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PubMed1998

Reward-produced memories regulate memory-discrimination learning, extinction, and other forms of discrimination learning.

In memory-discrimination learning, reward-produced memories are differentially rewarded such that they are the only stimuli available to support discriminative responding. Memory-discrimination learning was used in this study as follows: Reward-produced memories that were assumed to regulate instrumental performance in previously reported extinction and discrimination learning investigations were isolated and explicitly differentially reinforced (prior to a shift to extinction) in each of 4 runway investigations with rats. Results obtained here in the explicit discrimination learning stage and in the subsequent extinction stage were consistent with the prediction of the memory view and with prior discrimination learning and extinction findings. The memory interpretation was applied to memory-discrimination learning, to extinction, and to 2 other types of discrimination learning. It appears that a theory must use reward-produced memories to explain all 4 types of discrimination learning.

Animals↗
PubMed1985

Thalamocortical relations in taste aversion learning: II. Involvement of the medial ventrobasal thalamic complex in taste aversion learning.

Previous neurobehavioral studies have implicated the gustatory thalamocortical relay as a functional substrate of conditioned taste aversion (CTA) learning. These experiments were conducted to examine the involvement of the gustatory thalamic nuclei in fundamental taste reactivity, gastrointestinal reactivity, and CTA learning. In Experiment 1, bilateral electrolytic lesions were produced in the medial ventrobasal thalamic complex (VBm), including the thalamic gustatory nuclei, in one group of rats. A separate group of rats received control lesion placements in the mediodorsal-periventricular (MD-PV) thalamic nuclei. Animals then received preference-aversion taste tests followed by CTA conditioning. At the conclusion of conditioning, lesions were produced in the anterior insular gustatory neocortex (AIGN) to evaluate whether or not the AIGN contributed to CTA learning in animals lacking VBm thalamus. Results of Experiment 1 indicated that control lesions did not disrupt taste reactivity, gastrointestinal reactivity, or CTA learning. Destruction of VBm thalamus attenuated taste reactivity to sucrose, citric acid, and quinine hydrochloride; however, such lesions did not impair normal taste reactivity to sodium chloride. Lesion placements in VBm thalamus also did not reliably impair gastrointestinal reactivity to ingested LiCl. Elimination of VBm thalamus markedly attenuated CTA learning. Results of neocortical lesion manipulations showed that the AIGN contributed to initial CTA learning in animals lacking MD-PV thalamus but that the AIGN did not mediate initial CTA learning in animals lacking VBm thalamus. Whether animals lacking VBm thalamus used olfactory cues associated with drinking solutions to acquire CTAs was evaluated in Experiment 2. Results of Experiment 2 demonstrated that animals lacking VBm thalamus and the olfactory bulbs could not acquire aversions to ingested LiCl following eight conditioning trials. These experiments demonstrate that destruction of VBm thalamus, including the gustatory thalamic nuclei, is sufficient to prevent CTA learning.

Afferent Pathways↗
PubMed2000

Task-based learning: the answer to integration and problem-based learning in the clinical years.

INTRODUCTION: Integrated teaching and problem-based learning (PBL) are powerful educational strategies. Difficulties arise, however, in their application in the later years of the undergraduate medical curriculum, particularly in clinical attachments. Two solutions have been proposed - the use of integrated clinical teaching teams and time allocated during the week for PBL separate from the clinical work. Both approaches have significant disadvantages. Task-based learning (TBL) is a preferred strategy. In TBL, a range of tasks undertaken by a doctor are identified, e.g. management of a patient with abdominal pain, and these are used as the focus for learning. Students have responsibility for integrating their learning round the tasks as they move through a range of clinical attachments in different disciplines. They are assisted in this process by study guides. METHOD: The implementation of TBL is described in one medical school. One hundred and thirteen tasks, arranged in 16 groups, serve to integrate the student learning as they rotate through 10 clinical attachments. RESULTS: This trans-disciplinary approach to integration, which incorporates the principles of PBL offers advantages to both teachers and students. It recognizes that clinical attachments in individual disciplines can offer rich learning opportunities and that such attachments can play a role in an integrated, as well as in a traditional, curriculum. In TBL, the contributions of the clinical attachments to the curriculum learning outcomes must be clearly defined and tasks selected which will serve as a focus for the integration of the students' learning over the range of attachments.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed2001

Multiprofessional learning: the attitudes of medical, nursing and pharmacy students to shared learning.

