Incidental Learning Research Articles

Learning vocabulary from e-book reading and recorded word explanation for low-income elementary students with and without reading difficulties

Children from economically disadvantaged families have few opportunities to engage in shared storybook reading activities, and thus are disadvantaged in the area of vocabulary development. In today’s classroom, many children’s e-books provide audio narration support to facilitate comprehension for children with no adult support. Yet, in this digital age, we still know little about how to effectively use e-books to support these children. To rectify this gap, this study investigates the effects of e-book reading with audio narration and some recorded word explanation on the novel vocabulary learning of first grade students from low-achieving elementary schools (mean age = 6.5, SD = 0.50). Employing a within-subject design, students read two e-books and their performances on seven explained words were compared to the seven unexplained control words. As a whole, results indicated that recorded word explanation resulted in greater word learning than when word explanation was not provided. Additionally, e-book reading lead to incidental word learning, and three subgroups of readers showed different patterns of word learning across the e-book with and without the recorded word explanation and the control conditions. Findings suggest that children from low-income families can increase vocabulary from reading an e-book when a short recorded word explanation precedes the e-book reading activity.

Medial prefrontal and ventral hippocampal contributions to incidental context learning and memory in adolescent rats.

The Context Preexposure Facilitation Effect (CPFE) is a contextual fear conditioning (CFC) paradigm in which context learning, context-shock learning, and retrieval of contextual fear occur in three distinct phases. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), dorsal hippocampus (dHPC), and ventral hippocampus (vHPC) are required for the acquisition and/or consolidation of a context representation during incidental context exposure (Heroux et al., 2017; Robinson-Drummer et al., 2016; Rudy & Matus-Amat, 2006). This exposure also induces the expression of the immediate early genes (IEGs) c-Fos, Arc, Egr-1, and Npas4 in these regions (Heroux et al., 2018, 2019). Despite these studies, it is still unclear how mPFC and vHPC contribute to incidental context learning and memory. The current study examined whether prefrontal or ventral hippocampal inactivation during context preexposure interferes with long-term context memory and IEG activity in the mPFC, vHPC, dHPC and the ventral midline thalamus (VMT, a region connected to both the mPFC and HPC). Adolescent Long-Evans rats were given intra-mPFC (Experiment 1) or intra-vHPC (Experiment 2) infusions of the GABAA receptor agonist muscimol or PBS prior to context preexposure, and then were sacrificed 30 min later and whole mPFC, dHPC, vHPC, and VMT were collected and assayed for IEG mRNA expression via qPCR. Prefrontal or ventral hippocampal inactivation during context exposure abolished subsequent post-shock and retention test freezing in behaviorally-tested littermates of the sacrificed groups. In Experiment 1, prefrontal inactivation reduced expression of c-Fos, Arc, Egr-1, and Npas4 in the mPFC, c-Fos, Arc, and Npas4 in the vHPC, and c-Fos in the VMT, to the level of behaviorally-naïve home-cage controls. Prefrontal inactivation did not alter IEG expression in the dHPC during context exposure. In Experiment 2, ventral hippocampal inactivation impaired expression of all IEGs in the mPFC, dHPC, and vHPC, with no effect in the VMT. Taken together, these results suggest that context memory processes on the preexposure day of the CPFE may depend on mPFC-vHPC circuitry not typically emphasized in studies of incidental or configural learning and memory.

Neurophysiological Correlates of Fast Mapping of Novel Words in the Adult Brain.

Word acquisition could be mediated by the neurocognitive mechanism known as fast mapping (FM). It refers to a process of incidental exclusion-based learning and is believed to be a critical mechanism for the rapid build-up of lexicon, although its neural mechanisms are still poorly understood. To investigate the neural bases of this key learning skill, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) and employed an audio-visual paradigm that included a counterbalanced set of familiar and novel spoken word forms presented, in a single exposure, in conjunction with novel and familiar images. To define learning-related brain dynamics, passive auditory ERPs, known to index long-term memory trace activation, were recorded before and after the FM task. Following the single FM learning exposure, we found a significant enhancement in neural activation elicited by the newly trained word form, which was expressed at ~200–400 ms after the word onset. No similar amplitude increase was found either for the native familiar word used as a control stimulus in the same learning paradigm or for similar control stimuli which were not subject to training. Topographic analysis suggested a left-lateral shift of the ERP scalp distribution for the novel FM word form, underpinned by fronto-temporal cortical sources, which may indicate the involvement of pre-existing neurolinguistic networks for mastering new word forms with native phonology. Overall, the near-instant changes in neural activity after a single-shot novel word training indicate that FM could promote rapid integration of newly learned items into the brain’s neural lexicon, even in adulthood.

