scholarly journals Is there more room to improve? The lifespan trajectory of procedural learning and its relationship to the between- and within-group differences in average response times

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dora Juhasz ◽  
Dezso Nemeth ◽  
Karolina Janacsek
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Cognitive Functions ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Procedural Learning ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Average Speed ◽  
General Skill

AbstractCharacterizing the developmental trajectories of cognitive functions such as learning, memory and decision making across the lifespan faces fundamental challenges. Cognitive functions typically encompass several processes that can be differentially affected by age. Methodological issues also arise when comparisons are made across age groups that differ in basic performance measures, such as in average response times (RTs). Here we focus on procedural learning – a fundamental cognitive function that underlies the acquisition of cognitive, social, and motor skills – and demonstrate how disentangling subprocesses of learning and controlling for differences in average RTs can reveal different developmental trajectories across the human lifespan. Two hundred-seventy participants aged between 7 and 85 years performed a probabilistic sequence learning task that enabled us to separately measure two processes of procedural learning, namely general skill learning and statistical learning. Using raw RT measures, in between-group comparisons, we found a U-shaped trajectory with children and older adults exhibiting greater general skill learning compared to adolescents and younger adults. However, when we controlled for differences in average RTs (either by using ratio scores or focusing on a subsample of participants with similar average speed), only children (but not older adults) demonstrated superior general skill learning consistently across analyses. Testing the relationship between average RTs and general skill learning within age groups shed light on further age-related differences, suggesting that general skill learning measures are more affected by average speed in some age groups. Consistent with previous studies of learning probabilistic regularities, statistical learning showed a gradual decline across the lifespan, and learning performance seemed to be independent of average speed, regardless of the age group. Overall, our results suggest that children are superior learners in various aspects of procedural learning, including both general skill and statistical learning. Our study also highlights the importance to test, and control for, the effect of average speed on other RT measures of cognitive functions, which can fundamentally affect the interpretation of group differences in developmental, aging and clinical psychology and neuroscience studies.

scholarly journals Statistical learning occurs during practice while high-order rule learning during rest period

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Quentin ◽  
Lison Fanuel ◽  
Mariann Kiss ◽  
Marine Vernet ◽  
Teodóra Vékony ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
High Order ◽  
Procedural Learning ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Rest Periods ◽  
The Brain ◽  
General Skill ◽  
Order Rule

AbstractKnowing when the brain learns is crucial for both the comprehension of memory formation and consolidation, and for developing new training and neurorehabilitation strategies in healthy and patient populations. Recently, a rapid form of offline learning developing during short rest periods has been shown to account for most of procedural learning, leading to the hypothesis that the brain mainly learns during rest between practice periods. Nonetheless, procedural learning has several subcomponents not disentangled in previous studies investigating learning dynamics, such as acquiring the statistical regularities of the task, or else the high-order rules that regulate its organization. Here, we analyzed 506 behavioral sessions of implicit visuomotor deterministic and probabilistic sequence learning tasks, allowing the distinction between general skill learning, statistical learning and high-order rule learning. Our results show that the temporal dynamics of apparently simultaneous learning processes differ. While general skill and high-order rule learning are acquired offline, statistical learning is evidenced online. These findings open new avenues on the short-scale temporal dynamics of learning and memory consolidation and reveal a fundamental distinction between statistical and high-order rule learning, the former benefiting from online evidence accumulation and the latter requiring short rest periods for rapid consolidation.

Accuracy and Speed of Orthographic Processing in Persons with Developmental Dyslexia

2005 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne M. King ◽  
Linda L. Lombardino ◽  
Sarah Ahmed
Keyword(s):  
Developmental Dyslexia ◽  
Word Reading ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Age Difference ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Typically Achieving ◽  
Reading Disabled

A group of 39 persons (20 male and 19 female, 11.0 to 32.5 yr.) with developmental dyslexia and 42 controls (21 male and 21 female, 11.2 to 32.3 years) were compared on computerized tests of sight word reading, nonword decoding, and spelling recognition. The subjects with developmental dyslexia performed significantly slower and less accurately than controls on all tasks. Further, the effect size of the group differences was larger for the older group. Within-group analyses showed a significant difference by age group on accuracy. Only the control group showed a significant age difference between groups on response time. Mean accuracy and response times for the reading-disabled subjects resembled shifted versions of the control group means. These results agree with previous reports that phonological deficits persist for reading-disabled adults and suggest a test of whether the discrepancy between reading-disabled and typically achieving readers may actually increase across age groups.

scholarly journals Statistical learning occurs during practice while high-order rule learning during rest period

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Romain Quentin ◽  
Lison Fanuel ◽  
Mariann Kiss ◽  
Marine Vernet ◽  
Teodóra Vékony ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Learning ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Rule Learning ◽  
Rest Period ◽  
High Order ◽  
Procedural Learning ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Rest Periods ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Order Rule

