Learning artificial grammars: No evidence for the acquisition of rules

Two experiments investigated whether there is evidence for acquisition of rules in implicit artificial grammar learning (AGL). Two different methods were used in meeting this goal, multiple regression analysis and analysis of receiver-operating characteristics (ROCs). By means of multiple regression analysis, several types of knowledge were identified that were used in judgments of grammaticality, for example, about single letters and about larger stimulus fragments. There was no evidence for the contribution of rule knowledge. The ROCs were in accord with a similarity-based account of AGL and thus did not support the notion that rule knowledge is acquired in AGL either. Simulations with a connectionist model corroborated the conclusion that the results were in accord with a similarity-based, associative account.     

Phoneme awareness is a key component of alphabetic literacy skills in consistent and inconsistent orthographies: evidence from Czech and English children

Two studies investigated the importance of phoneme awareness relative to other predictors in the development of reading and spelling among children learning a consistent orthography (Czech) and an inconsistent orthography (English). In Study 1, structural equation models revealed that Czech (n=107) and English (n=71) data were fitted well by the same predictors of reading and spelling. Phoneme awareness was a unique predictor in all models. In Study 2, Czech (n=40) and English (n=27) children with dyslexia showed similar deficits on phoneme awareness relative to their age- and spelling-matched control peers. Phoneme awareness appears to be a core component skill of alphabetic literacy, which is equally important for learners of consistent and inconsistent orthographies.     

Further evidence of a sensory-tonic interaction in pigeons

The five pigeons in Group 1 were given successive intradimensional discrimination training in which responses to a line of 49 degrees were reinforced on a variable-interval schedule and responses to a line of 33 degrees were not reinforced. Subsequent generalization testing with other line orientations revealed a peak shift from the positive stimulus in the direction away from the negative stimulus in all subjects. The four pigeons in Group 2 received successive discrimination training with the 49 degrees value on the key during both stimuli. During the negative stimulus, however, the floor was tilted 16 degrees counterclockwise. When tested (with the floor flat) these subjects showed peak shifts similar to those observed with Group 1. A third group of three pigeons, given successive interdimensional discrimination training with the 49 degrees line as the positive stimulus and the absence of the line as the negative, showed no peak shift in a subsequent generalization test. It was concluded that tilting the floor on which the pigeon stood systematically distorted the bird's visual perception of the orientation of the line in a manner consistent with the results of other studies in this laboratory.     

Critical evidence: a test of the critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition

The critical-period hypothesis for second-language acquisition was tested on data from the 1990 U.S. Census using responses from 2.3 million immigrants with Spanish or Chinese language backgrounds. The analyses tested a key prediction of the hypothesis, namely, that the line regressing second-language attainment on age of immigration would be markedly different on either side of the critical-age point. Predictions tested were that there would be a difference in slope, a difference in the mean while controlling for slope, or both. The results showed large linear effects for level of education and for age of immigration, but a negligible amount of additional variance was accounted for when the parameters for difference in slope and difference in means were estimated. Thus, the pattern of decline in second-language acquisition failed to produce the discontinuity that is an essential hallmark of a critical period.     

Effect of practice procedure on skill acquisition

49 children in Grade 1 in an isolated community were assessed on their form and skill in making a basket for a one-step basketball lay-up following practice using a pseudoshaping, specific, or schema procedure. Analysis gave a significant form effect but no difference in success of making baskets.     

The acquisition of morphemes: Some evidence from Spanish

A research on the acquisition of morphemes of plural, diminutive, augmentative, gerund, imperfect, and preterite with 109 Spanish children from 3 to 6 is reported. The results, obtained using a technique similar to that of Berko (1958), are compared with existing data in other studies that permit us to analyze several processes. These confirm any of the operating principles proposed by Slobin (1973, 1985) and seem to explain certain errors that children commit in the ages studied. Data are viewed in a developmental pattern of reorganization of linguistic knowledge.     

