scholarly journals An Examination of Strategy Implementation During Abstract Nonlinguistic Category Learning in Aphasia

2015 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
pp. 1195-1209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Vallila-Rohter ◽  
Swathi Kiran
Keyword(s):  
Category Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Random Pattern ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
Single Feature

Purpose Our purpose was to study strategy use during nonlinguistic category learning in aphasia. Method Twelve control participants without aphasia and 53 participants with aphasia (PWA) completed a computerized feedback-based category learning task consisting of training and testing phases. Accuracy rates of categorization in testing phases were calculated. To evaluate strategy use, strategy analyses were conducted over training and testing phases. Participant data were compared with model data that simulated complex multi-cue, single feature, and random pattern strategies. Learning success and strategy use were evaluated within the context of standardized cognitive–linguistic assessments. Results Categorization accuracy was higher among control participants than among PWA. The majority of control participants implemented suboptimal or optimal multi-cue and single-feature strategies by testing phases of the experiment. In contrast, a large subgroup of PWA implemented random patterns, or no strategy, during both training and testing phases of the experiment. Conclusions Person-to-person variability arises not only in category learning ability but also in the strategies implemented to complete category learning tasks. PWA less frequently developed effective strategies during category learning tasks than control participants. Certain PWA may have impairments of strategy development or feedback processing not captured by language and currently probed cognitive abilities.

scholarly journals Strategy Development and Feedback Processing During Complex Category Learning

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victoria Tilton-Bolowsky ◽  
Sofia Vallila-Rohter ◽  
Yael Arbel
Keyword(s):  
Category Learning ◽  
Event Related Potentials ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
The Body ◽  
Strategy Development ◽  
Random Pattern ◽  
Training Phase ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Single Feature ◽  
Related Potentials

In this study, 38 young adults participated in a probabilistic A/B prototype category learning task under observational and feedback-based conditions. The study compared learning success (testing accuracy) and strategy use (multi-cue vs. single feature vs. random pattern) between training conditions. The feedback-related negativity (FRN) and P3a event related potentials were measured to explore the relationships between feedback processing and strategy use under a probabilistic paradigm. A greater number of participants were found to utilize an optimal, multi-cue strategy following feedback-based training than observational training, adding to the body of research suggesting that feedback can influence learning approach. There was a significant interaction between training phase and strategy on FRN amplitude. Specifically, participants who used a strategy in which category membership was determined by a single feature (single feature strategy) exhibited a significant decrease in FRN amplitude from early training to late training, perhaps due to reduced utilization of feedback or reduced prediction error. There were no significant main or interaction effects between valence, training phase, or strategy on P3a amplitude. Findings are consistent with prior research suggesting that learners vary in their approach to learning and that training method influences learning. Findings also suggest that measures of feedback processing during probabilistic category learning may reflect changes in feedback utilization and may further illuminate differences among individual learners.

scholarly journals Learning and motor inhibitory control in crows and domestic chickens

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Claudia A. F. Wascher ◽  
Katie Allen ◽  
Georgine Szipl
Keyword(s):  
Inhibitory Control ◽  
Reversal Learning ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Cognitive Skills ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Learning Criterion ◽  
Behavioural Flexibility ◽  
Learning Experiment

Cognitive abilities allow animals to navigate through complex, fluctuating environments. In the present study, we tested the performance of a captive group of eight crows, Corvus corone and 10 domestic chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus , in the cylinder task, as a test of motor inhibitory control and reversal learning as a measure of learning ability and behavioural flexibility. Four crows and nine chickens completed the cylinder task, eight crows and six chickens completed the reversal learning experiment. Crows performed better in the cylinder task compared with chickens. In the reversal learning experiment, species did not significantly differ in the number of trials until the learning criterion was reached. The performance in the reversal learning experiment did not correlate with performance in the cylinder task in chickens. Our results suggest crows to possess better motor inhibitory control compared with chickens. By contrast, learning performance in a reversal learning task did not differ between the species, indicating similar levels of behavioural flexibility. Interestingly, we describe notable individual differences in performance. We stress the importance not only to compare cognitive performance between species but also between individuals of the same species when investigating the evolution of cognitive skills.

scholarly journals Effect of Repetitive Passive Movement Before Motor Skill Training on Corticospinal Excitability and Motor Learning Depend on BDNF Polymorphisms

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manh Van Pham ◽  
Shota Miyaguchi ◽  
Hiraku Watanabe ◽  
Kei Saito ◽  
Naofumi Otsuru ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Learning ◽  
Index Finger ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Passive Movement ◽  
Corticospinal Excitability ◽  
Homeostatic Plasticity ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Efficiency ◽  
Learning Tasks ◽  
The Right