AbstractKnowing when the brain learns is crucial for both the comprehension of memory formation and consolidation and for developing new training and neurorehabilitation strategies in healthy and patient populations. Recently, a rapid form of offline learning developing during short rest periods has been shown to account for most of procedural learning, leading to the hypothesis that the brain mainly learns during rest between practice periods. Nonetheless, procedural learning has several subcomponents not disentangled in previous studies investigating learning dynamics, such as acquiring the statistical regularities of the task, or else the high-order rules that regulate its organization. Here we analyzed 506 behavioral sessions of implicit visuomotor deterministic and probabilistic sequence learning tasks, allowing the distinction between general skill learning, statistical learning, and high-order rule learning. Our results show that the temporal dynamics of apparently simultaneous learning processes differ. While high-order rule learning is acquired offline, statistical learning is evidenced online. These findings open new avenues on the short-scale temporal dynamics of learning and memory consolidation and reveal a fundamental distinction between statistical and high-order rule learning, the former benefiting from online evidence accumulation and the latter requiring short rest periods for rapid consolidation.

scholarly journals Empirical study of spatial differentiation of youth unemployment in Russia

2016 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 507-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tatiana Blinova ◽  
Vladimir Markov ◽  
Viktor Rusanovskiy
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Spatial Differentiation ◽  
Youth Unemployment ◽  
Behavioural Response ◽  
Economic Effects ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Unemployment Rates ◽  
Youth Labour Market ◽  
Interregional Differentiation

The purpose of the study is to conduct a statistical analysis and to perform a quantitative assessment of the degree and the dynamics of the interregional differences in youth unemployment in Russia between 2005 and 2013. We decompose the interregional differentiation into “within-group” and “between-group” differences. We also analyse the dynamics of the within-group and between-group differences and estimate their contribution to changes in the interregional differentiation of youth unemployment. Additionally, we estimate the degree and the dynamics of the interregional differences of the youth labour market in Russia in times of crisis and recovery growth. The results show a reduction in the interregional differences in unemployment rates between 2005 and 2008, while in 2009–2013, the interregional differentiation of the labour market increased. We found that the socio-economic effects of youth unemployment, as well as the behavioural response to economic shocks in the age groups of 15–19 and 20–29 years were significantly different.

scholarly journals Motor Chunking in Internally Guided Sequencing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 292 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krishn Bera ◽  
Anuj Shukla ◽  
Raju S. Bapi
Keyword(s):  
Response Times ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Motor Tasks ◽  
Performance Improvements ◽  
Sequence Production ◽  
Serial Reaction ◽  
Motor Movements ◽  
Motor Actions ◽  
Reaction Task ◽  
Or Task

Motor skill learning involves the acquisition of sequential motor movements with practice. Studies have shown that we learn to execute these sequences efficiently by chaining several elementary actions in sub-sequences called motor chunks. Several experimental paradigms, such as serial reaction task, discrete sequence production, and m × n task, have investigated motor chunking in externally specified sequencing where the environment or task paradigm provides the sequence of stimuli, i.e., the responses are stimulus driven. In this study, we examine motor chunking in a class of more realistic motor tasks that involve internally guided sequencing where the sequence of motor actions is self-generated or internally specified. We employ a grid-navigation task as an exemplar of internally guided sequencing to investigate practice-driven performance improvements due to motor chunking. The participants performed the grid-sailing task (GST) (Fermin et al., 2010), which required navigating (by executing sequential keypresses) a 10 × 10 grid from start to goal position while using a particular type of key mapping between the three cursor movement directions and the three keyboard buttons. We provide empirical evidence for motor chunking in grid-navigation tasks by showing the emergence of subject-specific, unique temporal patterns in response times. Our findings show spontaneous chunking without pre-specified or externally guided structures while replicating the earlier results with a less constrained, internally guided sequencing paradigm.

scholarly journals EXPRESS: Trajectories of verbal fluency and executive functions in multilingual and monolingual children and adults: A cross-sectional study

2021 ◽  
pp. 174702182110267
Author(s):  
Roberto Filippi ◽  
Andrea Ceccolini ◽  
Peter Bright
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Executive Function ◽  
Verbal Fluency ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Developmental Trajectories ◽  
Cross Sectional Study ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Lexical Retrieval ◽  
Cross Sectional

