Snoddy (1926) Revisited: Time Scales of Motor Learning

A new 3-stage model based on neuroimaging evidence is proposed by Chein and Schneider (2012). Each stage is associated with different brain regions, and draws on cognitive abilities: the first stage on creativity, the second on selective attention, and the third on automatic processing. The purpose of the present study was to scrutinize the validity of this model for 1 popular learning paradigm, visuomotor adaptation. Participants completed tests for creativity, selective attention and automated processing before attending in a pointing task with adaptation to a 60° rotation of visual feedback. To examine the relationship between cognitive abilities and motor learning at different times of practice, associations between cognitive and adaptation scores were calculated repeatedly throughout adaptation. The authors found no benefit of high creativity for adaptive performance. High levels of selective attention were positively associated with early adaptation, but hardly with late adaptation and de-adaptation. High levels of automated execution were beneficial for late adaptation, but hardly for early and de-adaptation. From this we conclude that Chein and Schneider's first learning stage is difficult to confirm by research on visuomotor adaptation, and that the other 2 learning stages rather relate to workaround strategies than to actual adaptive recalibration.     

On the automaticity of pure perceptual sequence learning

We investigated the automaticity of implicit sequence learning by varying perceptual load in a pure perceptual sequence learning paradigm. Participants responded to the randomly changing identity of a target, while the irrelevant target location was structured. In Experiment 1, the target was presented under low or high perceptual load during training, whereas testing occurred without load. Unexpectedly, no sequence learning was observed. In Experiment 2, perceptual load was introduced during the test phase to determine whether load is required to express perceptual knowledge. Learning itself was unaffected by visuospatial demands, but more learning was expressed under high load test conditions. In Experiment 3, we demonstrated that perceptual load is not required for the acquisition of perceptual sequence knowledge. These findings suggest that perceptual load does not mediate the perceptual sequence learning process itself, supporting the automaticity of implicit learning, but is mandatory for the expression of pure perceptual sequence knowledge.     

Effects of resource demanding processing on context memory for context-related versus context-unrelated items

In two experiments, context memory was compared between conditions of higher versus lower cognitive load. The ease of the item–context binding was manipulated using words whose meaning was preexperimentally related versus unrelated to context (colour). Experiment 1 showed that an item generation task may lead to a decrease in memory for font colour without enhancing item recognition. Experiment 2 used a dual-task paradigm, that is, participants performed a concurrent task during the study phase of the memory task. The divided-attention condition decreased both item and context memory. However, in both experiments, the influence of resource demanding conditions on context memory was apparent only when the item–context binding process was not facilitated by preexperimental associations.     

Repetition of a cognitive task promotes motor learning

Motor learning plays an important role in the acquisition of new motor skills. In this study, we investigated whether repetition of a cognitive task promoted motor learning. Fifty-one young adults were assigned to either the early, late, or control groups. All participants completed a mouse tracking task in which they manipulated a mouse to track a moving target on a screen. The cursor was rotated 165° in the counterclockwise direction from the actual mouse position, requiring participants to learn how to use a new tool. To determine the task performance, we calculated the distance between the cursor and target position. In addition, to assess the effects of a cognitive task on the progress of motor learning, curve fitting of the learning curves was performed for the total distance. Experiments were conducted as per the following schedule: learning day 1 (L1), learning day 2 (L2: the day after learning day 1), retention day 1 (R1: 2 weeks after learning day 1), and retention day 2 (R2: 4 weeks after learning day 1). Participants underwent mouse tracking for 20 min on L1 and L2 and for 3 min on R1 and R2. As a cognitive task, we adopted the N-back task. The early or late group performed the N-back task for 20 min before performing motor tracking task on L1 or L2, respectively. The control group did not perform the N-back task. Based on curve fitting analysis, it was observed that the rate of change for motor learning in the early group was higher than that in the control group. The retention of motor learning did not differ between all groups. Our results indicate that the repetition of a cognitive task enhanced in the early phase of motor learning of the mouse tracking task.     

