Visual Feature Learning in Artificial Grammar Classification.

The Artificial Grammar Learning task has been used extensively to assess individuals' implicit learning capabilities. Previous work suggests that participants implicitly acquire rule-based knowledge as well as exemplar-specific knowledge in this task. This study investigated whether exemplar-specific knowledge acquired in this task is based on the visual features of the exemplars. When a change in the font and case occurred between study and test, there was no effect on sensitivity to grammatical rules in classification judgments. However, such a change did virtually eliminate sensitivity to training frequencies of letter bigrams and trigrams (chunk strength) in classification judgments. Performance of a secondary task during study eliminated this font sensitivity and generally reduced the contribution of chunk strength knowledge. The results are consistent with the idea that perceptual fluency makes a contribution to artificial grammar judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recollection, Fluency, and the Explicit/Implicit Distinction in Artificial Grammar Learning.

In this article, the authors propose that both implicit memory and implicit learning phenomena can be explained by a common set of principles, in particular via participants' strategic use of recollective and fluency heuristics. In a series of experiments, it was demonstrated that manipulating processing fluency had an impact on classification decisions in an artificial grammar learning task (Experiments 1, 2, 4, and 7), showing that participants were using a fluency heuristic. Under identical conditions, however, this manipulation had no effect on recognition decisions (Experiments 3 and 5), consistent with a greater default reliance on recollection. Most significant, the authors also showed that a fluency effect can be induced in recognition (Experiments 4-6) and can be eliminated in classification (Experiment 7). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer in artificial grammar learning: The role of repetition information.

In this article, the authors report 2 experiments that investigated the sources of information used in transfer and nontransfer tasks in artificial grammar learning. Multiple regression analyses indicated that 2 types of information about repeating elements were crucial for performance in both tasks: information about the repetition of adjacent elements and information about repetition of elements in the whole item. Similarity of test items to specific training items and chunk information influenced participants' judgments only in nontransfer tasks. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Inference and Classification Learning of Abstract Coherent Categories.

Category learning research has primarily focused on how people learn to classify items using simple observable features. However, classification is only 1 way to learn categories. In addition, many concepts have an underlying coherence that explains the featural similarity among exemplars, such as abstract coherent concepts whose instances differ greatly on their observable features. In 3 experiments, the authors investigated how abstract coherent categories are acquired through 2 common means of category learning, classification and inference. Because inference promotes more focus on within-category information than does classification, they hypothesized that inference learning would lead to a better understanding of the underlying coherence of abstract coherent categories. All 3 experiments support this prediction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract coherent categories.

Many studies have demonstrated the importance of the knowledge that interrelates features in people's mental representation of categories and that makes our conception of categories coherent. This article focuses on abstract coherent categories, coherent categories that are also abstract because they are defined by relations independently of any features. Four experiments demonstrate that abstract coherent categories are learned more easily than control categories with identical features and statistical structure, and also that participants induced an abstract representation of the category by granting category membership to exemplars with completely novel features. The authors argue that the human conceptual system is heavily populated with abstract coherent concepts, including conceptions of social groups, societal institutions, legal, political, and military scenarios, and many superordinate categories, such as classes of natural kinds. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Model-Based and Memory-Based Processing on Speed and Accuracy of Grammar String Generation.

Learners are able to use 2 different types of knowledge to perform a skill. One type is a conscious mental model, and the other is based on memories of instances. The authors conducted 3 experiments that manipulated training conditions designed to affect the availability of 1 or both types of knowledge about an artificial grammar. Participants were tested for both speed and accuracy of their ability to generate letter sequences. Results indicate that model-based training leads to slow accurate responding. Memory-based training leads to fast, less accurate responding and highest achievement when perfect accuracy was not required. Evidence supports participants' preference for using the memory-based mode when exposed to both types of training. Finally, the accuracy contributed by model-based training declined over a retention interval. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Implicit Learning of Nonlocal Musical Rules: Implicitly Learning More Than Chunks.

Dominant theories of implicit learning assume that implicit learning merely involves the learning of chunks of adjacent elements in a sequence. In the experiments presented here, participants implicitly learned a nonlocal rule, thus suggesting that implicit learning can go beyond the learning of chunks. Participants were exposed to a set of musical tunes that were all generated using a diatonic inversion. In the subsequent test phase, participants either classified test tunes as obeying a rule (direct test) or rated their liking for the tunes (indirect test). Both the direct and indirect tests were sensitive to knowledge of chunks. However, only the indirect test was sensitive to knowledge of the inversion rule. Furthermore, the indirect test was overall significantly more sensitive than the direct test, thus suggesting that knowledge of the inversion rule was below an objective threshold of awareness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Two modes of transfer in artificial grammar learning.

