Learning conditional frequencies in a probability learning task

The study was prompted by a theoretical discussion of probability learning by Estes (1976). In three separate experiments, subjects were presented with frequency information in the form of wins and losses among 3 teams, and later predicted future wins and losses. Frequencies were devised so that conditional win frequencies for a pair of teams were either inconsistent or consistent with marginal win frequencies for each team. In experiment 1, when subjects predicted future events on the basis of known past frequencies, predictions were generally based on conditional frequencies. In experiment 2 six blocks of observations were presented, with predictions following each block. What little learning did occur was in the direction of the conditional frequencies. Subjects in experiment 3 were able to learn conditional frequencies when given explicit instructions to do so. Results were discussed in terms of a two-stage hypothesis generation model that might operate within the framework of an associative theory of probability learning.     

The development of executive functioning and theory of mind. A comparison of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers

Preschoolers' theory-of-mind development follows a similar age trajectory across many cultures. To determine whether these similarities are related to similar underlying ontogenetic processes, we examined whether the relation between theory of mind and executive function commonly found among U.S. preschoolers is also present among Chinese preschoolers. Preschoolers from Beijing, China (N= 109), were administered theory-of-mind and executive-functioning tasks, and their performance was compared with that of a previously studied sample of U.S. preschoolers (N= 107). The Chinese preschoolers outperformed their U.S. counterparts on all measures of executive functioning, but were not similarly advanced in theory-of-mind reasoning. Nonetheless, individual differences in executive functioning predicted theory of mind for children in both cultures. Thus, the relation between executive functioning and theory of mind is robust across two disparate cultures. These findings shed light on why executive functioning is important for theory-of-mind development.     

Comparing learning environments in U.S. military officer education: a brief replication

A 2003 comparative study on learning environments at two military officer training sites was replicated using different methodology. Satisfaction with learning environment and with administrative inprocessing was higher at Fort Leavenworth than at Fort Dix. Most students expressed a preference for Fort Leavenworth. Satisfaction with institutional support and educational facilities appears to influence perceived satisfaction with a learning environment and with preference for training sites among senior military officers.     

The Learning Sciences in a New Era of U.S. Nationalism

What responsibilities do researchers of learning have in the wake of Trump's election and the proliferation of far-right, populist nationalism across the globe? In this essay, we seek to prompt and engage a dialogue about the political role and responsibilities of our field at this historical moment. First, we situate the social hierarchies that were most pronounced during this election within a longer history of U.S. policies and practices. We then examine the ostensible division between research on learning and the political contexts and consequences of learning. We argue for the need to address this false chasm and build on scholarship that has demonstrated the inextricable links among learning, power, and politics. We conclude by exploring how research on learning might more meaningfully engage with the political dimensions of learning through teaching, engaged research, publishing, professional forums, and service.     

Incidental learning as a function of anticipated task difficulty

Three experiments were conducted to demonstrate the effects of motivational arousal, due to anticipated task difficulty, on retention of familiar and unfamiliar incidental materials. Brehm, Wright, Solomon, Silka, and Greenberg (1983) have provided evidence that motivational arousal in immediate anticipation of a task is a nonmonotonic function of task difficulty, with difficult tasks producing a relatively higher level of motivational arousal than easy or impossible tasks. It was predicted that increased motivational arousal would facilitate retention of incidentally presented familiar materials (presumably more easily retained) and interfere with retention of incidentally presented unfamiliar materials (presumably less easily retained). In Study 1, subjects anticipating either an easy or a difficult task were exposed to familiar and unfamiliar first names. The predicted interaction between task difficulty and familiarity on recall of the first names was reliably supported. In Study 2, an impossible task condition was added. The results indicated that an effective impossible condition had not been created. In a third study designed as a procedural modification of Study 2, the predicted nonmonotonic interaction was found. Theoretical implications are discussed.These experiments were ably conducted by Ralph Young, whose help is gratefuly acknowledged. We would like to express our gratitude to Jack Brehm for invaluable suggestions concerning this research.     

成人期智力的年龄特征：中美比较研究

西方成人期心理发展方面的追踪研究积累了有关成人智力年龄变化模式的重要资料。非西方国家这方面的资料却非常少,因而也就无从得知非西方国家成人智力年龄差异和增龄模式是与此相似还是相异。通过成人期智力发展的跨文化研究,可以了解不同文化背景下智力变化和代际差异的一般规律。本研究旨在探究社会变迁和文化背景会对成人的智力发展产生怎样的影响。     

Discriminative taste aversion learning: a learning task for older chickens

The study of learning and memory using the chicken model has relied on three learning paradigms, passive avoidance learning, imprinting and the pebble floor task. Passive avoidance learning and imprinting have been used predominantly in very young chickens and cannot be used to access learning and memory in older chickens. We have established a new behavioural learning paradigm, Discriminative Taste Aversion Learning (DTAL), that can be used with both young and older animals. The task requires chickens to discriminate between food crumbs dyed either red or yellow with one colour being associated with the aversive tasting substance, methylanthranilate. Learning can be tested at various times after the training session by presenting chickens with the coloured food crumbs without an aversive taste. Both chickens tested at 5 and 15 days post-hatch learned to avoid the aversive crumbs. Furthermore, the protein synthesis inhibitor anisomycin (30 mM; 10 microl per hemisphere) injected into the intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale 15 min pre-training or 45 min post-training blocked long-term memory for the DTAL task when tested 24 h later. Memory for the task was unaffected by anisomycin injection 120 min post-training or in control animals injected with saline at similar times. The timing of the cellular processes of protein synthesis needed for consolidation of the DTAL appears to be similar to those described for the other behavioural paradigms in young chickens.     