生成性绘图与合作对高中生科学知识学习的影响

生成性绘图是学习心理学中一种有效的学习策略,能够促进学习者对科学文本知识的表征和深层理解。目前关于学习者生成性绘图的研究主要集中在个体学习领域,很少有研究探讨合作学习中生成性绘图的作用。本研究将合作学习与学习者生成性绘图相结合,探讨生成性绘图和合作对高中生科学知识学习的影响。实验1采用单因素(绘图、阅读)被试间设计来验证生成性绘图对学习效果以及认知负荷等主观体验的影响;实验2采用2(合作、个体)×2(绘图、阅读)被试间设计来探讨合作与生成性绘图对学习效果和学习者主观体验的影响。研究表明,生成性绘图和合作都可以有效促进高中生科学知识的学习效果;生成性绘图能够降低学习者的内在认知负荷;合作能够降低学习者的内在和外在认知负荷,提高学习者的相关认知负荷和学习兴趣。     

Listeners learn phonotactic patterns conditioned on suprasegmental cues

Language learners are sensitive to phonotactic patterns from an early age, and can acquire both simple and 2nd-order positional restrictions contingent on segment identity (e.g., /f/ is an onset with /æ/but a coda with /?/). The present study explored the learning of phonototactic patterns conditioned on a suprasegmental cue: lexical stress. Adults first heard non-words in which trochaic and iambic items had different consonant restrictions. In Experiment 1, participants trained with phonotactic patterns involving natural classes of consonants later falsely recognized novel items that were consistent with the training patterns (legal items), demonstrating that they had learned the stress-conditioned phonotactic patterns. However, this was only true for iambic items. In Experiment 2, participants completed a forced-choice test between novel legal and novel illegal items and were again successful only for the iambic items. Experiment 3 demonstrated learning for trochaic items when they were presented alone. Finally, in Experiment 4, in which the training phase was lengthened, participants successfully learned both sets of phonotactic patterns. These experiments provide evidence that learners consider more global phonological properties in the computation of phonotactic patterns, and that learners can acquire multiple sets of patterns simultaneously, even contradictory ones.     

The strength and generality of stimulus over-selectivity in simultaneous discrimination procedures

Stimulus over-selectivity refers to behavior being controlled by one element of the environment at the expense of other equally salient aspects of the environment. This is a common problem for many individuals, including those with autism spectrum disorders, and learning difficulties, and presents a considerable problem for information processing in many important situations involving complex cues and environments. Three experiments explored the strength and generality of the over-selectivity effect in non-clinical adults undertaking a cognitively demanding task, by training and testing participants on a two-component trial-and-error discrimination learning task. The over-selectivity effect was found in a variety of test conditions, including when the comparison test stimulus was neutral (Experiment 1), novel (Experiment 2), neutral with no conditioning history (Experiment 3), or when punished during training (Experiments 1, 2 and 3). Such results provide ubiquity to the phenomenon, making it important to investigate further.     

Tiger salamanders’ (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Ambystoma tigrinum</Emphasis>) response learning and usage of visual cues

We explored tiger salamanders’ (Ambystoma tigrinum) learning to execute a response within a maze as proximal visual cue conditions varied. In Experiment 1, salamanders learned to turn consistently in a T-maze for reinforcement before the maze was rotated. All learned the initial task and executed the trained turn during test, suggesting that they learned to demonstrate the reinforced response during training and continued to perform it during test. In a second experiment utilizing a similar procedure, two visual cues were placed consistently at the maze junction. Salamanders were reinforced for turning towards one cue. Cue placement was reversed during test. All learned the initial task, but executed the trained turn rather than turning towards the visual cue during test, evidencing response learning. In Experiment 3, we investigated whether a compound visual cue could control salamanders’ behaviour when it was the only cue predictive of reinforcement in a cross-maze by varying start position and cue placement. All learned to turn in the direction indicated by the compound visual cue, indicating that visual cues can come to control their behaviour. Following training, testing revealed that salamanders attended to stimuli foreground over background features. Overall, these results suggest that salamanders learn to execute responses over learning to use visual cues but can use visual cues if required. Our success with this paradigm offers the potential in future studies to explore salamanders’ cognition further, as well as to shed light on how features of the tiger salamanders’ life history (e.g. hibernation and metamorphosis) impact cognition.     