Landmark Stability: Further Studies Pointing to a Role in Spatial Learning

Two experiments were conducted to investigate the possible role of landmark stability in spatial learning. Rats were trained to search in a large arena for food hidden at a consistent distance and direction from either a single radially symmetric landmark or an array of two landmarks. We varied the relative degree to which the landmark array and/or the cues of the training context predicted the location of food, without varying the conditional probability of food being available given either cue. Experiment 1 used vestibular disorientation to ensure control of search location by experimenter-controlled cues. The results showed that making either a single landmark or a cluster of two adjacent landmarks the sole spatial predictor of reward location reduced the accuracy of search compared to a condition where both the landmark array and context cues were reliable spatial predictors. Varying global landmark stability had no effect when training was conducted using an array of two landmarks located some distance from each other. Context cues, when tested alone, triggered very little searching in appropriate locations, and the absolute magnitude of control over search was insufficient to account for the superiority of stable landmarks. The better learning with a stable landmark, and the dependence of this effect on the geometrical arrangement of landmarks, points to the conditions of spatial learning involving additional principles to those of simple associative conditioning. Experiment 2 examined landmark stability using a single landmark and fixed directional cues in the absence of vestibular disorientation. This also revealed a relative advantage of landmark stability, but animals with a landmark that moved from trial to trial did show some evidence of learning. Context cues when tested alone had minimal influence. Parametric manipulation of landmark stability offers a novel way of influencing spatial learning and thus understanding better the process through which egocentric representations of perceived space are transformed into allocentric representations of the real world. The purpose of this paper is to describe two experiments concerned with identifying the psychological processes of allocentric spatial learning. The results point to the idea that landmark stability is an important factor in spatial learning. Specifically, they reveal that whether or not a landmark will be used for the purpose of representing the location of another object (including hidden objects) is influenced by whether it is perceived as geometrically stable with respect to at least one other landmark and/or certain geometric features of the environment. This phenomenon is relevant to the application of associative learning principles to the spatial domain.     

Further evidence on the similarity of memory processes in the process dissociation procedure and in source monitoring

Buchner, Erdfelder, Steffens, and Martensen (1997) proposed that the memory processes involved in recognition judgments in the process dissociation procedure are the same as those involved in standard source monitoring tasks. Two extensions of that research are presented here. First, following a line of reasoning recently brought forward by Jacoby (1998), the instructions in the earlier study could have triggered different processes from those triggered by his instructions. However, with instructions conforming as closely as possible to those reported by Jacoby (1991), Experiment 1 replicated the earlier recognition judgment finding almost perfectly. Second, the memory processes underlying fame judgments in the process dissociation procedure could also resemble those involved in source monitoring tasks. Indeed, the results of Experiment 2 are compatible with the hypothesis that the same processes are involved in fame judgments given a source monitoring or a process dissociation procedure.     

Negative priming insame-different matching: Further evidence for a central locus of inhibition

Responses to recently ignored information may be slower or less accurate than responses to information not recently encountered. Such negative priming effects imply that the mechanism of selective attention operates on unattended, as well as attended, information. In the present experiment, subjects judged the second and fourth letters of five-letter strings (e.g., BABAB) as “same” or “different.” Responses were slower when a target letter was identical to the distractors presented in the immediately preceding trial. This effect did not depend on which response was required on the current or preceding trial. The results suggest that ignored information is functionally disconnected from the response system as a whole, rather than from a specific response.     

Binary choice reaction time as a criterion of motor equivalence: Further evidence

In a previous study Heuer (1982) found shorter binary choice RTs for finger movements of the right hand when the alternative movement with the left hand was of the same form that in case of different forms. Contrary to expectation there was no corresponding effect if the fingers used were the same of different ones. This result was replicated for right hand RTs as well as left hand RTs and for male and female subjects, using a different experimental design. It is discussed in respect to different preparatory processes in the foreperiod.     

Immediate small number perception: evidence from a new numerical carry-over procedure

Evidence is presented for the immediate apprehension of exact small quantities. Participants performed a quantification task (are the number of items greater or smaller than?), and carry-over effects were examined between numbers requiring the same response. Carry-over effects between small numbers were strongly affected by repeats of pattern and number identity relative to when displays were from the same response category but contained different numbers. Carry-over effects with large items were less sensitive to both pattern and number identity, even when the numbers in the small and large categories were matched for discriminability. The data suggest that small numbers are immediately apprehended through a direct subitization process distinct from pattern recognition and the apprehension of approximate number.     

Learning a procedure from multimedia instructions: The effects of film and practice

College students were taught to build a model helicopter from an assembly kit. Their instructions consisted of a narrated film (one viewing or two), hands-on practice using a model as a guide (one building or two), or a combination (see film first, build second; or build first, see film second). Performance on assembly from memory was assessed either immediately or after a 1-week delay. Both structural and functional measures were used. (A new structural measure is introduced here.) Performance was best immediately for groups who had hands-on practice, either twice, or in conjunction with a film. After a week, the group who practised first and saw the film second performed significantly better than all others. A theoretical framework, based on multimedia concept formation, is briefly presented to account for the results. In order for lasting concepts to be formed in memory, a precedence is suggested: motoric elements with their accompanying mental components should be put in first, followed by visual, followed by linguistic.     

