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PubMed2000

Characteristics of sequential movements during early learning period in monkeys.

We previously demonstrated that the organization of a learned sequential movement, after long-term practice, is based on the entire sequence and that the information pertaining to the sequence is largely specific to the hand used for practice. However, it remained unknown whether these characteristics are present from the beginning of learning. To answer the question, we examined the performance of four monkeys for the same sequential procedure in the early stage of learning. The monkeys' task was to press five consecutive pairs of buttons (which were illuminated), in a correct order for every pair, which they had to find by trial-and-error during a block of trials. We first examined whether the memory of a sequential procedure that was learned once was specific to the hand used for practice. The second time that the monkeys attempted to learn a novel sequence, they were required to use either the same hand they used the first time or the opposite hand. The number of errors decreased to a similar degree in the same-hand condition and in the opposite-hand condition. The performance time decreased in the same-hand condition, but not in the opposite-hand condition. The results suggest that, in the early stage of learning, memory of the correct performance of a sequential procedure is not specific to the hand originally used to perform the sequence (unlike the well-learned stage, where the transfer was incomplete), whereas memory of the fast performance of a sequential procedure is relatively specific to the hand used for practice (like the well-learned stage). We then examined whether memory of a sequential procedure depends on the entire sequence, not individual stimulus sets. For the second learning block, we had the monkey learn the sequence in the same or reversed order. In the reversed order, the order within each set was identical, but the order of sets was reversed. The number of errors decreased in both the same-order and reversed-order conditions to a similar degree for two out of four monkeys; the decrease was larger in the same-order condition for the other two monkeys. For all monkeys, the performance time decreased in the same-order condition, but not in the reversed-order condition. The results suggest that the memory structure for correct performance varies among monkeys in the early stage of learning (unlike the well-learned stage, where the memory of individual sets was consistently absent). On the other hand, memory of the fast performance of a sequential procedure is relatively specific to the learned order used for practice (like the well-learned stage).

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Abstract and reduced-context representations in fault-finding training.

The ability to transfer problem-solving expertise to new situations is regarded as an important practical skill but it is known to be sensitive to contextual differences. Employing abstract and reduced-context training tasks has been proposed as a method of fostering transferable skill but the evidence supporting this approach is limited. The research reported here aimed at assessing the effectiveness of training with diagnostic tasks of varying degrees of contextual detail. The criterion test used to measure training effectiveness was a context-rich diagnostic task that involved locating faults in a representation of a water supply and drainage system (WSDS). In the first study reported (baseline study), subjects were trained and tested on the WSDS task. Various training interventions were employed and a set of diagnostic heuristics proved to be the most effective. Two pilot studies were then carried out to determine whether training with abstract diagnostic tasks could produce transfer to the criterion test, the WSDS. Little evidence of transfer was found; therefore, it was decided to incorporate some context into training but not so much as to obscure important, conceptual task features. This was achieved by constructing reduced-context representations (RCO) of the WSDS at more than one level of abstraction (main study). Training with those representations took less time than training with the WSDS but transfer to the criterion test (the WSDS) was equally efficient. During training with the RCO representations, a technique of refusing costly test information was employed which is thought to have helped subjects discover efficient search strategies and consistently transfer them to the criterion test. This was contrasted with the verbal diagnostic heuristics of the baseline study, which had proved to be effective, but which were not always transferred consistently to the criterion test. This raises the question as to whether diagnostic strategies are necessarily best conveyed solely in verbal form, if the intention is to train transferable skill.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Transference in interpersonal relations: inferences and affect based on significant-other representations.

Based on an information-processing model of transference and a recent experimental demonstration of transference, defined in terms of "biased inference and memory" (Andersen & Cole, 1990), the present research examined the transfer of affective responses to a new individual, as in schema-triggered affect (Fiske, 1982). Using idiographic stimulus-generation procedures and a nomothetic experimental design, we exposed subjects to a description of a new, unknown person, allegedly seated next door. The description resembled either a positively or negatively toned significant other from the subject's own life or from another subject's life. As predicted, and replicating previous work, subjects misremembered the target person as having more representation-consistent features when the target resembled their own significant other rather than someone else's. Moreover, and also as predicted, subjects transferred more representation-consistent affect to this same target person. The data are discussed in terms of conceptions of transference and basic aspects of social cognition.