认知负荷取向下基于记忆-反应冲突的欺骗检测

欺骗检测一直是心理学的重要研究问题。基于欺骗理论的认知视角, 研究者提出欺骗检测的认知负荷取向。采用隐瞒信息测试这一测谎范式, 通过操纵认知负荷影响个体在虚假反应时的记忆-反应冲突解决过程, 考察增加认知负荷对欺骗检测的影响, 以期更好地揭示欺骗检测的认知机制。在此基础上, 以普通人群和犯罪嫌疑人为被试探查基于记忆-反应冲突的欺骗检测的行为和生理指标, 并根据获得的行为和生理指标, 采用机器学习方法进行建模, 预测个体的欺骗行为。研究结果将服务于司法、安防和人际交往等领域的欺骗检测。     

Blocking and pseudoblocking: the reply of Rattus norvegicus to Apis mellifera

Blaser, Couvillon, and Bitterman (2006) presented data obtained with honeybees that in principle challenged all traditional interpretations of blocking. They administered A + followed by either A + or + alone (where + indicates an unconditioned stimulus) and then tested on X. They observed less responding to X when they administered A + than when + alone was administered, a phenomenon they called "pseudoblocking". Here we examined pseudoblocking in a rat fear-conditioning preparation. In Experiment 1, using a control procedure that was similar to our usual blocking control, we obtained conventional blocking but failed to observe pseudoblocking in our analogue to Blaser et al.'s procedure. In Experiment 2, we used Blaser et al.'s control procedure and again failed to observe the pseudoblocking effect with rats when we used the experimental context as an analogue to the honeybee feeder used by Blaser et al. After reviewing their protocol and previously published studies from their laboratory, we hypothesized that the feeder that they treated as a training context probably served as a punctate cue. We also tested this possibility in Experiment 2, using a punctate cue as a surrogate feeder, and were now able to reproduce their pseudoblocking phenomena. Our results are consistent with a simple overshadowing account of pseudoblocking, within the framework of existing theories of associative learning, which is not applicable to the conventional blocking paradigm. Thus, blocking remains a real phenomenon that must be addressed by models of associative learning.     

阻碍效应范式中主题知识对类别学习的影响

三个实验采用阻碍效应研究范式探讨主题知识对类别学习的影响。实验1探讨定义特征维度为机械特征时,主题知识对类别学习的影响;实验2和实验3,通过考察定义特征维度为知识特征时,类别学习中阻碍效应的大小,继续探讨主题知识对类别学习的影响。实验结果发现：（1）当定义特征维度为机械特征时,主题知识的存在没有促进类别学习。这可能因为定义特征维度为机械特征,主题知识难以发现所致;（2）当定义特征维度为知识特征时,类别学习中的阻碍效应消失,证明主题知识的存在促进了类别学习。研究结果再次支持了类别学习不仅仅受到减少归类错误驱动的观点。     

Message Planning,Communication Failure,and Cognitive Load Further Explorations of the Hierarchy Principle

The hierarchy principle predicts and research has demonstrated that in response to communication failure, individuals make less cognitively demanding, low-level changes to message plans, such as the vocal intensity at which they are delivered, rather than more demanding alterations to message content and structure. Three experiments examined the effects of different message preparations on cognitive loads associated with high-level message plan alterations. In Experiment 1, individuals who prepared only one highly iconic message before experiencing communication failure demonstrated greater cognitive load when requested to deliver an alternative message than did individuals who prepared three highly iconic alternative messages. No cognitive load differences were found between those who prepared one or three low-iconicity messages. In Experiment 2, individuals who prepared one or six highly iconic message plans demonstrated greater cognitive load after communication failure than those who prepared three alternatives. This U-curve relationship was replicated in Experiment 3.     

