Implicit learning revealed by the method of opposition

Complex information, such as that required for motor skills, can be learned implicitly, without awareness. Much debate has centered on the appropriate methods for proving that implicit learning is not influenced by explicit awareness. A recent study by Destrebecqz and Cleeremans has provided compelling evidence for implicit sequence learning without awareness by using the ‘method of opposition’.     

Individual differences in sensitivity to health communications: consideration of future consequences.

There are reliable individual differences in the extent to which people consider the long- and short-term consequences of their behaviors. Such differences, assessed by the Consideration of Future Consequences (CFC) Scale (A. Strathman, F. Gleicher, D. S. Boninger, & C. S. Edwards, 1994), are hypothesized to influence the impact of a persuasive communication. In an experimental study, the time frame of occurrence of positive and negative consequences of engaging in a new colorectal cancer-screening program was manipulated in a sample of two hundred twenty 50-69-year-old men and women. CFC moderated (a) the processing of short- versus long-term consequences and (b) the persuasive impact of the different communications on behavioral intentions. Low CFC individuals produced more positive thoughts and were more persuaded when positive consequences were short term and negative consequences were long term. The opposite was true for high CFC individuals.     

Studying reaction time with nonaging intervals: An effective procedure

The nonaging-intervals procedure, in which momentary probability of stimulus occurrence remains constant, is preferable in principle to varied or constant intervals for double-stimulation experiments on reaction time (RT). However, elevation of RT has uniformly been found at short waiting intervals on single-stimulation baseline tasks. Effects attributable to the first stimulus on double-stimulation tasks would thus be confounded. The required level baselines were obtained for both simple and choice reactions by combining the transit-signal method with nonaging intervals. Possible reasons for this success were the elimination of timekeeping error and psychological refractoriness. Results with precued full response information show the expected decline of RT with increase of precue-to-stimulus interval. Suggestions are given for the use of nonaging intervals for studying the attentional demands of movements and the influence of level of momentary probability on basic RT effects.     

A call for a statement of expectations for the global information infrastructure

This paper considers the relationship between ethics, technology and law, and the roles and limitations each has in this relationship. It argues that ethics has the key role in establishing a resilient, comprehensive and sensitive information infrastructure. It puts forward a Bill of Rights and Responsibilities for the electronic community.

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When encoding fails: Instructions,feedback, and registration without learning

Four experiments replicated and extended the registration-without-learning effect, in which there is little improvement in the ability to discriminate an old target (X) from a highly similar test item (Y) after the first few presentations of X, even though judgments of frequency continue to rise in an openended fashion. Forced-choice testing revealed the anomalous form of the learning curve for X-Y discrimination (faster and then slower than the exponential). Effects of several different learning instructions were compared, but these appeared to affect only the level of initial learning, and to do little to promote X-Y discrimination learning on later presentations. The opportunity for self-testing with feedback during study provided no benefits when responding was covert, but did when overt anticipation was required. The findings are discussed in relation to the roles of bottom-up and topdown processing in memory encoding, and to the importance of error-correcting feedback in further structural learning of materials, once the materials have become familiar.     

Discrimination by newborns of the intensity, frequency and temporal characteristics of auditory stimuli

The ability of 3- to 5-day-old neonates to discriminate between auditory stimuli, in terms of each of the dimensions of intensity, pitch and time, was studied using heart-rate responses in a habituation paradigm. For each of the dimensions a survey of the literature failed to provide results which could be used as the basis for later work involving auditory patterns. Further analysis of an earlier experiment (Stratton, 1970 a) involving stimuli at 80, 85 and 90 db showed that louder stimuli evoked larger initial responses and more rapid habituation. From the same experiment it was found that a change of pitch produced dishabituation as early as the 10th trial. There are reasonable grounds for attributing the increased response to the frequency characteristics rather than a change in the perceived intensity of the stimuli. Previous experiments suggested that fixed inter-stimulus intervals tended to produce anticipatory heart-rate changes and modify the magnitude and latency of the response. Two experiments designed specifically to examine temporal phenomena revealed time-linked behaviour. In both experiments acceleratory responses occurred at the first stimulus omission of a fixed-interval series. Not all of the subjects showed this effect, and in both experiments, only the subjects who failed to respond to the first stimulus presentation responded to stimulus omission. The findings are discussed in relation to general issues of neonatal psychophysiology, and it is concluded that neonates can discriminate in each of the auditory dimensions, but that preliminary work involving patterns should concentrate on varying pitch and intensity.