Item learning in cognitive skill training: Effects of item difficulty

Item difficulty effects in skill learning were examined by giving participants extensive training with repeated alphabet arithmetic problems that varied in addend size (e.g., C ? D = ? is easy; C ? J = ? is harder). Recognition memory for the items, as measured by interpolated recognition tests, was acquired early in training and was unaffected by item difficulty. Memory for the solutions to items, as measured by the participants’ strategy reports that they had retrieved, rather than computed, the solution, was acquired later and was affected by item difficulty. Solutions to easier items were learned earlier in training for both young adults (18–24 years) and older adults (60–75 years), superimposed on an overall lower level of solution learning in older participants. The results suggest that the formation of associations between problems and their solutions is effortful and shares limited processing resources with the computational demands of the problem.     

Implicit interpretation biases affect emotional vulnerability: a training study

Cognitive theories of emotion propose that the interpretation of emotion-eliciting situations crucially shapes affective responses. Implicit or automatic biases in these interpretations may hinder emotion regulation and thereby increase risk for the onset and maintenance of psychological disorders. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to a positive or negative interpretation bias training using ambiguous social scenarios. After the completion of the training, a stress task was administered and changes in positive and negative affect and self-esteem were assessed. The results demonstrate that the interpretation bias training was successful in that participants exhibited a tendency to interpret novel scenarios in accordance with their training condition. Importantly, the positive training condition also had a protective effect on self-esteem. Participants in this condition did not exhibit a decrease in self-esteem after the stress task, whereas participants in the negative condition did. These results demonstrate that implicit cognitive biases can be trained and that this training affects self-esteem. Implications of these findings for research on psychopathology and emotion regulation are discussed.     

Changes in cue associability across training in human causal learning

A series of experiments studied the amount learned about two food cues (A and B) whose presentation in a meal was followed by an allergy (+) in a fictitious patient. Participants were trained with A+ and C+ in Phase 1 and then with AB+ or AB++ in Phase 2. Subsequent testing revealed that BC was more allergenic than AD, showing that more had been learned about B than A in Phase 2. Participants were also trained with A+, then with AB+, and finally with AB++. The results of interpolating AB+ between A+ and AB++ training were consistent with the hypothesis that pretraining with Cue A selectively suppressed attention to its associate across the AB+ trials and, thereby, reduced the amount subsequently learned about B on AB++ trials.     

Partial differential feedback: An on-line training configuration for the optimization of multidimensional cue learning

The present paper describes a PDP-9 computer configuration arranged for experimental research into the acquisition of judgmental skill, but designed to overcome certain deficiences noted in stimulus-response-outcome (SRO) paradigms. The configuration departs radically from traditional approaches in that (a) the stimulus is placed under S control; (b) the requirement for a “response” is eliminated; (c) outcome feedback is a continuously changing function of the multiattribute stimulus settings under the control of S; and (d) the configuration makes possible the rapid learning of an essential feature of such learning tasks, namely the partial derivatives of the criterion or outcome variable with respect to each of the stimulus attributes.     

Beacon training in a water maze can facilitate and compete with subsequent room cue learning in rats

In Stage 1 of 4 experiments in which rats completed a water-maze blocking procedure, experimental groups were trained to use a predictive beacon (hanging above, connected to, or displaced from the platform) to find a submerged escape platform in the presence of predictive or irrelevant background cues and in the presence or absence of irrelevant landmarks. In Stage 2, a fixed beacon, landmarks, and background cues all predicted the platform location. A Room Test (landmarks and background cues only) showed that Stage 1 training with a fixed hanging beacon or the moving displaced beacon facilitated Stage 2 learning of predictive room cues for experimental relative to control subjects. In contrast, Stage 1 training with a moving pole beacon interfered with Stage 2 learning about predictive room cues relative to controls, whereas training with a fixed pole or moving hanging beacon had no effect. We conclude that multiple spatial learning processes influence locating an escape platform in the water maze.     

Positive and negative cue redundancy in multiple cue probability learning

In two separate experiments, 80 introductory psychology students completed a two-cue probability learning task in which cue intercorrelation was positive or negative and cue validities were positive or negative. Results indicated that Ss did not learn the negative validity tasks. In addition, there were no significant differences between groups in achievement due to cue intercorrelation within any one experiment. However, the positive redundancy groups were significantly more consistent in the employment of their decision strategy than the negative redundancy groups when cue validities were positive. The negative redundancy groups were superior to positive redundancy groups in matching; again, when cue validities were positive.     

