Showing papers on "Sequence learning published in 2009"

Active‐Constructive‐Interactive: A Conceptual Framework for Differentiating Learning Activities

Abstract: Active, constructive, and interactive are terms that are commonly used in the cognitive and learning sciences. They describe activities that can be undertaken by learners. However, the literature is actually not explicit about how these terms can be defined; whether they are distinct; and whether they refer to overt manifestations, learning processes, or learning outcomes. Thus, a framework is provided here that offers a way to differentiate active, constructive, and interactive in terms of observable overt activities and underlying learning processes. The framework generates a testable hypothesis for learning: that interactive activities are most likely to be better than constructive activities, which in turn might be better than active activities, which are better than being passive. Studies from the literature are cited to provide evidence in support of this hypothesis. Moreover, postulating underlying learning processes allows us to interpret evidence in the literature more accurately. Specifying distinct overt activities for active, constructive, and interactive also offers suggestions for how learning activities can be coded and how each kind of activity might be elicited.

Error Minimized Extreme Learning Machine With Growth of Hidden Nodes and Incremental Learning

Abstract: One of the open problems in neural network research is how to automatically determine network architectures for given applications. In this brief, we propose a simple and efficient approach to automatically determine the number of hidden nodes in generalized single-hidden-layer feedforward networks (SLFNs) which need not be neural alike. This approach referred to as error minimized extreme learning machine (EM-ELM) can add random hidden nodes to SLFNs one by one or group by group (with varying group size). During the growth of the networks, the output weights are updated incrementally. The convergence of this approach is proved in this brief as well. Simulation results demonstrate and verify that our new approach is much faster than other sequential/incremental/growing algorithms with good generalization performance.

Neural evidence of statistical learning: Efficient detection of visual regularities without awareness

Abstract: Our environment contains regularities distributed in space and time that can be detected by way of statistical learning. This unsupervised learning occurs without intent or awareness, but little is known about how it relates to other types of learning, how it affects perceptual processing, and how quickly it can occur. Here we use fMRI during statistical learning to explore these questions. Participants viewed statistically structured versus unstructured sequences of shapes while performing a task unrelated to the structure. Robust neural responses to statistical structure were observed, and these responses were notable in four ways: First, responses to structure were observed in the striatum and medial temporal lobe, suggesting that statistical learning may be related to other forms of associative learning and relational memory. Second, statistical regularities yielded greater activation in category-specific visual regions (object-selective lateral occipital cortex and word-selective ventral occipito-temporal cortex), demonstrating that these regions are sensitive to information distributed in time. Third, evidence of learning emerged early during familiarization, showing that statistical learning can operate very quickly and with little exposure. Finally, neural signatures of learning were dissociable from subsequent explicit familiarity, suggesting that learning can occur in the absence of awareness. Overall, our findings help elucidate the underlying nature of statistical learning.

Motor learning and consolidation: The case of visuomotor rotation

Abstract: Adaptation to visuomotor rotation is a particular form of motor learning distinct from force-field adaptation, sequence learning, and skill learning. Nevertheless, study of adaptation to visuomotor rotation has yielded a number of findings and principles that are likely of general importance to procedural learning and memory. First, rotation learning is implicit and appears to proceed through reduction in a visual prediction error generated by a forward model, such implicit adaptation occurs even when it is in conflict with an explicit task goal. Second, rotation learning is subject to different forms of interference: retrograde, anterograde through aftereffects, and contextual blocking of retrieval. Third, opposite rotations can be recalled within a short time interval without interference if implicit contextual cues (effector change) rather than explicit cues (color change) are used. Fourth, rotation learning consolidates both over time and with increased initial training (saturation learning).

The Importance of Sound for Cognitive Sequencing Abilities The Auditory Scaffolding Hypothesis

Abstract: Sound is inherently a temporal and sequential signal. Experience with sound therefore may help bootstrap—that is, provide a kind of “scaffolding” for—the development of general cognitive abilities related to representing temporal or sequential patterns. Accordingly, the absence of sound early in development may result in disturbances to these sequencing skills. In support of this hypothesis, we present two types of findings. First, normal-hearing adults do best on sequencing tasks when the sense of hearing, rather than sight, can be used. Second, recent findings suggest that deaf children have disturbances on exactly these same kinds of tasks that involve learning and manipulation of serial-order information. We suggest that sound provides an “auditory scaffolding” for time and serial-order behavior, possibly mediated through neural connections between the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain. Under conditions of auditory deprivation, auditory scaffolding is absent, resulting in neural reorganization a...

