Attention and memory cues in concept learning as a function of task complexity and age

The effects of attention and memory cues on concept learning performance were investigated as a function of task complexity and grade level of Ss. It was found that: (1) the attention and memory cues were closely interrelated in their effects upon performance with both significantly improving performance at all but the lowest levels of complexity; (2) both types of cues considerably lessened the effect of stimulus complexity upon performance; and (3) the attention cue elicited the best performance from Ss in the first through ninth grades, while the memory cue elicited the best performance from 4-year-old and kindergarten Ss.     

The Effect of Fatigue on Learning and Performance of a Gross Motor Task

40 college males were sequentially assigned to 1 of 2 groups to examine the effects of induced physical fatigue upon the performance and learning of a gross motor task, the stabilometer. All Ss were given 32 practice trials over 3 practice sessions, with 48 hr. rest interpolated between sessions. Trials 1 and 2 were performed under control conditions (no fatigue) for both groups. The Experimental Group was then required to perform under conditions of physical fatigue during Trials 3-26. Trials 27-32 (Session 3) were performed under control conditions. The condition of fatigue was achieved on Trials 3-26 by having Ss pedal a bicycle ergometer until a heart rate of 180 beats/min was attained prior to each trial. The Control Group cancelled vowels. The results indicated that physical fatigue was detrimental to the performance and learning of the Experimental Group.     

不同运动经历人群的内隐序列学习能力

考察不同运动经历人群的内隐序列学习能力。被试为上海体育学院小球运动员和非运动员;实验结合PDP,采用序列学习任务,并测试操作智商与记忆广度。结果发现,运动员在15个组段上的平均反应时、内隐学习量、自动提取贡献率上显著大于非运动员;不同水平运动员在内隐学习量上差异显著。研究结论:运动员的内隐序列学习能力显著好于非运动员,与运动水平有关,与智商无显著相关;这种内隐序列学习能力可能是某种运动能力的表现形式。     

Event-based prospective memory in depression: The impact of cue focality

This study is the first to compare event-based prospective memory performance in individuals with depression and healthy controls. The degree to which self-initiated processing is required to perform the prospective memory task was varied. Twenty-eight individuals with depression and 32 healthy controls worked on a computerised prospective memory task. Prospective cues were either presented focally or non-focally to the ongoing activity. Collapsing data across both conditions, controls outperformed individuals with depression in the prospective memory task. Overall, participants showed a poorer prospective memory performance in the non-focal condition that required self-initiated processing to a higher degree than the focal condition. Importantly, as revealed by a group by task condition interaction, groups did not differ in the focal condition, whereas, controls outperformed individuals with depression in the non-focal condition. The results are in line with the multiprocess framework of event-based prospective remembering and the cognitive-initiative account of depression-related cognitive deficits.     

Treadmill Gait Analysis Characterizes Gait Alterations in Parkinson's Disease and Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Mouse Models

The effect of anxiety on learning and performance of a complex motor task was determined. In addition the effects of two stressors—competition and failure—and the interactions between these stressors and anxiety were investigated. 40 high and 40 low anxiety Ss (selected by the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale) learned and performed a coincident timing task. Competition was presented by offering the Ss a monetary reward for the best performance, while failure was manipulated by giving false knowledge of results and indicating that the performance level was inferior. Results showed that Ss low in anxiety performed significantly better than Ss high in anxiety during the initial learning of a complex motor task. No difference was found between Ss extreme in anxiety once the task was well-learned. Competition and failure did not affect performance or interact with the anxiety level of Ss.     

