6,170 research outputs found
Can unconscious knowledge allow control in sequence learning?
No full textThis paper investigates the conscious status of both the knowledge that an item is legal (judgment knowledge) and the knowledge of why it is legal (structural knowledge) in sequence learning We compared ability to control use of knowledge (Process Dissociation Procedure) with stated awareness of the knowledge (subjective measures) as measures of the conscious status of knowledge Experiment I showed that when people could control use of judgment knowledge they were indeed conscious of having that knowledge according to their own statements Yet Experiment 2 showed that people could exert such control over the use of judgment knowledge when claiming they had no structural knowledge 1 e conscious judgment knowledge could be based oil unconscious structural knowledge Further implicit learning research should be clear over whether judgment or structural knowledge is claimed to be unconscious as the two dissociate in sequence learning (C) 2009 Elsevier Inc All rights reserve
Implicit sequence learning and conscious awareness
No full textThis paper uses the Process Dissociation Procedure to explore whether people can acquire unconscious knowledge in the serial reaction time task [Destrebecqz, A., & Cleeremans, A. (2001). Can sequence learning be implicit? New evidence with the Process Dissociation Procedure. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 343-350; Wilkinson, L., & Shanks, D. R. (2004). Intentional control and implicit sequence learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 354-369]. Experiment I showed that people generated legal sequences above baseline levels under exclusion instructions. Reward moved exclusion performance towards baseline, indicating that the extent of motivation in the test phase influenced the expression of unconscious knowledge. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that even with reward, adding noise to the sequences or shortening training led to above-baseline exclusion performance, suggesting that task difficulty and the amount of training also affected the expression of unconscious knowledge. The results help resolve some current debates about the role of conscious awareness in sequence learning.This paper uses the Process Dissociation Procedure to explore whether people can acquire unconscious knowledge in the serial reaction time task [Destrebecqz, A., & Cleeremans, A. (2001). Can sequence learning be implicit? New evidence with the Process Dissociation Procedure. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 8, 343-350; Wilkinson, L., & Shanks, D. R. (2004). Intentional control and implicit sequence learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 354-369]. Experiment I showed that people generated legal sequences above baseline levels under exclusion instructions. Reward moved exclusion performance towards baseline, indicating that the extent of motivation in the test phase influenced the expression of unconscious knowledge. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that even with reward, adding noise to the sequences or shortening training led to above-baseline exclusion performance, suggesting that task difficulty and the amount of training also affected the expression of unconscious knowledge. The results help resolve some current debates about the role of conscious awareness in sequence learning. (c) 2007 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved
Does Prototype Category Learning Include Declarative Memory?
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PURPOSE: The present study aims to investigate whether both A/B and A/not A tasks of prototype category learning include declarative memory.
METHODS: To address this issue, cartoon animals varied along 10 binary dimensions were adopted as stimuli, and participants were asked to complete either an A/B task or an A/not A task in either the single condition or the dual condition. For the A/B task, participants were asked to indicate which category the stimulus belonged to, and then the feedback of the correctness was provided during training. The test phase was the same as training except there was no feedback. For the A/not A task, participants were asked to indicate how likable the stimulus was, and then the feedback of the likeability rated by others was provided during training. In the test phase, participants were asked to indicate whether the stimulus belonged to the category they saw before. In the dual condition, participants were asked to complete the categorization task and the additional Sternberg memory scanning task. On each trial, they were asked to memorize 4 digits before categorization, and then recognized them after categorization.
RESULTS: The results showed that the accuracy was significantly higher than chance for both tasks in either the single or the dual condition and the accuracy was significantly higher in the single condition than in the dual condition for both tasks. That is, although the secondary working memory task reduced performance in the two tasks of prototype category learning, but it could not eliminate category leaning in both tasks.
CONCLUSIONS: The results indicated that declarative memory might be involved in prototype category learning, but it does not play a crucial role in prototype category learning.</p
A distributed computational cognitive model for object recognition
No full textBased on cognitive functionalities in human vision processing, we propose a computational cognitive model for object recognition with detailed algorithmic descriptions. The contribution of this paper is of two folds. Firstly, we present a systematic review on psychological and neurophysiological studies, which provide collective evidence for a distributed representation of 3D objects in the human brain. Secondly, we present a computational model which simulates the distributed mechanism of object vision pathway. Experimental results show that the presented computational cognitive model outperforms five representative 3D object recognition algorithms in computer science research
Emotional Context Influences Micro-Expression Recognition
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Micro-expressions are often embedded in a flow of expressions including both neutral and other facial expressions. However, it remains unclear whether the types of facial expressions appearing before and after the micro-expression, i.e., the emotional context, influence micro-expression recognition. To address this question, the present study used a modified METT (Micro-Expression Training Tool) paradigm that required participants to recognize the target micro-expressions presented briefly between two identical emotional faces. The results of Experiments 1 and 2 showed that negative context impaired the recognition of micro-expressions regardless of the duration of the target micro-expression. Stimulus-difference between the context and target micro-expression was accounted for in Experiment 3. Results showed that a context effect on micro-expression recognition persists even when the stimulus similarity between the context and target micro-expressions was controlled. Therefore, our results not only provided evidence for the context effect on micro-expression recognition but also suggested that the context effect might result from both the stimulus and valence differences.</p
Implicit Learning of Recursive Context-Free Grammars
No full textContext-free grammars are fundamental for the description of linguistic syntax. However, most artificial grammar learning experiments have explored learning of simpler finite-state grammars, while studies exploring context-free grammars have not assessed awareness and implicitness. This paper explores the implicit learning of context-free grammars employing features of hierarchical organization, recursive embedding and long-distance dependencies. The grammars also featured the distinction between left-and right-branching structures, as well as between centre-and tail-embedding, both distinctions found in natural languages. People acquired unconscious knowledge of relations between grammatical classes even for dependencies over long distances, in ways that went beyond learning simpler relations (e.g. n-grams) between individual words. The structural distinctions drawn from linguistics also proved important as performance was greater for tail-embedding than centre-embedding structures. The results suggest the plausibility of implicit learning of complex context-free structures, which model some features of natural languages. They support the relevance of artificial grammar learning for probing mechanisms of language learning and challenge existing theories and computational models of implicit learning
Perceptual Sequence Learning Without Awareness
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PURPOSE: The serial reaction time (SRT) task has been widely used to investigate whether sequence learning can occur without awareness. However, in most of the SRT tasks, the stimuli can be perceived consciously, and the question is whether people can acquire perceptual or motor sequence knowledge at the unconscious level. It remains unclear whether people can acquire perceptual knowledge when the stimuli in a sequence are invisible or subliminal.