Short and long-term motor skill learning in an accelerated rotarod training paradigm

Rodent models of motor skill learning include skilled forelimb reaching and acrobatic locomotor paradigms. This study characterizes motor skill learning in the accelerated rotarod task. Thirty Long-Evans rats (300-400 g) were trained on an accelerated rotarod (1cm/s(2)) over eight consecutive sessions (=days, 20 trials each). Improvement in rotarod velocities mastered before falling off the rod was observed within and between sessions (plateau after five sessions). Intrasession improvement was incompletely retained at the beginning of the next day's session. Over several training sessions, intrasession improvement diminished, suggesting a ceiling effect. After 1 week of pause, the rotarod skill was retained. Locomotor exercise in a running wheel for 30 min before the first rotarod session did not affect intrasession improvement. Running-wheel exposure for 6 days did not diminish the rate of rotarod skill learning (steepness of the learning curve) but improved overall performance (upward shift of curve). Video analysis of gait on the rotarod showed that rats developed a motor strategy by modifying their gait patterns during training. The data demonstrate that rotarod improvement is not the result of enhanced general locomotor ability or fitness, which are trained in the running wheel, but requires a change in the motor strategy to master the task. Accelerated rotarod training can be regarded a valid paradigm for motor skill learning over short (intrasession, minutes) and long time frames (intersession, days).     

政治技能的实施效果及其理论解释

政治技能(Political skill)作为一种重要的社会能力, 是组织核心竞争力的关键, 近年来受到学者广泛关注。根据内容分析法(Content analysis)要求, 深入探讨分析了政治技能的实施效果及其理论解释, 总结出5种理论视角: 社会交换理论、社会影响理论、资源保存理论、社会认知理论和社会资本理论。未来研究应关注中国组织情境下政治技能的概念和测量、探索政治技能的诱因、基于团队层面政治技能的实施效果和基于资源保存理论视角的政治技能实施效果。     

Statistical methods for a theory of cue learning

A theory of cue learning, which gives rise to a system of recurrent events in Feller's sense, is analyzed mathematically. The distribution of total errors and sampling distribution of mean errors are derived, and the learning curve is investigated. Maximum likelihood estimates of parameters and sampling variances of those estimates are derived. Likelihood ratio tests of the usual null hypotheses and approximate tests of goodness of fit of substantive hypotheses are developed. The distinguishing characteristic of these tests is that they are concerned with meaningful parameters of the learning process.This research was facilitated by the writer's tenure as Faculty Research Fellow, Social Science Research Council, 1959–1961.     

Outcome maximality and additivity training also influence cue competition in causal learning when learning involves many cues and events

Recent evidence shows that outcome maximality (e.g., De Houwer, Beckers, & Glautier, 2002) and additivity training (e.g., Lovibond, Been, Mitchell, Bouton, & Frohard, 2003) have an influence on cue competition in human causal learning. This evidence supports the idea that cue competition is based on controlled reasoning processes rather than on automatic associative processes. Until now, however, all the evidence for controlled reasoning processes comes from studies with rather simple designs that involved only few cues and events. We conducted two experiments with a complex design involving 24 different cues. The results showed that outcome maximality and additivity training had an influence on cue competition but that this influence was more pronounced for forward cue competition than for retrospective cue competition.     

Exposure to negative emotional cues and alcohol cue reactivity with alcoholics: a preliminary investigation

Fifty-one male and female inpatient alcoholics received cue exposure treatment involving in vivo exposure to alcohol cues and imaginal exposure to individualized high-risk drinking situations involving negative emotional cues. At post-test, self-report measures of urge to drink alcohol and negative emotional states were obtained during an alcohol cue reactivity assessment. Contrary to our hypothesis, greater exposure to negative emotional cues during treatment was associated with greater urge and negative emotional responses at post-test. In addition, greater duration of exposure to negative emotional cues predicted greater attention to alcohol-related stimuli and thoughts about drinking during the post-test. Implications for future research in this area include extending the duration of exposure to negative emotional cues in order to establish the optimal exposure durations within which a majority of individuals achieve clinically significant reductions in their urge to drink alcohol.     

Implicit interpretation biases affect emotional vulnerability: A training study

Cognitive theories of emotion propose that the interpretation of emotion-eliciting situations crucially shapes affective responses. Implicit or automatic biases in these interpretations may hinder emotion regulation and thereby increase risk for the onset and maintenance of psychological disorders. In this study, participants were randomly assigned to a positive or negative interpretation bias training using ambiguous social scenarios. After the completion of the training, a stress task was administered and changes in positive and negative affect and self-esteem were assessed. The results demonstrate that the interpretation bias training was successful in that participants exhibited a tendency to interpret novel scenarios in accordance with their training condition. Importantly, the positive training condition also had a protective effect on self-esteem. Participants in this condition did not exhibit a decrease in self-esteem after the stress task, whereas participants in the negative condition did. These results demonstrate that implicit cognitive biases can be trained and that this training affects self-esteem. Implications of these findings for research on psychopathology and emotion regulation are discussed.     