WHY ARE LEXICAL TONES DIFFICULT TO LEARN?

AbstractL2 sounds present different kinds of challenges to learners at the phonetic, phonological, and lexical levels, but previous studies on L2 tone learning mostly focused on the phonetic and lexical levels. The present study employs an innovative technique to examine the role of prior tonal experience and musical training on forming novel abstract syllable-level tone categories. Eighty Cantonese and English musicians and nonmusicians completed two tasks: (a) AX tone discrimination and (b) incidental learning of artificial tone-segment connections (e.g., words beginning with an aspirated stop always carry a rising tone) with synthesized stimuli modeled on Thai. Although the four participant groups distinguished the target tones similarly well, Cantonese speakers showed abstract and implicit knowledge of the target tone-segment mappings after training but English speakers did not, regardless of their musical experience. This suggests that tone language experience, but not musical experience, is crucial for forming novel abstract syllable-level tone categories.

Brain-behavior relationships in incidental learning of non-native phonetic categories

Research has implicated the left inferior frontal gyrus (LIFG) in mapping acoustic-phonetic input to sound category representations, both in native speech perception and non-native phonetic category learning. At issue is whether this sensitivity reflects access to phonetic category information per se or to explicit category labels, the latter often being required by experimental procedures. The current study employed an incidental learning paradigm designed to increase sensitivity to a difficult non-native phonetic contrast without inducing explicit awareness of the categorical nature of the stimuli. Functional MRI scans revealed frontal sensitivity to phonetic category structure both before and after learning. Additionally, individuals who succeeded most on the learning task showed the largest increases in frontal recruitment after learning. Overall, results suggest that processing novel phonetic category information entails a reliance on frontal brain regions, even in the absence of explicit category labels.

Generating reliable visual long-term memory representations for free: Incidental learning during natural behavior

Generating reliable visual long-term memory representations for free: Incidental learning during natural behavior

Influences of Prediction Errors in Establishment of Attentional Control Settings during Incidental Associative Learning

Influences of Prediction Errors in Establishment of Attentional Control Settings during Incidental Associative Learning

Informal and Incidental Learning in the Liminal Space of Extended Independent (Gap-Year) Travel

Significant student learning experiences occur informally and incidentally in the liminal spaces that are “betwixt and between” various educational, professional, and life stages. However, the learnings which take place in such liminal spaces are not well understood; they are both problematic and powerful and have untapped potential. Our research explored informal and incidental learning processes and outcomes in the liminal space of extended independent (gap year) travel. Based on an in-depth qualitative analysis of the detailed accounts of the learning experiences of 27 participants, we present a six-stage model of how learning occurs in the liminal space of extended independent travel. In studying the relationships between informal and incidental learning in this space we uncovered a process whereby participants, at times as the result of experiencing a disorienting dilemma, had the opportunity to reflect on old ‘habitual’ ways of being and, through reflexivity, engage with new ‘re-authored’ ways of being. The implications of our findings for learning in general and management learning and education in particular are discussed. Keywords: informal and incidental learning; liminality; reflection; reflexivity; transformation

Which Strategy Promotes Retention? Intentional Vocabulary Learning, Incidental Vocabulary Learning, or a Mixture of Both?

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether intentional vocabulary learning, incidental vocabulary learning, or a combination of the two best prepares students for learning and retaining vocabulary in English as foreign language learning (EFL) classrooms. Three experimental groups and three control groups were selected. All groups were given a pre-test and an immediate post-test after the instruction. A delayed post-test was administered to the experimental groups after the immediate post-test. The three experimental groups received the intervention—intentional, incidental, or a combination—while the three control groups received no vocabulary learning instruction. The results show that the mixed instructed group outperformed the other two groups and retained the vocabulary longer than the other groups. Incidental vocabulary learning placed second and intentional vocabulary learning placed third.

