Chapter 11 Spatial, Motor-Skill, & Implicit Learning PSY 445: Learning & Memory

Chapter 11 Spatial, Motor-Skill, & Implicit Learning

PSY 445: Learning & Memory

Procedural Knowledge

The ability to quickly perform various cognitive, perceptual, and motor operationsHelps us to achieve skilled behavior; appears mostly implicit

Three types will be covered in this chapter:Spatial LearningKnowing how to get from place to place in the environment

Motor-skill LearningKnowing how to perform coordinated bodily movements quickly and accurately

Implicit LearningKnowing the underlying rules that govern complex sequences of behavior

Route vs. Survey Maps

Route MapsThe knowledge of a series of routes, directions, or paths through a spatial environmentCharacterized by knowledge of sequential locations

Survey Knowledge An abstract representation of the environment, placing specific routes in context with the surrounding areaAriel overviewCognitive map

Place vs. Response Studies

The great Debate: Behaviorists vs. Cognitivists Cognitivists•Learning takes place in the mind, not in behavior•The formation of mental representations of the elements of a task and the discovery of how these elements are related•Forming a cognitive map of the environment (Tolman, 1948)•Learning the correct place

Behaviorists•Learning involves the formation of associations between specific actions and specific events (stimuli) in the environment (Hull, 1949)•Learning the correct response

Place vs. Response StudiesSeries of studies with inconsistent results (results appear to be influenced by who the researchers were)In one experiment, after rats received the reward, the researchers simply rotated a mazeTolman’s theory (place) would predict that the rats would check their cognitive map for the location of the maze within the room, and make a left turn to compensate for the change in starting position Hull’s theory (response) would predict rats would make a right turn as they have been trained to do

See next slide for results

Place vs. Response StudiesTolman, Ritchie, & Kalish (1946, 1947)Rats made left turnUsed maze with flat alleys, no walls, and elevatedDistinctive features in the room were clearly seen from the maze; encouraged cognitive learning

Hull (1949)Rats made right turnMaze alleys were enclosed by wallsMaze itself was surrounded by curtainsNo prominent cues for the rat to orient itself within the room; encouraged response learning

Edward Tolman(1886-1959)

Clark Hull(1884-1952)


GROUP P always found food in Goal Box 1.

Start 1

Start 2

Goal 2

Goal 1

Tolman, Ritchie, & Kalish (1946)This maze had no walls or

roof so that rats could see “landmarks” in the room such as a window, door, or lamp.

On a random half of the trials, the rats started from Start Box 1, and on the other half they started from Start Box 2.

GROUP R found food in Goal Box 1 when they started from Start Box 1 but received food in Goal Box 2 when they started from Start Box 2.



Start 1

Start 2

Goal 2

Goal 1

Cognitive theory predicted that GROUP P would learn faster because they only had to learn one cognitive map.

Behavior theory predicted GROUP R would learn faster because they only had to learn one sequence of movements at the choice point—a right turn.


Tolman, Ritchie, & Kalish (1946)



Start 1

Start 2

Goal 2

Goal 1


What’s YOUR prediction?Are you a behaviorist or a

cognitivist?GROUP PGROUP R




Start 1

Start 2

Goal 2

Goal 1




Group P learned faster.

ButLater studies found that if the maze had a roof so the rats couldn’t see things in the room, response learning was faster.




Start 1

Start 2

Goal 2

Goal 1




Group P learned faster. Both response and place learning occur. Which type is faster depends on what cues are available. So both the cognitive and behavioral views turned out to be right!