Affect↗
PubMed1998

Effects of Practice Conditions and Supplemental Training Method on Cognitive Learning and Interpersonal Skill Generalization.

Organizational expenditures for interpersonal-skills training have been rising. However, little is known about the translation of cognitive learning into skilled interpersonal-task performance, or about the mechanisms through which interpersonal skills in one domain generalize to other interpersonal tasks. This study used a 2 x 2 experimental design to examine the effectiveness of neutral versus stressful practice conditions and mastery-versus performance-oriented supplemental training for improving cognitive learning and interpersonal-skill transfer to a novel task. Participants who experienced stressful salary-negotiation practice conditions, followed by mastery-oriented supplemental training, showed greater skill transfer when performing a novel task (i.e., contract negotiations). Results showed that superior cognitive learning (i.e., recall, comprehension, and synthesis) and greater time on task were the mechanisms that supported interpersonal-skill transfer for trainees in the stressful practice/ mastery-oriented training condition when compared with the other experimental groups. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Development of clinical reasoning from the basic sciences to the clerkships: a longitudinal assessment of medical students' needs and self-perception after a transitional learning unit.

BACKGROUND: To facilitate students' transition from basic, science-oriented, problem-based learning (PBL) to clinical reasoning-oriented PBL, the University of Geneva School of Medicine introduced a 12-week unit of Introduction to Clinical Reasoning (ICR) at the beginning of its fourth or clerkship year. PURPOSE: The aims of the present study were to determine, after 12 weeks in the ICR unit, to what extent students had: (1) identified the learning content set by the faculty while adapting to the hypothetico-deductive reasoning approach; (2) familiarised themselves with the clinical reasoning-oriented learning process, and (3) transferred and further developed this process during the clinical years. METHOD: Students' derived objectives from the problems were compared to the objectives preset by the faculty to determine acquisition of intended learning content. To assess their adaptation to the clinical reasoning-oriented PBL approach, students (n = 124) were asked to list and freely comment on aspects of the unit they felt most at ease with or had difficulty with, and to complete a questionnaire on the clinical reasoning process (CRP). The same questionnaire was administered 6 and 12 months later to assess the evolution of the students' self-perception during clerkships. RESULTS: On average, student objectives matched 62% of faculty objectives. Half of the missed (38%) objectives were in basic sciences. Students generated 16% additional objectives, also predominantly in the basic sciences category (41%). Free comments indicated that the difficulties perceived by students were very similar to those previously reported in studies on reasoning and errors, such as difficulty in gathering, interpreting and weighting relevant data, synthesising information, and organising it hierarchically. These results were confirmed with the CRP questionnaire administered at the end of the unit. For most of the competencies assessed on the CRP questionnaire, a gradual improvement was seen to have occurred by 6 and 12 months after the unit. CONCLUSIONS: To ease students' transition from the preclinical to clinical years, a learning unit should give them the opportunity to train their clinical reasoning processes on standardised and prototypical problems, before encountering real patients with more ill-structured problems during clerkships. Such a transitional structure should particularly emphasise a developed repertoire of problem representations, recognition of key findings and a hierarchical classification of working hypotheses. It should foster the creation of links between the acquired basic clinical knowledge and the diagnostic, management and therapy steps of problem solving.

Clinical Clerkship↗
PubMed2002

Associative learning and elemental representation: II. Generalization and discrimination.

This paper follows on from an earlier companion paper (McLaren & Mackintosh, 2000), in which we further developed the elemental associative theory put forward in McLaren, Kaye, and Mackintosh (1989). Here, we begin by explicating the idea that stimuli can be represented as patterns of activation distributed across a set of units and that different stimuli activate partially overlapping sets (the degree of overlap being proportional to the similarity of the stimuli). A consequence of this view is that the overall level of activity of some of the units representing a stimulus may be dependent on the nature of the other stimuli present at the same time. This allows an elemental analysis in which provision for the representation of configurations of stimuli is made. A selective review of studies of generalization and discrimination learning, including peak shift, transfer along a continuum, configural discrimination, and summation, suggests that the principles embodied in this class of theory deserve careful consideration and will form part of any successful model of associative learning in humans or animals. There are some phenomena that require an elemental/associative explanation.