注意和工作记忆对交错呈现优势的影响

以家族相似性图案为材料,让被试在单任务或双任务条件下以集中呈现或交错呈现的方式进行观察（实验1）或反馈（实验2）学习,记录眼动,探究注意对交错呈现优势的影响,以及工作记忆在其中的作用。发现当进行观察学习时,注意影响交错呈现优势,结果支持区别对比理论和注意衰减理论;当进行反馈学习时,注意的影响还有待进一步探究。同时,工作记忆影响交错呈现优势,但工作记忆并非完全通过影响注意从而影响交错呈现优势。     

关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响

以大学生为被试,使用关系复杂性逐渐变化的实验材料——4特征复杂关系的虚拟外星生物、6特征复杂关系加二阶同功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物和6特征复杂关系加二阶异功能简单关系的虚拟外星生物,采用类别的间接性学习范式——个人功能预测的关系类别的间接性学习条件和参照性交流的关系类别的间接性学习条件,通过三个实验任务（功能预测、自由分类和维度选择）,探讨材料关系复杂性对关系类别间接性学习中选择性注意的影响。结果发现：随着关系复杂性的逐渐增高,被试的选择性注意水平不存在显著差异,但选择性注意的指向性存在极其显著差异,选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）不存在显著差异;参照条件下被试选择性注意水平极其显著地高于个人条件,这种差异主要表现在选择性注意的指向性方面,而不表现在选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）方面。     

The role of gross locomotor restriction in the acquisition of motor and cardiac conditional discrimination in the dog

The effects of gross locomotor restriction and lack of restriction, respectively, on the acquisition of a motor and cardiac discrimination task was investigated. Litter-mate dogs were used in a counterbalanced design involving two treatment conditions (free and restrained) and two discrimination learning problems. Each learning problem included eight daily training sessions with 10 CS+ tones and ten CS—tones presented randomly. The US was a shock to the left foreleg. Degree of foot flexion and percentage change in heart rate in response to CS tones were recorded. Dogs subjected initially to the free condition manifested a superior and more rapid motor and cardiac discrimination than Ss initially restrained. The free condition was not as facilitatory when presented to Ss which first had been exposed to the restraint condition. The results are discussed in terms of activation and negative transfer.     

The initial effect of noise on a simple vibrotactile learning task

In two experiments the effect of loud noise on a simple vibrotactile learning task was studied. After learning the task to criterion, 10 male and 10 female Ss received two pairs of test trials, one without noise, and one in continuous noise (a 1,000 cps pure tone at 90 dB SPL). An additional 10 male and 10 female Ss learned the same task and also received the same two pairs of test trials, but instead of receiving continuous noise for the second condition, they received an intermittent noise (random numbers presented at 2 sec intervals at 95 dB SPL). In the first experiment noise had a significant effect on the performance of the 20-subject group and also on the females in the group. Noise did not significantly affect the performance of males. In the second experiment noise had no significant effect on either males or females.     

Effects of responses to depression on the remediation of depressive affect

The effects of different types of responses to a depressed mood on the duration and severity of the mood were examined. On the basis of Nolen-Hoeksema's (1987) response styles theory of depression, it was hypothesized that distracting, active responses would be more effective in alleviating a depressed mood than would ruminative, passive responses. A depressed mood was induced in 35 male and 34 female Ss, and subjects were randomly assigned to engage in 1 of 4 types of responses: an active task that distracted them from their mood; a passive, distracting task; an active task designed to lead to ruminations about their mood; or a passive, ruminative task. As predicted, the greatest remediation of depressed mood was found in Ss in the distracting-active response condition, followed in order by the distracting-passive, ruminative-active, and ruminative-passive response conditions. Degree of rumination had a greater impact on remediation of depressive affect than level of activity, with greater rumination leading to lesser remediation of depressive affect. In addition, the effects of the response tasks were limited to depressed mood. The implications of these results for interventions with depressed persons are discussed.     

