Showing papers on "Perceptual learning published in 1981"

On the relationship between autobiographical memory and perceptual learning.

Abstract: Although the majority of research on human memory has concentrated on a person's ability to recall or recognize items as having been presented in a particular situation, the effects of memory are also revealed in a person's performance of a perceptual task. Prior experience with material can make that material more easily identified or comprehended in perceptually difficult situations. Unlike with standard retention tests, effects of prior experience on a perceptual task do not logically require that a person be aware that he or she is remembering. Indeed, amnesic patients purportedly show effects of practice in their subsequent performance of a perceptual or motor task even though they profess that they do not remember having engaged in that prior experience. The experiments that are reported were designed to explore the relationship between the more aware autobiographical form of memory that is measured by a recognition memory test and the less aware form of memory that is expressed in perceptual learning. Comparisons of effects on perceptual learning and recognition memory reveal two classes of variables. Variables such as the level of processing of words during study influenced recognition memory, although they had no effect on subsequent perceptual recognition. A study presentation of a word had as large an effect on its later perceptual recognition when recognition memory performance was very poor as it did when recognition memory performance was near perfect. In contrast, variables such as the number and the spacing of repetitions produced parallel effects on perceptual recognition and recognition memory. Following Mandler and others, it is suggested that there are two bases for recognition memory. If an item is readily perceived so that it seems to "jump out" from the page, a person is likely to judge that he or she has previously seen the item in the experimental situation. Variables that influence ease of perceptual recognition, then, can also have an effect on recognition memory, so parallel effects are found. The second basis for recognition memory involves elaboration of a word's study context and depends on such factors as level of processing during study--factors that are not important for perceptual recognition of isolated words. Comparisons of perceptual recognition and recognition memory are shown to be useful for determining how a variable has its effect. Effects of study on perceptual recognition appear to be totally due to memory for physical or graphemic information. Results reported are also relevant to theories of perceptual learning. A single presentation of an item is shown to have large and long-lasting effects on its later perceptual recognition. At least partially, effects of study on perceptual recognition depend on the same variables as do effects on more standard memory tests.

The Effects of Early Middle Ear Pathology on Auditory Perception and Academic Achievement

Abstract: Two groups of children were compared to determine the effects of early middle ear pathology on the development of auditory perceptual skills and academic achievement. The conductive loss (CL) group...

The Relationship Between Auditory Perceptual Skills and Reading Ability A Meta-analysis

Abstract: A review of research examining the relationship of auditory perceptual skills to reading ability is presented. The techniques of meta-analysis were used to statistically integrate the findings from 106 studies. A total of 723 correlation coefficients were collected and aggregated across five auditory perceptual skills, five reading achievement variables, three grade levels, and three subject characteristics. In addition, a correlation matrix was constructed from the 723 coefficients and used as the basis for a factor analysis, cannonical correlation analysis, and step-wise multiple regression analyses describing the interrelationships among auditory perception, intelligence, and reading achievement. The present findings indicate that auditory perception is an important correlate of reading ability with the proportion of explained variance in reading achievement depending on the combination of auditory and reading variables considered. It was concluded that auditory perceptual skills should be considered i...

Perceptual processes as prerequisites for complex human behaviour.

Abstract: SummaryLearning implies interaction between the environment and the individual. Thus processing of perceptual information becomes a crucial factor. Perception includes all the mechanisms used in processing the stimuli of an actual situation. Research findings in normal and sensory-deprived children suggest that perceptual development covers the entire period of acquisition of language and other complex human performances. Furthermore, children and brain damaged adults presenting problems of language and other complex human performances, such as imitation and production of events, also show difficulties in successive pattern and form recognition. The hypothesis is proposed that the adequacy of perceptual processes is a prerequisite for complex human performance. A learning model is described, based on that assumption, and therapeutic consequences are discussed.ResumeApprendre n'est possible sans interaction entre le sujet concerne et son milieu ambiant. L'assimilation et l'integration perceptive d'une situ...

Effects of Multisensory Training in Perceptual Learning

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of multisensory input on the performance of learning disabled boys on a visual matching task. A thirty-item multiple-choice visual dot pattern matching task was given to 160 boys, ages 6 years through 8 years, 11 months, who were enrolled in special classes for children with learning problems. Of the four treatment groups (visual input only, visual plus tactile input, visual plus auditory input, visual plus auditory plus tactile input), the difference between the means of the visual only and visual-auditory and visual-auditory-tactile groups was significant at p<.05. The results suggest that on a perceptual task not related to reading or mathematics, the addition of input from tactile and auditory sensory modalities does not improve learning performance and, in certain combinations, actually interferes with such performance.

