Intentional control and implicit sequence learning

Sequence knowledge acquired by repeated exposure to targets in a speeded localization task was studied in 3 experiments that sought to test A. Destrebecqz and A. Cleeremans's (2001, 2003) claim that, under certain circumstances, the expression of such sequence knowledge cannot be brought under intentional control. In Experiment 1 participants were trained on either a deterministic or a probabilistic sequence and then performed a free-generation test under either inclusion or exclusion instructions. Participants were found to be capable of both expressing (inclusion) and avoiding expressing (exclusion) sequence knowledge. These results were confirmed in Experiment 2 with a more exact replication of Destrebecqz and Cleeremans's methodology. In Experiment 3 participants performed a trial-by-trial generation test under both inclusion and exclusion conditions after a much longer period of training. All the findings are consistent with the proposal that information acquired during sequence learning is explicit in nature.     

Data-driven sequence learning or search: What are the prerequisites for the generation of explicit sequence knowledge?

In incidental sequence learning situations, there is often a number of participants who can report the task-inherent sequential regularity after training. Two kinds of mechanisms for the generation of this explicit knowledge have been proposed in the literature. First, a sequence representation may become explicit when its strength reaches a certain level (Cleeremans, 2006), and secondly, explicit knowledge may emerge as the result of a search process that is triggered by unexpected events that occur during task processing and require an explanation (the unexpected-event hypothesis; Haider & Frensch, 2009). Our study aimed at systematically exploring the contribution of both mechanisms to the generation of explicit sequence knowledge in an incidental learning situation. We varied the amount of specific sequence training and inserted unexpected events into a 6-choice serial reaction time task. Results support the unexpected-event view, as the generation of explicit sequence knowledge could not be predicted by the representation strength acquired through implicit sequence learning. Rather sequence detection turned out to be more likely when participants were shifted to the fixed repeating sequence after training than when practicing one and the same fixed sequence without interruption. The behavioral effects of representation strength appear to be related to the effectiveness of unexpected changes in performance as triggers of a controlled search.     

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.     

Are Time and Action Dissociated in Young Children''s Time Estimation?

Experiment 1 examined whether there is a developmental shift in children's ability to differentiate a given amount of time from a particular action. In three sessions, 3- and 5 1/2-year-olds were trained to produce an action (i.e., pressing on a squeezer) for 5 s. Twenty-four hours later, control participants were required to produce this target duration using the same action, whereas experimental participants had to do so with a new action (i.e., pressing a button). The results showed that the 5 1/2-year-olds achieved the same temporal performance in both groups. In contrast, the 3-year-olds' temporal performance was significantly better in the control group than in the experimental group. Two additional studies were run with 3-year-olds, the first designed to assess the transfer without a delay, and the second with explicit instructions to transfer duration. In each study, 3-year-olds' temporal performance was significantly better in the control group than in the experimental group. These findings as a whole suggest that 3-year-olds fail to understand that one and the same duration can be shared by several different actions. Early implicit knowledge of time was discussed.     

The effect of old age on supra-span learning of visuo-spatial sequences under incidental and intentional encoding instructions

Recent findings [Turcotte, Gagnon, & Poirier, 2005. The effect of old age on the learning of supra-span sequences. Psychology and Aging, 20, 251-260.] indicate that incidental learning of visuo-spatial supra-span sequences through immediate serial recall declines with old age (Hebb's paradigm). In this study, we examined whether strategies induced by awareness of the repeated sequence might explain age differences. Young (18-35 years old) and older (65-80 years old) participants underwent either incidental or intentional learning instructions. Results indicated that older adults demonstrated reduced learning of the repeated sequence under both incidental and intentional instructions. In comparison, young adults showed superior learning of the repeated sequence in both conditions but intentional instructions triggered faster and greater learning in this age group. The results strongly indicated that knowledge of the repeated sequence enhanced learning only in the group of young adults. Older adults were unable to translate the knowledge of the repetition into elaborate strategies that would increase recall of the repeated sequence. Other findings suggest that incidental learning in young adults was mediated by both non-conscious and conscious recollection processes.     

Evidence of automatic processing in sequence learning using process-dissociation

This paper proposes a way to apply process-dissociation to sequence learning in addition and extension to the approach used by Destrebecqz and Cleeremans (2001). Participants were trained on two sequences separated from each other by a short break. Following training, participants self-reported their knowledge of the sequences. A recognition test was then performed which required discrimination of two trained sequences, either under the instructions to call any sequence encountered in the experiment "old" (the inclusion condition), or only sequence fragments from one half of the experiment "old" (the exclusion condition). The recognition test elicited automatic and controlled process estimates using the process dissociation procedure, and suggested both processes were involved. Examining the underlying processes supporting performance may provide more information on the fundamental aspects of the implicit and explicit constructs than has been attainable through awareness testing.     