OBJECTIVES: The belief that the effectiveness of patient care will improve through collaboration and teamwork within and between health care teams is providing a focus internationally for 'shared learning' in health professional education. While it may be hard to overcome structural and organizational obstacles to implementing interprofessional learning, negative student attitudes may be most difficult to change. This study has sought to quantify the attitudes of first-year medical, nursing and pharmacy students' towards interprofessional learning, at course commencement. DESIGN: The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) (University of Liverpool, Department of Health Care Education), was administered to first-year medical, nursing and pharmacy students at the University of Auckland. Differences between the three groups were analysed. SETTING: The Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. RESULTS: The majority of students reported positive attitudes towards shared learning. The benefits of shared learning, including the acquisition of teamworking skills, were seen to be beneficial to patient care and likely to enhance professional working relationships. However professional groups differed: nursing and pharmacy students indicated more strongly that an outcome of learning together would be more effective teamworking. Medical students were the least sure of their professional role, and considered that they required the acquisition of more knowledge and skills than nursing or pharmacy students. CONCLUSION: Developing effective teamworking skills is an appropriate focus for first-year health professional students. The timing of learning about the roles of different professionals is yet to be resolved.

Attitude of Health Personnel↗
PubMed1997

Learning versus correct models: influence of model type on the learning of a free-weight squat lift.

It has been assumed that demonstrating the correct movement is the best way to impart task-relevant information. However, empirical verification with simple laboratory skills has shown that using a learning model (showing an individual in the process of acquiring the skill to be learned) may accelerate skill acquisition and increase retention more than using a correct model. The purpose of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of viewing correct versus learning models on the acquisition of a sport skill (free-weight squat lift). Forty female participants were assigned to four learning conditions: physical practice receiving feedback, learning model with model feedback, correct model with model feedback, and learning model without model feedback. Results indicated that viewing either a correct or learning model was equally effective in learning correct form in the squat lift.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1990

Adverse learning strategy: the Adelaide Diagnostic Learning Inventory and its subscale replicability in a medical student population.

The Adelaide Diagnostic Learning Inventory (ADLIMS) is a measure of learning styles and learning pathologies that was designed to investigate the impact of traditional approaches to learning versus problem-based learning and to identify students whose approach to learning tasks predicted poor academic performance. In this study, some important psychometric properties of the ADLIMS were examined, including its factor structure. In this study, factor replicability across samples was argued to provide a more robust and psychologically meaningful factor solution than that which can be obtained using traditional mathematical criteria. The results of the factor analysis did not confirm the presence of the four factor solution earlier reported for the ADLIMS, but did identify three clear factors that had very high replicability. An inspection of the items comprising these three factors showed that factor 1 tapped subjective distress related to poor study habits, lack of motivation to study, and distraction from social activities. Factor 2 tapped distress arising from high achievement expectations that were hampered by superficial or disorganized study habits that did not enable the student to grasp the relationships between concepts and ideas. Factor 3 tapped positive feelings and a sense of satisfaction associated with a problem-based approach to the learning of new study material. Although the internal reliability of the ADLIMS subscales met the requirements of a measure to be used in general research such as in the investigation of correlates among groups of medical students, they did not meet the higher requirements of a measure to be used to identify or predict individuals with pathological learning styles.

Humans↗
PubMed2000

An associational model of birdsong sensorimotor learning I. Efference copy and the learning of song syllables.