Brain Activation during Anticipation of Sound Sequences

Abstract: Music consists of sound sequences that require integration over time. As we become familiar with music, associations between notes, melodies, and entire symphonic movements become stronger and more complex. These associations can become so tight that, for example, hearing the end of one album track can elicit a robust image of the upcoming track while anticipating it in total silence. Here, we study this predictive "anticipatory imagery" at various stages throughout learning and investigate activity changes in corresponding neural structures using functional magnetic resonance imaging. Anticipatory imagery (in silence) for highly familiar naturalistic music was accompanied by pronounced activity in rostral prefrontal cortex (PFC) and premotor areas. Examining changes in the neural bases of anticipatory imagery during two stages of learning conditional associations between simple melodies, however, demonstrates the importance of fronto-striatal connections, consistent with a role of the basal ganglia in "training" frontal cortex (Pasupathy and Miller, 2005). Another striking change in neural resources during learning was a shift between caudal PFC earlier to rostral PFC later in learning. Our findings regarding musical anticipation and sound sequence learning are highly compatible with studies of motor sequence learning, suggesting common predictive mechanisms in both domains.

On Cognitive Constraints and Learning Progressions: The case of “structure of matter”

Abstract: Based on the analysis of available research on students’ alternative conceptions about the particulate nature of matter, we identified basic implicit assumptions that seem to constrain students’ ideas and reasoning on this topic at various learning stages. Although many of these assumptions are interrelated, some of them seem to change or lose/gain strength independently from one another. Overlapping or competing presuppositions about the structure, properties, and dynamics of matter may be able to coexist at any given level, particularly at intermediate stages of expertise. Our results allowed us to suggest common paths in the transition from naive through novice to expert along relevant dimensions related to the structure and properties of chemical substances. The identification of these cognitive constraints provides a useful framework that educators can use to better understand and even predict many of their students’ learning difficulties. It can also assist in the design and organisation of learning experiences and assessment tools that recognise and take advantage of the most likely trajectories towards expertise (learning progressions) followed by many students.

Visuospatial Working Memory Capacity Predicts the Organization of Acquired Explicit Motor Sequences

Abstract: Studies have suggested that cognitive processes such as working memory and temporal control contribute to motor sequence learning. These processes engage overlapping brain regions with sequence learning, but concrete evidence has been lacking. In this study, we determined whether limits in visuospatial working memory capacity and temporal control abilities affect the temporal organization of explicitly acquired motor sequences. Participants performed an explicit sequence learning task, a visuospatial working memory task, and a continuous tapping timing task. We found that visuospatial working memory capacity, but not the CV from the timing task, correlated with the rate of motor sequence learning and the chunking pattern observed in the learned sequence. These results show that individual differences in short-term visuospatial working memory capacity, but not temporal control, predict the temporal structure of explicitly acquired motor sequences.

Learning of a sequential motor skill comprises explicit and implicit components that consolidate differently.

Abstract: The ability to perform accurate sequential movements is essential to normal motor function. Learning a sequential motor behavior is comprised of two basic components: explicit identification of the order in which the sequence elements should be performed and implicit acquisition of spatial accuracy for each element. Here we investigated the time course of learning of these components for a first sequence (SEQA) and their susceptibility to interference from learning a second sequence (SEQB). We assessed explicit learning with a discrete index, the number of correct anticipatory movements, and implicit learning with a continuous variable, spatial error, which decreased during learning without subject awareness. Spatial accuracy to individual sequence elements reached asymptotic levels only when the whole sequence order was known. Interference with recall of the order of SEQA persisted even when SEQB was learned 24 h after SEQA. However, there was resistance to interference by SEQB with increased initial training with SEQA. For implicit learning of spatial accuracy, SEQB interfered at 5 min but not 24 h after SEQA. As in the case of sequence order, prolonged initial training with SEQA induced resistance to interference by SEQB. We conclude that explicit sequence learning is more susceptible to anterograde interference and implicit sequence learning is more susceptible to retrograde interference. However, both become resistant to interference with saturation training. We propose that an essential feature of motor skill learning is the process by which discrete explicit task elements are combined with continuous implicit features of movement to form flawless sequential actions.