Place vs. Response StudiesInterpretationThe place vs. response controversy taught us that either specific responses or cognitive maps may be learned: rats and people are flexible in their use of whatever cues are available

The Radial Maze

Olton & Samuelson (1976)Procedure8 armsAll baitedRat visits arms until all food is foundNumber of visits is behavioral measure8 is minimumPattern of visits is also recorded

Radial Maze

The Radial Maze

Task requires procedural memory Rat must learn rules of the game: layout of maze, return trips to visited arms should be avoided, and so on

Task also requires working memoryRat must remember where it has been in order not to repeat a visitAt end of trial, rat can erase working memory and retain procedural memory

The Radial MazeResultsRats do very well in this task, achieving an accuracy level of 7.6 different maze arms among the first 8 choices after only 15 trials

InterpretationCognitive-mapping is convincingly demonstrated

Click on picture

After 7 days of training Olton & Samuelson (1976)

The Radial Maze

Alternative Explanations1. Rats just enter arms in sequence thus assuring

themselves of getting food and easing WM requirements

No - rats do not visit same arms in same order every day - pattern of arm visits is nearly random

2. Perhaps rats can smell food at end of arms or smell scents in visited arms

No - these possibilities have also been eliminated as dousing maze with after-shave lotion does not impair performance

Also, if after rat has made several choices, arms that it has chosen are again baited with food, then rat does not return to those arms

The Radial MazeExtramaze CuesRats seem to be tuned in to these cues which are outside the mazeApparently, this allows them to keep track of entered and unentered maze armsIf one rotates maze so that spatial cues outside maze no longer give accurate information about where rat has and has not been, then rat’s performance deterioratesEven though odor cues are available, rat makes mistakes by visiting locations that used to contain unvisited arms, but now, after maze rotation, contain arms that were already visitedIt seems as if rat masters task by learning the maze perhaps by constructing a cognitive map in procedural memoryRat then uses its working memory to keep track of where it has already been

Morris Water Maze ProcedureA rat is placed in a small swimming pool in which the water is clouded by the addition of powdered milkA hidden platform is located just under the water; rats’ goal is to learn the location of this platformFrom trial to trial, the starting location of the pool is variedAnimal must learn the location of the platform on the basis of cues of the room

Click on picture

Morris Water Maze

Morris (1981)

Morris Water Maze

ResultsOn first trials, animals spend much time searching for the platformOver trials, the animals become faster and follow more direct routes to get to the platformInterpretationRat appears to be encoding spatial relationships

Morris (1981)

Hippocampus

Maze Learning & The Brain

SPATIAL LEARNING – ROLE OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS

Hippocampal lesions – humans, other mammals not all memories lost memories of facts or events (explicit, declarative, episodic) impaired or lost post-lesion memory impaired only pre-lesion memory intact procedural, implicit memories ok

important for acquisition & memory of types of new information spatial information in particular

LIMBICSYSTEM

Maze Learning & The Brain

Effects of hippocampal lesions – rats, water maze spatial impairment longer circuitous routes

swimming impaired or just enjoy a good swim? 3-part experiment

spatial task impaired ability to find platform cued task can swim, would rather not spatial task still impaired... no memory!

SPATIAL LEARNING – ROLE OF THE HIPPOCAMPUS

Triple Dissociation of Limbic AreaMcDonald & White (1993)Hippocampal lesions caused impaired learning in regular radial –maze taskThey consistently enter already visited armsLesions of amygdala impaired association learningThey could not figure out that only lighted maze arms had foodLesions of striatum impaired learning of reinforcementThey did not repeat choices of reinforced arms

In each case, the other two forms of learning were not affected

LandmarksThere are certain elements of the environment that by virtue of their distinctive features (size or shape) or their meaning (historical or social) stand out from other features of the environment

•The extramaze cues used by rats in place learning or the radial maze – doors, windows, light fixtures, etc.•Landmark recognition does not seem to fade with age as is the case with spatial memory overallExternal Landmarks readily perceived importance of learning the environment direct sensory input (visual observation)

Schemas in Spatial Memory

Spatial knowledge can be organized hierarchically in schemasSpatial schemas have two prominent effects on memory:

Distortion in cognitive mapsOrganization in spatial memory

Distortion in Cognitive MapsSpatial schemas distort recall due to the averaging, normalizing, or rounding off that occurs when a generalized map is acquired