Participants can transfer grammatical knowledge acquired implicitly in 1 vocabulary to new sequences instantiated in both the same and a novel vocabulary. Two principal theories have been advanced to account for these effects. One suggests that sequential dependencies form the basis for cross-domain transfer (e.g., Z. Dienes et al, see record 1999-13687-003). Another argues that a form of episodic memory known as abstract analogy is sufficient (e.g., L. R. Brooks & J. R. Vokey, see record 1992-00385-001). Three experiments reveal the contributions of the 2. In Experiment 1 sequential dependencies form the only basis for transfer. Experiment 2 demonstrates that this process is impaired by a change in the distributional properties of the language. Experiment 3 demonstrates that abstract analogy of repetition structure is relatively immune to such a change. These findings inform theories of artificial grammar learning and the transfer of grammatical knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Word Learning and Individual Differences in Word Learning Reflected in Event-Related Potentials.

Adults learned the meanings of rare words (e.g., gloaming) and then made meaning judgments on pairs of words. The 1st word was a trained rare word, an untrained rare word, or an untrained familiar word. Event-related potentials distinguished trained rare words from both untrained rare and familiar words, first at 140 ms and again at 400-600 ms after onset of the 1st word. These results may point to an episodic memory effect. The 2nd word produced an N400 that distinguished trained and familiar word pairs that were related in meaning from unrelated word pairs. Skilled comprehenders learned more words than less skilled comprehenders and showed a stronger episodic memory effect at 400-600 ms on the 1st word and a stronger N400 effect on the 2nd word. These results suggest that superior word learning among skilled comprehenders may arise from a stronger episodic trace that includes orthographic and meaning information and illustrate, how an episodic theory of word identification can explain reading skill. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A Mnemonic Method for Learning a Second-Language Vocabulary.

Four experiments evaluate the effectiveness of a two-stage mnemonic procedure, the keyword method, for learning foreign language vocabulary. Stage 1, the acoustic link stage, involves associating the spoken foreign word to an English "keyword" that sounds like some part of the foreign word. Stage 2, the imagery link stage, requires the formation of a mental image of the keyword interacting with the English translation. The experiments compare the keyword method with various control procedures for learning a Spanish vocabulary. In all cases, the keyword method proved to be highly effective, yielding in one experiment a final test score of 88% correct for the keyword group compared to 28% for the control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theories of artificial grammar learning.

Artificial grammar learning (AGL) is one of the most commonly used paradigms for the study of implicit learning and the contrast between rules, similarity, and associative learning. Despite five decades of extensive research, however, a satisfactory theoretical consensus has not been forthcoming. Theoretical accounts of AGL are reviewed, together with relevant human experimental and neuroscience data. The author concludes that satisfactory understanding of AGL requires (a) an understanding of implicit knowledge as knowledge that is not consciously activated at the time of a cognitive operation; this could be because the corresponding representations are impoverished or they cannot be concurrently supported in working memory with other representations or operations, and (b) adopting a frequency-independent view of rule knowledge and contrasting rule knowledge with specific similarity and associative learning (co-occurrence) knowledge. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Positive transfer and negative transfer/antilearning of problem-solving skills.

In problem-solving research, insights into the relationship between monitoring and control in the transfer of complex skills remain impoverished. To address this, in 4 experiments, the authors had participants solve 2 complex control tasks that were identical in structure but that varied in presentation format. Participants learned to solve the 2nd task on the basis of their original learning phase from the 1st task or learned to solve the 2nd task on the basis of another participant's learning phase. Experiment 1 showed that, under conditions in which the participant's learning phase was experienced twice, performance deteriorated in the 2nd task. In contrast, when the learning phases in the 1st and 2nd tasks differed, performance improved in the 2nd task. Experiment 2 introduced instructional manipulations that induced the same response patterns as those in Experiment 1. In Experiment 3, further manipulations were introduced that biased the way participants evaluated the learning phase in the 2nd task. In Experiment 4, judgments of self-efficacy were shown to track control performance. The implications of these findings for theories of complex skill acquisition are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract thinking and social behavior in schizophrenia.

20 normal and 24 schizophrenic Ss were presented a series of cards, each bearing a stimulus word and 2 response words variously related in meaning to the stimulus. The Ss were asked to select the response word which they felt to be "closer in meaning" to the stimulus word. The results confirmed, at the .01 level, the hypotheses that (a) normals will exceed schizophrenics in the ability to select, as most similar in meaning to a given word, that word which is related to it in an essential abstract way; and (b) within a schizophrenic group, the above ability will be positively correlated with adequacy of everyday social interaction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Transfer of training between quickened and unquickened tracking systems.

Positive transfer of training was found to occur in switching from unquickened (knowledge of results delayed due to a loose display-control relationship) tracking system to a quickened (knowledge of results is instantaneous) tracking system, or in switching from a quickened to an unquickened system. Different amounts of training provided no difference in the extent of transfer, however, and transfer between the two systems was not complete. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The conscious, the unconscious, and familiarity.