Association Learning↗
PubMed1991

Response specificity in animal timing.

The stimuli that control responding in the peak procedure were investigated by training rats, in separate sessions, to make two different responses for food reinforcement. During one type of session, lever pressing was normally reinforced 32 s after the onset of a light. During the other type of session, chain pulling was normally reinforced either 8 s after the onset of one auditory cue or 128 s after the onset of a different auditory cue. For both types of sessions, only the appropriate manipulandum was available, and 20% of the trials lasted 240 s and involved no response-contingent consequences. Rats were then tested with the auditory cues in the presence of the lever and the light in the presence of the chain. If the time of reinforcement associated with each stimulus was learned, response rates should peak at these times during transfer testing. However, if a specific response pattern was learned for each stimulus, little transfer should occur. The results did not clearly support either prediction, leading to the conclusion that both a representation of the time of reinforcement and the rat's own behavior may control responding in this situation.

Animals↗
PubMed1974

Acquisition of matching to sample via mediated transfer.

Two severely retarded Down's-syndrome boys learned a matching-to-sample performance through mediated transfer. The transfer paradigm involved three sets of stimuli, one auditory set (A) and two visual sets (B and C). The subjects were taught directly to do B-A and C-B matching, but experienced no direct association between C and A. They acquired the ability to do C-A matching without having been taught that performance directly. They also learned indirectly to name some of the visual stimuli, but naming was apparently not the mediator in the emergent C-A matching. The use of words and letters as stimuli highlighted the possible relevance of mediated associations in the indirect acquisition of elementary reading comprehension and oral reading. The acquisition of matching via mediated transfer also raised some new considerations concerning the role of coding responses in arbitrary matching to sample.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed1976

Transfer as a result of synthetic and analytic reading instruction.

Fifty EMR children and an equal number of nonretarded children were paired on the basis of WISC vocabulary scores. Pairs were then randomly assigned to one of two conditions (synthetic or analytic). Children in the analytic condition learned to read words printed in a contrived alphabet by a whole-word method, and children in the synthetic condition learned the same words by a parts-to-whole method. At the end of each of three learning sessions, children identified transfer words, including some which were consistent with those taught in phoneme-grapheme relationships and some that were inconsistent. The synthetic method promoted identification of both consistent and inconsistent transfer words for both retarded and nonretarded children.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Adaptational and learning processes during human split-belt locomotion: interaction between central mechanisms and afferent input.

Split-belt locomotion (i.e., walking with unequal leg speeds) requires a rapid adaptation of biomechanical parameters and therefore of leg muscle electromyographic (EMG) activity. This adaptational process during the first strides of asymmetric gait as well as learning effects induced by repetition were studied in 11 healthy volunteers. Subjects were switched from slow (0.5 m/s) symmetric gait to split-belt locomotion with speeds of 0.5 m/s and 1.5 m/s, respectively. All subjects were observed to adapt in a similar way: (1) during the first trial, adaptation required about 12-15 strides. This was achieved by an increase in stride cycle duration, i.e., an increase in swing duration on the fast side and an increase in support duration on the slow side. (2) Adaptation of leg extensor and flexor EMG activity paralleled the changes of biomechanical parameters. During the first strides, muscle activity was enhanced with no increase in coactivity of antagonistic leg muscles. (3) A motor learning effect was seen when the same paradigm was repeated a few minutes later--interrupted by symmetric locomotion--as adaptation to the split-belt speeds was achieved within 1-3 strides. (4) This short-time learning effect did not occur in the "mirror" condition when the slow and fast sides were inverted. In this case adaptation again required 12-15 strides. A close link between central and proprioceptive mechanisms of interlimb coordination is suggested to underlie the adaptational processes during split-belt conditions. It can be assumed that, as in quadrupedal locomotion of the cat, human bipedal locomotion involves separate locomotor generators to provide the flexibility demanded. The present results suggest that side-specific proprioceptive information regarding the dynamics of the movement is necessary to adjust the centrally generated locomotor activity for both legs to the actual needs for controlled locomotion. Although the required pattern is quickly learned, this learning effect cannot be transferred to the contralateral side.

Adaptation, Physiological↗
PubMed1998

The uterine environment enhances cognitive competence.

