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Scaffolded instruction and the remediation of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test deficits in chronic schizophrenia.

The purpose of this study was to explore the remediation of Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST) deficits among highly chronic schizophrenic patients by employing an instructional technique known as scaffolding. The extent to which learning of the WCST generalized to a similar neuropsychological test, the Short Category Test (SCT) was examined. Forty-one chronic schizophrenic subjects drawn from in-patient and out-patient wards were given the WCST. Twenty-eight of the subjects who displayed the greatest impairment on the WCST were then administered the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) and randomly assigned to groups that received three sessions of either scaffolded or didactic instruction. Post-testing with the WCST occurred an average of 1.9 (SD = 1.3) and again 31.4 (SD = 3.9) days after instruction. Subjects who received scaffolded instruction improved significantly in the number of categories achieved when compared to the didactic group. The improvement was sustained a month later. A strong trend favoring the scaffolded group on the SCT suggested that generalization of learning had occurred. Significant and durable improvement of WCST performance in severely disabled schizophrenics is clearly possible with the instructional method employed. The increment in abstract reasoning may generalize to other tasks. These findings have significant implications for psycho-social and cognitive rehabilitation.

Adult↗

Auditory evoked responses and learning and awareness during general anesthesia.

BACKGROUND: There is a major distinction between conscious and unconscious learning. Monitoring the mid-latency auditory evoked responses (AER) has been proposed as a measure to ascertain the adequacy of the hypnotic state during surgery. In the present study, we investigated the presence of explicit and implicit memories after anesthesia and examined the relationships of such memories to the AER. METHODS: We studied 180 patients scheduled for elective surgical procedures. After a thiopental induction, one of four anesthetics were studied: Opioid bolus: 7.5 microg x kg(-1) fentanyl, 70% N2O, with 2.5 microg x kg(-1) supplements as needed (n=100); Opioid infusion: Alfentanil 50 microg x kg(-1) bolus, 1-1.5 microg x kg(-1) x min(-1) infusion, 70% N2O (n=40); Isoflurane 0.3%: Fentanyl 1 microg x kg(-1), 70% N2O, isoflurane 0.3% expired (n=16); Isoflurane 0.7%: Fentanyl 1 microg x kg(-1), 70% N2O, isoflurane 0.7% expired (n=23). AER were recorded before anesthesia, 5 min after surgical incision and then every 30 min until the end of surgery. A tape of either the story of the "Three Little Pigs" or the "Wizard of Oz" was played continuously between the recordings. Explicit memory was assessed postoperatively by tests of recall and recognition, and implicit memory was assessed by the frequency of story-related free associations to target words from the stories, which were solicited twice during a structured interview. RESULTS: Six patients showed explicit recall of intraoperative events: All received the opioid bolus regimen. About 7% of patients reported dreaming during anesthesia. The incidence of picking the correct story that had been presented during anesthesia averaged 49%, i.e., very close to chance level. Overall, priming occurred only at the second association tests for the opioid bolus regimen, for which the frequency of an association to the presented story among those not giving an association to the control story was 26%, which was double the frequency (13%) of an association to the control story among those not giving an association to the presented story. This was significant by McNemar's test, P=0.02. There were significant associations between awareness, priming and AER, e.g., recall was associated with higher Nb amplitudes during anesthesia and priming was associated with shorter wave latencies. CONCLUSIONS: The incidence of awareness in patients anesthetized with nitrous oxide and bolus supplementation was 6%. Thus, this anesthetic technique did not reduce the risk of awareness compared with the use of nitrous oxide alone. Implicit memory occurred during nitrous oxide and bolus supplementation. Recording AER during anesthesia may help to predict awareness and implicit memory, particularly the former. The short contents of most of the dreams which were recalled could hamper future studies in this area.

Adolescent↗

Acquisition and generalization of social skills in elementary-aged children with learning disabilities.

The generalization of specific social skills to new environments/situations by elementary-aged students with learning disabilities was the primary focus of this study. During the spring semester of 1985, training in the learning disabilities resource room, including a discussion and verbal rehearsal of appropriate skill use and positive consequences of using the specific social skill appropriately, was initiated. Once the subject became proficient in the skill of interest, attempts to establish the skill outside the resource room were initiated (training sufficient exemplars). Reinforcement in the form of systematic attention was delivered in the new environments by teachers and parents. During the fall semester of 1985 each of the subjects was again observed with respect to the behaviors of interest. All subjects manifested generalization of the social skills to the new environments.

Behavior Therapy↗

Learning disabilities in children with neurofibromatosis type 1: subtypes, cognitive profile, and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder.