Teach Reading Disabled Students to Perceive Distinctive Features in Words

Abstract: The Glass-Analysis Method focuses the learner's attention on a stimulus; distinctive clusters of graphic features related to particular sounds. The end result is perceptual learning, an increase of visual and auditory memory through association of redundant letter clusters of sounds-symbols. The placement of letter clusters patterns in initial, end of the word positions, as well as embedded within words ensures the student searching for, and thus learning the distinctive features of the cluster. The presentation of the clusters with a visual word develops connection between the graphic symbols and the sound pattern of talk. Different types of words are used in the program; one-, two-, three-, and four-syllable words. Through the redundancy of actively searching and locating the clusters, the student gains practice, learns the structure of the words; the orthographic rules or intra-word relations within a word, all of which aid retention. A learning set is developed. This contributes to a student's ability...

Effect of Teaching Auditory Perceptual Skills on Reading Achievement in First Grade.

Abstract: Susan B Neuman The relationship between auditory skills and reading achievement has been investigated repeatedly with a number of distinct methodological strategies One conclusion has been consistently reported: the child who is unable to hear and distinguish sounds will most likely have diffi culty in learning to read (Bond, 1935; Chali, Roswell, and Blumenthal, 1963; de Hirsch, Jansky, and Lang ford, 1966; Durrell and Murphy, 1953; Harrington and Durrell, 1955) Perhaps as a result of this research, a number of studies attempted to teach auditory skills as a method of improving reading instruction (Mc Ninch and Richmond, 1972; Mayo, 1971; Rosner, 1974; Witkin, 1973) Special programs were developed which included such auditory pro cesses as attention, closure, blending, and memory Overall, however, no definitive conclusions emerged from these stud ies The major questions still re mained: can auditory skills be taught, and if they can, do they produce gains in reading achievement? Ac cordingly, in 1978, a project was designed with the goal of answering those two questions This study used an auditory per ceptual training program developed by the investigator and the hierarchy of auditory perceptual skills pro posed by Flower (1968, p 22) To measure each perceptual skill, a subtest from an available standard ized instrument was selected and

Harmonic structure as adeterminant ofmelodic organization

Abstract: Musiciansand nonmusiciansindicated whethera two-noteprobefollowing a tonallystructured melody occurred in the melody. The critical probes were taken from one of three locations in the melody: the two notes (1) ending the first phrase, (2) straddling the phrase boundary, and (3) beginning the second phrase. As predicted, the probe that straddled the phrase boundary was more difficult to recognizethan either of the within-phrase probes. These findings suggest that knowledge of harmonic structure influences perceptual organization of melodies in ways analogous to the influence of clause relations on the perceptual organization of sentences. They also provide evidence that training plays an important role in refining listeners' sensitivityto harmonicvariables. Music listening is a complex perceptual task that calls on specific knowledge and perceptual skills. In order to appreciate a musical work, the listener must be able to organize and integrate its parts in structurally consistent ways. To do this, the listener must be sensitive to the structural properties of music through which musical meanings are conveyed. Music theorists have described its internal structure in terms of harmonic systems that formally represent the structural regularities in traditional Western compositional practice. Harmonic structure specifies the systematic relationships underlying tonal organization. Harmony provides the structural framework of a musical "language" and, thus, functions as a part ofa musical "grammar." The present research explores the possibility that listeners use intuitive knowledge of the system of harmonic rules to organize their perception of melodies. Studies of simple pattern perception and learning (Garner, 1974; Kotovsky & Simon, 1973; Leeuwenberg, 1972; Restle, 1970; Vitz & Todd, 1969) observe that general rules and procedures govern the analysis of serial patterns regardless of modality. Using different kinds of stimuli (random tones, flashing lights, numbers, etc.), these studies demonstrate that listeners are able to

Transfer of perceptual learning: role of tactual-kinesthetic feedback reexamined

Abstract: Albino rats were pre-exposed to stimuli in an otherwise visually sparse environment, with visibility and opportunity to manipulate the forms controlled during rearing. Analysis indicated that pre-exposing animals to stimuli which provided either tactual-kinesthetic feedback or highly visible forms significantly facilitated subsequent discrimination learning. The findings question the adequacy of either an attention-getting or tactual-kinesthetic feedback to account for differences in transfer effects in studies using two- and three-dimensional forms. It is suggested that the visibility of the forms and the opportunity to inspect the forms during pre-exposure is the important variable in studies of this type.