Age-Related Declines in Visuospatial Working Memory Correlate With Deficits in Explicit Motor Sequence Learning

Abstract: Numerous studies have shown that older adults exhibit deficits in motor sequence learning, but the mechanisms underlying this effect remain unclear. Our recent work has shown that visuospatial working-memory capacity predicts the rate of motor sequence learning and the length of motor chunks formed during explicit sequence learning in young adults. In the current study, we evaluate whether age-related deficits in working memory explain the reduced rate of motor sequence learning in older adults. We found that older adults exhibited a correlation between visuospatial working-memory capacity and motor sequence chunk length, as we observed previously in young adults. In addition, older adults exhibited an overall reduction in both working-memory capacity and motor chunk length compared with that of young adults. However, individual variations in visuospatial working-memory capacity did not correlate with the rate of learning in older adults. These results indicate that working memory declines with age at least partially explain age-related differences in explicit motor sequence learning.

Evolving Memory Cell Structures for Sequence Learning

Abstract: Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) is one of the best recent supervised sequence learning methods. Using gradient descent, it trains memory cells represented as differentiable computational graph structures. Interestingly, LSTM's cell structure seems somewhat arbitrary. In this paper we optimize its computational structure using a multi-objective evolutionary algorithm. The fitness function reflects the structure's usefulness for learning various formal languages. The evolved cells help to understand crucial features that aid sequence learning.

Evidence of Action Sequence Chunking in Goal-Directed Instrumental Conditioning and Its Dependence on the Dorsomedial Prefrontal Cortex

Abstract: The current study investigated the contribution of the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) to instrumental action selection. We found that cell body lesions of the dmPFC, centered on the medial agranular area, spared rats' ability to choose between actions based on either the value or the discriminative stimulus properties of an outcome. We next examined the effects of these lesions on action sequence learning using a concurrent bidirectional heterogeneous chain task in which the identity of the reward delivered was determined by the order in which the two lever press actions were performed. Although both lesioned rats and sham controls learned to perform the task, we found that they relied on different behavioral strategies to do so. In subsequent tests, rats in the sham group were able to withhold their performance of a sequence when either its associated outcome was devalued or the contingency between that sequence and its outcome was degraded by delivering the outcome noncontingently. Interestingly, lesioned rats failed to reorganize their performance at the action sequence level and, rather, were found to withhold their performance of the terminal response in the sequence that had earned the devalued outcome relative to the more distal response, suggesting that they represented the elements of the sequence as distinct behavioral units. These findings demonstrate that rats can use sequence-level representations, or action chunks, to organize their behavior in a goal-directed manner and indicate that the dmPFC plays a critical role in this process.

The serial reaction time task revisited: a study on motor sequence learning with an arm-reaching task

Abstract: With a series of novel arm-reaching tasks, we have shown that visuomotor sequence learning encompasses the acquisition of the order of sequence elements, and the ability to combine them in a single, skilled behavior. The first component, which is mostly declarative, is reflected by changes in movement onset time (OT); the second, which occurs without subject’s awareness, is measured by changes in kinematic variables, including movement time (MT). Key-press-based serial reaction time tasks (SRTT) have been used to investigate sequence learning and results interpreted as indicative of the implicit acquisition of the sequence order. One limitation to SRT studies, however, is that only one measure is used, the response time, the sum of OT and MT: this makes interpretation of which component is learnt difficult and disambiguation of implicit and explicit processes problematic. Here, we used an arm-reaching version of SRTT to propose a novel interpretation of such results. The pattern of response time changes we obtained was similar to the key-press-based tasks. However, there were significant differences between OT and MT, suggesting that both partial learning of the sequence order and skill improvement took place. Further analyses indicated that the learning of the sequence order might not occur without subjects’ awareness.

Is it Merely a Question of “What” to Prompt or Also “When” to Prompt?

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the effectiveness of prompts depends on their point of presentation time in self-regulated learning. First, based on the cognitive load theory, we investigated whether presenting prompts during the learning process instead of before has a positive effect on the process and outcome of self-regulated learning. Second, based on an integration of the cognitive load theory and a model of learning regulation goals, we investigated whether presenting prompts during learning and according to a theoretically optimal course of learning regulation has a positive effect on the process and outcome of self-regulated learning. In an experimental study with a one-factorial between-subjects design, with “point of presentation time of prompts” as independent variable and strategy use as well as learning outcome as dependent variables, 95 students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions. During self-regulated learning in a computer-based learning environment on ...

The retrieval of learned sequences engages the hippocampus: Evidence from fMRI.