The development of verbal fluency is associated with the maturation of executive function skills, such as the ability to inhibit irrelevant information, shift between tasks and hold information in working memory. Some evidence suggests that multilinguistic upbringing may underpin disadvantages in verbal fluency and lexical retrieval, but can also afford executive function advantages beyond the language system including possible beneficial effects in older age. This study examined the relationship between verbal fluency and executive function in 324 individuals across the lifespan by assessing the developmental trajectories of English monolingual and multilingual children aged 7 to 15 years (N=154) and adults from 18 to 80 years old (N=170). The childhood data indicated patterns of improvement in verbal fluency and executive function skills as a function of age. Multilingual and monolingual children had comparable developmental trajectories in all linguistic and non-linguistic measures used in the study with the exception of planning, for which monolingual children showed a steeper improvement over the studied age range relative to multilingual children. For adults, monolinguals and multilingual participants had comparable performance on all measures with the exception of non-verbal inhibitory control and response times on the Tower of London task: monolinguals showed a steeper decline associated with age. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that verbal fluency was associated with working memory and fluid intelligence in monolingual participants but not in multilinguals. These findings raise the possibility that early acquisition of an additional language may impact on the development of the functional architecture serving high-level human cognition.

scholarly journals Visual Attention and Aging: an Age-Related Cognitive Model of Positive Adaptation

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 181-191
Author(s):  
José Manuel Rodríguez-Ferrer
Keyword(s):  
Young People ◽  
Visual Attention ◽  
Response Times ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Cognitive Model ◽  
Covert Attention ◽  
Positive Adaptation ◽  
Healthy Elderly ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Healthy Young People

We have studied the effects of normal aging on visual attention. Have participated a group of 38 healthy elderly people with an average age of 67.8 years and a group of 39 healthy young people with average age of 19.2 years. In a first experiment of visual detection, response times were recorded, with and without covert attention, to the presentation of stimuli (0.5º in diameter grey circles) appearing in three eccentricities (2.15, 3.83 and 5.53° of visual field) and with three levels of contrast (6, 16 and 78%). In a second experiment of visual form discrimination circles and squares with the same features as in the previous experiment were presented, but in this case subjects only should respond to the emergence of the circles. In both age groups, the covert attention reduced response times. Compared to young people, the older group achieved better results in some aspects of attention tests and response times were reduced more in the stimuli of greater eccentricity. The data suggest that there is a mechanism of adaptation in aging, in which visual attention especially favors the perception of those stimuli more difficult to detec

Learning, Forgetting, and Relearning: Skill Learning in Children With Language Impairment

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 696-707 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Adi-Japha ◽  
Haia Abu-Asba
Keyword(s):  
Motor Skills ◽  
Skill Acquisition ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Specific Language Impairment ◽  
Skill Learning ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Fine Motor ◽  
Specific Language ◽  
Retention Testing ◽  
Over Time

Purpose The current study tested whether the difficulties of children with specific language impairment (SLI) in skill acquisition are related to learning processes that occur while practicing a new skill or to the passage of time between practice and later performance. Method The acquisition and retention of a new complex grapho-motor symbol were studied in 5-year-old children with SLI and peers matched for age and nonverbal IQ. The children practiced the production of the symbol for 4 consecutive days. Retention testing took place 10 days later. Results Children with SLI began each practice day slower than their peers but attained similar levels of performance by its end. Although they increased their performance speed within sessions more than their peers, they did not retain their learning as well between sessions. The loss in speed was largest in the 10-day retention interval. They were also less accurate, but accuracy differences decreased over time. Between-session group differences in speed could not fully be accounted for based on fine motor skills. Conclusions In spite of effective within-session learning, children with SLI did not retain the new skill well. The deficit may be attributed to task forgetting in the presence of delayed consolidation processes.

scholarly journals Age-Group Differences in Reactive Strength and Measures of Intra-day Reliability in Female International Footballers

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Doyle ◽  
Declan Browne ◽  
Dan Horan
Keyword(s):  
Soccer Player ◽  
Intraclass Correlation ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Soccer Players ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Strength Index ◽  
Warm Up ◽  
Jump Test ◽  
Female Soccer Player

The aim of this present study was to compare the reactive strength index (RSI) characteristics and trial to trial reliability of U17, U19 and Senior female international soccer players. Fifty – seven elite female soccer player participated in the study, (age:  18.1 + 3.1 years; height: 167.5 + 6.3 cm; weight: 61.84 + 7.7 kg). Participants performed 3 maximal repetitions of the 10/5 repeated jump test (10/5RJT) following a specific warm-up and familiarisation protocol. Senior players possessed higher levels of RSI with large effect size present when compared with the U17 (P= 0.043, ES = .97) and U19 (ES = 0.85) age groups. Trivial differences (ES = 0.17) in RSI existed between the U17 and U19 age categories. Trial-to-trial analyses demonstrated 10/5 RJT RSI to possess adequate levels of reliability with a range of mean coefficients of variance (CV) of 3.1 – 7.3 %   and intraclass correlation (ICC) between 0.95 – 0.98 present across all three age groups. However, large variations in the between – athlete CV for RSI were revealed ranging from 1 – 27 %, 0.4 – 10.3%, and 1 – 7 % for U17, U19 and senior age groups respectively. These results suggest that age group can distinguish reactive strength capabilities. In addition, female international footballers with higher levels of RSI appear to produce more reliable measures of RSI via the 10/5 RJT.

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