Perceptual Effect on Motor Learning in the Serial Reaction-Time Task

Although the Serial Reaction-Time Task has been an effective tool in studying procedural learning, there is still a debate as to whether learning in the task is effector-based, stimulus-based, or response-based. In this article, the authors contribute to this debate by contrasting response- and stimulus-based learning by manipulating them selectively and simultaneously. Results show that (a) participants learned response sequences in the absence of stimulus-specific perceptual sequence information but (b) not stimulus sequences without corresponding response information. In a third condition, response sequence and stimulus frequency information were in conflict, and each effect decreased learning in the other domain. Overall, our findings show that learning in these tasks is primarily motor-based, but it is also constrained by relatively salient perceptual information. Together with earlier findings in the literature, the findings also suggest a task and stimulus-arrangement-specific interaction between motor and perceptual learning, where relevance and salience of the specific information plays a crucial role.     

Neural Processing to Visual Stimuli in a Three-Choice Reaction-Time Task

Some authors have suggested that certain components of the event-related potentials (ERPs) reflect underlying stages in the discrimination process. Previous studies have shown that in an auditive three-choice reaction-time task the discrimination is accomplished as a two-stage process, with the more frequently occurring stimulus discriminated at an earlier point than the rarer stimulus and the subjects could be classified as fast and slow responders in function of their response to the most frequent of the three tones. We continuously recorded the electrocerebral activity (EEG) from the scalp and the electromyographic activity (EMG) from the responding muscles in a visual three-choice reaction-time task in 10 strictly right-handed subjects. EEG and EMG responses were subsequently analyzed off-line by aligning them by the onset of either the stimulus (stimulus-synchronized) or the response (response-synchronized). The results suggest that processes of visual stimuli evaluation and response execution are continuously integrated. The discrimination and response systems to visual stimuli is accomplished as a three-stage process, one to frequent tone, another for rare 1, and the last for rare 2. The subjects were classified as fast and slow responders in function of their response to the most frequent of the three tones.     

任务复杂程度对内隐-外显学习关系的影响

本研究在糖生产任务实验中考察了任务复杂程度对内隐和外显学习关系的影响.实验发现:在简单任务中.内隐与外显学习共同存在并协同作用;任务复杂程度的增加对内隐和外显学习都有损害作用;任务复杂程度影响着内隐与外显学习的贡献率,随着任务难度的增加,内隐学习的贡献率上升.     

Implicit Learning and Concept Learning

In Experiments 1 and 2, subjects were exposed to letter strings that followed a pattern—the second letter was always the same. This exposure was disguised as a test of immediate memory. Following this training, subjects could discriminate new letter strings following the pattern from letter strings not following the pattern more often than would be expected by chance, which is the traditional evidence for concept learning. Discrimination was also better than would be predicted from subjects' explicit report of the pattern, demonstrating the co-occurrence of concept learning and implicit learning. In Experiment 3, rules were learned explicitly. Discrimination was worse than would be predicted from subjects' explicit report, validating the implicit learning paradigm. In Experiment 4, deviations from a prototypical pattern were presented during training. In the test of discrimination, prototypes were as familiar as old deviations and more familiar than new deviations, even when considering only implicit knowledge. Experiment 5 found implicit knowledge of a familiar concept. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that the distinguishing features of a concept can be learned implicitly, and that one type of implicit learning is concept learning.     

语文教学中的内隐学习

本文作者根据语文教学的目的,语文教学的结果和语文教学的内容特点,认为内隐学习在语文教学中,特别是汉语教学中,可起重要作用。然后．介绍了他们对这个问题进行的阔查和实验研究。实验证实,内隐学习和外显学习的效果没有磬异,或内隐学习的效果优于外显学习。而且,内隐学习具有较好的保持效果。因此,作者提出应充分重视内隐学习在语文教学中的作用。     

Implicit Self-Importance in an Interpersonal Pronoun Categorization Task

Object relations theories emphasize the manner in which the salience/importance of implicit representations of self and other guide interpersonal functioning. Two studies and a pilot test (total N?=?304) sought to model such representations. In dyadic contexts, the self is a “you” and the other is a “me”, as verified in a pilot test. Study 1 then used a simple categorization task and found evidence for implicit self-importance: The pronoun “you” was categorized more quickly and accurately when presented in a larger font size, whereas the pronoun “me” was categorized more quickly and accurately when presented in a smaller font size. Study 2 showed that this pattern possesses value in understanding individual differences in interpersonal functioning. As predicted, arrogant people scored higher in implicit self-importance in the paradigm. Findings are discussed from the perspective of dyadic interpersonal dynamics.     