Learning of event sequences is based on response-effect learning: further evidence from a serial reaction task

Four experiments provide converging evidence that serial learning in a serial reaction task is based on response-effect learning, mediated by the learning of the relations between a response and the stimulus that follows it. In Experiment 1, the authors varied the stimulus sequence and the response-stimulus relations while holding the response sequence constant. Learning effects depended on the complexity of the response-stimulus relations but not on the stimulus-stimulus relations. In Experiment 2, transfer of serial learning from 1 stimulus sequence to another was only found when both sequences had identical response-stimulus relations. In Experiment 3, a variation of the stimulus sequence alone had no effect on serial learning, whereas in Experiment 4 learning effects increased when the response-stimulus relations but not the stimulus-stimulus relations were simplified. These findings suggest that serial learning is based on mechanisms of voluntary action control.     

Retention interval and intertrial interval in a serial learning or delayed discrimination task

In each of four experiments, rats were provided with the same three-event decreasing series (18-1-0) of 0.045-g food pellets in a runway. Tracking, running fast to 18 pellets and running slow to 1 and 0 pellets, was investigated as a function of the temporal interval elapsing between the events of the series (the retention interval), shifts in retention interval, and number of trials each day (or the intertrial interval), a trial being defined as presentation of each of the three events of the series. Neither retention interval, which varied from 15 s to 30 min in various investigations, nor shifts in retention interval affected tracking when only one trial was given each day. But when more than one daily trial was given, tracking was acquired more slowly and was disrupted by a shift in retention interval from 15 s to 5 min. Tracking was also disrupted by a shift from one to two trials each day. These results indicate that when given one 18-1-0 trial each day, the rat partitions events on a first-event/subsequent-event basis; that little forgetting occurs even at long retention intervals; that somewhat different memories signal events when one or more than one 18-1-0 trial occurs each day; and that retention interval deficits can arise owing to the same or similar memories' signaling different events. The results described limit the generality of three hypotheses suggested in two recent investigations: that as retention interval increases, rats find it increasingly difficult to remember and utilize serial position cues; that tracking in serial tasks is not influenced by number of trials each day; and that there are specific stimuli associated with each retention interval which, when changed, necessarily disrupt performance.     

Learning versus behavioral expression of the learned: The effects of a secondary tone-counting task on implicit learning in the serial reaction task

The replicated finding that implicit learning in the serial reaction task (SRT) is impaired when both the learning and the assessment of learning occur in the presence of a secondary tone-counting task has been interpreted as implying that the mechanism(s) underlying implicit sequence learning require(s) attention in order to operate. However, in almost all studies, learning and the assessment of learning have been confounded. It is therefore unclear whether tone counting affects learning per se, the behavioral expression of the learned, or both. The goal of the present research was to disentangle the effects of tone counting on learning and the expression of the learned. In Exps. 1a and 1b, participants performed the Nissen and Bullemer SRT under different single-task (ST) and dual-task (DT) practice schedules. In Exps. 2a and 2b, participants received different amounts of ST and DT practice. In all experiments, degree of implicit learning was then assessed under both ST and DT conditions. Results are consistent with the argument that primarily the expression of what has been learned and, to some extent, implicit learning itself, are affected by tone counting. These findings are easily understood in terms of specific interference mechanisms but are problematic for models that contain the assumption of an attentional learning mechanism. Received: 16 October 1996 / Accepted: 5 February 1997     

Learning as a context for differences and differences as a context for learning

In this paper we describe how we, as two trainers with multiple differences, engaged with a group of trainees in a process of deconstructing the differences between the participants in the training group, using the acronym Social GRRAACCEESS as a heuristic. We will explore how these differences reflexively influenced the process of learning, through teaching, training and supervision, within the group.     

Churches as organisations: towards a virtue ecclesiology for today

This article is an attempt to offer insights from organisation studies to ecclesiology. To do so it draws particularly on the work of the moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre to offer a virtue ecclesiology for today. The application of MacIntyre's conceptual framework of practices, institutions, goods and virtues to all kinds of organisations, which already exists in the field of organisation studies, is extended to the church as an organisation. It suggests that the church may be re-described as an organisation in which the practices of faith are housed within the institution of the church. On this understanding, the gift of the church to the world is not simply the practices of faith but the manner in which they are institutionalised.     

The Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire: a measurement invariance examination among U.S. Anglos and U.S. Hispanics

The aim of this article is to assess the measurement invariance of the Bermond-Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) in U.S. Anglo (n = 490) and U.S. Hispanic ( n = 379) samples of college students. The BVAQ items demonstrated invariance of the factor loadings, the latent item intercepts, and unique factor variances. However, Hispanics had higher verbalizing scores and lower fantasizing scores on the latent variables. As a whole, the BVAQ requires additional testing and/or refinement for use with a Hispanic sample. Until such refinements, the authors recommend that the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 be used with U.S. Hispanic samples.     

Visual dominance in a lateral plane motor learning task.

Visual dominance was investigated in a motor learning task with the criterion movement being in the lateral plane of the body. The criterion movement was a 10-in. abduction of the arm. All subjects received four presentation trials for the criterion movement in each of the following conditions: dominant rotated arm, dominant unrotated arm, nondominant rotated arm, and nondominant unrotated arm. Three independent groups of 10 college-age subjects differed according to sensory stimuli given during presentation trials. The Kinesthetic group was blindfolded for presentation trials. The Visual and Kinesthetic group was unblindfolded for presentation trials. The Alternating group was blindfolded on half of the presentation trials and unblindfolded on the other half. All subjects carried out five blindfolded reproduction trials for each of the four conditions. Absolute error for the length of the reproduced movements was measured and no significant difference between groups was found. This suggests that visual dominance is reduced in movements outside the frontal plane when focal vision is not used. Planned comparison testing indicated the Alternating group was significantly more accurate than the Visual and Kinesthetic group.