Birdsong learning provides an ideal model system for studying temporally complex motor behavior. Guided by the well-characterized functional anatomy of the song system, we have constructed a computational model of the sensorimotor phase of song learning. Our model uses simple Hebbian and reinforcement learning rules and demonstrates the plausibility of a detailed set of hypotheses concerning sensory-motor interactions during song learning. The model focuses on the motor nuclei HVc and robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA) of zebra finches and incorporates the long-standing hypothesis that a series of song nuclei, the Anterior Forebrain Pathway (AFP), plays an important role in comparing the bird's own vocalizations with a previously memorized song, or "template." This "AFP comparison hypothesis" is challenged by the significant delay that would be experienced by presumptive auditory feedback signals processed in the AFP. We propose that the AFP does not directly evaluate auditory feedback, but instead, receives an internally generated prediction of the feedback signal corresponding to each vocal gesture, or song "syllable." This prediction, or "efference copy," is learned in HVc by associating premotor activity in RA-projecting HVc neurons with the resulting auditory feedback registered within AFP-projecting HVc neurons. We also demonstrate how negative feedback "adaptation" can be used to separate sensory and motor signals within HVc. The model predicts that motor signals recorded in the AFP during singing carry sensory information and that the primary role for auditory feedback during song learning is to maintain an accurate efference copy. The simplicity of the model suggests that associational efference copy learning may be a common strategy for overcoming feedback delay during sensorimotor learning.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2001

Learning styles and perceptions of the value of various learning modalities before and after a 2nd-year course in microbiology and infectious diseases.

BACKGROUND: The authors' 4-week course in microbiology and infectious diseases consists of lectures, small-group sessions, interactive computer-assisted learning (CAL), and textbook readings. PURPOSE: To determine how individual learning style influenced learners' value assessment of these teaching modalities. METHODS: A Kolb Learning Style Inventory and questionnaire to assess enthusiasm for each teaching modality were administered before the course. At course end, a 2nd questionnaire assessed the perceived usefulness of each teaching modality. RESULTS: Learners with a relative preference for experiential learning rather than abstraction initially favored small groups (R2 = .06, p = .004) and CAL (R2 = .06, p = .005). Similarly, learners with a preference for reflective observation rather than active experimentation favored lectures (R2 = .05, p = .01). However, at course end, Kolb learning style did not predict the value assessment of any modality. CONCLUSIONS: Kolb learning style influenced the initial attractiveness but not the retrospective assessment of learning modalities; hence, quality and content superseded learning style as determinants of value after course completion.

Attitude↗
PubMed1981

[The effects of acute administration of thyrotropin-releasing hormone on conditioned active avoidance learning and passive avoidance learning in rats (author's transl)].

The effects of acute administration of thyrotropin-releasing hormone (TRH) on the fear motivated learning of male Wistar rats were studied using a shuttle box. Two kinds of experiments - active avoidance learning (shuttle avoidance learning) and passive avoidance learning were performed. TRH (500 microgram/kg) was injected subcutaneously 40 to 50 minutes before the test trials. 1. In shuttle avoidance learning, TRH facilitated the acquisition after 8 sessions-pretraining and retarded the extinction after 8 approximately 12 sessions-pretrainings compared with saline. In passive avoidance learning, however, the reverse results were obtained: TRH retarded the acquisition and facilitated the extinction. 2. In shuttle avoidance learning, the acquisition facilitating effect of TRH was seen only in poor performer rats (poor performer was defined as less than 37 median score of conditioned avoidance responses in 8 sessions-pretraining), but not in good performer rats (more than 37 conditioned avoidance responses). 3. In shuttle avoidance learning, the acquisition facilitating effect of TRH was not seen in poor performer rats after 15 sessions-pretrainings, and the extinction retarding effect of TRH was not seen in the rats after 28 sessions-pretrainings. 4. From the above results it can be concluded that TRH possesses a fear reducing effect, and the behavioral changes brought about by TRH are seen most obviously in the rats which are in highly fearful conditions.

Animals↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Lifelong learning. Why professionals must have the desire for and the capacity to continue learning throughout life.

This paper will outline the theoretical constructs pertaining to lifelong learning, adult education, continuing professional development and the learning society. The need for all professionals to have highly developed learning skills in a society racing with change is evident. Pressures placed on health information managers to continue their learning beyond graduation are many and varied. Continuing professional education is one avenue that enables health information managers to continue their learning beyond graduation. Attributes of a typical lifelong learner are included in this paper to enable readers to self-assess their capacity for continued learning and their desire to undertake it. The paper concludes with a list of strategies for learners to enhance their lifelong learning skills. The role that educators can play in developing lifelong learning competence in students and graduates is also outlined.