METHODS: In this study, we used continuous flash suppression (CFS) method to explore whether people can learn the serial order of subliminal stimuli. During the familiarization phase, distinct flash patterns were presented to the dominant eye and novel symbols of four triplets were presented to the other eye in the subliminal condition, while the flash patterns and symbols were presented simultaneously in both eyes in the visible control condition. During the test phase, a continuous stream of 12 visible symbols was presented to the same eye as in the familiarization phase in a rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) task, and participants were asked to press a key when a target symbol was presented.
RESULTS: The results showed that the detection latency was faster when the target was the third symbol of the triplets than it was the first symbol of the triplets in the CFS condition, but there was no such location effect in the control condition.
CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that perceptual sequence learning can occur even when the stimuli are invisible, although people do not express sequence learning effects when the stimuli are visible.</p
Paired-Associate and Feedback-Based Weather Prediction Tasks Support Multiple Category Learning Systems
No full textIt remains unclear whether probabilistic category learning in the feedback-based weather prediction task (FB-WPT) can be mediated by a non-declarative or procedural learning system. To address this issue, we compared the effects of training time and verbal working memory, which influence the declarative learning system but not the non declarative learning system, in the FB and paired associate (PA) WPTs, as the PA task recruits a declarative learning system. The results of Experiment 1 showed that the optimal accuracy in the PA condition was significantly decreased when the training time was reduced from 7 to 3 s, but this did not occur in the FB condition, although shortened training time impaired the acquisition of explicit knowledge in both conditions. The results of Experiment 2 showed that the concurrent working memory task impaired the optimal accuracy and the acquisition of explicit knowledge in the PA condition but did not influence the optimal accuracy or the acquisition of self-insight knowledge in the FB condition. The apparent dissociation results between the FB and PA conditions suggested that a non-declarative or procedural learning system is involved in the FB-WPT and provided new evidence for the multiple-systems theory of human category learning
The Role of Edge-based and Surface-based Information in Incidental Category Learning: Evidence from Behavior and Event-related Potentials
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PURPOSE: It has been demonstrated that edge-based information is more important than surface-based information in object recognition. However, few studies have investigated the role of the two types of information in incidental category learning.To address this issue, the present study adopted the ERP technique and defined the categories either by four edge-based features or four surface-based features.
METHODS: The stimuli were cartoon animals that varied along 10 binary dimensions, with five in contour and five in surface. On each trial, a visual stimulus and an auditory sound was presented simultaneously and participants were asked to rate how likeable the animal and sound were in the training phase. Then, they were told that the animals can be divided into two categories according to the sounds and were instructed to classify the novel stimuli in the test phase.
RESULTS: The behavioral results showed that people could learn both categories simultaneously, and the accuracy was higher for the edge-based category than for the surface-based category. The ERP results revealed that the anterior N1 peak amplitude was more negative for the surface-based category than for the edge-based category, while the posterior N1 peak amplitude was larger for correct trials than for incorrect trials. Importantly, for correct trials, stimuli in the edge-based category elicited large anterior P2 and posterior P3 than that in surface-based category.
CONCLUSIONS: The results suggest that although surface-based information might attract more attention during the feature detection, edge-based information plays more important roles in the evaluation of the relevance of the information in making a decision in incidental category learning.</p
Emotional context modulates micro-expression processing as reflected in event-related potentials
No full textMicro-expression recognition is influenced by emotional contexts at the behavioral level. It is found that the recognition for micro-expressions is poorer following a negative context compared to the recognition following a neutral context. However, it remains unclear whether the modulation takes place in the early or later stage of the processing of micro-expressions as reflected in event-related potentials (ERPs). Using synthesized micro-expressions in this study, we investigated how emotional context modulates the ERP components that are elicited by micro-expressions. We observed that, compared to neutral contexts, negative and positive contexts elicited more positive amplitude trends for processing the subsequent target micro-expressions, and more positive P1 and N170 effects were elicited by target micro-expressions following negative and positive contexts compared to those following neutral contexts. Moreover, there were larger P1 effects elicited by the target micro-expressions when the context and target expressions were incongruent compared to when they were congruent. Our findings provide new ERP evidence to indicate that emotional contexts modulate micro-expression processing, and that the modulation of emotional contexts takes place at the early stage of facial-expression processing
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