ACQUISITION AND GENERALIZATION OF COMPLIANCE WITH COMPLEX FIVE-COMPONENT INSTRUCTIONS1

A 7-yr-old bilingual boy of normal intelligence, judged by his school to be deficient in carrying out complex requests, was trained to comply with five-component instructions, e.g., “Give me/the chip/behind/the block/on blue”. Three interchangeable words or phrases were used for each component. Training proceeded in stages. First, the child was trained to identify all individual objects and actions; then to carry out requests involving only the first component, then the first two, then three, etc. On every trial, the visual setting permitted every possible response in the set. A test for generalization to nonreinforced instructions was given at each stage by giving no feedback for all instructions that included one preselected phrase. The phrase selected at each stage was one of the three that was introduced at that stage. As a further test for generalization, nonreinforced instructions were also given that included one additional component: the next to be trained (Probes Ahead). As a test for generalization across settings and instructions, several five-component instructions were presented each session in an unused classroom. These instructions used phrases, most of which were different from those being trained, and which referred to familiar classroom objects. Results showed: acquisition occurred for each stage of training, including the full five-component instruction; almost complete generalization of responding occurred to the subset of nonreinforced instructions; little or no generalization occurred to the Probes Ahead, where an additional untrained component was included; and little or no generalization was seen to the five-component classroom instructions, until training began on the five-component instructions in the training sessions. Performance was also examined for each component. Results showed that when a new component was introduced, correct performance to previously trained components declined, and was little if any superior to performance on the new component. In summary, transfer was found to untrained sentences of the same form as those being trained, even in another setting, where most of the components were different; but poor transfer was found to more complex sentences, and performance declined for previously trained components during training of a more complex sentence. Some features of the training procedure that may have affected the degree and form of transfer were discussed: the necessity for prior training in an appropriate response to the component phrases, the importance of intermixing of reinforced and nonreinforced trials, and the effects of the abruptness with which more complex sentence forms were introduced.     

Establishing generalized verb-noun instruction-following skills in retarded children

A transfer of stimulus control procedure was used to establish generalized verb-noun instruction-following skills in two severely retarded boys. Each of 12 verbs was trained, in a multiple baseline order, to criterion with each of 12 nouns in the form of verb-noun verbal instructions. Throughout training, reinforced probes were conducted on both trained and untrained verb-noun combinations. As training progressed, both subjects began to respond correctly to untrained verb-noun instructions. Eventually, a verb needed to be trained in combination with only one noun before generalization occurred to the as-yet-untrained 11 verb-noun instructions involving that verb.     

The Relationship Between Phonological Memory,Phonological Sensitivity,and Incidental Word Learning

This study investigated the cognitive abilities needed to succeed at incidental word learning, specifically by examining the role of phonological memory and phonological sensitivity in novel word learning by 4-year-olds who were typically developing. Forty 4-year-olds were administered a test of nonword repetition (to investigate phonological memory), rhyming and phoneme alliteration tasks (to investigate phonological sensitivity), and an incidental word learning task (via a computer-based presentation of a cartoon story). A multiple regression analysis revealed that nonword repetition scores did not contribute significantly to incidental word learning. Phonological sensitivity scores were significant predictors of incidental word learning. These findings provide support for a model of lexical acquisition in which phonological knowledge plays an important role.     

Recall by expert medical practitioners and novices as a record of processing attention

Using recall of clinical protocols as a measure of expertise in medicine has yielded disappointingly small effects. Experiments using recall of clinical laboratory data are presented to provide an explanation. In one experiment, subjects either deliberately memorized or first diagnosed and then were incidentally asked for memory. With incidental instructions, experts recalled over twice as much data as did students, but with memorization instructions, student performance approximated that of experts. Experts also showed a large advantage over students in incidental recall of data that were not relevant to the problem solution. These results suggest that expert processing in this "discrete, independent inputs" domain requires effortful analysis with minimal reliance on default values, rather than relatively effortless pattern perception reported in highly visual areas of expertise. For this area, intentional memory is a misleading measure of expertise. However, incidental memory is a valuable measure of processing during diagnosis.     

