Fronto-parietal mirror neuron system modeling: Visuospatial transformations support imitation learning independently of imitator perspective

Although the human mirror neuron system (MNS) is critical for action observation and imitation, most MNS investigations overlook the visuospatial transformation processes that allow individuals to interpret and imitate actions observed from differing perspectives. This problem is not trivial since accurately reaching for and grasping an object requires a visuospatial transformation mechanism capable of precisely remapping fine motor skills where the observer’s and imitator’s arms and hands may have quite different orientations and sizes. Accordingly, here we describe a novel neural model to investigate the dynamics between the fronto-parietal MNS and visuospatial processes during observation and imitation of a reaching and grasping action. Our model encompasses i) the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) and inferior parietal lobule (IPL), regions that are postulated to produce neural drive and sensory predictions, respectively; ii) the middle temporal (MT) and middle superior temporal (MST) regions that are postulated to process visual motion of a particular action; and iii) the superior parietal lobule (SPL) and intra-parietal sulcus (IPS) that are hypothesized to encode the visuospatial transformations enabling action observation/imitation based on different visuospatial viewpoints. The results reveal that when a demonstrator executes an action, an imitator can reproduce it with similar kinematics, independently of differences in anthropometry, distance, and viewpoint. As with prior empirical findings, similar model synaptic activity was observed during both action observation and execution along with the existence of both view-independent and view-dependent neural populations in the frontal MNS. Importantly, this work generates testable behavioral and neurophysiological predictions. Namely, the model predicts that i) during observation/imitation the response time increases linearly as the rotation angle of the observed action increases but remain similar when performing both clockwise and counterclockwise rotation and ii) IPL embeds essentially view-independent neurons while SPL/IPS includes both view-independent and view-dependent neurons. Overall, this work suggests that MT/MST visuomotion processes combined with the SPL/IPS allow the MNS to observe and imitate actions independently of demonstrator-imitator spatial relationships.     

Using Experiential Learning Theory to Train Career Practitioners

Effective instructional strategies are needed for career practitioner training. Experiential learning theory (ELT; A. Y. Kolb & Kolb, 2009) provides an instructional foundation from which awareness of the various components of career development can be enhanced. Support for ELT as an effective method of instruction exists in various fields (Hoover, Giambatista, Sorenson, & Bommer, 2010; Ti et al., 2009). ELT integrates 6 shared propositions derived from John Dewey, Jean Piaget, William James, Carl Jung, and Carl Rogers (A. Y. Kolb & Kolb, 2009). This article outlines components of ELT and their application in training career service practitioners.     

SELF-MONITORING OF ATTENTIONAL BEHAVIOR VERSUS SELF-MONITORING OF PRODUCTIVITY: EFFECTS ON ON-TASK BEHAVIOR AND ACADEMIC RESPONSE RATE AMONG LEARNING DISABLED CHILDREN

I investigated the differential effects of self-monitoring of attentional behavior and self-monitoring of productivity on on-task behavior and academic response rate. Subjects were four learning disabled children with significant attentional problems. Results indicated relatively equivalent increases in on-task behavior over baseline during all treatment phases. Academic response rate also improved under both interventions, with self-monitoring of productivity showing a superior effect for one subject, an equivalent effect for one subject, and less dear results for two subjects.     

Critical thinking in North America: A new theory of knowledge,learning, and literacy

The pace of change in the world is accelerating, yet educational institutions have not kept pace. Indeed, schools have historically been the most static of social institutions, uncritically passing down from generation to generation outmoded didactic, lecture-and-drill-based, models of instruction. Predictable results follow. Students, on the whole, do not learn how to work by, or think for, themselves. They do not learn how to gather, analyze, synthesize and assess information. They do not learn how to analyze the diverse logic of the questions and problems they face and hence how to adjust their thinking to those problems. They do not learn how to enter sympathetically into the thinking of others, nor how to deal rationally with conflicting points of view. They do not learn to become critical readers, writers, speakers and listeners. They do not learn how to use their native languages clearly, precisely, or persuasively. They do not, therefore, become literate, in the proper sense of the word. Neither do they gain much in the way of genuine knowledge since, for the most part, they could not explain the basis for what they believe. They would be hard pressed to explain, for example, which of their beliefs were based on rational assent and which on simple conformity to what they have been told. They have little sense as to how they might critically analyze their own experience, or identify national or group bias in their own thinking. They are much more apt to learn on the basis of irrational than rational modes of thought. They lack the traits of mind of a genuinely educated person: intellectual humility, courage, integrity, perseverance, and faith in reason.Happily, there is a movement in education today striving to address these problems in a global way, with strategies and materials for the modification of instruction at all levels of education. At its foundation is an emerging new theory of knowledge, learning, and literacy, one which recognizes the centrality of independent critical thinking to all substantial learning, one which recognizes that higher-order, multilogical thinking is as important to childhood as to adult learning, and as important to foundational learning in monological as in multilogical disciplines. This educational reform movement is not proposing an educational miracle cure, for its leading proponents recognize that many social and historical forces must come together before the ideals of the critical thinking movement will become a full academic reality. Schools do not exist in a social vacuum. To the extent that the broader society is uncritical so, on the whole, will be society's schools. Nevertheless, the social conditions necessary for fundamental changes in schooling are increasingly apparent. The pressure for fundamental change is growing. Whether and to what extent these needed basic changes will be delayed or side-tracked, thus requiring new periodic resurgences of this movement, with new, more elaborate articulations of its ideals, goals, and methods — only time will tell.     

