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Implicit Learning (implicit + learning)
Selected AbstractsSyntactic Priming Effects in Comprehension: A Critical ReviewLINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 10 2010Kristen M. Tooley Syntactic priming occurs when processing of a target sentence is facilitated following processing of a prime sentence that has the same syntactic structure (Bock, 1986 Cognitive Psychology, 18. 355,387). Syntactic priming has been widely investigated in production (Bock, 1986 Cognitive Psychology, 18. 355,387; Bock and Griffin, 2000 General. 129(2). 177,192; Cleland and Pickering, 2003. Journal of Memory and Language, 49. 214,230; Cleland and Pickering 2006. Journal of Memory and Language, 54. 185,198; Pickering and Branigan, 1998. Journal of Memory and Language, 39. 633,651; and others), but only relatively recently in comprehension (Arai et al. 2007. Cognitive Psychology, 54(3). 218,250; Ledoux et al., 2007. Psychological Science. 18(2). 135,143; and others). This article reviews the current literature on syntactic priming in comprehension and contrasts these findings to those in production. Critically, syntactic priming effects in comprehension are observed more often when prime and target sentences share a content word, whereas in production, these effects are often observed when there are no shared content words between the primes and targets. Possible explanations for the differing degrees of lexical dependency between syntactic priming effects in production and in comprehension are posed and include differences in task paradigms and stimuli, differences in time course and syntactic processing between the two modalities, and mechanistic differences. Implications from the reviewed literature are then considered in attempts at determining the most likely mechanistic explanation for syntactic priming effects in both comprehension and production. A residual activation account (Pickering and Branigan, 1998. Journal of Memory and Language, 39. 633,651), an implicit learning account (Bock and Griffin, 2000 General. 129(2). 177,192; Chang et al. 2006. Psychological Review, 113(2). 234,272), and a dual mechanism account (Tooley, 2009. Is Syntactic Priming in Sentence Comprehension Really Just Implicit Learning? Paper presented to the 22nd Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, Davis, March 26,28) are outlined. The dual mechanism account may prove more consistent with a wider range of the reviewed research findings. [source] Do children with developmental dyslexia have impairments in implicit learning?DYSLEXIA, Issue 2 2010Elpis V. Pavlidou Abstract We explored implicit learning in a group of typically developing and developmental dyslexic primary school children (9,12,y) using a modified artificial grammar learning task. Performance was calculated using two measures of performance: a perfect free recall (PFR) score and a grammaticality judgment score. Both groups of children required the same amount of exposure to memorize the items (i.e. PFR performance) (t(30)=1.620, p>0.05; p -value reported two-tailed). However, repeated measures ANOVA (Participant type × Grammaticality × Chunk strength) revealed a Participant type effect for grammaticality judgment scores (F(1,30)=4.521, p<0.05; p -value reported two-tailed). Typically developing children showed above chance performance in terms of both grammaticality and chunk strength of the stimuli. Children with developmental dyslexia on the other hand, failed to show implicit learning irrespective of the substring characteristics (i.e. grammaticality or chunk strength). We propose that children with developmental dyslexia may be impaired in their implicit rule abstraction mechanism, which can partially explain their persistent reading problems. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Implicit memory is independent from IQ and age but not from etiology: evidence from Down and Williams syndromesJOURNAL OF INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY RESEARCH, Issue 12 2007S. Vicari Abstract Background In the last few years, experimental data have been reported on differences in implicit memory processes of genetically distinct groups of individuals with Intellectual Disability (ID). These evidences are relevant for the more general debate on supposed asynchrony of cognitive maturation in children with abnormal brain development. This study, comparing implicit memory processes in individuals with Williams syndrome (WS) and Down syndrome (DS), was planned to verify the ,etiological specificity' hypotheses pertaining to the skill learning abilities of individuals with ID. Method A modified version of Nissen and Bullemer's (1987) Serial Reaction Time (SRT) task was used. The performances of three group were evaluated. The first group consisted of thirty-two people with WS (18 males and 14 females). The second group was comprised of twenty-six individuals with DS (14 males and 12 females). The two groups of individuals with ID were selected so that the groups were comparable as for mental age and chronological age. The third group consisted of forty-nine typically developed children with a mental age similar