Conditioned Inhibition in a Multiple Category Learning Task

Four experiments investigated inhibition that might arise in a task in which cues are associated with more than one outcome. In each experiment, human subjects played a game called 'Clues and Culprits' in which they were asked to judge the predictive strength of clues that had been associated with culprits in a series of hypothetical crimes. In a two-outcome version of the familiar conditioned inhibition paradigm (A+, AX- ), one clue was paired with one culprit on its own, but it was paired with a second culprit when it was combined with a second clue (A-1, AX-2). According to the delta rule, X should acquire inhibition for the first culprit; it should also acquire more inhibition than a differential cue merely associated with a second culprit (e.g. A-1, X-2). Inhibition was found with both procedures. However, the amount of inhibition did not differ between them, suggesting that mere association with a second outcome was sufficient to inhibit performance based on the first. Other data suggested the presence of cue competition. Also, when a cue associated with one culprit was paired with a second culprit on other trials, there was little evidence of unlearning of the first association.     

Flight Feedback and Learning a Projectile Task

Over KR acquisition trials of projecting an object a criterion distance, the hypotheses were tested that feedback from the flight of a projected object (flight feedback) would facilitate response recognition but not recall. Visual and auditory flight feedback variables each had two levels, flight feedback present or absent, forming a 2 × 2 × 61 trials design with 14 Ss per cell. Results supported the hypotheses, with flight flight feedback not facilitating response recall, though both flight feedback variables were strong determinants of response recognition. This latter finding was qualified by a discussion of the distinction between response recognition and recognition of response outcome.     

On the Nature of the Probe Reaction-Time Task to Uncover the Attentional Demands of Movement

McLeod (1980) reported some findings which showed that no phase of a movement was more attention-demanding than the other phases, contrary to all the results previously reported (e.g., Ells, 1973; Glencross, 1980). However, McLeod used a paradigm in which the two tasks were serial. Each task consisted of a series of 50 reaction time (RT) trials and/or 50 aiming movement trials. In addition to this, the interval of time between a response and the following signal within each series was constant. In order to try to replicate McLeod’s findings, two experiments were conducted in which the response-signal interval was manipulated. The hypothesis was that time certainty associated with a constant interval would facilitate the allocation of time and would thus artificially reduce the interference between tasks. In Experiment I, manual responses were used for the RT task; in Experiment II, they were vocal. Manipulation of the response-signal interval does not change one of the conclusions reached by McLeod: when the RT task involves vocal responses and the results on the RT task are analyzed in terms of response rather than stimulus arrival during the movement, then there is no phase of the movement which is more attention-demanding than the other phases. However, the results of Experiment II in which both the vocal RT task and the movement task significantly deteriorated in the dual-task condition were taken as an indication that the movement studied involved central attentional demands.     

注意在内隐序列学习中作用的研究述评

探索次级任务对序列学习的作用实质在对内隐序列学习的研究中占有重要地位。关于次级的计音任务对序列学习的干扰作用的实质 ,主要有四种主要的观点 :注意能量说、组织说、短时记忆说和抑制表现说。文章简要介绍了这些观点并对其各自的实验证据进行了总结和分析 ,并对最近可能进行的研究进行了展望。     

序列学习中的内隐学习效应

该研究采用较为复杂的包含图形出现的位置规则和顺序规则的实验材料,通过对比被试直接测验和间接测验、内隐学习和外显学习成绩的异同,考察了序列学习中的内隐学习效应,并探讨了规则特点对内隐学习效应的影响。结果表明,在图形位置的序列学习中存在内隐学习效应,内隐学习效应的大小受规则特点的影响。     

言语生成中内隐学习现象的研究

言语生成中的结构启动和语误现象,通常分别用瞬时激活和语音的约束范围来解释它们产生的机制。20世纪60年代末发端的内隐学习的研究,为深入理解言语生成机制提供了崭新的视角。言语生成的各种现象中,语言经验和学习机制发挥着重要作用,结构启动和语误更倾向于是一种内隐的序列学习。     

Sensory Feedback in the Learning of a Novel Motor Task

The role of different forms of feedback is examined in learning a novel motor task. Five groups of ten subjects had to learn the voluntary control of the abduction of the big toe, each under a different feedback condition (proprioceptive feedback, visual feedback, EMG feedback, tactile feedback, force feedback). The task was selected for two reasons. First, in most motor learning studies subjects have to perform simple movements which present hardly any learning problem. Second, studying the learning of a new movement can provide useful information for neuromuscular reeducation, where patients often also have to learn movements for which no control strategy exists. The results show that artificial sensory feedback (EMG feedback, force feedback) is more powerful than “natural” (proprioceptive, visual, and tactile) feedback. The implications of these results for neuromuscular reeducation are discussed.     