Effects of cocaine and alcohol, alone and in combination, on human learning and performance.

The acute effects of cocaine hydrochloride (4 to 96 mg/70 kg) and alcohol (0 to 1.0 g/kg), administered alone and in combination, were assessed in two experiments with human volunteers responding under a multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response chains. Subjects were intermittent users of cocaine and regular drinkers who were not cocaine or alcohol dependent. Alcohol was mixed with orange juice and ingested in six drinks within 30 min; cocaine was administered intranasally 45 min after completion of drinking. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed response sequences using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, a new sequence was learned each session. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. Results were consistent in both experiments, despite variations in the order in which the drugs were tested alone and in combination. Alcohol administered alone increased overall percentage of errors and decreased rates of responding in the acquisition component, whereas responding in the performance component generally was unaffected. Cocaine administered alone decreased rates of responding but did not affect accuracy of responding in the acquisition component, and enhanced accuracy of responding without affecting rates of responding in the performance component. The combined doses of cocaine and alcohol attenuated the effects observed with alcohol and cocaine alone. These results suggest that, under the conditions investigated in this study, (a) alcohol produces greater behavioral disruption than cocaine or cocaine-alcohol combinations, (b) cocaine and alcohol each attenuate effects of the other, and (c) such attenuation is most pronounced for cocaine attenuating the disruptive effects of alcohol.     

樟柳碱所致学习和记忆障碍动物模型的探讨

本实验采用水迷津法、步下法和步入法,用樟柳碱制备学习和记忆障碍的动物模型。结果表明,樟柳碱(10毫克/公斤)可使小鼠引起学习障碍,其表现为通过水迷津全程的时间延长,而且小鼠进入盲路的错误次数明显增多。樟柳碱(10毫克/公斤)可使小鼠引起记忆障碍,在樟柳碱的影响下,小鼠步下平台或步入暗箱的潜伏期明显缩短,并使它们的错误次数增多。本实验结果进一步表明,测定小鼠的记忆障碍,步入法似乎比步下法更为敏感。     

USE OF ASSISTED READING TO INCREASE CORRECT READING RATES AND DECREASE ERROR RATES OF STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

The effects of assisted reading on 3 elementary students with learning disabilities were evaluated using a multiple baseline design. Data were collected from the students' oral reading from their basal texts. The results indicated an increase in number of words read correctly as well as a decrease in the number of words read incorrectly when assisted reading was used in the classroom.     

Influence of two types of information trials on the formation of a discrimination-reversal learning set in Japanese monkeys

Abstract: Three groups of male adult Japanese monkeys were trained in 30 discrimination-reversal learning-set (LS) problems using the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus. A control group ( N = 3) was trained in the standard procedure: acquisition of up to 12 consecutive correct responses, reversal to the same criterion, and then shift to a new problem. To the other two groups, three information trials signaling the stimulus value in reversal were given after they reached the criterion in acquisition. Subjects in the positive-stimulus information (PSI) group ( N = 4) were exposed only to the reversal positive stimulus, and a response to it was rewarded. Subjects in the negative-stimulus information (NSI) group ( N = 4) were exposed only to the reversal negative stimulus, and any response to it was not rewarded. Information trials reduced reversal errors and NSI trials were more effective than PSI trials in error reduction ( p < .05). Information trials also aided in acquisition: the NSI and PSI groups learned the acquisition phase of the problems with significantly fewer errors than control group ( p < .01) in the last stage of training. The implications of these results are discussed in relation to strategy learning and attention learning in LS formation.