This article examines the role of subjective familiarity in the implicit and explicit learning of artificial grammars. Experiment 1 found that objective measures of similarity (including fragment frequency and repetition structure) predicted ratings of familiarity, that familiarity ratings predicted grammaticality judgments, and that the extremity of familiarity ratings predicted confidence. Familiarity was further shown to predict judgments in the absence of confidence, hence contributing to above-chance guessing. Experiment 2 found that confidence developed as participants refined their knowledge of the distribution of familiarity and that differences in familiarity could be exploited prior to confidence developing. Experiment 3 found that familiarity was consciously exploited to make grammaticality judgments including those made without confidence and that familiarity could in some instances influence participants' grammaticality judgments apparently without their awareness. All 3 experiments found that knowledge distinct from familiarity was derived only under deliberate learning conditions. The results provide decisive evidence that familiarity is the essential source of knowledge in artificial grammar learning while also supporting a dual-process model of implicit and explicit learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Perceptual constraints in phonotactic learning.

Structural regularities in language have often been attributed to symbolic or statistical general purpose computations, whereas perceptual factors influencing such generalizations have received less interest. Here, we use phonotactic-like constraints as a case study to ask whether the structural properties of specific perceptual and memory mechanisms may facilitate the acquisition of grammatical-like regularities. Participants learned that the consonants C? and C? had to come from distinct sets in words of the form C?VccVC? (where the critical consonants were in word edges) but not in words of the form cVC?C?Vc (where the critical consonants were in word middles). Control conditions ruled out attentional or psychophysical difficulties in word middles. Participants did, however, learn such regularities in word middles when natural consonant classes were used instead of arbitrary consonant sets. We conclude that positional generalizations may be learned preferentially using edge-based positional codes, but that participants can also use other mechanisms when other linguistic cues are given. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

基于改进迁移学习算法的岩体质量评价模型

岩体质量分级是进行工程设计和施工的基础。通过搜集不同地区55组实测样本和17组插值样本建立案例库,考虑岩体的复杂不确定性和异地岩体的差异性,在案例库基础上提出了一种改进两阶段回归迁移学习（Two-stage TrAdaBoost.R2）—孤立森林（Isolated Forest）多因素岩体质量等级预测模型。将广州抽水蓄能电站第1期地下工程的12个样本用于模型测试,结果表明：（1）迁移学习可以通过权重调整选出与目标区域岩体相似的样本,解决了传统机器学习方法中同区域训练样本数量不足的问题。（2）孤立森林算法与迁移学习相结合可以排除异常数据的影响,增加模型的稳定性。（3）利用训练好的模型对12个测试样本进行多次判定,结果与实际情况基本相符,验证了模型的有效性。     

The architecture of intuition: Fluency and affect determine intuitive judgments of semantic and visual coherence and judgments of grammaticality in artificial grammar learning.

People can intuitively detect whether a word triad has a common remote associate (coherent) or does not have one (incoherent) before and independently of actually retrieving the common associate. The authors argue that semantic coherence increases the processing fluency for coherent triads and that this increased fluency triggers a brief and subtle positive affect, which is the experiential basis of these intuitions. In a series of 11 experiments with 3 different fluency manipulations (figure-ground contrast, repeated exposure, and subliminal visual priming) and 3 different affect inductions (short-timed facial feedback, subliminal facial priming, and affect-laden word triads), high fluency and positive affect independently and additively increased the probability that triads would be judged as coherent, irrespective of actual coherence. The authors could equalize and even reverse coherence judgments (i.e., incoherent triads were judged to be coherent more frequently than were coherent triads). When explicitly instructed, participants were unable to correct their judgments for the influence of affect, although they were aware of the manipulation. The impact of fluency and affect was also generalized to intuitions of visual coherence and intuitions of grammaticality in an artificial grammar learning paradigm. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Abstract Cards and the Classification of Psychology.

Article comments on the Journal of Counseling Psychology's practice of inserting abstracts of articles printed on 3×5 cards. The Editor asked readers for their opinion about this proposed service and the comment author asserts that there is no doubt that the general establishment of this service in all professional journals would solve many troublesome problems of bibliographic documentation in psychology--but only if the majority of journals do it. The comment author then goes on the state that it would be also most desirable, though not necessary for the introduction of abstract cards, to develop some classification of the subject matter, and to print abstract cards with symbols of proper divisions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Learning Artificial Phonotactic Constraints: Time Course, Durability, and Relationship to Natural Constraints.

G. S. Dell, K. D. Reed, D. R. Adams, and A. S. Meyer (2000) proposed a "breadth-of-constraint" continuum on phoneme errors, using artificial experiment-wide constraints to investigate a putative middle ground between local and language-wide constraints. The authors report 5 experiments that test the idea of the continuum and the location of the experiment-wide constraints within it. Experiments 1 and 2 replicated the findings of Dell et al. on the experiment-wide constraints but showed only chance adherence to the local positional constraints. Experiment 3 showed that the latter constraints are uniquely affected by the form of practice used. Experiments 4 and 5 investigated the time course and robustness of the experimental constraints by reversing them during testing. This caused no difficulty when occurring between blocks (Experiment 4) but caused short-lived disruption when occurring within block (Experiment 5). The authors propose that the results do not support the idea of a continuum, but that the experiment-wide constraints reflect a local biasing of language-wide constraints, probably related to the need for rapid learning. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)