Cognitive Skill Learning Research Articles

Cognitive skill learning and aging A component process analysis

The ability to acquire a cognitive and motor skill was investigated in 20 older and 20 younger participants using repeated testing on the Tower of Toronto (TT) puzzle, a variant of the Tower of Hanoi. Explicit memory, perceptual priming, and sustained attention were also assessed. Older subjects exhibited a defective cognitive skill performance despite the fact that cognitive skill learning suffered little or no impairment. Poor problem-solving ability, diminished attention, fatigue, defective explicit memory, and meta-cognitive processes were likely to play a limiting role. Factors interfering with the generation of reliable goal structures are likely to prevent cognitive skill learning, giving important cues for future cognitive remediation.

Cognitive skill learning and aging: A component process analysis

The ability to acquire a cognitive and motor skill was investigated in 20 older and 20 younger participants using repeated testing on the Tower of Toronto (TT) puzzle, a variant of the Tower of Hanoi. Explicit memory, perceptual priming, and sustained attention were also assessed. Older subjects exhibited a defective cognitive skill performance despite the fact that cognitive skill learning suffered little or no impairment. Poor problem-solving ability, diminished attention, fatigue, defective explicit memory, and meta-cognitive processes were likely to play a limiting role. Factors interfering with the generation of reliable goal structures are likely to prevent cognitive skill learning, giving important cues for future cognitive remediation.

The dual-phase learning–forgetting model

In this paper we develop the dual-phase learning–forgetting model (DPLFM) to predict task times in an industrial setting. The DPLFM results from integrating previously published learning and forgetting models that have been validated using experimental data. As a result, the DPLFM captures two important characteristics of the individual learning and forgetting phenomenon that are found in industrial settings. First, it expresses learning as a combination of cognitive and motor skills learning. This allows the learning rate to vary based on the experience gained in previous cycles, as well as the nature of task being performed (e.g. highly complex versus very simple tasks). Second, our model also captures forgetting based on the worker's learning rate, prior experience, as well as the length of the interruption interval over which the worker experiences forgetting. We use a numerical example to illustrate the DPLFM, and perform an analysis on its parameters to gain insights into its behavior.

Functional neuroanatomy of cognitive skill learning examined using PET

Functional neuroanatomy of cognitive skill learning examined using PET

Associative learning and latent inhibition in a conditioned suppression paradigm in humans

A paradigm based on conditioned suppression of ongoing motor activity, sensitive to latent inhibition (LI), was developed and tested in healthy volunteers. Subjects were trained to move disks from one peg to another with a high degree of regularity in the Tower of Toronto puzzle, a well-known cognitive skill learning task. Once this was achieved, they were submitted to a Pavlovian conditioning procedure. The conditioned stimulus (CS) was a pure tone and the unconditioned stimulus (US) a loud white noise. The resulting response suppression was assessed by a transient increase in latency of the hand movements. In control subjects, there was non-contingent CS and US presentation. The results evidenced conditioning after a single CS–US pairing. Following five preexposures to the to-be-conditioned CS, however, conditioning was abolished, seemingly expressing LI. Because a weak unconditioned response to the tone was observed after its first two presentations, an additional experiment was performed with two preexposures to the to-be-conditioned CS. With such procedure, conditioning was obtained, supporting the existence of LI in the preceding experiment. These results indicate that the present paradigm may be useful for the study of LI in human subjects, having the advantage of being similar to the experimental conditions used in the majority of LI studies in experimental animals.

Idiopathic selective amnesia with slow onset: A descriptive spect study

Investigations of the neural basis of mammalian memory have focused more often on the medial temporal lobe (MTL) than on any other brain region. In humans, the amnesic syndrome revealed the essential importance of the multiple structures located in the MTL system for declarative memory (the remembrance of events and facts). Other neural systems mediate procedural forms of memory, including delay eyeblink conditioning, which depends on the cerebellum, and cognitive skill learning, which depends on the striatum. We review three functional imaging studies that reveal different patterns of MTL activation associated with declarative and procedural memory tasks. One study shows separate MTL activations during the encoding or retrieval of declarative memories. A second study shows MTL activation that occurs in parallel with cerebellum-dependent delay eyeblink conditioning, but does not appear to influence that form of procedural memory. A third study reveals suppression of the MTL during striatum-dependent cognitive skill learning. These studies provide images of MTL activations that are correlated with, independent from, or antagonistic to memory performance.