to that of the groups with WS and DS. Results The two groups of individuals with ID demonstrated different patterns of procedural learning. WS individuals revealed poor implicit learning of the temporal sequence of events characterizing the ordered blocks in the SRT task. Indeed, differently from normal controls, WS participants showed no reaction time (RT) speeding through ordered blocks. Most importantly, the rebound effect, which so dramatically affected normal children's RTs passing from the last ordered to the last block, had only a marginal influence on WS children's RTs. Differently from the WS group, the rate of procedural learning of the participants with DS was comparable to that of their controls. Indeed, DS and typically developed individuals showed parallel RT variations in the series of ordered blocks and, more importantly, passing from the last ordered to the last block. Therefore, a substantial preservation of skill learning abilities in this genetic syndrome is confirmed. Conclusions The results of the present study document that procedural learning in individuals with ID depends on the aetiology of the syndrome, thus supporting the etiological specificity account of their cognitive development. These results are relevant for our knowledge about the qualitative aspects and the underlying neurobiological substrate of the anomalous cognitive development in mentally retarded people. [source] Reward processing in autismAUTISM RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010Ashley A. Scott-Van Zeeland Abstract The social motivation hypothesis of autism posits that infants with autism do not experience social stimuli as rewarding, thereby leading to a cascade of potentially negative consequences for later development. While possible downstream effects of this hypothesis such as altered face and voice processing have been examined, there has not been a direct investigation of social reward processing in autism. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine social and monetary rewarded implicit learning in children with and without autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Sixteen males with ASD and sixteen age- and IQ-matched typically developing (TD) males were scanned while performing two versions of a rewarded implicit learning task. In addition to examining responses to reward, we investigated the neural circuitry supporting rewarded learning and the relationship between these factors and social development. We found diminished neural responses to both social and monetary rewards in ASD, with a pronounced reduction in response to social rewards (SR). Children with ASD also demonstrated a further deficit in frontostriatal response during social, but not monetary, rewarded learning. Moreover, we show a relationship between ventral striatum activity and social reciprocity in TD children. Together, these data support the hypothesis that children with ASD have diminished neural responses to SR, and that this deficit relates to social learning impairments. [source] Motor-linked implicit learning in persons with autism spectrum disordersAUTISM RESEARCH, Issue 2 2010Brittany G. Travers Abstract Fifteen adolescents and young adults with high-functioning autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and 18 age- and IQ-matched adults with typical development (TD) completed a serial reaction time task (SRT) to examine possible motor-linked implicit learning impairments in persons with ASD. Measures were taken to decrease the role of explicit learning in the SRT. Results showed that participants with ASD demonstrated intact motor-linked implicit learning. Furthermore, the motor-linked implicit learning appeared to take place at a similar rate across trials in the group with ASD compared to the group with TD. These results suggest that persons with ASD are successful in implicit learning of motor-linked behavior. The results of this study, coupled with past findings, suggest that people with ASD may be able to learn motor movements without conscious awareness, especially if the individual is older and is learning fine motor sequences. [source] Can musical transformations be implicitly learned?COGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 4 2004Zoltan Dienes Abstract The dominant theory of what people can learn implicitly is that they learn chunks of adjacent elements in sequences. A type of musical grammar that goes beyond specifying allowable chunks is provided by serialist or 12-tone music. The rules constitute operations over variables and could not be appreciated as such by a system that can only chunk elements together. A series of studies investigated the extent to which people could implicitly (or explicitly) learn the structures of serialist music. We found that people who had no background in atonal music did not learn the structures, but highly selected participants with an interest in atonal music could implicitly learn to detect melodies instantiating the structures. The results have implications for both theorists of implicit learning and composers who may wish to know which structures they put into a piece of music can be appreciated. [source] | |||||||||||||