Determinants of imitation of hand-to-body gestures in 2- and 3-year-old children

Twenty children, ten 2-year-olds and ten 3-year-olds, participated in an AB procedure. In the baseline phase, each child was trained the same four matching relations to criterion under intermittent reinforcement. During the subsequent imitation test, the experimenter modeled a total of 20 target gestures (six trials each) interspersed with intermittently reinforced baseline trials. In each session, target gestures were selected in a pre-randomized sequence from: Set 1--ear touches; Set 2--shoulder touches; Set 3--midarm touches; and Set 4--wrist touches; subjects' responses to targets were not reinforced. In each target set, half the gestures featured in nursery matching games and were termed common targets whereas the remainder, which were topographically similar but did not feature in the games, served as uncommon targets. The children produced significantly more matching responses to common target models than to uncommon ones. Common responses were also produced as mismatches to uncommon target models more often than vice versa. Response accuracy did not improve over trials, suggesting that "parity" did not serve as a conditioned reinforcer. All children showed a strong bias for "mirroring"--responding in the same hemispace as the modeler. The 2-year-olds produced more matching errors than the 3-year-olds and most children showed a bias for responding with their right hands. The strong effects of training environment (nursery matching games) are consistent with a Skinnerian account, but not a cognitive goal theory account, of imitation in young children.     

Early understanding of perception as a source of knowledge

Two studies investigated preschool children's ability to infer another person's knowledge or ignorance on the basis of that person's recent perceptual experience. In Experiment 1 children were questioned about their own and a puppet's knowledge of a hidden object's color and about their own and the puppet's ability to see the hidden object. Three- and 4-year-olds attributed knowledge and perceptual experience to the person (either themselves or the puppet) who had viewed the hidden object, but not to the person who did not view it. Experiment 2 further investigated 3-year-olds understanding of perception as a source of knowledge. Children were asked to indicate which of two puppets, one who had viewed a hidden object and one who had not, would be able to tell them the object's color. Children chose the correct puppet more often than would be predicted by chance. The results of these experiments suggest that understanding of perception as a source of knowledge is present by the age of 3 years.     

Children's ability to control the facial expression of laughter and smiling: Knowledge and behaviour

A total of 64 children, aged 7 and 10, watched a clown performing three sketches rated as very funny by the children. Two experimental conditions were created by asking half of the participants to suppress their laughter. Facial expressions were videotaped and analysed with FACS. For both ages, the results show a significant shorter duration (but not a lower frequency) of episodes of laughter and Duchenne smiles, and greater frequency of facial control movements in the suppression compared to the free expression group. The detailed results on individual facial action units used to control amusement expressions suggest hypotheses on the nature of the underlying processes. The participants' explicit knowledge of their control strategies was assessed through standardised interviews. Although behavioural control strategies were reported equally frequently by the two age groups, 10-year-olds verbalised more mental control strategies than 7-year-olds. This theoretically expected difference was not related to the actual ability to control facial expression. This result challenges the commonly held assumption that explicit knowledge of control strategies results in a greater ability to execute such control in ongoing social interactions.     

The role of instructions in the transfer of ordinal functions through equivalence classes

In two experiments, adult subjects completed match-to-sample training and testing to establish four equivalence classes of four figures each. Then the subjects were taught one three-position sequence consisting of one stimulus from Class 1, one from Class 2, and one from Class 3. Inclusion of Class 4 stimuli in sequences was never reinforced, but two different stimuli from Class 4 appeared as distractors on each sequence trial. Tests assessed whether subjects would produce novel three-position sequences composed of members of Classes 1 through 3 that had not been used in sequence training. Three subjects in Experiment 1 received instructions about the match-to-sample and sequencing tasks, in addition to training contingencies. All 3 demonstrated equivalence class formation after match-to-sample training. After they were taught one sequence with one member of Classes 1 through 3, none of these subjects produced untrained sequences with other equivalence class members reliably. One additional sequence was trained directly; thereafter 1 subject showed some evidence of transfer of the trained ordinal functions across the remaining members of the equivalence classes, but the other 2 did not. Following a review of equivalence class training and testing and a review of the original sequence training, all 3 subjects produced most of the predicted, untrained sequences on tests. Experiment 2 replicated Experiment 1 with 2 adults but omitted all instructions except the minimal ones necessary to initiate responding. Unlike the subjects in Experiment 1, both of these subjects demonstrated virtually complete transfer of ordinal functions through the equivalence classes after direct training on just one sequence composed of one member of Classes 1 through 3.     