INTERDISCIPLINARY SYSTEMIC HOCS DEVELOPMENT – THE KEY FOR MEANINGFUL STES ORIENTED CHEMICAL EDUCATION

The strong commitment to disciplinary strength in chemistry teaching has resulted in failing to strengthen the links between the social/behavioral sciences, and advances in the physical and biological sciences and technologies. Although science and technology may be useful in establishing what we can do, neither of them can tell us what we should do. The latter requires evaluative thinking by capable science, technology and sociologically literate, rational citizens within a continuous process of problem-solving and decision-making. Meaningful environmental education is envisioned as an interdisciplinary critical thinking-, problem solving- and decision making-oriented teaching and, consequently, higher-order cognitive skills (HOCS) learning in the science-technology-environmentsociety (STES) interface context, leading to the capacity of transfer beyond the subject(s) or discipline(s) specificity. Since the integration of research-based findings and predictions, and HOCS-oriented science (and chemistry) education is a necessary precondition for people's responsible environmental behavior and action, it is vital for our students to develop their HOCS rather than simply learn to apply algorithms to "exercise" sets. This objective should be targeted by teachers and students alike as partners in a collaborative interactive-reflective process. Examples of multidimensional research-based HOCS promoting, STES-oriented courses, teaching strategies and, in accord assessment instruments, that have been developed and successfully implemented within on going chemistry teaching are described, and the research-based implications for future chemical and science education critically discussed. [Chem. Educ. Res. Pract. Eur.: 2000, 1, 189-200]

Inflectional morphology in a family with inherited specific language impairment

The production of regular and irregular past tense forms was investigated among the members of an English-speaking family with a hereditary disorder of language. Unlike the control subjects, the family members affected by the disorder failed to generate overregularizations (e.g., digged) or novel regular forms (plammed, crived), whereas they did produce novel irregularizations (crive–crove). They showed word frequency effects for regular past tense forms (looked) and had trouble producing regulars and irregulars (looked, dug). This pattern cannot be easily explained by deficits of articulation or of perceptual processing, by previous simulations of impairments to a single-mechanism system, or by the extended optional infinitive hypothesis. We argue that the pattern is consistent with a three-level explanation. First, we posit a grammatical deficit of rules or morphological paradigms. This may be caused by a dysfunction of a frontal/basal-ganglia “procedural memory” system previously implicated in the implicit learning and use of motor and cognitive skills. Second, in contexts requiring inflection in the normal adult grammar, the affected subjects appear to retrieve word forms as a function of their accessibility and conceptual appropriateness (“conceptual selection”). Their acquisition and use of these word forms may rely on a “declarative memory” system previously implicated in the explicit learning and use of facts and events. Third, a compensatory strategy may be at work. Some family members may have explicitly learned a strategy of adding suffix-like endings to forms retrieved by conceptual selection. The morphological errors of young normal children appear to be similar to those of the affected family members, who may have been left stranded with conceptual selection by a specific developmental arrest. The same underlying deficit may also explain the impaired subjects' difficulties with derivational morphology.

Promoting Active-Student Learning Using the World Wide Web in Economics Courses

In recent years, as the number of economics majors and students taking economics courses has declined, the issue of pedagogy in economic education has taken on increased importance. Economists have begun to think seriously about how economics is taught to college students, especially in introductory courses where students often experience economics for the first time. An important element in the current focus on teaching within the economics discipline is the recognition that current teaching practices, which rely heavily on the lecture format, are not doing enough to develop students' cognitive learning skills, attract good students to economics, and motivate them to continue coursework in the discipline. Some economists have argued that to increase the effectiveness of economic education, and at the same time increase undergraduate enrollment in economics courses, economics instructors need to reexamine and change their current mix of teaching methods. In particular, advocates of pedagogical change emphasize the need for greater use of activeand collaborative-learning exercises that encourage students to take greater responsibility for their learning. Learning theory and educational research suggest that teaching strategies that actively engage students in the learning process increase the academic performance of students and generate more positive attitudes about learning.' At the same time, changes in instructional technology, in particular the development of the Internet and the World Wide Web, are providing new opportunities for improving teaching and learning. The challenge for instructors of economics is how to use effectively these new technologies to develop an active-studentlearning environment in economics courses.' In the following sections, I discuss how this technology can be used to encourage and motivate students to become active participants in the learning process and describe two Web-based activelearning exercises that can be used in introductory economics courses. The examples illustrate how Web technology can be integrated with traditional teaching methods to enhance learning for students with a variety of learning styles, at the same time making economics more relevant, more interesting, and more fun for teachers and students alike.

