intentionally, which requires cognitive resources and strategies, continues to develop through adolescence.     

Selective learning enabled by intention to learn in sequence learning

This study investigated whether a target sequence that people intend to learn is learned selectively when it is interleaved with another (non-target) sequence. Three experiments used a serial reaction time task in which different spatial and color stimuli occurred alternately. Each of the two interleaved sequences had structural regularity. Participants in an intentional learning group were instructed to learn the target (spatial) sequence whereas those in an incidental learning group were not. In Experiments 1 and 2 spatial and color sequences were correlated. Results showed that the intentional group learned the spatial sequence better than the incidental group and learned it independently of the color sequence, whereas the incidental group learned the two sequences as a combined sequence. In Experiment 3 the sequences were uncorrelated. Results showed that the intentional group was no longer superior in learning the spatial sequence. Findings indicate that the intention to learn a target sequence enables selective learning of it only when it is correlated with a non-target sequence.     

Analytic and holistic modes of learning family-resemblance concepts

Three studies examined how individuals learn concepts structured according to family-resemblance principles. The materials were cartoon faces varying in the attributes of hair, mustache, ears, and nose. In contrast to previous studies purporting to show holistic modes of learning family-resemblance concepts, the present studies indicate that many individuals learn such concepts by an analytic, attribute-plus-exception rule. The attribute-plus-exception rule characterized the learning shown by adults under both intentional (Studies 1 and 2) and incidental (Study 3) learning conditions and by children under intentional learning conditions (Study 2). There was no evidence to indicate that a holistic mode is a more primitive one, since it did not occur more frequently among children or adults under incidental learning conditions. It is suggested that the extent to which holistic or analytic modes of learning are observed will be found to depend on an interaction among stimulus, task, and observer factors.     

Heart rate, recall, and reaction-time measures of levels of processing

A problem of circularity emerges in any attempt to index depth by retention alone. In the present study, reaction time (RT), and heart-rate response were used to index the three qualitatively distinct levels of physical, phonemic, and semantic processing. An additional objective was to distinguish between the three levels under incidental vs intentional learning conditions. Subjects were 46 male undergraduates who were given 30 trials. A trial consisted of the presentation of an orienting question and an imperative word-stimulus separated by a 6-sec. interval. There were three types of questions in order to induce processing to one of the three target levels. The results indicated that recall as well as heart-rate acceleration distinguished between two (physical vs phonemic and semantic) rather than three levels of processing in the incidental condition. Heart-rate change differentiated between incidental and intentional, the intentional condition showing a smaller change. Semantic and phonemic RTs were faster than physical RT, but there were no differences between semantic and phonemic RTs. Intentional recall was superior to incidental recall. It is suggested that psychophysiological indices can provide independent evidence for 'levels of processing.'     

The effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures

Two experiments investigated the effects of humor on memory for non-sensical pictures. Each picture was given three labels that differed in the degree of humor: high, low, and no humor labels. In Experiment 1, the humor of the picture labels was manipulated between participants. Participants were shown 30 pictures for 10 s each and were asked to rate the degree of humor of each picture. After the rating task, participants were asked to draw the pictures in an unexpected memory test. Performance in the memory test was best in the high humor label group, followed by the low and the no humor label groups. In Experiment 2, intention to learn (incidental versus intentional encoding tasks) as well as humor label was manipulated between the participants. In the incidental learning condition, the high humor group performed better than the low humor group, but in the intentional learning condition, there was no humor effect. The effects of humor on picture memory were discussed in terms of appraisal processing within a distinctiveness framework.     

语境线索在留学生阅读伴随词汇学习中的作用：来自眼动的证据

为探讨语境线索在留学生伴随性词汇学习中的作用,本研究选择不同汉语水平的外国留学生作为被试,操纵了语境线索的强弱,使用眼动仪记录被试的词汇学习过程。结果发现：被试在强语境线索下的词汇学习效果显著高于弱语境线索;随着学习次数的增加,强语境线索下目标词注视时间的下降幅度显著大于弱语境线索,高汉语水平被试目标词注视时间的下降幅度显著大于低汉语水平被试。结果表明：无论留学生汉语水平如何,语境线索促进了他们阅读时的伴随性词汇学习,且学习次数越多,语境线索的促进作用越大。     

The influence of intentional and incidental learning on acquiring spatial knowledge during navigation

In order to study the influence of intentional and incidental learning conditions on route learning, young adults walked a route through a university building. Half of the participants focused their attention on the route (intentional learning condition), while the other half did not (incidental learning condition). Five tests of spatial knowledge were employed: a route-length-estimation, landmark recognition, landmark ordering, map-drawing and navigation task. The intentional group performed better than the incidental group on the map-drawing and navigation task. No difference between the intentional and incidental group was found on the landmark-recognition and landmark-ordering task. Moreover, the intentional group overestimated the walking distance, while the incidental group underestimated it. These results suggest that route knowledge (landmark recognition and landmark ordering) requires less effortful processing than survey knowledge (developing a map-like representation and actual navigation).     