Cognitive deficits are the most common complication in children with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), and academic achievement is broadly affected. There is a lack of consensus in the literature regarding the frequency of general and specific learning disabilities, which seems to be related to the lack of a consensus on diagnostic criteria. The present study examined the frequency of specific learning disabilities (SLDs) in NF1, using an intellect-achievement discrepancy for diagnosis, as well as general learning difficulty associated with a lowering of general intellectual ability. The cohort consisted of 81 children with NF1 (43 males, 38 females; mean age 11y 6mo [SD 2y 4mo]; range 8y-16y 9mo) and 49 comparison children (20 males, 29 females; mean age 12y [SD 2y 6mo]; range 8y 2mo-16y 8mo). Problems with academic achievement were present in 52% of children with NF1; however, only 20% of the children with NF1 were diagnosed with an SLD (32% had more general learning problems). Only males with NF1 were at significant risk for SLD, and Verbal IQ<Performance IQ discrepancies were predictive of the presence of an SLD. There was a significant comorbidity of literacy-based learning disabilities and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. We were able to define three subtypes of children with NF1 having distinct cognitive profiles, each with important implications for assessment and remediation.

Adolescent↗

Learning-disabled people's experience of general hospitals.

As more people with learning disability move from long-stay hospitals into the community, contact with general hospital services will increase. Yet, how people with learning disability experience general hospital settings has remained a largely unresearched area. Despite the Department of Health's (DoH's) 1992 guidelines regarding learning-disabled people's access to hospitals, research reveals several areas where the needs of people with learning disability have not been considered. This small-scale study sought to hear from learning-disabled people themselves about their hospital experiences. Thirteen interviews were conducted over 3 months. The interviews were then transcribed and, using grounded theory, a series of key concepts developed. Findings highlighted that, particularly in the areas of 'fears about treatment', 'communication', 'general nursing', 'consent to treatment' and 'doctors', learning-disabled people had a lot to say, much of which was critical of service provision.

Adolescent↗

Residents' evaluation of a problem-based learning curriculum in a general surgery residency program.

METHODS: To determine residents' satisfaction with problem-based learning and its tutors, to determine how residents prepare for sessions, and to identify the characteristics of both effective sessions and tutors, we analyzed 132 evaluations from 24 residents who completed 1 or more of the 9 cases presented during the first 9 months of our program. The 38-item evaluation questionnaire asked residents to rate tutor characteristics, various aspects of the sessions, and methods used to prepare for the sessions. RESULTS: Residents were well satisfied with the problem-based learning sessions and with the logistics of our program; they found the overall quality of the tutor more important than that of the case; they valued an active, thought-provoking tutor more than a traditional facilitator; and they most often used standard textbooks to prepare for the sessions. CONCLUSIONS: Problem-based learning is a practical, enjoyable graduate curricular vehicle when implemented with well-written cases and active tutors.

Adult↗

Effects of anti-phencyclidine and anti-(+)-methamphetamine monoclonal antibodies alone and in combination on the discrimination of phencyclidine and (+)-methamphetamine by pigeons.

RATIONALE: Drug-specific monoclonal antibodies against phencyclidine (PCP) and (+)-methamphetamine [(+)-METH] should bind to these drugs to block their discriminative stimulus effects. OBJECTIVES: To determine if mouse monoclonal antibodies against PCP and (+)-METH can block the discriminative stimulus effects of the drugs in pigeons. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Pigeons were trained to discriminate among intramuscular injections of saline, 1 mg/kg PCP, and 2 mg/kg (+)-METH. After responding stabilized, cumulative dose-response curves were obtained for PCP and (+)-METH. Doses of an anti-PCP antibody at 620 mg/kg (anti-PCP mAb6B5) with a K (D) of 1.3 nM for PCP and no measurable affinity for (+)-METH and 1,000 mg/kg doses of anti-(+)-METH antibody (anti-METH mAb6H7) with a K (D) of 41 nM for (+)-METH and no measurable affinity for PCP were subsequently administered, first alone and later in combination after which the dose-response curves were redetermined. RESULTS: When the antibodies were given alone, the anti-PCP antibody blocked the discriminative stimulus effects of PCP, but not those of (+)-METH, and the anti-(+)-METH antibody blocked the discriminative stimulus effects of (+)-METH, but not those of PCP. The anti-PCP antibody shifted the PCP dose-response curve further to the right and for a longer time than the anti-(+)-METH antibody shifted the dose response curve for (+)-METH. When the anti-PCP and anti-(+)-METH antibodies were administered on the same day, the discriminative stimulus effects of both drugs were completely blocked 1 day after antibody administration. CONCLUSIONS: These experiments demonstrate the high specificity of the antibodies for the drugs to which they bind and show that monoclonal antibodies can be combined to antagonize the effects of more than one drug.

Animals↗

Implicit oculomotor sequence learning in humans: Time course of offline processing.