Striatal activation during acquisition of a cognitive skill.

The striatum is thought to play an essential role in the acquisition of a wide range of motor, perceptual, and cognitive skills, but neuroimaging has not yet demonstrated striatal activation during nonmotor skill learning. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed while participants learned probabilistic classification, a cognitive task known to rely on procedural memory early in learning and declarative memory later in learning. Multiple brain regions were active during probabilistic classification compared with a perceptual-motor control task, including bilateral frontal cortices, occipital cortex, and the right caudate nucleus in the striatum. The left hippocampus was less active bilaterally during probabilistic classification than during the control task, and the time course of this hippocampal deactivation paralleled the expected involvement of medial temporal structures based on behavioral studies of amnesic patients. Findings provide initial evidence for the role of frontostriatal systems in normal cognitive skill learning.

Cognitive development and qualitative modelling

Abstract This paper argues that in order to encourage the learning of high level cognitive skills through the use of computers, it is necessary to use systems which are adapted to forms of natural human reasoning. This is specifically the case in using modelling programs. Two kinds of such reasoning are identified, both qualitative: reasoning using imagined objects and events, and semi‐quantitative reasoning. Modelling systems which support each form are described. Some results of research with them are outlined.

The neural correlates of consciousness: an analysis of cognitive skill learning

This paper presents a functional brain-imaging strategy designed to isolate neural correlates of consciousness in humans. This strategy is based on skill learning. In the example presented (rapidly generating verbs for visually presented nouns), a cognitive skill is examined before and after practice. As shown, there are marked qualitative differences in the neural circuitry supporting performance of this task in the naive and practised state that include, importantly, both increases and decreases from the baseline activity of the brain.

Event-related potential evidence for a specific recognition memory deficit in adult survivors of cerebral hypoxia.

Transient global ischaemia due to cardiac arrest may lead to profound neuropsychological disorders. Recent research indicates that memory processes are particularly impaired after hypoxic brain injury. Visual recognition memory functions were examined in these patients by means of event-related potential (ERP) and performance data. Eight chronic hypoxic patients, matched with controls for sex and age, performed a visual recognition memory task requiring recognition judgements for either object forms or spatial locations and a visual classification (i.e. oddball) task that imposed negligible memory demands. Reliable P300 oddball effects were obtained both for patients and for controls, whereas the two groups differed in P300 latency and P300 scalp topography. In the memory task, old/new effects (i.e. larger ERP waveforms for previously studied than for unstudied items) were found for the controls. In contrast, in patients these old/new effects were absent or even inverted in polarity while recognition performance was well above chance level, except for one patient. These results suggest that recognition, based on the retrieval of an item's study episode, is degraded in patients who have suffered a period of transient global ischaemia. In the light of the patients' above-chance level of recognition performance and the outcome of post hoc analysis of practice-related changes in recognition performance, it is argued that the patients' memory disorders are best characterized as a degradation of explicit memory functions such as episodic retrieval of a study episode. Implicit functions such as cognitive skill learning were intact.

Cognitive skill learning and schizophrenia: Implications for cognitive remediation.

Cognitive skill learning and schizophrenia: Implications for cognitive remediation.

Images of Medial Temporal Lobe Functions in Human Learning and Memory

Investigations of the neural basis of mammalian memory have focused more often on the medial temporal lobe (MTL) than on any other brain region. In humans, the amnesic syndrome revealed the essential importance of the multiple structures located in the MTL system for declarative memory (the remembrance of events and facts). Other neural systems mediate procedural forms of memory, including delay eyeblink conditioning, which depends on the cerebellum, and cognitive skill learning, which depends on the striatum. We review three functional imaging studies that reveal different patterns of MTL activation associated with declarative and procedural memory tasks. One study shows separate MTL activations during the encoding or retrieval of declarative memories. A second study shows MTL activation that occurs in parallel with cerebellum-dependent delay eyeblink conditioning, but does not appear to influence that form of procedural memory. A third study reveals suppression of the MTL during striatum-dependent cognitive skill learning. These studies provide images of MTL activations that are correlated with, independent from, or antagonistic to memory performance.

COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE OF HUMAN MEMORY

Current knowledge is summarized about long-term memory systems of the human brain, with memory systems defined as specific neural networks that support specific mnemonic processes. The summary integrates convergent evidence from neuropsychological studies of patients with brain lesions and from functional neuroimaging studies using positron emission tomography (PET) or functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Evidence is reviewed about the specific roles of hippocampal and parahippocampal regions, the amygdala, the basal ganglia, and various neocortical areas in declarative memory. Evidence is also reviewed about which brain regions mediate specific kinds of procedural memory, including sensorimotor, perceptual, and cognitive skill learning; perceptual and conceptual repetition priming; and several forms of conditioning. Findings are discussed in terms of the functional neural architecture of normal memory, age-related changes in memory performance, and neurological conditions that affect memory such as amnesia. Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease.

Impact of Adolescents' Perceived Self-Regulatory Efficacy on Familial Communication and Antisocial Conduct

The present study tested the hypothesis that perceived self-efficacy to resist peer pressure for high-risk activities is related to transgressive con- duct, both directly and through the mediation of open familial communi- cation. Adolescents rated their self-regulatory efficacy, openness of com- munication with parents, and their involvement in delinquent conduct and substance abuse. Results of structural equation modeling confirmed that a high sense of efficacy to ward off negative peer influences was accompanied by open communication with parents about activities out-

65-53 - Effects of haloperidol and amisulpride on motor and cognitive skill learning in healthy volunteers

The effects of a typical neuroleptic, haloperidol (1 and 2 mg orally), of an atypical neuroleptic, amisulpride (50 and 100 mg) and of a placebo on motor and cognitive skill learning were assessed in 60 healthy volunteers using repeated testing on the Tower of Toronto puzzle. Subjects were asked to solve three blocks of eight trials and, at distance from drug administration, a fourth block. The puzzle was connected to a computer in order to obtain a precise timing of individual moves. Two components of cognitive skill learning were assessed, the ability to learn to solve the puzzle and the acquisition of a problem-solving routine. Subjective feelings of effort and automatisation of the task were assessed using a questionnaire. Like placebo-treated subjects, neuroleptic-treated subjects were able to acquire a motor skill, to learn to solve the puzzle and to acquire a routine. However, haloperidol 2 mg-treated subjects needed significantly more moves to solve the puzzle in blocks 3 and 4, some of them having routinised a non-optimal solution. A significant cognitive slowing was observed in the haloperidol 1mg group in block 4. The performance pattern and verbal reports suggested that haloperidol impaired the higher cognitive functions such as the ability to shift from one strategy to another and/or to assess one’s performance accurately, possibly leading to the development of compensatory strategies. The only deleterious amisulpride effect was a cognitive slowing in block 4, which was observed in the lower dose group.

Ensuring effective learning from modular courses: a cognitive

Modular courses have been widely implemented as part of the competency-based training agenda. However, there is emerging concern that modular courses are not promoting effective learning although pragmatic considerations indicate they will continue to be widely used since there appear to be numerous advantages associated with their employment. A major inherent weakness of modularisation as a method of content organisation is it tends to fragment knowledge. The cognitive psychology and skill learning literatures, largely ignored in the development and implementation of competency-based training, indicate principles, which if followed, will help to ensure effective learning from modular courses. Particularly salient are the needs to ensure adequate practice and the integration of modules if effective problem solving is a desired objective. Stressed are the need for the teaching of ‘learning-to-learn’ strategies before modular courses are commenced and the importance of assessment to integrate knowledge gained from modules. Bruner's spiral curriculum concept, it is argued, is particularly useful in ensuring adequate practice and effective integration in modular course design.

Goal and Self-Evaluative Influences During Children’s Cognitive Skill Learning

Two studies investigated how goals and self-evaluation affect motivation and achievement outcomes. In both studies, fourth-grade students received instruction and practice on fractions over sessions. Students worked under conditions involving either a goal of learning how to solve problems (learning goal) or a goal of merely solving them (performance goal). In Study 1, half of the students in each goal condition evaluated their problem-solving capabilities. The learning goal with or without self-evaluation and the performance goal with self-evaluation led to higher self-efficacy, skill, motivation, and task orientation than did the performance goal without self-evaluation. In Study 2, all students in each goal condition evaluated their progress in skill acquisition. The learning goal led to higher motivation and achievement outcomes than did the performance goal. Research suggestions and implications for educational practice are discussed.