Stevens & Coupe (1978)State locations are often used (incorrectly) to infer the relative locations of cities

Spatial schemas seem to have a preferred perspective

We use our cognitive map as a guide by aligning images with our environment

Scholl (1987)College students were asked to point in the direction of unseen campus locationsThey were better able to do this if the locations were in front of them

Organization in Spatial Memory

The recall of verbal material is often marked by organizationItems are systematically related or which share pre-experimental associations are recalled together during outputSpatial memory also shows organization as reflected by the presence of organization during output

Organization in Spatial MemoryMenzel (1973)

Procedure The mental map of young chimpanzees was tested on a 1-acre enclosureAs one researcher walked the chimp around the field, a second researcher (in full view of the chimp) placed pieces of banana and lettuceThe researchers crisscrossed the field distributing the food in random fashion

ResultsChimps in searching for hidden food, maximized the rate of food acquisition by using a least-distance strategyThis knowledge of distances was also combined with the ability to measure angles, allowing them to find out the hidden place of food, symmetrically opposed to another oneThey also bypassed the lettuce to get the fruit first – showing a priority was put on the rewards

The Development of Spatial Memory in Children

Cornell & Heth (1979)

Procedure Infants seated in mothers laps with small projection screens on either sideSlides depicting random shapes were projected to one side every 10 seconds and a constant checkerboard pattern appeared simultaneously on the opposite sideInfants orient to novel stimuli and look less at repetitive stimuli so they learned to look at the changing patternsTo test whether the infants had learned turn responses or a cognitive map, the mother turned the chairs around to face in the opposite directionTherefore, the orientation with respect to the novel versus repeated slides was rotated

The Development of Spatial Memory in Children

Cornell & Heth (1979)

ResultsThe youngest infants (4 months old) continued to turn in the same direction as before – response learningThe older infants (12 months old) correctly compensated for change of orientation within the room and now turned in the opposite direction – place learning

Motor Skills Learning

The acquisition of precisely adjusted movements in which the amount, direction, and duration of responding corresponds to variations in regulating stimuli

Pursuit Rotor TaskThe goal is to keep a stylus on a fixed point on a rotating disk

Mirror Tracing TaskThe goal is to follow the outline of an object with a pencil or stylus with visual guidance coming from a mirror

Motor-skills Learning: Implicit or Explicit?

Both implicit (procedural) knowledge and explicit (declarative) knowledge are at times evident in motor-skills learningSometimes implicit – we can’t really describe our actionsAlzheimer’s patients have no trouble with the mirror-tracing task yet are grossly impaired in declarative memory tasks (recall of word lists, etc.)

Sometimes explicit – conscious intention to learn, verbal self-guidance, knowledge of the goal, etc.

Amount of Practice

Power Law of PracticeThe power law of practice is a very general law in human cognition, and in particular in human learningThe higher the level of expertise and the time spent on the task, the more difficult it is to improve (principle of diminishing returns)

Schedules of Practice

Spaced practice advantage applies to motor-skills learning here too

Baddeley & Longman (1987)

ProcedureBritish postal workers practiced typingParticipants were divided into four groups who received either one or two training sessions per day with each session either one or two hours in length

See this design next slide

Schedules of Practice

How to best use 60 hours of training to maximize performance and learning?