Genetically identical mouse embryos were transferred into same-strain uteri (transfer controls) or into hybrid uteri. A third group was not transferred. When adult, the mice were given a series of behavioral tests. In-strain transfer controls differed from non-transfer mice only on two activity measures, and did not differ on any cognitive variable. In contrast, mice reared in hybrid uteri were found to be superior to in-strain transfer mice on discrimination learning, Lashley maze learning and Morris maze learning; they also showed better adaptation in an avoidance learning shuttlebox. To our knowledge this is the first study showing that the uterine environment can have a general enhancing effect upon cognitive competence across a broad range of behaviors.

Animals↗
PubMed1975

Stimulus generalization following extra-dimensional training in educationally subnormal (severely) children.

The use of discrimination learning paradigms in the study of attentional transfer is discussed. The technique of go/no-go discrimination learning followed by stimulus generalization testing is contrasted with the more familiar simultaneous learning paradigm followed by a shift in the relevant cues. In the former paradigm the effect of training a discrimination on one dimension on the slope of the stimulus generalization gradient on an independent gradient dimension (extra-dimensional training) is assessed. A steepening of the gradient relative to appropriate control procedures is taken as evidence of positive attentional transfer. The relevance of the technique to the detailed study of attentional transfer in educationally subnormal (severely) (ESN(S)) children is considered. In Expt. I nine ESN(S) children were trained in a go/no-go discrimination involving stimuli differing in orientation, and were generalization tested on a dimension that was orthogonal, namely hue. Of the six subjects who learnt the discrimination five showed clear decremental gradients on the hue dimension. In contrast a Pseudo-Discrimination group (PD) of eight subjects matched to those in the TD group showed no gradients. These subjects were not trained in the orientation discrimination, but were reinforced for responding on 50 per cent of each of the S+ and S- stimulus presentations. They thus received equal exposure to, but no differential training on, the orientation dimension. An S+ only group of four subjects who received no exposure to the orientation stimuli showed no gradients when stimulus generalization testing on the hue continuum was carried out. The result is discussed in terms of transfer deriving from stimulus control by relational aspects of the stimuli; in terms of control by constant irrelevant stimuli; and in terms of the study of stimulus control in ESN(S) children. In Expt. II the influence of the codability of the colours on the location of the peak of the stimulus generalization gradients in the TD group is investigated.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2006

Mechanisms of same/different concept learning in primates and avians.

Mechanisms of same/different concept learning by rhesus monkeys, capuchin monkeys, and pigeons were studied in terms of how these species learned the task (e.g., item-specific learning versus relational learning) and how rapidly they learned the abstract concept, as the training set size was doubled. They had similar displays, training stimuli, test stimuli, and contingencies. The monkey species learned the abstract concept at similar rates and more rapidly than pigeons, thus showing a quantitative difference across species. All species eventually showed full concept learning (novel-stimulus transfer equivalent to baseline: 128-item set size for monkeys; 256-item set for pigeons), thus showing a qualitative similarity across species. Issues of stimulus regularity/symmetry, generalization from item pairs, and familiarity processing were not considered to be major factors in the final performances, converging on the conclusion that these species were increasingly controlled by the sample-test relationship (i.e., relational processing) leading to full abstract-concept learning.

Animals↗
PubMed2006

[Influence of intracerebroventricular infusion of beta-amyloid peptide on learning dynamics in Wistar and non-linear rats].

Effect of intracerebroventricular infusion of beta-amyloid peptide fragment Abeta(25-35) on light-dark discrimination in a Y-maze with positive food reinforcement, assessed as a decrease in the number of errors, was investigated in Wistar rats and non-linear rats. We proposed to use exponential mathematical model for the learning curve that represents the transfer function for the first order system together with regression analysis. Dynamics of learning in Wistar and non-linear rats coincided with the model. Injection ofbeta-amyloid into the right lateral ventricle of the brain led to a disruption in performance between the first and the second session without total cessation of the learning process. This disappearance of the curve may be the first sign of the initial effect of beta-amyloid because Student's t-test did not reveal any significant difference between control and amyloid-treated Wistar rats. Beta-amyloid in non-linear rats only decreased the velocity of learning though kept being similar to the mathematical model. These results suggest that the non-linear rats possess some genetically specified defense mechanism against damaging action of beta-amyloid.

Alzheimer Disease↗