Processing of ambiguous and unambiguous feedback by depressed and nondepressed college students: schematic biases and their implications for depressive realism

Explored schematic processing as a mechanism for predicting (a) when depressed Ss would be negative relative to nondepressed Ss and (b) when depressed and nondepressed Ss would show biased or unbiased (i.e., "realistic") processing. Depressed and nondepressed Ss performed multiple trials of a task under conditions in which the two groups held either equivalent or different schemas regarding this task. Ss received either an unambiguous or objectively normed ambiguous feedback cue on each trial. In full support of schematic processing, depressed Ss showed negative encoding relative to nondepressed Ss only when their schemas were more negative, and both depressed and nondepressed Ss showed positively biased, negatively biased, and unbiased encoding depending on the relative feedback cue-to-schema match. Depressed and nondepressed Ss' response latencies to unambiguous feedback also supported the occurrence of schematic processing. We discuss the methodological, treatment, and "realism" implications of these findings and suggest a more precise formulation of Beck's schema theory of depression.     

参照性交流对关系类别间接性学习的促进作用

以大学生为被试,以4特征虚拟外星生物为实验材料,采用类别的间接性学习范式——个人条件和参照条件,及一个无功能条件,通过三个实验任务（功能预测、自由分类和维度选择）,探讨参照性交流范式下关系类别的间接性学习特点。结果发现：类别的间接性学习条件下,自由分类任务中,被试更倾向于选择关系作为类标准;功能预测的关系类别的间接性学习过程中,参照条件下的功能预测成绩显著高于个人条件,这种差异体现在参照惯例形成的学习过程的中后期;关系类别的间接性学习条件下,参照条件下被试的选择性注意水平显著高于个人条件,这种差异主要表现于选择性注意的指向性方面,而不体现于选择性注意的集中性（对无关维度的抑制）方面。     

Adult age differences in attentional allocation during memory search.

Young and older adults performed a memory search task in which, before probe onset, a cue indicated which of 4 memory-set items the probe was most likely to be. The results were consistent with an attentional allocation model in which performance represents a weighted combination, across trials, of focused (i.e., selective) versus distributed attention. The model significantly underestimated the reaction time required by miscued trials, probably because of the response inhibition occurring on these trials. The degree to which Ss relied on focused attention was significantly greater for older adults than for young adults. The estimated time required to shift attention between memory-set items was equivalent for the 2 age groups.     

The effects of dimensional naming upon children’s performance in a modified optional shift problem

In a modified optional shift paradigm, shift and test tasks were administered concurrently to 120 second-grade children. Ss required, during shift learning, to verbalize the values of the previously relevant dimension showed an increase in reversal responding in the test task, whereas those required to verbalize the values of the previously irrelevant dimension showed an increase in nonreversal responding. The results are in good agreement with predictions made from an extension of Hull-Spence discrimination learning theory.     

Does affect induce self-focused attention?

Despite growing evidence that depression is linked with self-focused attention, little is known about how depressed individuals become self-focused or, more generally, about what arouses self-focus in everyday life. Two experiments examined the hypothesis that affect itself induces self-focused attention. In Experiment 1, moods were manipulated with an imagination mood-induction procedure. Sad-induction Ss became higher in self-focus than did neutral-induction Ss. Experiment 2 replicated this effect for sad moods by means of a musical mood-induction procedure and different measures of self-focus. However, Experiment 2 failed to support the hypothesis that happy moods induce self-focus. The results have implications for mood-induction research, self-focused attention, and recent models of depression.     

The impact of orienting attention in fast task-irrelevant perceptual learning

Task-irrelevant perceptual learning (TIPL) refers to the phenomenon where the stimulus features are learned when they are consistently presented at behaviorally relevant times (e.g., with task targets or rewards). Studies on the role of attention in TIPL have found that attention negatively impacts this type of learning; however, these studies involved stimuli that were completely irrelevant to the subjects and that, when noticed, were distracting to the subjects?? task. Here, we asked whether attention would have a beneficial impact on learning in the case where the target-paired stimuli were relevant to a secondary task that subjects were required to perform. We conducted three experiments in adult subjects, using the fast-TIPL paradigm (which allows one to study TIPL with as little as a single trial of exposure). The results from Experiments 1 and 2 showed that fast-TIPL occurred for the target-paired stimuli but that the manipulation of attention increased performance for stimuli presented after the target. Experiment 3 was conducted to address whether the direction of attention positively or negatively impacted fast-TIPL and to better control for the effects of attention. The results of this experiment demonstrate that in the case of fast-TIPL, exogenously directed attention aids in the memorization of target-paired stimuli. Overall, our results demonstrate that attention operates in a beneficial manner in fast-TIPL, where the target-paired stimuli are relevant to a secondary task that subjects perform.     