Non-associative fear acquisition: a review of the evidence from retrospective and longitudinal research

It is axiomatic that the capacity to experience fear is adaptive, enabling rapid and energetic response to imminent threat or danger. Despite the generally accepted utility of functional fear, the nature of maladaptive fear remains controversial. There is still no consensus about how specific fears and phobias are acquired and modulated. Two major schools of thought are apparent: those suggesting dysfunctional fear arises largely as the result of associative-conditioning processes versus those who favour more biologically based etiological explanations. In this regard, the non-associative model of fear acquisition postulates the existence of a limited number of innate, evolutionary-relevant fears, while emphasising conditioning modes of onset for evolutionary-neutral fears. Recent retrospective and longitudinal studies have tested predictions from the non-associative model. In general, findings support non-associative hypotheses and are difficult to reconcile with neo-conditioning explanations of fear acquisition. These data suggest that four pathways to fear may provide the most parsimonious theory of fear etiology. The theoretical and practical implications of adding a fourth, non-associative path to Rachman's (Behav. Res. Ther. (1977) 15, 375-387) three 'associative' pathways are discussed. Unresolved issues requiring further investigation are considered.     

Age of acquisition effects in picture naming: evidence for a lexical-semantic competition hypothesis

In many tasks the effects of frequency and age of acquisition (AoA) on reaction latencies are similar in size. However, in picture naming the AoA-effect is often significantly larger than expected on the basis of the frequency-effect. Previous explanations of this frequency-independent AoA-effect have attributed it to the organisation of the semantic system or to the way phonological word forms are stored in the mental lexicon. Using a semantic blocking paradigm, we show that semantic context effects on naming latencies are more pronounced for late-acquired than for early-acquired words. This interaction between AoA and naming context is likely to arise during lexical-semantic encoding, which we put forward as the locus for the frequency-independent AoA-effect.     

The acquisition of an artificial category by pigeons

This article investigates the ability of pigeons to discriminate between artificial categories composed of patterns constructed from three adjacent bars. In three experiments, using autoshaping, the patterns signalled either the presence or the absence of food, and the categories were determined by the average height of the bars. The subjects were able to discriminate between these categories, and the results from generalization tests with novel patterns provide some indication of the way in which this success is achieved. It seems the discrimination does not involve the formation of a prototype that represents the average of the training patterns. Instead, the results suggest that the discrimination depends upon the formation of multiple associations, either between features of the various patterns and reinforcement, or between individual members of the category and reinforcement.     

Further evidence of a robust point-of-view bias in videotaped confessions

Four experiments were conducted to test possible limits on the previously demonstrated point-of-view bias in videotaped confessions. Study 1 showed that deliberation did not eliminate the bias. Study 2 showed that forewarning did not eliminate the bias. Study 3 showed that directing greater attention to the content of the confession did not eliminate the bias. Study 4 showed that using a lengthier, case-based confession also did not eliminate the bias. Taken together, this research clearly indicates that the legal system needs to be concerned with the potential for bias that exists in videotaped confessions. This research was supported by funds from the Ohio Board of Regents and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8911067 and SBR-9514966). We thank Kevin Apple, Kim Dudley, Kelly Kinnison, Melanie LaForce, Matthew Leafgren, Richelle Newvahner, Laurie Olsen, John Ray, Alicia Santuzzi, Jason Secondi, and Katie Strieker for their contributions to various aspects of the research. With the exception of Lassiter, order of authorship is alphabetical.     

Further evidence of a robust point-of-view bias in videotaped confessions

Four experiments were conducted to test possible limits on the previously demonstrated point-of-view bias in videotaped confessions. Study 1 showed that deliberation did not eliminate the bias. Study 2 showed that forewarning did not eliminate the bias. Study 3 showed that directing greater attention to the content of the confession did not eliminate the bias. Study 4 showed that using a lengthier, case-based confession also did not eliminate the bias. Taken together, this research clearly indicates that the legal system needs to be concerned with the potential for bias that exists in videotaped confessions. This research was supported by funds from the Ohio Board of Regents and the National Science Foundation (BNS-8911067 and SBR-9514966). We thank Kevin Apple, Kim Dudley, Kelly Kinnison, Melanie LaForce, Matthew Leafgren, Richelle Newvahner, Laurie Olsen, John Ray, Alicia Santuzzi, Jason Secondi, and Katie Strieker for their contributions to various aspects of the research. With the exception of Lassiter, order of authorship is alphabetical.     

Temporal masking level differences for transients: Further evidence for a short-term integrator

Studies of binaural perception have indicated that subjects are able to use temporal information available in high-frequency regions of the spectrum to lateralize high-frequency waveforms but not to detect these waveforms in masking noise. The present experiments demonstrate that although high-frequency interaural difference cues are relatively ineffective in simultaneous and forward masking, they can be utilized in backward masking. In Experiment 1, large maskinglevel differences were found in backward masking for high-frequency transients presented either monaurally or with an interaural temporal delay. Experiments 2–4 examined fringe masking, effects of masker duration, and combined forward-backward masking for both high- and lowfrequency transients presented with interaural differences in phase and intensity. The results are interpreted as support for the view that the auditory system is organized into parallel shortand long-term integration systems specialized for processing transient and sustained aspects of acoustic stimulation. It is suggested that information from the two integrators is combined when analysis of interaural differences within each of the systems yields similar estimates of spatial location.