Vocabulary Learning via Reading: Is Input Modification Useful?

Since authentic texts address native speakers, they might lack the reader-friendly attributes which can help EFL learners to read and understand them. Also, learning the new vocabulary through reading can be difficult for EFL learners. As such, in order to utilize these texts as teaching materials in EFL classes, they should be modified. The present study investigated Iranian intermediate-level EFL learners and how they acquire English language vocabulary incidentally from modified English texts while their primary task is reading for meaning. In order to measure the impact of lexical input modification on the improvement of foreign language vocabulary learning, 60 adult Iranian EFL learners between the ages of 18 and 22 in two intact classes were selected and randomly assigned to two homogenous groups of control and experimental. The analysis of the data revealed that incidental second language vocabulary learning could be improved effectively by lexical input modifications such as lexical and typographical elaboration.

Matching Unfamiliar Voices to Static and Dynamic Faces: No Evidence for a Dynamic Face Advantage in a Simultaneous Presentation Paradigm.

Previous research has demonstrated that humans are able to match unfamiliar voices to corresponding faces and vice versa. It has been suggested that this matching ability might be based on common underlying factors that have a characteristic impact on both faces and voices. Some researchers have additionally assumed that dynamic facial information might be especially relevant to successfully match faces to voices. In the present study, static and dynamic face-voice matching ability was compared in a simultaneous presentation paradigm. Additionally, a procedure (matching additionally supported by incidental association learning) was implemented which allowed for reliably excluding participants that did not pay sufficient attention to the task. A comparison of performance between static and dynamic face-voice matching suggested a lack of substantial differences in matching ability, suggesting that dynamic (as opposed to mere static) facial information does not contribute meaningfully to face-voice matching performance. Importantly, this conclusion was not merely derived from the lack of a statistically significant group difference in matching performance (which could principally be explained by assuming low statistical power), but from a Bayesian analysis as well as from an analysis of the 95% confidence interval (CI) of the actual effect size. The extreme border of this CI suggested a maximally plausible dynamic face advantage of less than four percentage points, which was considered way too low to indicate any theoretically meaningful dynamic face advantage. Implications regarding the underlying mechanisms of face-voice matching are discussed.

EMOTIONS IN INCIDENTAL LANGUAGE LEARNING

AbstractWe investigated how positive, negative, and neutral mood states influence aspects of second language acquisition, either directly or in interaction with certain personality characteristics (openness, intuition, emotional intelligence, foreign language anxiety, and impulsivity). After completing individual differences questionnaires, 120 participants were randomly assigned to either a Comparison group or one of three emotionally induced treatment groups. They were trained on a semiartificial language under incidental learning conditions. Immediate testing measured participants’ knowledge of the target syntactic forms, while source-attribution data gauged the nature (implicit, explicit, or a combination of both) of their knowledge. Contrary to some previous studies, knowledge gains were chiefly conscious-explicit. Participants exhibited substantial variability in how emotions impacted their learning, with self-reported stress management and premeditation resulting in higher learning in the Negative group. Overall, participants that claimed higher levels of intellect showed the best results.

The effects of video caption types and advance organizers on incidental L2 collocation learning

This study examined the effects of captioned videos and an advance-organizer strategy in incidental learning of collocations. Videos were enhanced by (1) inserting various types of captions (i.e., full captioning, keyword captioning, and no captioning); (2) administering or not administering an advance-organizer activity prior to video viewing; and (3) the combined effects of these two variables. This study adopted a 2 (+/− advance-organizer strategy) × 3 (types of captioning) between-subjects design, resulting in six possible conditions. A total of 361 Chinese primary school students learning English as a second language (L2) each watched a series of four videos in one of the six conditions. Data from the post-intervention test revealed that full captioning led to better performance in incidental learning of collocations than keyword captioning or no captioning. Administering the advance-organizer strategy resulted in better collocation learning gains compared to no administration. Learners who completed the advance-organizer strategy in the full-captioning condition achieved the best results on incidental learning of collocations. Incidental learning of collocations occurs at a rate similar to the learning of single words. This article highlights the importance of fully captioned videos and an advance-organizer strategy for incidental learning of collocations among primary school L2 learners.