Longitudinal attentional engagement rescues mice from age-related cognitive declines and cognitive inflexibility

Learning, attentional, and perseverative deficits are characteristic of cognitive aging. In this study, genetically diverse CD-1 mice underwent longitudinal training in a task asserted to tax working memory capacity and its dependence on selective attention. Beginning at 3 mo of age, animals were trained for 12 d to perform in a dual radial-arm maze task that required the mice to remember and operate on two sets of overlapping guidance (spatial) cues. As previously reported, this training resulted in an immediate (at 4 mo of age) improvement in the animals' aggregate performance across a battery of five learning tasks. Subsequently, these animals received an additional 3 d of working memory training at 3-wk intervals for 15 mo (totaling 66 training sessions), and at 18 mo of age were assessed on a selective attention task, a second set of learning tasks, and variations of those tasks that required the animals to modify the previously learned response. Both attentional and learning abilities (on passive avoidance, active avoidance, and reinforced alternation tasks) were impaired in aged animals that had not received working memory training. Likewise, these aged animals exhibited consistent deficits when required to modify a previously instantiated learned response (in reinforced alternation, active avoidance, and spatial water maze). In contrast, these attentional, learning, and perseverative deficits were attenuated in aged animals that had undergone lifelong working memory exercise. These results suggest that general impairments of learning, attention, and cognitive flexibility may be mitigated by a cognitive exercise regimen that requires chronic attentional engagement.     

The effects of stimulus structure and familiarity on same-different comparison

It was hypothesized that performance in the same-different comparison task is based on two modes of processing: (1) structural processes that organize the detailed parts of a stimulus into a well-formed whole, and (2)analytic processes that decompose the stimulus into features. This hypothesis was supported, but with the unexpected finding of individual differences in the mode of processing underlying “same” responses. Those Ss in the “same” condition whose reaction times were faster for symmetrical than for asymmetrical patterns supported the hypothesis for structural processes. The remaining Ss in the “same” condition, as well as all the Ss in the “different” condition, were unaffected by symmetry. These Ss supported the hypothesis for analytic processes. Although familiarity effects were obtained for both structural and analytic Ss, the rotation of the familiar patterns into an unfamiliar orientation virtually eliminated familiarity effects for the structural Ss, but left them intact for analytic Ss.     

A model of memory in concept learning

A concept learning model was developed and tested in two conjunctive attribute identification tasks. The model includes assumptions about the focus of attention, decision making, and memory for stimulus information and prior decisions. Predictions are made about how S changes his hypothesis following an error. Procedures in both tasks allowed inference of the subject's current hypothesis. The hypothesis selections and error statistics were in the majority of cases accurately predicted by the model. Deviations from predictions on hypothesis sampling occurred for naive Ss but not for trained Ss who were required to state a hypothesis on each trial.     

The speed of visual processing in children and adults: Effects of backward and forward masking

Children, 4-5 and 9-10 years old, and college-age adults were tested on two visual masking tasks. The first task required the Ss to identify whether a tachistoscopically presented bar was horizontal or vertical The second task, also using tachistoscopic presentation of stimuli, required Ss to locate a horizontal (or vertical) bar in a matrix of vertical (or horizontal) bars. In both tasks, backward masking produced greater disruption than did forward masking, and the amount of disruption induced by both backward and forward masking decreased as age increased. An Age by Masking Condition interaction was found only in the location task and reflected a much greater difference between backward- and forward-masking conditions for the youngest group than for the older groups. On the basis of these findings and other considerations, it was concluded that only in the location task, which presumably required visual search, was the speed of visual processing slower in the younger group.