When it does hurt to try: adult age differences in the effects of instructions on implicit pattern learning

Trying to learn sometimes impairs implicit learning of artificial grammars and of control systems. We asked whether such negative effects of trying also occur in implicit learning of subtle sequential regularities and whether such effects vary with adult age. Young (n=12, age=20–23) and older (n=24, age=60–80) adults completed an alternating serial response time task in which predictable pattern events alternated with random ones in a visual/spatial display. Half of the participants were informed about the pattern and were instructed to try to discover it (intentional instructions), and half were not (incidental instructions). Age-related deficits in implicit learning occurred for both conditions. In addition, for the older group, but not for the younger one, intentional instructions impaired implicit pattern learning. This negative effect of trying to learn demonstrates another similarity among implicit learning tasks, supporting the view that some common processes underlie different forms of implicit learning.     

Oculomotor evidence of sequence learning on the serial reaction time task

Manual and oculomotor measures of sequence learning were examined on the serial reaction time (SRT) task Participants were assigned into four groups differing on response modality (manual, oculomotor) and trial type (sequence, pseudorandom). The pattern of manual RTs replicated previous studies. Frequency of anticipatory eye movements followed similar patterns as RTs. Participants made many anticipations, even in pseudorandom blocks, and frequency of anticipations did not depend on presence of concurrent manual responses. Excluding participants with explicit awareness did not change results. Anticipations were negatively related to RTs in both incidental and intentional learning. Anticipations were positively related to sequence recall in intentional, but not incidental, learning. Results suggest that (1) anticipatory eye movements reflected sequence learning and (2) participants made overt and covert shifts of visuospatial attention to likely stimulus locations prior to stimulus onset, whether or not they made manual responses and whether or not there was a sequence.     

Relation between verbal recall and visual recognition of the same stimuli in young children

Five-year-old children (N = 112) were shown drawings of common objects three times either as a naming-and-learning task or as a preference task (incidental learning). A verbal recall test followed by a class- and item-recognition test, scaled to reflect the accuracy of item recognition, were given either 2 min or two weeks after presentation. Intentional learning with naming led to better immediate recall than incidental learning, but the recognition and delayed recall scores were equal for the two learning conditions. The probability of verbal recall of object names was in each case uncorrelated with the accuracy of visual recognition of the same objects by the same Ss. The results are closely similar to those obtained with adult Ss by Bahrick and Boucher (1968).     

The influence of meaningfulness upon intentional and incidental learning of verbal material

The present investigation concerned the relationship between intentional and incidental learning of verbal material. Both task meaningfulness (sequential dependency of the material) and shifts in performance over time were examined for differential patterns under both types of learning conditions. Cover task performance consisted of the search for typographical errors across four paragraphs of a narrative, learning the recall and recognition of examples of categories of objects in the text. There was lack of support for the argument that incidental and intentional learning represent two distinct types; rather Ss responded similarly to increased task meaningfulness under both learning conditions and evidenced identical performance patterns over time. Results were interpreted within an intentional-attentional hypothesis of incidental learning.     

Whenis category learning holistic?

Ward and Scott (1987) recently provided evidence consistent with the idea that category learning can occur analytically whether that learning takes place under intentional or incidental conditions and whether the learner is an adult or a young child. Kemler Nelson (1988) raised concerns about Ward and Scott’s conclusions as well as about the logic of some of their arguments. Kemler Nelson also attempted to strengthen the argument that incidental learning conditions induce a less strategic approach to tasks, which necessarily results in a holistic mode of processing. The present paper answers Kemler Nelson’s concerns. It also presents arguments in favor of the idea that incidental learning is neither necessarily holistic nor necessarily analytic. It is argued that tasks, whether intentional or incidental, encourage the participant to process particular types of information. If the task encourages or demands the processing of separate features, then that type of information will be stored whether or not the participant was explicitly asked to learn the category membership of presented items. There are varieties of both intentional and incidental category learning, and what the learner does with the presented material is more important than his/her intent to learn. Furthermore, it is argued that the apparently discrepant results discussed by Kemler Nelson and Ward and Scott are all interpretable as specific cases within a more general episodic trace model of processing.     