Problem-based learning in the Irish SME workplace

Purpose This paper aims to explore how in Irish small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), problem-based learning (PBL) could possibly provide a paradigm which addresses two key research objectives: What are the learning needs and challenges faced by Irish SMEs? and How could PBL satisfy these needs through integrating formal and informal learning? Design/methodology/approach An action research methodology was adopted using Lewin’s (1994) action research cycle. In the reconnaissance stage, surveys and focus groups were conducted with a purposive research sample of Irish SMEs regarding their learning needs and challenges. Based on these results, a plan was formulated to adapt the traditional PBL model into a workplace PBL model (wPBL). Lastly, the wPBL model was implemented and evaluated in 42 SMEs. Findings The research identified several specific learning needs for SMEs, namely, learning that is cost-effective, tailored to the company and its challenges, immediately applied, demonstrates a tangible outcome (is measurable), organically fostering a learning culture, addresses knowledge gaps, continuous, develops communication, team work, problem-solving and technical skills. The traditional PBL model was adapted into a wPBL model to meet the above learning needs of SMEs. It was found that the wPBL model had the potential to address long-standing company problems (making it cost-effective), facilitate continuous learning and develop horizontal and transversal skills such as problem-solving and communication. Originality/value Much of the learning that takes place in SMEs is incidental or informal, and often does not contribute to the long-term sustainability of the organisation. This paper aims to propose a practical framework using wPBL to structure incidental and informal learning in SMEs so that it provides an immediate benefit to the company. To date, there has been little research into the application of PBL outside higher education, and the paper proposes a framework to assist the transition of PBL to a workplace environment.

Guide dogs' navigation after a single journey: A descriptive study of path reproduction, homing, shortcut and detour.

Guide dogs are working dogs that follow the verbal instructions of owners with severe visual impairments, leading them through the environment and toward goals such as a subway entrance (“Find the subway” instruction). During this process, guide dogs incidentally familiarize themselves with their environment. As such, they provide a unique animal model for studying wayfinding abilities in the canine species. In the present descriptive study, 23 skilled guide dogs travelled along a path once and were subsequently tested in a navigation task, with a blindfolded guide dog instructor as the handler. Dogs had difficulty reproducing the path (only 30.43% of the dogs succeeded) and returning (homing) along the previously travelled path (43.47% of the dogs succeeded). However, 80% of them successfully took a shortcut, and 86.95% a detour. This is the first description of the wayfinding abilities of dogs after a single discrete exploration of the path (incidental learning) in systematic experimental conditions. Errors, initiatives and success rates showed that dogs were able to keep track of the goal if the path was short, but errors increased with longer paths, suggesting segmented integration of path characteristics process, as demonstrated in humans. Additionally, errors on homing and detouring, both vital wayfinding tasks, were correlated, suggesting an effect of experience. Initiatives taken by the dogs further suggest flexibility of the spatial representation elaborated. Interestingly, we also found that homing was the only task to benefit from severe visual disability and regular exposure to new journeys, suggesting that these two factors influence the most important wayfinding task. This study therefore highlights qualitative and quantitative wayfinding abilities in the dog species, as well as the factors that account for them, after a single path exploration accompanied by natural ongoing motivation. In the wake of the discovery that dogs are sensitive to the magnetic field, our results provide the basis for developing systematic wayfinding tests for guide dogs.

Effects of Topic Interest on Text Comprehension and Incidental Vocabulary Learning through Reading

Effects of Topic Interest on Text Comprehension and Incidental Vocabulary Learning through Reading

Learning L2 vocabulary from audiovisual input: an exploratory study into incidental learning of single words and formulaic sequences

ABSTRACTTelevision is considered an important source of comprehensible input for second language learners of English and there is some evidence that L2 words can be learned incidentally by watching television. Few studies have looked at the role of TV viewing for learning formulaic sequences, despite the ubiquity of formulaic sequences in spoken English, and the importance of formulaic language in the development of second language proficiency. This study aims to find out whether single words and formulaic sequences can be learned incidentally by watching English language television, and whether learners’ prior vocabulary knowledge and item-related factors affect the learning process. Data were collected from 20 English as a foreign language (EFL) learners (L1 = Dutch) in their first year at university. A pre-test post-test within-subject design was adopted. Learning gains were measured at three levels of sensitivity: a form recall test, a meaning recall test and a form recognition test. The results indicate that single words and formulaic sequences can be learned incidentally from TV viewing and that the learning is mediated by item- as well as learner-related factors.