1 hour

2 hour

1 Session 2 Sessions

12 weeks 6 weeks

6 weeks 3 weeks


Baddeley & Longman (1978): Results

Practice Schedule

# of hrs to learn keyboard

Number of hrs to type 80/min

1 hr / 1 session 34.9 55

1 hr / 2 session 43 75

2 hr / 1 session 43 67

2 hr / 2 session 49.7 80+

Correct # of Keystrokes as a function of practice distribution


Practice-Independent Learning

The relatively permanent change in behavioral repertoire occurring without additional experience

Walker (2003)

ProcedureStudents asked to type a 5-number sequence as fast as they couldAfter a single session, participants could type this 22 times in 30 secondsRetesting after 12 wakeful hours or after 12 hours that included their regular amount of sleep

Practice-Independent LearningWalker (2003)

ResultsRetesting after 12 wakeful hours = 24 times in 30sRetesting after 12 hours (regular sleep) = 27 times in 30s

InterpretationThe time spent sleeping was more effective in increasing performanceCertain phases of sleep appear to be important for the long-term consolidation of recently acquired skills and habits

Knowledge of Results (KR)

Outcome information; feedbackExternally provided information on the success or accuracy of the response that is given to the participant after a practice trial

Serves as a basis for corrections on the next trial


Thorndike (1931)

ProcedureHad students close their eyes while trying to draw 4-inch lines3000 lines drawn over 12 sessionsNo feedback given

Results No improvement seen

InterpretationDo we need knowledge of results? Yes!

Knowledge of Results (KR)Schmidt et al. (1989)

ProcedureParticipants learned a tracking response; asked to follow a curve projected on a screen that changes in speed and direction Feedback was either given after every trial, every 5 th trial, or every 15th trial

Results Consistent feedback helps during acquisition phase But after a short 10 minute delay this advantage disappearsTwo days later, the group getting the least feedback does the best

InterpretationIs too much feedback detrimental to performance? Yes, it appears that this is true as well


Why would less frequent KR lead to better performance?

Self-Guidance HypothesisConsistent feedback may block the ability to detect one’s own errorsWe may become too dependent on external KR for error informationIndividuals may be less likely to attend to their own bodily kinesthetic feedback and do not learn to recognize good and poor performance

Wulf & Schmidt (1989)Gradually reducing feedback after acquisition seems to lead to optimal performance

Delayed KR

Would delaying KR lead to better performance?Yes - delayed feedback seems to have benefitsIt seems that delaying feedback allows performers to develop their own error-detection capabilities without interference from the external KRHowever, there is a caveat to this – if individuals are distracted during the delay-until-feedback interval, then performance benefits are lost

Swinnen et al. (1990)

Implicit Learning

Is the process by which knowledge of the structure of a complex environment is acquired largely independent of conscious awareness of specific components of that environmentLearning that appears to occur without awareness or intention to learn and often cannot be described in words what has been learned“The Cognitive Unconscious”

Arthur Reber(born in 1940)

Some Implicit Learning Tasks

Artificial Grammar Reber (1967)Devised an artificial grammar learning (AGL) paradigm involving a set of letters instead of wordsThe grammar determines which letters can follow which other letters

Here we are presenting at conference in Chicago in 2013

Artificial Grammar

Reber (1967)

Typical ProcedureSubjects are shown a series of letter strings that follow particular complex rulesParticipants are initially not told about the rules After this “training phase,” participants are told about the existence of rules, and have to then classify the next set of strings into ruleful and unruleful strings (“test phase”)AGL rules are usually very complex finite state grammar rules

Artificial Grammar

Examples of ruleful & unruleful strings:

VXVS VXXXS

TPTXVS TPTPS

Typical classification performance at test is significantly above chance Subjects are unaware of their knowledge and cannot verbalize the rules Reber concluded that participants are implicitly learning the abstract rules

of the grammar

Reber (1967)

Unruleful Ruleful

Implicit Learning: Serial Reaction Time (SRT) Task

Nissen & Bullemer (1987)On each trial a light goes on

Just press corresponding button

Unbeknownst to subject, sequence of lights is rule governed

Rule governed

Violates rules

Subjects are sensitive to the presence of the sequence even when they deny knowing that there was a sequence

Nissen & Bullemer (1987)

Implicit Learning: SRT Task Some felt that participants had simply practiced the task more and thus got more efficient at pressing the buttonsHOWEVER –

Control group (not given repeating patterns) doesn’t get faster

When you present a sequence that violates the rule you see slower reaction times

Is procedural learning unaware learning?