Blocking and pseudoblocking: The reply of Rattus norvegicus to Apis mellifera

Blaser, Couvillon, and Bitterman (2006) presented data obtained with honeybees that in principle challenged all traditional interpretations of blocking. They administered A + followed by either A + or + alone (where + indicates an unconditioned stimulus) and then tested on X. They observed less responding to X when they administered A + than when + alone was administered, a phenomenon they called “pseudoblocking”. Here we examined pseudoblocking in a rat fear-conditioning preparation. In Experiment 1, using a control procedure that was similar to our usual blocking control, we obtained conventional blocking but failed to observe pseudoblocking in our analogue to Blaser et al.'s procedure. In Experiment 2, we used Blaser et al.'s control procedure and again failed to observe the pseudoblocking effect with rats when we used the experimental context as an analogue to the honeybee feeder used by Blaser et al. After reviewing their protocol and previously published studies from their laboratory, we hypothesized that the feeder that they treated as a training context probably served as a punctate cue. We also tested this possibility in Experiment 2, using a punctate cue as a surrogate feeder, and were now able to reproduce their pseudoblocking phenomena. Our results are consistent with a simple overshadowing account of pseudoblocking, within the framework of existing theories of associative learning, which is not applicable to the conventional blocking paradigm. Thus, blocking remains a real phenomenon that must be addressed by models of associative learning.     

The Rhythm Method: A New Method for Measuring Cognitive Load—An Experimental Dual‐Task Study

The present study joins a series of studies that used the dual‐task paradigm to measure cognitive load while learning with multimedia instruction. The goal of the current work was to develop a secondary task, to measure cognitive load in a direct and continuous way using intra‐individual, behavioral measures. The new task is achieved by utilizing internalized cues. More specifically, a previously practiced rhythm is executed continuously by foot tapping (secondary task) while learning (primary task). Precision of the executed rhythm was used as indicator for cognitive load—the higher the precision, the lower cognitive load. The suitability of this method was examined by two multimedia experiments (n₁ = 30; n₂ = 50). Cognitive load was manipulated by seductive details (Experiment 1: with vs. without) and modality (Experiment 2: on‐screen text vs. narration). Learners who learned under low cognitive load conditions (Experiment 1: without seductive details; Experiment 2: narration) showed significantly higher rhythm precision. These results provide evidence that rhythm precision allows for a precise and continuous measurement of cognitive load during learning. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Social cues modulate the representations underlying cross-situational learning

Because children hear language in environments that contain many things to talk about, learning the meaning of even the simplest word requires making inferences under uncertainty. A cross-situational statistical learner can aggregate across naming events to form stable word-referent mappings, but this approach neglects an important source of information that can reduce referential uncertainty: social cues from speakers (e.g., eye gaze). In four large-scale experiments with adults, we tested the effects of varying referential uncertainty in cross-situational word learning using social cues. Social cues shifted learners away from tracking multiple hypotheses and towards storing only a single hypothesis (Experiments 1 and 2). In addition, learners were sensitive to graded changes in the strength of a social cue, and when it became less reliable, they were more likely to store multiple hypotheses (Experiment 3). Finally, learners stored fewer word-referent mappings in the presence of a social cue even when given the opportunity to visually inspect the objects for the same amount of time (Experiment 4). Taken together, our data suggest that the representations underlying cross-situational word learning of concrete object labels are quite flexible: In conditions of greater uncertainty, learners store a broader range of information.     

Measuring context–response associations that drive habits

People achieve important life outcomes of health, financial security, and productivity by repeating operant behavior. To identify whether such operants reflect goal pursuit or habit, the present research introduces a new paradigm that yields objective measures of learning and controls for the motivations of goal pursuit. In two experiments, participants practiced a sequential task of making sushi and then completed a test of the strength of cue–response (habit) associations in memory. Finally, they repeated the sushi task without instructions while under cognitive load (designed to impede deliberation about goals). As predicted, greater task practice yielded stronger cue–response associations, which in turn promoted task success. Practice did not improve performance by enhancing goal intentions or other task motivations. We conclude that repetition facilitates performance by creating mental associations that automatically activate practiced, habitual responses upon perception of recurring context cues.     