内隐学习的主观测量标准

近40年来,验证知识的内隐性一直是内隐学习研究的焦点。传统三大范式常以自由言语报告或是迫选测验作为验证知识内隐性的外显指标,然而各种迹象表明,言语报告和迫选测验存在一定的局限性。由此,Dienes等人提出了内隐学习的主观测量。文章将从言语报告和追选测验的局限性着手,阐述主观测量诞生的必要性及其在衡量知识意识性上的效度。     

On the Role of Fragmentary Knowledge in a Sequence Learning Task

There has been considerable debate about whether or not we need to distinguish between the acquisition of implicit-and, independently thereof, the acquisition of explicit-knowledge in sequence learning tasks. Proponents of the view that a unitary knowledge base is formed assume (a) that the knowledge acquired is explicitly available, and (b) that information about sequence fragments forms the core of this explicit knowledge. Both of these issues are addressed empirically in the present article. In two experiments, an adapted process dissociation procedure and a suitable measurement model were used to separate recollective (explicit) and fluency-based (implicit) memory processes in a sequence learning task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that fluency-based processes came into play much later than recollective processes. Such recollective processes have been conceptualized as being based on simple knowledge about sequence fragments or chunks. Indeed, Experiment 2 showed that recollective processes are more likely to contribute to sequence judgements if chunks are readily available at test than if they are not. Together, these results are in line with the view that the learning of an event systematicity can be conceived of as the memorization of chunks of events that support both the speedingup of reaction times to systematic events and explicit, recollective memory processes even after relatively little training.     

Measuring Implicit Gender-Role Orientation: The Gender Initial Preference Task

Individuals prefer their name letters over nonname letters, which is known as the name-letter effect (NLE). This research aimed to examine a possible NLE for gender-role orientation (GRO) by rating letters for their gender-typicality in an initial preference task (Gender-IPT). Indeed, a clear NLE appeared: Men rated their initials as more male-typical, whereas women rated them as more female-typical. The Gender-IPT showed good convergent validity with other direct and indirect (Gender Implicit Association Test) measures of GRO as well as predictive validity with sensation seeking and gender-typical everyday life behaviors. The Gender-IPT seems to be a useful and practical indirect measure to assess GRO in a short, convenient, and computer-independent way, complementing other indirect measures of GRO.     

The Role of Organization in the Learning of a Sensori-Motor Task

Two experiments investigated the ability of five- and six-month-old Guatemalan infants to discriminate human faces visually and to associate faces and voices differing in age and sex. The 32 infants in Experiment I discriminated between photographs of a man, a woman, and a seven-year-old boy. They did not, however, discriminate between photographs of two men, two women, or of two seven-year-old boys. The 24 infants in Experiment II were presented three different pairs of photographs of faces. One pair consisted of a man and a woman, another of a woman and a child, and the third of a man and a child. Voices appropriate to each pair of photographs accompanied the presentation of the visual stimulus. Looking at the woman and child seemed to be influenced by the presentation of a woman's voice and a boy's voice. Appropriate voices did not alter looking behavior with regard to the woman and man or the man and child.     

Cued recall in anterograde amnesia

After a single presentation of a word list, normal subjects exhibited better retention when prompted with semantic cues than with rhyme or letter cues. Alcoholic Korsakoff patients, patients receiving electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and the patient N.A. exhibited impaired retention and, unlike control subjects, did not exhibit an advantage of semantic cues over letter and rhyme cues. Two experimental manipulations designed to equate the level of performance of amnesics and controls indicated that these amnesias could be understood as a reflection of weak memory strength that results from deficiencies in initial learning and retention. In addition, alcoholic Korsakoff patients appeared to have greater difficulty utilizing semantic cues than patients receiving ECT or patient N.A.     

Subjective Estimation of Task Time and Task Difficulty of Simple Movement Tasks

It has been demonstrated in previous work that the same neural structures are used for both imagined and real movements. To provide a strong test of the similarity of imagined and actual movement times, 4 simple movement tasks were used to determine the relationship between estimated task time and actual movement time. The tasks were single-component visually controlled movements, 2-component visually controlled, low index of difficulty (ID) moves and pin-to-hole transfer movements. For each task there was good correspondence between the mean estimated times and actual movement times. In all cases, the same factors determined the actual and estimated movement times: the amplitudes of movement and the IDs of the component movements, however the contribution of each of these variables differed for the imagined and real tasks. Generally, the standard deviations of the estimated times were linearly related to the estimated time values. Overall, the data provide strong evidence for the same neural structures being used for both imagined and actual movements.