Studies of manual and digital sequence learning indicate that motor memories continue to be processed after training has ended, following a succession of identifiable steps. However, it is not known whether this offline memory processing constitutes a basic feature of motor learning and generalizes to the implicit learning of a sequence of eye movements. To assess this hypothesis, we have created the serial oculomotor reaction time task (SORT). Participants were trained to the SORT then tested after either 30 min, 5 h or 24 h. During training, ocular reaction times decreased monotonically over practice of a repeated sequence, then increased when a different sequence was displayed, demonstrating oculomotor learning of the trained sequence. When tested 30 min after training, a significant gain in oculomotor performance was observed irrespective of the sequence learning. This gain was no longer present after 5 h. Remarkably, a gain in performance specific to the learned sequence emerged only 24 h after training. After testing, a generation task confirmed that most subjects learned implicitly the regularities of the sequence. Our results show that, as for manual or digital sequences, oculomotor sequences can be implicitly learned. The offline processing of oculomotor memories follows distinct stages in a way similar to those observed after manual or digital sequence learning.

Adult↗

BYY harmony learning, structural RPCL, and topological self-organizing on mixture models.

The Bayesian Ying-Yang (BYY) harmony learning acts as a general statistical learning framework, featured by not only new regularization techniques for parameter learning but also a new mechanism that implements model selection either automatically during parameter learning or via a new class of model selection criteria used after parameter learning. In this paper, further advances on BYY harmony learning by considering modular inner representations are presented in three parts. One consists of results on unsupervisedmixture models, ranging from Gaussian mixture based Mean Square Error (MSE) clustering, elliptic clustering, subspace clustering to NonGaussian mixture based clustering not only with each cluster represented via either Bernoulli-Gaussian mixtures or independent real factor models, but also with independent component analysis implicitly made on each cluster. The second consists of results on supervised mixture-of-experts (ME) models, including Gaussian ME, Radial Basis Function nets, and Kernel regressions. The third consists of two strategies for extending the above structural mixtures into self-organized topological maps. All these advances are introduced with details on three issues, namely, (a) adaptive learning algorithms, especially elliptic, subspace, and structural rival penalized competitive learning algorithms, with model selection made automatically during learning; (b) model selection criteria for being used after parameter learning, and (c) how these learning algorithms and criteria are obtained from typical special cases of BYY harmony learning.

Bayes Theorem↗

Learning categories by making predictions: an investigation of indirect category learning.

Categories are learned in many ways, but studies of category learning have generally focused on classification learning. This focus may limit the understanding of categorization processes. Two experiments were conducted in which participants learned categories of animals by predicting how much food each animal would eat. We refer to this as indirect category learning, because the task andthe feedback were not directly related to category membership, yet category learning was necessary for good performance in the task. In the first experiment, we compared the performance of participants who learned the categories indirectly with the performance of participants who first learned to classify the objects. In the second experiment, we replicated the basic findings and examined attention to different features during the learning task. In both experiments, participants who learned in the prediction-only condition displayed a broader distribution of attention than participants who learned in the classification-and-prediction condition did. Some participants in the prediction-only group learned the family resemblance structure of the categories, even when a perfect criterial attribute was present. In contrast, participants who first learned to classify the objects tended to learn the criterial attribute.

Forecasting↗

An evaluation of community learning disability services for children with a learning disability.

This study outlines the results of a survey carried out with parents of children with a learning disability, general practitioners and community learning disability teams as to the health service needs for this client group. Overall, 40% of parents were very dissatisfied or dissatisfied with the services they received. A number of gaps in service provision were identified. In particular, psychological and behavioural difficulties of children were of major concern to all those involved, but needs in relation to these areas were often unmet or inadequately dealt with. Of greater concern was that some families in the area studied were paying privately for child learning disability clinical psychology services because they had such difficulty in accessing NHS services. Implications for service provision are discussed.

Adolescent↗

Learned changes in the rate of respiratory pumping in Aplysia fasciata in response to increases and decreases in seawater concentration.

In Aplysia fasciata, the sea hare, shock paired with moderate increases or decreases in the seawater concentration leads to pairing-specific increases in the respiratory pump rate in response to the same solutions an hour later. A common neural circuit underlies learned changes to increased and decreased seawater concentration, as shown by complete generalization of learning between these stimuli. Different neural circuitry controls learning after pairing a shock with pH 7 seawater, as shown by a lack of generalization of learning to this stimulus. Preexposure to strong changes in the seawater leads to sensitization of respiratory pumping. The hypothesis was tested that associative learning and sensitization arise from activation of common pathways. However, patterns of generalization of sensitization elicited by preexposure to altered seawaters differ from those produced by associative learning.

Animals↗

Neuronal synchronicity in the pigeon "prefrontal cortex" during learning.

In general electrophysiological studies focus on the investigation of changes in discharge rate of neuronal responses which are related to sensory or behavioral events. However, equally important for explanation of higher cognitive functions, learning, memory storage and complex behavior is the interaction between neurons that are connected in cell assemblies. Synchronized inputs onto a neuron are much more effective at eliciting the following activity than uncorrelated inputs. The goal of the present study was to determine either the changes in discharge rate of neurons in the pigeon nidopallium caudolaterale as well as the synchronicity of these neurons during a discriminatory learning task. We found rate modulation effects as well as modulation of synchronization during the learning process.

Action Potentials↗