Beyond Language in Infant Emotion Concept Development

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 255-258
Author(s):  
Ashley L. Ruba ◽  
Betty M. Repacholi

The process by which emotion concepts are learned is largely unexplored. Hoemann, Devlin, and Barrett (2020) and Shablack, Stein, and Lindquist (2020) argue that emotion concepts are learned through emotion labels (e.g., “happy”), which cohere variable aspects of emotions into abstract, conceptual categories. While such labeling-dependent learning mechanisms (supervised learning) are plausible, we argue that labeling-independent learning mechanisms (unsupervised learning) are also involved. Specifically, we argue that infants are uniquely situated to learn emotion concepts given their exceptional learning abilities. We provide evidence that children learn from complex, irregular input in other domains (e.g., symbolic numbers) without supervised instruction. Thus, while labels undoubtedly influence emotion concept learning, we must also look beyond language to create a comprehensive theory of emotion concept development.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katie A McLaughlin ◽  
Laurel Joy Gabard-Durnam

Despite the clear importance of a developmental perspective for understanding the emergence of psychopathology across the life-course, such a perspective has yet to be integrated into the RDoC model. In this paper, we articulate a framework that incorporates developmentally-specific learning mechanisms that reflect experience-driven plasticity as additional units of analysis in the existing RDoC matrix. These include both experience-expectant learning mechanisms that occur during sensitive periods of development and experience-dependent learning mechanisms that may exhibit substantial variation across development. Incorporating these learning mechanisms allows for clear integration not only of development but also environmental experience into the RDoC model. We demonstrate how individual differences in environmental experiences—such as early-life adversity—can be leveraged to identify experience-driven plasticity patterns across development and apply this framework to consider how environmental experience shapes key biobehavioral processes that comprise the RDoC model. This framework provides a structure for understanding how affective, cognitive, social, and neurobiological processes are shaped by experience across development and ultimately contribute to the emergence of psychopathology. We demonstrate how incorporating an experience-driven plasticity framework is critical for understanding the development of many processes subsumed within the RDoC model, which will contribute to greater understanding of developmental variation in the etiology of psychopathology and can be leveraged to identify potential windows of heightened developmental plasticity when clinical interventions might be maximally efficacious.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 251-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Shablack ◽  
Andrea G. Stein ◽  
Kristen A. Lindquist

Ruba and Repacholi (2020) review an important debate in the emotion development literature: whether infants can perceive and understand facial configurations as instances of discrete emotion categories. Consistent with a psychological constructionist account (Lindquist & Gendron, 2013; Shablack & Lindquist, 2019), they conclude that infants can perceive valence on faces, but argue the evidence is far from clear that infants perceive and understand discrete emotions. Ruba and Repacholi outline a novel developmental trajectory of emotion perception and understanding in which early emotion concept learning may be language-independent. In this comment, we argue that language may play a role in emotion concept acquisition even prior to children’s ability to produce emotion labels. We look forward to future research addressing this hypothesis.


2018 ◽  
Vol 373 (1740) ◽  
pp. 20170043 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Zorzi ◽  
Alberto Testolin

The finding that human infants and many other animal species are sensitive to numerical quantity has been widely interpreted as evidence for evolved, biologically determined numerical capacities across unrelated species, thereby supporting a ‘nativist’ stance on the origin of number sense. Here, we tackle this issue within the ‘emergentist’ perspective provided by artificial neural network models, and we build on computer simulations to discuss two different approaches to think about the innateness of number sense. The first, illustrated by artificial life simulations, shows that numerical abilities can be supported by domain-specific representations emerging from evolutionary pressure. The second assumes that numerical representations need not be genetically pre-determined but can emerge from the interplay between innate architectural constraints and domain-general learning mechanisms, instantiated in deep learning simulations. We show that deep neural networks endowed with basic visuospatial processing exhibit a remarkable performance in numerosity discrimination before any experience-dependent learning, whereas unsupervised sensory experience with visual sets leads to subsequent improvement of number acuity and reduces the influence of continuous visual cues. The emergent neuronal code for numbers in the model includes both numerosity-sensitive (summation coding) and numerosity-selective response profiles, closely mirroring those found in monkey intraparietal neurons. We conclude that a form of innatism based on architectural and learning biases is a fruitful approach to understanding the origin and development of number sense. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue ‘The origins of numerical abilities'.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Vavra ◽  
Leo Sokolovič ◽  
Emanuele Porcu ◽  
Pablo Ripollés ◽  
Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells ◽  
...  

Recently, we provided causal evidence that self-regulated dopamine signaling enhanced long-term memory formation in the absence of any external feedback or reward (Ripollés et al., 2016, 2018) if a congruent meaning inferred from semantic context (DA-dependent learning), while DA-signals were absent if no congruent meaning could be inferred (DA-independent learning). Here, we investigated the interaction of self-regulated learning with externally-regulated DA-signalling by providing external performance feedback in the first or second half of trials. We found that removing feedback during DA-dependent learning lowered subsequent recognition rates a day later, whereas recognition remained high in the group which received feedback only in the second half. In contrast, feedback modestly enhanced recognition rates for both groups for DA-independent learning. Our findings suggest that external reinforcers can selectively impair DA-dependent memories if internal DA-dependent processes are not already established and highlights the relevance of self-regulated learning in education to support stable memory formation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Etin Solihatin

ABSTRACT With regards to findings of the study, it can be concluded that in general, (1) the use of Cooperative Learning strategy has given higher achievement in learning Civics than that of Expository one; (2) the use of Cooperative Learning strategy with learners of field independent learning style has effect in the form of higher achievement in learning Civics than that of Expository one; (3) the use of Cooperative Learning strategy with learners of field dependent learning style has effect in the form of lower achievement in learning Civics than that of Expository one; and (4) there is interaction between the use of learning strategy and learner's learning style on learner's achievement in learning Civics.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marta Méndez-Couz ◽  
Beate Krenzek ◽  
Denise Manahan-Vaughan

Brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) supports neuronal survival, growth, and differentiation and is involved in forms of hippocampus-dependent and independent learning, as well as hippocampus-dependent learning. Extinction learning comprises active inhibition of no-longer relevant learned information, in conjunction with a decreased response of a previously learned behavior. It is highly dependent on context, and evidence exists that it requires hippocampal activation. The participation of BDNF in memory processing is experience-dependent. For example, BDNF has been associated with synaptic plasticity needed for spatial learning, and it is involved in acquisition and extinction learning of fear conditioning. However, little is known about its role in spatial appetitive extinction learning. In this study, we evaluated to what extent BDNF contributes to spatial appetitive extinction learning in the presence (ABA) or absence (AAA) of exposure to the acquisition context. Daily training, of BDNF+/−-mice or their wildtype (WT) littermates, to reach acquisition criterion in a T-maze, resulted in a similar performance outcome. However, extinction learning was delayed in the AAA, and impaired in the ABA-paradigm compared to performance in WT littermates. Trial-by-trial learning analysis indicated differences in the integration of the context into extinction learning by BDNF+/−-mice compared to WT littermates. Taken together, these results support an important role for BDNF in processes that relate to information updating and retrieval that in turn are crucial for effective extinction learning.


2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Nawroth ◽  
Eberhard von Borell

Finding and relocating food sources is not only crucial for individuals in changing natural environments - it is also of importance in domestic animals under husbandry conditions, for instance to reduce stress when transferring animals into new housing conditions. This study makes a first attempt by investigating young pigs´ use of conflicting spatial and feature cues in a simultaneous discrimination task. In a training phase, subjects (n = 9) first learned to approach a food container with distinct spatial and feature cues. In a subsequent test phase, spatial and feature cues were brought into conflict. Results show that young pigs significantly preferred to approach the spatial position rather than the feature cue of a food container – at least for the visual domain - while inter-individual differences in choice behaviour suggest that animals recognized the changed context. However, the actual test setup did not exclude alternatives to the use of spatial cues, e.g. instrumental learning. The results may contribute to a better understanding of learning mechanisms in domestic pigs and could be used to improve husbandry designs, reduce stress levels after transfer and may prove to be helpful in designing further test paradigms investigating discriminative learning abilities in the domestic pig.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Bambang Subali ◽  
Nindy Ulqia ◽  
Ellianawati Ellianawati ◽  
Siswanto Siswanto

Visualization of physical phenomena through modeling and virtual experiment help students to understand the physics concepts. The concept of momentum is quite challenging to explain without the help of virtual experiments.This study aimed to analyze students' independent learning after conducting the learning process on the concept of momentum using Tracker software as a virtual experimental model. This study was quasi-experimentalwith the purposive sampling technique to determine the control class and the experimentalclass. There were 42 students involved in this research. The control class was treated by actual experiments on learning, while the experimental class used the Tracker software as a virtual experiment model. The instrument used was questionnaires given at the end of learningto measurestudents’ learning independence. The data were analyzed by using the descriptive statistics method. Learning independence in the control class obtained 51.31% in the medium category, and the experimental class obtained 60.95% in the medium category. Although the average achievement was not significantly different, the aspects of responsibility, motivation, and self-evaluation of the experimental classwere better than that of the control class. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-189
Author(s):  
Teodorus Dangga Wewu ◽  
Melisa Wahyu Fandyansari

Modules are forms of teaching materials that are made in detail with standard language and understood by students, according to age and student learning abilities, so that the level of independent learning can be increased and followed by teacher guidance Responding to the lack of teaching materials, currently it is necessary to use learning models to improve students' learning abilities and can add insight or knowledge that is not boring for students. The right teaching materials in overcoming students' boredom include learning resources in the form of teaching materials. Problem Solving is a teaching and learning activity that scientifically students can think critically, and find solutions in solving a problem. The main purpose of this learning research is to investigate and solve a problem as well as master the learning objectives and be independent in teaching and learning activities in solving problems in learning activities. The type of research used in this research is development research with a Problem Solving approach. This research was conducted for two months starting from February 22, 2021 to April 22, 2021. Based on the results of the research, the results of the presentation of the module developed got a score of 93.47% from material experts and 83.92% from media experts. Based on the results of presentations from media experts and material experts, the developed module is feasible to use.


2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-320
Author(s):  
Hukamdad Malik ◽  
Hajra Shaheen ◽  
Wajeeha Aurangzeb

This study aimed at exploring and comparing learning styles preferences among students of Management sciences, Social sciences and Languages. Homogenous purposive sampling technique was used to select sample of study comprising of 300 graduating students of the three faculties. Grasha-Reichmann Scale consisting of 60 five point likert scale statements was used to explore learning styles preferences of students on six variables namely; avoidant, collaborative, competitive, dependent, independent, and participant. Results based on One-way ANOVA and Post-hoc Tukey’s test revealed that a statistically significant difference occurred among the learning styles preferences of students enrolled in three faculties. Management sciences students preferred competitive and independent learning style, social sciences students were mostly avoidant and dependent learners whereas languages students have adopted collaborative as well as dependent learning styles. It is recommended that teachers may require to bring variation in teaching learning process to cater to the needs of diverse learners. It is advisable for teachers to plan such learning activities which make them independent and self-directed learners. It is also recommended that situational factors such as nature of course requirements and motivation to attend the classroom could also have an impact on the preferred learning styles.


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