Prospective memory: Effects of divided attention on spontaneous retrieval

We examined the effects of divided attention on the spontaneous retrieval of a prospective memory intention. Participants performed an ongoing lexical decision task with an embedded prospective memory demand, and also performed a divided-attention task during some segments of lexical decision trials. In all experiments, monitoring was highly discouraged, and we observed no evidence that participants engaged monitoring processes. In Experiment 1, performing a moderately demanding divided-attention task (a digit detection task) did not affect prospective memory performance. In Experiment 2, performing a more challenging divided-attention task (random number generation) impaired prospective memory. Experiment 3 showed that this impairment was eliminated when the prospective memory cue was perceptually salient. Taken together, the results indicate that spontaneous retrieval is not automatic and that challenging divided-attention tasks interfere with spontaneous retrieval and not with the execution of a retrieved intention.     

Re-examining the effects of verbal instructional type on early stage motor learning

The present study investigated the differential effects of analogy and explicit instructions on early stage motor learning and movement in a modified high jump task. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: analogy, explicit light (reduced informational load), or traditional explicit (large informational load). During the two-day learning phase, participants learned a novel high jump technique based on the ‘scissors’ style using the instructions for their respective conditions. For the single-day testing phase, participants completed both a retention test and task-relevant pressure test, the latter of which featured a rising high-jump-bar pressure manipulation. Although analogy learners demonstrated slightly more efficient technique and reported fewer technical rules on average, the differences between the conditions were not statistically significant. There were, however, significant differences in joint variability with respect to instructional type, as variability was lowest for the analogy condition during both the learning and testing phases, and as a function of block, as joint variability decreased for all conditions during the learning phase. Findings suggest that reducing the informational volume of explicit instructions may mitigate the deleterious effects on performance previously associated with explicit learning in the literature.     

Macro-event recognition in healthy ageing,Alzheimer’s disease,and mild cognitive impairment

Event perception and cognition is integral to our everyday experience and functional ability. A commonly reported complaint in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the inability to follow narratives – be it textual, conversational, video, or pictures. This phenomenon has received little systematic research so far. In the current study, we developed a novel paradigm to examine macro-event recognition in individuals with AD in the early stage and its preceding stage of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) in comparison with cognitively healthy older adults, using pictures depicting events. In Experiment 1, we examined participants’ ability to integrate pictorially depicted sub-events into macro-events. The pictures were presented in a scrambled order, and participants were expected to arrange them in the temporally and causally appropriate sequence, as dictated by the macro-event schema. Additionally, we investigated the effect of cueing the appropriate event schema by providing a word cue (verb). In Experiment 2, macro-event recognition was examined again using a cognitively less taxing paradigm, where pictures depicting sub-events were presented in correct order, but staggered, and recognition speed was measured. We observed significant deficits in the AD and MCI groups’ performance compared with the cognitively healthy older adults, across both experiments, suggesting event perception and cognition is impaired early in the course of AD. There was no effect of cueing on the performance of any of the groups. The theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.     

Social Beliefs and Visual Attention: How the Social Relevance of a Cue Influences Spatial Orienting

We are highly tuned to each other's visual attention. Perceiving the eye or hand movements of another person can influence the timing of a saccade or the reach of our own. However, the explanation for such spatial orienting in interpersonal contexts remains disputed. Is it due to the social appearance of the cue—a hand or an eye—or due to its social relevance—a cue that is connected to another person with attentional and intentional states? We developed an interpersonal version of the Posner spatial cueing paradigm. Participants saw a cue and detected a target at the same or a different location, while interacting with an unseen partner. Participants were led to believe that the cue was either connected to the gaze location of their partner or was generated randomly by a computer (Experiment 1), and that their partner had higher or lower social rank while engaged in the same or a different task (Experiment 2). We found that spatial cue‐target compatibility effects were greater when the cue related to a partner's gaze. This effect was amplified by the partner's social rank, but only when participants believed their partner was engaged in the same task. Taken together, this is strong evidence in support of the idea that spatial orienting is interpersonally attuned to the social relevance of the cue—whether the cue is connected to another person, who this person is, and what this person is doing—and does not exclusively rely on the social appearance of the cue. Visual attention is not only guided by the physical salience of one's environment but also by the mental representation of its social relevance.