Relation between intersession interval frequency of competing responses and rate of learning.

1962 ◽  
Vol 63 (3) ◽  
pp. 269-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Premack ◽  
Richard T. Putney
1980 ◽  
Vol 50 (2) ◽  
pp. 455-460
Author(s):  
William A. Janes ◽  
Virginia P. Falkenberg

This research was concerned with the effects of different classes of cues on the ability of toads ( Bufo marinus) to learn an escape task, discrimination learning, in a T-maze. The cues were either a black or white brightness cue, a right or left position cue, or combinations of brightness and position cues. The toads were given a .6-mA shock until they made the correct response. Results suggested that toads are capable of learning a discrimination task based on either a position or brightness cue. However, the rate of learning was influenced by strong aversion to the white arm when escaping from an aversive stimulus. No particular preference for either brightness or position cues was found independent of this aversion.


1951 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 99-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. B. Gibbs

Matched groups of subjects were used to test the learning and transfer effects that follow changes in the display, the muscular reactions and the directional relationship between stimulus and response in a tracking task. Two arrangements were compared in the relationship studies: one arrangement of the stimuli and reactions was similar, and the other was opposed to that used in many every-day skills. The familiar arrangement was easier to learn. There was high positive transfer from the unfamiliar to the familiar, and little transfer from the familiar to the unfamiliar. The physical dimensions of the display were varied to give two tasks with different stimuli. The initial learning times were equal for both tasks, and the transfer between them was high, positive, and equal. Two further tasks varied in the extent, speed and force of the required muscular movements. One task proved more difficult to learn initially, and there was greater transfer from the difficult to the easy task than from the easy to the difficult. A further experiment tested the effects of changing the difficulty of a tracking course, and it was found that learning was more rapid on the more difficult course. A difference in difficulty between two tasks, therefore, determined both the amount of transfer between them and the rate of learning the tasks. New measures were developed to test the transfer between tasks of unequal content, and the effect of such inequalities upon the rate of learning. The findings are discussed, as are their possible implications for transfer measurement and their bearing upon existing theories of transfer.


1994 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Missiuna

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) demonstrate coordination difficulties during the learning of novel motor skills; no previous studies, however, have investigated their ability to learn and then generalize a new movement. This study compared 24 young children with DCD with 24 age-matched control children (AMC) during the early stages of learning a simple aiming task. Children with DCD were found to perform more poorly than their peers on measures of acquired motor skill, and to react and move more slowly at every level of task performance. The effect of age and its relationship to practice of the task was also different within each group. The groups did not differ, however, in their rate of learning, or in the extent to which they were able to generalize the learned movement. Children with DCD sacrificed more speed than the AMC group when aiming at a small target, but the effects of amplitude and directional changes were quite similar for each group. The implications of these findings are discussed.


1946 ◽  
Vol 36 (4) ◽  
pp. 347-354 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. S. Shurrager ◽  
H. C. Shurrager

1977 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 1369 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Perry ◽  
Kay Bussey ◽  
John Redman
Keyword(s):  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Ryan William Johnstone Steel

<p>Cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug. Adolescents may be especially vulnerable to the effects of cannabis, and alarmingly, adolescence is also a period of heavy cannabis use. However, few studies have investigated the cognitive effects of cannabis use in adolescents specifically. Furthermore, the neurochemical correlates of cognitive impairment associated with cannabis use at any age have received very little experimental attention. This research project sought to address these shortcomings in the literature using THC, the major psychoactive component of cannabis, and a rat model of adolescence. The rate of learning was slower in THC-treated animals, and this was attributable to deficits in the cognitive function of 'chunking', a process by which the information capacity of short-term memory is enlarged. Impairment of chunking by cannabinoids has not been previously reported. Behavioural impairment by THC was associated with impaired hippocampal plasticity, including changes in synaptic activity and architecture, as well as changes in neurogenesis. The attenuation of structural and functional plasticity in the hippocampus in response to training in a learning task was more pronounced than the subtle effects of THC-treatment on the survival and early development of newborn neurons. Importantly, no effects of THC were seen in animals not trained in the maze. Thus, plasticity is more sensitive to the effects of THC during times of learning, and this greater sensitivity likely accounts for the behavioural impairment associated with cannabis use. The data presented in this thesis add significantly to the existing literature by identifying novel behavioural and neurochemical processes by which cannabis use may impair learning and memory. Whether these impairments represent a greater sensitivity of adolescents to THC remains to be determined.</p>


2011 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven D Edwards ◽  
Jeanette Hewitt

It was reported in 2006 that a regime of ‘supervised self harm’ had been implemented at St George’s Hospital, Stafford. This involves patients with a history of self-harming behaviour being offered both emotional and practical support to enable them to do so. This support can extend to the provision of knives or razors to enable them to self-harm while they are being supervised by a nurse. This article discusses, and evaluates from an ethical perspective, three competing responses to self-harming behaviours: to prevent it; to allow it; and to make provision for supervised self-harm. It is argued that of these three options the prevention strategy is the least plausible. A tentative conclusion is offered in support of supervised self-harm.


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