Blocking of incidental information in young children

Methods of increasing learning efficiency through a blocking technique were examined in young children. An experimental group of children was trained on an initial task with one relevant dimension, followed by redundancy training in which an incidental dimension also became relevant. A control group given only redundancy training was compared to this group to test how much the experimental subjects blocked or screened out the incidental dimension. In order to increase blocking, three methods were used: a preset transfer problem, an overtraining on the initial task, and a delay following training. The most important finding was increased blocking through the Preset Condition. Overtraining and Delay Conditions had no effect. In addition, more slow learners on the initial task learned about the incidental dimension than fast or intermediate learners. Also, fewer subjects given form on the initial task learned about the incidental dimension than those given color. The Combined Blocking, Delay, and Overtraining group showed partial blocking, while the Preset group demonstrated complete blocking. No developmental differences occurred. The results were interpreted using a modification of Trabasso and Bower's attention model (Attention in learning: Theory and research. New York: Wiley, 1968).     

How sequence learning creates explicit knowledge: the role of response–stimulus interval

Destrebecqz and Cleeremans (Psychon bull rev 8:343-350, 2001; Attention and implicit learning. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp 181-213, 2003) reported that increasing the response-stimulus interval (RSI) during incidental sequence learning improved participants' ability to discriminate old and new sequences in a recognition test. However, the original experimental design confounded RSI effects during training and test. I therefore repeated the experiment with an improved design in which RSI was varied systematically during the training phase and the recognition task. Participants learned a sequence of response locations either incidentally or intentionally. As a result, sequence recognition was not affected by the RSI manipulations in the group of incidental learners. With intentional learning instructions, recognition was unaffected by training RSI, but a long RSI in the test phase improved recognition performance over a short RSI. Response latencies while executing the test sequences indicated no effect of training RSI on sequence learning. However, sequence knowledge was expressed more readily when the RSI in the test phase matched the RSI in the training phase.     

The influence of intentional versus incidental retrieval practices on the role of recollection in test-enhanced learning

A testing effect occurs when taking a test leads to more durable memory for tested materials, relative to restudying them during the same period of time. In the current study, we examined whether incidental and intentional restudy/testing practice modes during a practice phase would modulate the contribution of recollection-based and familiarity-based retrieval in a final recognition test. Both practice strategy (restudy versus testing) and practice mode (incidental vs. intentional) were manipulated between participants (N = 160). The restudy and testing groups performed a semantic rating task and a word fragment completion task, respectively, in the incidental condition or in the intentional condition. Only those participants in the intentional condition were instructed to recall or restudy the targets. All participants went through two study–practice cycles that involved two different sets of targets. After the second cycle, participants performed a list-discrimination recognition test that could assess the contributions of recollection-based and familiarity-based retrieval on test-enhanced learning. The testing effect occurred in the intentional condition, but not in the incidental condition. Relative to intentional restudy, intentional testing boosted recollection, but not familiarity, demonstrating the role of recollection in test-enhanced learning.     

情绪一致性对有意遗忘的影响

有意遗忘是强调遗忘的有意性和指向性。对负性情绪的有意遗忘有利于个体的身心健康。本研究采用单字范式,实验一以正性、负性和中性情绪词为材料,探讨了情绪材料对有意遗忘的影响。结果发现,三类词语均表现出了显著的有意遗忘效应;实验二在实验一的基础上加入了情绪状态,探讨了情绪状态和情绪材料对有意遗忘的影响,结果发现,在积极情绪状态下,被试更多地遗忘负性情绪词;在消极情绪状态下,被试更多地遗忘中性词。表明个体对情绪信息的有意遗忘既受信息的情绪性影响,又受个体情绪状态的影响。     

Individual differences in working memory capacity and learning: Evidence from the serial reaction time task

High and low working memory (WM) capacity individuals performed the serial reaction time task under both incidental and intentional learning conditions to determine the role of WM capacity in the learning of sequential information. WM capacity differences emerged in conditions of intentional but not incidental learning, indicating that individual differences in WM capacity occur in tasks requiring some form of control, with little difference appearing on tasks that required relatively automatic processing. Furthermore, an index of learning was significantly related to a measure of general fluid intelligence under intentional conditions only. Thus, the degree of learning was significantly related to higher order cognition, but only when intentional processing was emphasized.     

The role of imagery in incidental learning of educable retarded and normal children

Forty-five educable retarded and 45 normal children were given an orientation task in which noun- and picture-paired associates were presented once or four times under one of three instructional conditions: intentional imagery, incidental imagery, or intentional control (no imagery). An immediate associative recall test showed both imagery conditions to be superior to the intentional control condition. Furthermore, imagery instructions facilitated incidental recall of the retarded Ss equal to the recall of normal children in the intentional condition. Four presentations of pairs in contrast to one presentation during the orientation task improved the learning of both groups. The recall of retarded Ss in contrast to normal Ss, however, was greater with four presentations under imagery instructions than under intentional control instructions. The results were discussed in terms of imagery processes and their educational implications.