No?Not a lack of awareness, but rather participants decide not to report information they are unsure of

Some participants are able to report the sequence in SRT tests and do about as well as the “unaware” participants

Yes (notice no question mark)Just too many participants are not able to articulate how they were successful on these implicit tasks

Some develop a “liking” for a certain grammatical string

Dissociating categories of implicit learning

Priming and implicit learning are separate domainsImplicit memory vs. implicit learningWord-fragment completion (Implicit memory) does not improve with practice; SRT tasks (implicit learning) does

Expertise

What makes someone and expert?TalentGeneticsPractice

Ericksson, Krampe, & Tesch-Romer (1993)These researchers say its practiceAdvocates of a 10-year ruleSuggests that there may be an inherited factor but not so much related to talent as it is to motivation

Implicit Learning: Expert Knowledge?

Reber (1980)Too many variables involved – too much to rememberIn explicit learning, we consciously select only the key variablesIn implicit learning, we are unselective and pay attention to all variables

Few attentional resources are needed


McGeorge & Burton (1990)Implicit learning allows us to skip stepsEverything becomes automaticWe become experts


Example:

Chess experts

Garry Kasparov

From declarative to procedural

Conscious then unconscious…Acquisition phase declarativeExplicit information is being learned (nature of task, rules of task, limits, exceptions, etc.)

Practice phase procedural processes beginImplicit processes are initiated; less conscious guidance is required

Test phase after extended practice procedural processes dominateTask is performed automatically

From declarative to proceduralAdaptive Control of Thought Theory (Anderson, 1983)

Declarative stageAcquisition of knowledge; conscious processing and

attention is required; heavy reliance on working memoryKnowledge Compilation stage Transition stage where knowledge application starts to become

proceduralized Groups of rules or operations are chunked increasing efficiency

Procedural stage Continued practice leads to further strengthening of procedures;

skill refinement

Implicit Learning Applications

Woman suffering from anterograde amnesia learns to use the computerIt seems implicit systems minimize the retrieval of wrong information, which might later be mistakenly recalled (rather than the correct answer)

Spatial Memory ApplicationsSense of DirectionPeople appear to be pretty good at estimating their sense of direction

Kozlowski & Bryant (1977)Had students rate their sense of direction on a 7-point Likert ScaleStrong correlations with accuracy to pointing to unseen campus buildings, judging the distance between two buildings, etc.Later, after being led back and forth through an underground tunnel on campus, only students who felt that had a sense of direction improved in their accuracy in pointing to the end point

Spatial Memory ApplicationsImproved Building DesignThe principles of spatial learning can be applied to improving everyday navigation (for example, helping us to negotiate large buildings)

Evans et al. (1980)Students toured a building either before it was painted of afterwardsThose in the “before” condition toured the 4-story building when all the interior walls were painted beigeThose in the “after” condition toured the building after it had been painted with a color-coding scheme to distinguish different sectionsThe “after” group made less errors in their attempt to get to specific locations within the building

Spatial Memory ApplicationsImproved Building DesignYou-are-here maps can be helpful; but sometimes are notCareful placement and alignment is necessaryJudging direction from these maps is faster and more accurate if the user is facing the same direction as the map

CreditsSome slides prepared with the help of the following websites:psych.fullerton.edu/navarick/behavcog.pptwww.psychology.uiowa.edu/classes/31123/Chap14.pptfaculty.unlv.edu/debelle/biol475/lect24-07S.pptdigby.tamu.edu/406/class.../Practice%20and%20Expertise.pptdigby.tamu.edu/classes/406/ch10.pptusers.ecs.soton.ac.uk/harnad/Temp/martina.pptwww.lifesci.sussex.ac.uk/.../...

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Chapter 11 Spatial, Motor-Skill, & Implicit Learning PSY 445: Learning & Memory