Getting Tagged, Getting Involved with News? A Mixed-Methods Investigation of the Effects and Motives of News-Related Tagging Activities on Social Network Sites

Abstract Coming across news on social network sites (SNS) largely depends on news-related activities in one’s network. Although there are many different ways to stumble upon news, limited research has been conducted on how distinct news curation practices influence users’ intention to consume encountered content. In this mixed-methods investigation, using Facebook as an example, we first examine the results of an experiment (study 1, n = 524), showing that getting tagged in comments to news posts promotes news consumption the most. Based on this finding, we then focus on actively tagging users by investigating news tagging motives/practices with interactive qualitative interviews centered on participants’ Facebook activity logs (study 2, n = 13). Overall, the findings show how news tagging, albeit a strong catalyst for reading and interacting with news, mostly favors users already interested in news, thus challenging the optimistic assumption that SNS might foster incidental learning among less interested audiences.

Towards Creativity Stimulating Design Intervention for Multidisciplinary Innovation Teams

AbstractThe aim of our research is to stimulate cross disciplinary design collaboration to improve innovation processes in product and service design domain. We focus on the intersection of biotechnology and design as this field poses great challenges and opportunities for innovation, and it has received little attention in light of technological advancements of digital goods over the past decades. Experimental studies in the area expose challenging interactions, rising from lack of common vocabulary and preconceptions. Organisational management studies suggest that creativity is a prerequisite for innovation in group processes. As such, we are interested in enhancing collective creativity. Numerous studies investigate external creativity triggers, however only on individual level. Our review suggests that external triggers can be effective when the task is problem solving or styling, but ambiguous goals like innovation require stimulation of intrinsic triggers, such as group incidental learning and tacit knowledge. To explain this, we propose a hypothetical innovation approach, that draws attention to cognitive stimulation methods leading to creativity in multidisciplinary teams.

Neural correlates of cue predictiveness during intentional and incidental associative learning: A time-frequency study

Incidental learning allows us to extract statistical relations between events in our daily lives without the intention to learn them. Whereas anticipation during intentional associative learning has been linked to increased and decreased theta band activity, comparatively little research has focused on incidental learning. The study of such a pervasive mechanism of incidental learning faces the challenge of finding an appropriate paradigm. Similarly, while posterior alpha band activity has been shown to facilitate attention to a predictable target location, it is not clear whether alpha power could mediate attention given other predictive information; e.g., when the only available information provided by the cue is the likelihood of the target outcome. Here we used a stimulus-stimulus associative learning task to investigate whether a cue carries information on its contingent relationship with a target outcome, not only when their relationship is learned intentionally but also when it could be learned incidentally. Moreover, by presenting the target outcome in a visual search task, we were also able to study whether anticipatory attention can be modulated by the intentional or the incidental knowledge of the likelihood of a target outcome given a predictive (or non-predictive) cue. Participants were exposed to streams of cue-target outcome trials, where one of two possible cues and one of two possible outcomes were displayed. Intention to learn was manipulated by asking participants to assess whether one of the target outcomes (the intentional one) was more likely to appear following one of the cues (the intentional one). Any learning regarding the other cue-outcome relationship would be incidental. We found that frontal and temporal theta band activity were sensitive to the predictive value of a cue (predictive cues elicited lower theta power). Moreover, left temporal theta was sensitive to the intention to learn associations (theta activity elicited by intentional learning cues was higher). Alpha power, by contrast, was not modulated by cue predictiveness of the target outcome. These findings suggest that theta band activity carries information about the predictive value of a cue. The topographical differences between theta for intentional and incidental learning suggest distinct cortical networks activated depending on whether the relationship between a cue and an outcome has been learned intentionally or incidentally.