Abstract: Computational models suggest that the hippocampus plays an important role in the retrieval of sequences. However, empirical evidence supporting hippocampal involvement during sequence retrieval is lacking. The current study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine the role of the human hippocampus during the learning and retrieval of sequences. Participants were asked to learn four sequences comprised of six faces each. An overlapping condition, where sequences shared common elements, was comprised of two sequences in which two identical faces were shown as the middle images of both sequences. A nonoverlapping condition contained two sequences that did not share any faces between them. A third random condition contained two sets of six faces that were always presented in a random order. The fMRI data were split into a learning phase and an experienced phase based upon each individual's behavioral performance. Patterns of hippocampal activity during presentation, delay, and choice periods were assessed both during learning (learning phase) and after subjects learned the sequences to criteria (experienced phase). The results revealed hippocampal activation during sequence learning, consistent with previous findings in rats and humans. Critically, the current results revealed hippocampal activation during the retrieval of learned sequences. No difference in hippocampal activation was seen between the overlapping and nonoverlapping sequences during either sequence learning or retrieval of sequences. The results extend our current knowledge by providing evidence that the hippocampus is active during the retrieval of learned sequences, consistent with current computational models of sequence learning and retrieval.

Developmental contributions to motor sequence learning.

Abstract: Little is known about how children acquire new motor sequences. In particular, it is not clear if the same learning progression observed in adults is also present in childhood nor whether motor skills are acquired in a similar fashion across development. In the present study we used the multi-finger sequencing task (MFST), a variant of the serial reaction time (SRT) task, to study motor sequence learning, across two consecutive days, in three cross-sectional samples of children aged 6, 8, and 10 years, and a control sample of adults. In the MFST, participants reproduced 10-element sequences of key presses on an electronic keyboard, using four fingers of the right hand. Each block of practice included 10 intermixed trials of a Repeated (REP) sequence and four trials of Random (RAN) sequences. Performance was assessed by examining changes in accuracy, a component of the task that requires the association of the visual stimulus with the motor response, and response synchronization, a component that requires fine-grained sensorimotor integration and timing. Additionally, participants completed Recognition and Recall tests, to assess explicit knowledge of the repeated sequence. Overall, results showed a developmental progression in motor sequence learning within and across days of practice. Interestingly, the two behavioral measures showed different developmental trajectories. For accuracy, differences were greatest for the two youngest groups early in learning, and these groups also showed the greatest rate of improvement. However, by the end of Day 2, only the 6-year-olds still lagged behind all other groups. For response synchronization, all child groups differed from adults early in learning, but both child and adult groups showed similar rates of improvement across blocks of practice. By the end of Day 2, 10-year-olds reached adult levels of performance, whereas 6- and 8-year-olds did not. Taken together, the dissociation observed with our two behavioral measures of sequence learning is consistent with the hypothesis that accuracy or finger-stimulus association may rely on cortical pathways that show the greatest maturation between ages 6 and 10; whereas motor timing and sensorimotor integration may rely on subcortical pathways that continue to develop into young adulthood. Despite developmental differences across blocks of practice on both behavioral measures, there were no significant group differences for either the Recognition or Recall tests. We suggest that explicit knowledge of the MFST is not directly linked to task performance, thus challenging the implicit-explicit distinction in pediatric SRT studies assessing the developmental invariance model.

Parallel Response Selection Disrupts Sequence Learning under Dual-Task Conditions.

Abstract: Some studies suggest that dual-task processing impairs sequence learning; others suggest it does not. The reason for this discrepancy remains obscure. It may have to do with the dual-task procedure often used. Many dual-task sequence learning studies pair the serial reaction time (SRT) task with a tone-counting secondary task. The tone-counting task, however, is not ideal for studying the cognitive processes involved in sequence learning. The present experiments sought to identify the nature of the interference responsible for disrupting sequence learning in dual-task situations using more tractable dual-task procedures. Experiments 1 and 2 showed that parallel-interfering central processing disrupts sequence learning. Experiment 3 used a novel combination of the SRT task as the secondary task in a psychological refractory period procedure. It showed that SRT task performance can be disrupted without disrupting sequence learning when that disruption involves a response-selection bottleneck rather than parallel response selection. Together, these results suggest that it is the overlap of central processes involved in successfully performing the 2 tasks concurrently that leads to learning deficits in dual-task sequence learning.