A decrease in cortical excitability tends to be easily followed by an increase induced by external stimuli via a mechanism aimed at restoring it; this phenomenon is called “homeostatic plasticity.” In recent years, although intervention methods aimed at promoting motor learning using this phenomenon have been studied, an optimal intervention method has not been established. In the present study, we examined whether subsequent motor learning can be promoted further by a repetitive passive movement, which reduces the excitability of the primary motor cortex (M1) before motor learning tasks. We also examined the relationship between motor learning and the brain-derived neurotrophic factor. Forty healthy subjects (Val/Val genotype, 17 subjects; Met carrier genotype, 23 subjects) participated. Subjects were divided into two groups of 20 individuals each. The first group was assigned to perform the motor learning task after an intervention consisting in the passive adduction–abduction movement of the right index finger at 5 Hz for 10 min (RPM condition), while the second group was assigned to perform the task without the passive movement (control condition). The motor learning task consisted in the visual tracking of the right index finger. The results showed that the corticospinal excitability was transiently reduced after the passive movement in the RPM condition, whereas it was increased to the level detected in the control condition after the motor learning task. Furthermore, the motor learning ability was decreased immediately after the passive movement; however, the motor performance finally improved to the level observed in the control condition. In individuals carrying the Val/Val genotype, higher motor learning was also found to be related to the more remarkable changes in corticospinal excitability caused by the RPM condition. This study revealed that the implementation of a passive movement before a motor learning tasks did not affect M1 excitatory changes and motor learning efficiency; in contrast, in subjects carrying the Val/Val polymorphism, the more significant excitatory changes in the M1 induced by the passive movement and motor learning task led to the improvement of motor learning efficiency. Our results also suggest that homeostatic plasticity occurring in the M1 is involved in this improvement.

Identifying strategy use in category learning tasks: A case for more diagnostic data and models.

2015 ◽  
Vol 41 (4) ◽  
pp. 933-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Donkin ◽  
Ben R. Newell ◽  
Mike Kalish ◽  
John C. Dunn ◽  
Robert M. Nosofsky
Keyword(s):  
Category Learning ◽  
Strategy Use ◽  
Diagnostic Data ◽  
Learning Tasks

scholarly journals The ubiquity of selective attention in the processing of feedback during category learning

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (12) ◽  
pp. e0259517
Author(s):  
Katerina Dolguikh ◽  
Tyrus Tracey ◽  
Mark R. Blair
Keyword(s):  
Selective Attention ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Complete Information ◽  
Relevant Information ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Feedback Processing ◽  
Stimulus Features ◽  
Correct Category ◽  
Category Exemplars ◽  
Feedback Phase

Feedback is essential for many kinds of learning, but the cognitive processes involved in learning from feedback are unclear. Models of category learning incorporate selective attention to stimulus features while generating a response, but during the feedback phase of an experiment, it is assumed that participants receive complete information about stimulus features as well as the correct category. The present work looks at eye tracking data from six category learning datasets covering a variety of category complexities and types. We find that selective attention to task-relevant information is pervasive throughout feedback processing, suggesting a role for selective attention in memory encoding of category exemplars. We also find that error trials elicit additional stimulus processing during the feedback phase. Finally, our data reveal that participants increasingly skip the processing of feedback altogether. At the broadest level, these three findings reveal that selective attention is ubiquitous throughout the entire category learning task, functioning to emphasize the importance of certain stimulus features, the helpfulness of extra stimulus encoding during times of uncertainty, and the superfluousness of feedback once one has learned the task. We discuss the implications of our findings for modelling efforts in category learning from the perspective of researchers trying to capture the full dynamic interaction of selective attention and learning, as well as for researchers focused on other issues, such as category representation, whose work only requires simplifications that do a reasonable job of capturing learning.

Category Learning Strategies in Two-Dimensional, Two-Modality Learning Tasks

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Boomer ◽  
Alexandria C. Zakrzewski ◽  
Jennifer R. Johnston ◽  
Barbara A. Church ◽  
Robert Musgrave ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Learning Strategies ◽  
Category Learning ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Learning Tasks

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait: Enhancement in a Rule-Based Category Learning Task After Social-Evaluative Stress

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shawn Ell ◽  
Steve Hutchinson ◽  
Lauren Hawthorne ◽  
Lauren Szymula ◽  
Shannon K. McCoy
Keyword(s):  
Category Learning ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Rule Based

scholarly journals No sex differences in learning in wild bumblebees

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity Muth ◽  
Amber D Tripodi ◽  
Rene Bonilla ◽  
James P Strange ◽  
Anne S Leonard
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Associative Learning ◽  
Sierra Nevada ◽  
Comparative Cognition ◽  
Natural Populations ◽  
Interspecific Variation ◽  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Ability ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Males And Females

Abstract Females and males often face different sources of selection, resulting in dimorphism in morphological, physiological, and even cognitive traits. Sex differences are often studied in respect to spatial cognition, yet the different ecological roles of males and females might shape cognition in multiple ways. For example, in dietary generalist bumblebees (Bombus), the ability to learn associations is critical to female workers, who face informationally rich foraging scenarios as they collect nectar and pollen from thousands of flowers over a period of weeks to months to feed the colony. While male bumblebees likely need to learn associations as well, they only forage for themselves while searching for potential mates. It is thus less clear whether foraging males would benefit from the same associative learning performance as foraging females. In this system, as in others, cognitive performance is typically studied in lab-reared animals under captive conditions, which may not be representative of patterns in the wild. In the first test of sex and species differences in cognition using wild bumblebees, we compared the performance of Bombus vancouverensis nearcticus (formerly bifarius) and Bombus vosnesenskii of both sexes on an associative learning task at Sierra Nevada (CA) field sites. Across both species, we found that males and females did not differ in their ability to learn, although males were slower to respond to the sucrose reward. These results offer the first evidence from natural populations that male bumblebees may be equally as able to learn associations as females, supporting findings from captive colonies of commercial bees. The observed interspecific variation in learning ability opens the door to using the Bombus system to test hypotheses about comparative cognition.

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