COMPARISON OF STAFF TRAINING STRATEGIES TO PROMOTE GENERALIZED TEACHING SKILLS

Two studies compared the effectiveness of different strategies for promoting generalization of staff skills in teaching self-care routines to clients with developmental disabilities. In Study 1, 9 direct-care staff members of group homes were trained sequentially through four conditions: (a) the provision of written instructions, (b) performance-based training using a single client program exemplar and simulated clients (single case training), (c) performance-based training using actual developmentally delayed clients as trainees (common stimuli training), and (d) performance-based training using multiple client program exemplars with simulated clients (general case training). The results indicated that staff members did not reach all generalization criteria until general case training was provided. Because staff members had been trained sequentially through several conditions in Study 1, a second study controlled for potential sequence effects. In Study 2, 7 staff members were trained using only the general case strategy after baseline. All staff members reached generalization criteria with only general case training, replicating the findings of Study 1. Together, the two studies demonstrated that the general case training strategy was more effective at promoting generalized training effects across clients, settings, and client programs than other commonly used staff training approaches.     

Incidental sequence learning across the lifespan

The purpose of the present study was to investigate incidental sequence learning across the lifespan. We tested 50 children (aged 7-16), 50 young adults (aged 20-30), and 50 older adults (aged >65) with a sequence learning paradigm that involved both a task and a response sequence. After several blocks of practice, all age groups slowed down when the training sequences were removed, providing indirect evidence for sequence learning. This performance slowing was comparable between groups, indicating no age-related differences. However, when explicit sequence knowledge was considered, age effects were found. For both children and older adults with no or only little explicit knowledge, incidental sequence learning was largely reduced and statistically not significant. In contrast, young adults showed sequence learning irrespective of the amount of explicit knowledge. These results indicate that different learning processes are involved in incidental sequence learning depending on age.     

Characterizing sequence knowledge using online measures and hidden Markov models

What knowledge do subjects acquire in sequence-learning experiments? How can they express that knowledge? In two sequence-learning experiments, we studied the acquisition of knowledge of complex probabilistic sequences. Using a novel experimental paradigm, we were able to compare reaction time and generation measures of sequence knowledge online. Hidden Markov models were introduced as a novel way of analyzing generation data that allowed for a characterization of sequence knowledge in terms of the grammar that was used to generate the stimulus material. The results indicated a strong correlation between the decrease in reaction times and an increase in generation performance. This pattern of results is consistent with a common knowledge base for improvement on both measures. On a more detailed level, the results indicate that at the start of training, generation performance and reaction times are uncorrelated and that this correlation increases with training.     

Recollection is impaired by the modification of interpretation bias

The interpretation paradigm of cognitive-bias modification (CBM-I) was modified with instructions used in process-dissociation procedures for the purpose of investigating processes contributing to performance on the transfer task. In Experiment 1, nonanxious students were trained to interpret ambiguous situations in either a negative or benign way (or they read nonambiguous scenarios). They were then asked to respond to new ambiguous situations, in the same way as contextually similar analogues during training, or to respond differently. Benign training proactively impaired memory for negative outcomes. This effect was replicated by anxious students in Experiment 2 and discussed with respect to the assumptions underlying process-dissociation procedures and directions for future research.     

The strategic regulation of children's memory performance and suggestibility

We report two empirical studies that investigated previously reported benefits of a high accuracy motivation, and thus a high threshold, for children's and adults' event recall and for their ability to resist false suggestions. In the studies, 6-, 7-, and 8-year-olds, as well as adults, were shown a brief video about an event and were later asked unbiased and misleading questions about it. In Study 1, participants were either (a) given the typical accuracy instructions (including the option to answer with "I don't know"), (b) reminded of the accuracy instructions during the interview, or (c) immediately given feedback and a token for every correct answer. The results showed that the reminders were ineffective in stimulating strategic control behavior in children, independent of age. In Study 2, the confounding effects of feedback and incentives were disentangled by contrasting (a) free report, (b) feedback only, (c) incentives only, and (d) feedback plus incentives. Analyses on recall performance and suggestibility revealed that both feedback and incentives are necessary to increase children's accurate memory reports.     

Planning in the preschool years: The emergence of plans from general event knowledge

A framework for conceptualizing the relationship between event knowledge and planning is proposed, and two experiments are reported that examined children's ability to draw on event knowledge in planning. Preschool children were asked to plan and execute shopping trips to a pretend grocery store. Half of the children planned for two events on successive trials (Level 1, single-goal planning) and half of the children planned for two events simultaneously (Level 2, multiple-event planning). The amount of external support for planning was also manipulated. In Experiment 1, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were presented with either a clustered or interleaved display. In Experiment 2, 3- and 4-year-olds were given adult assistance in plan construction. Results indicated that children's planning becomes more complex and flexible with age. Older children also rely less on external supports for planning. However, when external support was provided, 3- and 4-year-olds displayed higher-level planning abilities. Results are discussed in terms of the roles of event knowledge and external support in the early development of planning skills.