Implicit learning of word order

Abstract: Implicit Learning of Word Order Patrick Rebuschat (pr277@cam.ac.uk) Research Centre for English & Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, 9 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DP, United Kingdom John N. Williams (jnw12@cam.ac.uk) Research Centre for English & Applied Linguistics, University of Cambridge, 9 West Road, Cambridge CB3 9DP, United Kingdom an experiment that investigated whether adults can acquire the syntactic structure of a novel language without intending to and without awareness of what they have learned. The experiment constitutes an example of how the theoretical concepts and the methodological framework provided by implicit learning research can be applied to the investigation of natural language acquisition. 1 Abstract Language acquisition is frequently characterized as a process where learning proceeds implicitly, i.e. incidentally and in absence of awareness of what was learned. This article reports the results of an experiment that investigated whether adults can acquire the syntactic structure of a novel language implicitly. Experimental subjects were trained on a semi- artificial grammar under incidental learning conditions, and then tested to determine whether learning took place and to assess whether learning resulted in unconscious knowledge. The results indicate that adults are able to acquire syntactic knowledge of a new language under incidental learning conditions, while processing sentences for meaning, without the benefit of corrective feedback and after a relatively brief exposure period. The results also show that learners are able to transfer knowledge to stimuli with the same underlying structure but new surface features. The measures of awareness further suggest that subjects were aware of having acquired knowledge, but that they were unaware of the nature of this knowledge. The experiment thus provides evidence for the implicit learning of natural language syntax. On measuring awareness It is generally accepted that the knowledge acquired during standard Artificial Grammar Learning (AGL) experiments is the result of an incidental learning process. However, the question of whether this knowledge is actually “implicit” is highly controversial (Berry, 1996). The case for unconscious learning depends on both our definition of awareness and on the validity of tests used to assess unaware learning. In this study, knowledge was assumed unconscious if participants were unaware of what they have learned, i.e. implicit learning was defined in terms of the product of learning rather than the properties of the learning process. Proposals for measuring awareness in this sense include subjective measures, such as verbal reports and confidence ratings, as well as objective measures, where performance on a direct test (e.g., free generation) is compared to performance on an indirect test (e.g., serial reaction time). The present experiment employed subjective measures to determine whether adults could acquire non- native syntax without becoming aware of the knowledge they have acquired. Keywords: Implicit learning; Artificial Grammar Learning; syntax; language acquisition; intuition; subjective measures. Introduction How humans derive information from the environment implicitly, i.e. without the intention to learn and in absence of awareness of what was learned, is one of the central questions within the cognitive sciences. The process of implicit learning is assumed to underlie the human ability to extract knowledge from complex, rule-governed stimulus domains and, as such, appears to be an elementary and ubiquitous process of human cognition. Everyday life offers many examples of implicit learning. Language acquisition, socialization, music perception and many other learning episodes are widely thought to proceed in an implicit fashion. Despite the widespread recognition that language acquisition constitutes a prime example of implicit learning (e.g., Cleeremans, Destrebecqz, & Boyer, 1998; Frensch & Runger, 2003; Reber, 1967; Perruchet, 2008; St. John & Shanks, 1997; Winter & Reber, 1994), relatively little effort has been made, within linguistics or experimental psychology, to investigate natural language acquisition within the theoretical framework provided by implicit learning research. The present article reports the results of Subjective measures Dienes (2004, 2008) has advocated the use of subjective measures in order to assess whether the knowledge acquired during AGL tasks is conscious or The research literature on language acquisition abounds with studies that employ AGs in order to investigate the basic processes underlying natural language acquisition (Gomez & Gerken, 2000). However, in contrast to implicit learning research, these studies generally do not integrate measures of awareness. This is, of course, in part explained by the fact that infants are incapable to verbally report, indicate confidence levels, or perform on fragment completion tasks. However, many of the experiments conducted, for example, within the statistical learning tradition (see Gomez, 2007, and Saffran, 2003, for overviews) employ children or adults as subjects, which means that basic measures of awareness could be administered. Usually, lack of awareness is assumed but not empirically assessed.

Effects of age and practice in sequence learning: A graded account of ageing, learning, and control

Abstract: The influence of age and practice level was investigated in sequence learning by testing young, middle-aged, and older participants, who first performed a serial reaction time (SRT) task, either after a short or a long training phase (15 vs. 30 training blocks). Unknown to them, successive stimuli followed a repeating pattern. After training, participants performed a sequence generation task under inclusion and exclusion instructions, and a recognition task. SRT and generation data indicate (1) preserved learning and generation abilities in ageing and (2) beneficial effects of extended practice. By contrast, recognition data suggest that ageing tends to impair discrimination performance. Implications of these findings for understanding the effects of age and practice on the ability to control sequential knowledge are discussed in terms of the involvement of gradual representations of sequence structure.