On discontinuities in motor learning: a longitudinal study of complex skill acquisition on a ski-simulator

The qualitative behavioral reorganizations that occurred during the acquisition of a complex motor skill were examined. Five novice participants practiced for 39 sessions of ten 1-min trials on a modified version of the ski-simulator. Analyses focused on the motion of the apparatus platform, modeled as a self-sustained oscillator. At the beginning of the experiment, all participants adopted a behavior that could be modeled with a highly nonlinear stiffness function and a Rayleigh damping function. The behavior in the final part of the experiment was captured by a qualitatively different model, with a linear stiffness function and a van der Pol damping behavior. The transition from the initial to the final model was gradual and was marked in most cases by an abrupt increase of oscillation frequency. During the transition stage, the 2 damping behaviors seemed alternately exploited within each trial. The results are discussed in the framework of the dynamical systems approach to motor coordination and learning, considering motor skill acquisition as a phase transition.     

The influence of cue unreliability on judgment in a multiple cue probability learning task

The effect of cue reliability was tested in a two-cue multiple-cue probability learning (MCPL) task. Subjects were 42 undergraduates. The cue validities were.78 and.37. Unreliability in a cue was defined as variability in multiple observations of that cue on a given trial. That variability was provided by adding random errors to the true value of the cue. One group was given consistent cues (i.e., the more valid cue was the more reliable cue), one group was given inconsistent cues, and the control group was given true scores. Cue reliability did not affect subjects' consistency or achievement, but did interact with the presence of outcome feedback. The subjective weights showed that subjects thought they weighted the more reliable cue more heavily regardless of the cue validities or their actual cue weightings. There were wide individual differences in performance, illustrating the need for an idiographic-statistical approach in studying decision making.     

A note on cue probability learning: what conditioning data reveal about cue contrast

In a probabilistic learning task with two complementary cues (C₁ and C₂) and two events (E₁ and E₂) the subject has a tendency to infer that E₂ will occur when C₂ occurs after he/she has observed that E₁ frequently goes with C₁. This phenomenon was termed cue contrast because it reflects the belief that C₂ contrasts with C₁ and should indicate E₂. Two kinds of predictions following from the notion of cue contrast were tested on response proportions from the first block of trials in four previously published experiments on cue probability learning. Of a total of 15 independent observations (eight within-group comparisons; seven between-group comparisons) 13 confirmed the predictions (sign test, p<0.005). It was concluded that cue utilization is both an inductive process based on association between cues and events and an inferential process based on contrast.     

From recurrent choice to skill learning: a reinforcement-learning model

The authors propose a reinforcement-learning mechanism as a model for recurrent choice and extend it to account for skill learning. The model was inspired by recent research in neurophysiological studies of the basal ganglia and provides an integrated explanation of recurrent choice behavior and skill learning. The behavior includes effects of differential probabilities, magnitudes, variabilities, and delay of reinforcement. The model can also produce the violation of independence, preference reversals, and the goal gradient of reinforcement in maze learning. An experiment was conducted to study learning of action sequences in a multistep task. The fit of the model to the data demonstrated its ability to account for complex skill learning. The advantages of incorporating the mechanism into a larger cognitive architecture are discussed.     

Limiting motor skill knowledge via incidental training protects against choking under pressure

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - The paradoxical harmful effects of motivation and incentives on skilled performance (“choking under pressure”) are observed in a wide variety of...     

Domain familiarity as a cue for judgments of learning

Students differ in how much they already know about topics within and across their courses. Few studies, however, have examined the relationship between participants’ levels of knowledge across topics (i.e., their “domain familiarity”) and their learning of information from those topics, their study choices related to those topics, and their subjective self-assessments of their learning about the topics. As such, in two studies we had participants (Study 1, college students; Study 2, Mturk workers) rank their domain familiarity for several to-be-studied domains (e.g., chemistry, history), rate their efficacy and interest in those domains, study and make judgments of learning (JOLs) for facts from each domain, and finally complete a short-answer test over those facts. Participants’ efficacy and interest ratings for the topics were linearly related to their topic rankings, as were their recall of and JOLs for facts from those domains. Although the JOLs were consistently overconfident, they were more overconfident for better-known than for lesser-known topics. Participants’ study times were not related to their topic rankings (Studies 1 and 2), but participants did use domain familiarity to strategically decide which domains to restudy before the test (Study 2). Participants typically chose to restudy their least-familiar topics, but chose to restudy their best-known topic under extremely limited restudy conditions. As a whole, the results suggest that participants effectively use their domain familiarity as a basis for their JOLs and restudy choices, but to some extent overuse this factor to assess their learning, and underuse it to guide initial study.