Adult↗
PubMed2001

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.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

[Lifelong learning--how do physicians learn?].

The postgraduate training of doctors depends on their self-directed learning activities. Traditional continuing medical education has a limited impact on their clinical behaviour. The authors review the most relevant models and concepts of adult learning for continuing medical education, and personal and environmental factors that influence the quality of the learning. Doctors learn best when they recognise the need to learn and perceive what is to be learned as relevant to their practice. Continuing medical education should meet the doctors' educational needs by presenting a variety of learning options to suit their personal learning styles.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Preserved configural learning and spatial learning impairment in rats with hippocampal damage.

This study was undertaken to compare the effect of hippocampal neurotoxic lesions in rats on two behavioral tasks, one a test of spatial learning, and the other an operant discrimination task that is acquired by forming nonspatial configural associations. Lesions of the hippocampus were made with microinjections of ibotenic acid. After postoperative recovery, rats were trained initially to locate a camouflaged escape platform in a water maze using distal spatial cues. Rats also were trained in the maze apparatus with a visible escape platform under conditions in which spatial information was made irrelevant to performance, i.e., cue learning. In an operant task, the same rats were then trained on a discrimination that included simultaneous feature positive and feature negative components (trial types XA+, A-, XB-, B+). After completion of this nonspatial configural learning task, rats received additional training in the water maze using a new platform location for spatial learning. To the extent that proficient performance in both the maze and operant tasks depends on a common function of the hippocampus, i.e., configural learning, the expectation was that hippocampal lesions would prove equally detrimental to performance in both tasks. Contrary to this expectation, lesioned rats were severely impaired in spatial learning but readily acquired the operant discrimination, even exhibiting some evidence of enhanced performance on this nonspatial configural learning task. Performance of the lesioned rats during cue training in the water maze was also enhanced relative to the control group.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1995

Enhancement of hippocampally-mediated learning and protein kinase C activity by oxiracetam in learning-impaired DBA/2 mice.

The effects of oxiracetam on hippocampally-mediated learning performance and hippocampal protein kinase C (PKC) were examined in C57BL/6Ibg (C57) and DBA/2Ibg (DBA) mice. C57 and DBA mice were subjected to daily injections of oxiracetam (50 mg/kg i.p.) or vehicle (0.9% saline) for a total of 9 days. C57 and DBA mice were examined on a modified version of the Morris water maze task and the contextual fear conditioning task on the last 5 or 2 days, respectively, of the 9-day treatment schedule. When compared with controls, C57 and DBA oxiracetam-treated mice showed no difference in motor skill capability to perform these complex learning tasks (swim speed or ability to freeze). Hippocampal PKC activity was measured in cytosolic, loosely-bound, and membrane-bound homogenate fractions. Oxiracetam-treated DBA mice demonstrated a significant increase in spatial learning performance as determined by the Morris task. DBA performance was also improved in contextual learning as determined by the fear conditioning task. The increase in spatial learning performance was correlated to an increase in membrane-bound PKC. No substantial improvements in C57 mice were observed on either learning task nor did hippocampal PKC activity change in response to oxiracetam treatment. These data demonstrate that the learning impairment of DBA mice can be reversed by treatment with a nootropic agent and support previous studies suggesting that PKC may be one mechanism of action for oxiracetam.

Animals↗
PubMed1982

The relationship between learning disability, intelligence, and paired-associate learning.

Learning disabled (N = 45) and non-learning disabled (N = 39) third and fourth grade boys and girls were compared in four paired-associate situations. The situations respectively measured learning, memory, exemplar learning, and transfer. Intelligence was measured with the WISC-R. The data were nonnormal in distribution, and the results were thus analyzed parametrically for intelligence and group. What appears to be an interaction occurred. Intelligence facilitated performance for normals on the memory task but had a deleterious effect for the learning disabled Ss. The learning disabled high intelligence group, however, performed significantly better than the other groups on the exemplar and transfer tasks. These findings are discussed in terms of conceptualizations of learning disability and the nature of intervention strategies. In addition, concern is raised for the validity for research with these children where the IQ factor is ignored or covaried and not directly investigated.

