Learning to perform multiple tasks robustly is a crucial facet of human intelligence, yet its mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we formulated four hypotheses concerning task interactions and investigated them by analyzing training sequence effects through a continual learning framework. Forty-nine subjects learned seven tasks sequentially, each of…

This study examined the changes in saccadic amplitude associated with learning a visual sequence. The oculomotor system gradually adjusts saccadic parameters when tracking a visual stimulus, which has a predictable trajectory. In these contexts, the change in saccadic amplitudes leads to predictive fixations. That is, fixations made to a position…

People prefer words with consonant articulation locations moving inward, from the front to the back of the mouth (e.g., "menika"), over words with consonant articulation locations moving outward, from the back to the front of the mouth (e.g., "kemina"). Here, we modulated this "in-out effect" by increasing the fluency…

To investigate the neural basis of a common statistical learning mechanism involved in motor sequence learning and decoding, we recorded brain activation from participants during a serial reaction time (SRT) task and a word reading task using functional magnetic resonance imaging. In the SRT task, a manual response was made depending on the…

This study tested the procedural deficit hypothesis of specific language impairment (SLI) by comparing children's performance in two motor procedural learning tasks and an implicit verbal sequence learning task. Participants were 7- to 11-year-old children with SLI (n = 48), typically developing age-matched children (n = 20) and younger…

Individuals experience less interference from conflicting information following events that contain conflicting information. Recently, Jimenez, Lupianez, and Vaquero (2009) demonstrated that such adaptations to conflict occur even when the source of conflict arises from implicit knowledge of sequences. There is accumulating evidence that momentary…

Speech utterances are phoneme sequences but may not always be represented as such in the brain. For instance, electropalatography evidence indicates that as speaking rate increases, gestures within syllables are manipulated separately but those within consonant clusters act as one motor unit. Moreover, speech error data suggest that a syllable's…

The memory system that supports implicit perceptual-motor sequence learning relies on brain regions that operate separately from the explicit, medial temporal lobe memory system. The implicit learning system therefore likely has distinct operating characteristics and information processing constraints. To attempt to identify the limits of the…

Learning style is an individual's natural or habitual pattern of acquiring and processing information in learning situations. A core concept is that individuals differ in how they learn. This study focused on to look at a group of TESL undergraduates' preference in learning styles. The finding showed that the students have different kind learning…

The expression of expert motor skills typically involves learning to perform a precisely timed sequence of movements. Research examining incidental sequence learning has relied on a perceptually cued task that gives participants exposure to repeating motor sequences but does not require timing of responses for accuracy. In the 1st experiment, a…

Studies into interactions between explicit and implicit motor sequence learning have yielded mixed results. Some of these discrepancies have been attributed to difficulties in isolating implicit learning. In the present study, the effect of explicit knowledge on implicit learning was investigated using a modified version of the Alternating Serial…

Adapted from a paper presented at the 7th International ACLD Conference, Philadelphia, Pa. (February, 1970). A discussion of the importance of rhythm in perceptual processing. (Author/KW)

A technique was developed for providing transfer-of-training from a form of audiovisual pretraining to an instrument flight task. The continuous flight task was broken into discrete categories of flight; each category combined an instrument configuration with a return-to-criterion aircraft control response. Three methods of sequencing categories…

The study of the performance of 55 learning-disabled college students on the Raven's Progressive Matrices and other tasks found: (1) a negative correlation between visual-motor skills and written language, (2) a positive correlation between visual organization/memory and mathematics, and (3) a positive correlation between auditory memory and…

A taxonomy of psychomotor skills provides a classification of all human movement forms. The development of motor skills in this hierarchy begins with the reflexive physical responses of the infant. The stages of growth include basic interactive movement forms, skilled movement forms, and functional and creative movement forms. This taxonomy offers…