Child↗
PubMed1997

Lead-induced changes in NMDA receptor complex binding: correlations with learning accuracy and with sensitivity to learning impairments caused by MK-801 and NMDA administration.

This study sought to further evaluate potential mechanistic relationships between Pb-induced alterations in glutamate neurotransmission and behavioral toxicity. It examined correlations between Pb-induced changes in [3H]MK-801 and [3H]CGP-39653 binding sites in 4 different brain regions (frontal cortex, dentate gyrus, CA1 and striatum) and (1) changes in learning accuracy on a multiple repeated acquisition and performance schedule, and (2) sensitivity to the accuracy-impairing effects of MK-801 and NMDA on this learning baseline. All data were obtained from a single population of rats that had been chronically exposed from weaning to 0, 50 or 250 ppm Pb acetate in drinking water and demonstrated selective learning impairments and altered sensitivity to the effects of MK-801 and NMDA on learning accuracy. Pb exposure decreased MK-801 binding and possibly increased CGP-39653 binding, effects statistically significant in some brain regions, but generally exhibiting similar trends across regions. At 0 ppm, higher levels, particularly of MK-801 binding, were associated with higher accuracy levels in the learning paradigm and with greater decrements in learning accuracy following MK-801 or NMDA administration. These linear correlations were negated and in some cases even reversed by 50 and 250 ppm Pb, an effect that might be attributable to an alteration of NMDA receptor complex subunit composition and thus, ligand binding. Of the 4 brain regions examined, striatal MK-801 binding proved to be the best predictor of learning accuracy levels. These data provide additional support for an involvement of the NMDA receptor complex in Pb-induced learning impairments. The fact that these effects were noted most frequently in striatum also raises the possibility that dopamine-glutamatergic interactions contribute to Pb's effects.

2-Amino-5-phosphonovalerate↗
PubMed2001

Life-long learning cell structures--continuously learning without catastrophic interference.

As an extension of on-line learning, life-long learning challenges a system which is exposed to patterns from a changing environment during its entire lifespan. An autonomous system should not only integrate new knowledge on-line into its memory, but also preserve the knowledge learned by previous interactions. Thus, life-long learning implies the fundamental Stability-Plasticity Dilemma, which addresses the problem of learning new patterns without forgetting old prototype patterns. We propose an extension to the known Cell Structures, growing Radial Basis Function-like networks, that enables them to learn their number of nodes needed to solve a current task and to dynamically adapt the learning rate of each node separately. As shown in several simulations, the resulting Life-long Learning Cell Structures posses the major characteristics needed to cope with the Stability-Plasticity Dilemma.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1995

What we have learned from the study of learning in the leech.

The use of invertebrate preparations has contributed greatly to our understanding of the neural basis of learning. The leech is especially useful for studying behavioral changes and their underlying neuronal mechanisms. Learning in the leech is essentially identical to that found in other animals, both vertebrate and invertebrate. Using anatomical and physiological techniques on leeches as they learn, we have begun to characterize the properties of individual neurons and neuronal networks that play a role in learning. We have been able to show two neuronal mechanisms that have not been previously associated with associative conditioning. The first has to do with the importance of contingency: one stimulus [the conditional stimulus (CS)] becomes associated with a second stimulus [the unconditional stimulus, (US)] in proportion to the ability of the CS to predict the US. We have found that important properties for encoding predictability, such as circuit reconfiguration, may lie in the US pathway. The firing of the serotonergic Retzius cells is taken as the US; consistent CS prediction of a US prevents "dropout" of a critical component of one US pathway. Throughout training, predicted USs continue to elicit a barrage of action potentials in these cells. Recurring unpredicted USs degrade both the learning and the response of the Retzius cell to the US. A second insight is that at least two US pathways contribute to learning, the Retzius cell pathway and the nociceptive (N) cell pathway. This second pathway persists after the elimination of the Retzius cell pathway. The observation of multiple US pathways raises a host of issues concerning CS-US convergence and the functional significance of distinct US pathways, and our results are discussed in terms of implications to current models of learning.

Animals↗