1
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Tosatto L, Fagot J, Nemeth D, Rey A. Chunking as a function of sequence length. Anim Cogn 2024:10.1007/s10071-024-01835-z. [PMID: 38429566 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-024-01835-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2022] [Revised: 09/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/01/2023] [Indexed: 03/03/2024]
Abstract
Chunking mechanisms are central to several cognitive processes. During the acquisition of visuo-motor sequences, it is commonly reported that these sequences are segmented into chunks leading to more fluid, rapid, and accurate performances. The question of a chunk's storage capacity has been often investigated but little is known about the dynamics of chunk size evolution relative to sequence length. In two experiments, we studied the dynamics and the evolution of a sequence's chunking pattern as a function of sequence length in a non-human primate species (Guinea baboons, Papio papio). Using an operant conditioning device, baboons had to point on a touch screen to a moving target. In Experiment 1, they had to produce repeatedly the same sequence of 4 movements during 2000 trials. In Experiment 2, the sequence was composed of 5 movements and was repeated 4000 times. For both lengths, baboons initially produced small chunks that became fewer and longer with practice. Moreover, the dynamics and the evolution of the chunking pattern varied as a function of sequence length. Finally, with extended practice (i.e., more than 2000 trials), we observed that the mean chunk size reached a plateau indicating that there are fundamental limits to chunking processes that also depend on sequence length. These data therefore provide new empirical evidence for understanding the general properties of chunking mechanisms in sequence learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laure Tosatto
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France.
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France.
- Normandie Univ, UNICAEN, CNRS, ETHOS, 14000, Caen, France.
| | - Joël Fagot
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Station de Primatologie Celphedia, CNRS, Rousset, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRPN, Marseille, France
| | - Dezso Nemeth
- INSERM, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, CNRS, Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences de Lyon CRNL U1028 UMR5292, Bron, France
- NAP Research Group, Institute of Psychology, Eötvös Loránd University & Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, HUN-REN Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest, Hungary
- Department of Education and Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Atlántico Medio, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
| | - Arnaud Rey
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, CRPN, Marseille, France
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2
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Pinto Arata L, Ordonez Magro L, Ramisch C, Grainger J, Rey A. The dynamics of multiword sequence extraction. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2024:17470218241228548. [PMID: 38247195 DOI: 10.1177/17470218241228548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/23/2024]
Abstract
Being able to process multiword sequences is central for both language comprehension and production. Numerous studies support this claim, but less is known about the way multiword sequences are acquired, and more specifically how associations between their constituents are established over time. Here we adapted the Hebb naming task into a Hebb lexical decision task to study the dynamics of multiword sequence extraction. Participants had to read letter strings presented on a computer screen and were required to classify them as words or pseudowords. Unknown to the participants, a triplet of words or pseudowords systematically appeared in the same order and random words or pseudowords were inserted between two repetitions of the triplet. We found that response times (RTs) for the unpredictable first position in the triplet decreased over repetitions (i.e., indicating the presence of a repetition effect) but more slowly and with a different dynamic compared with items appearing at the predictable second and third positions in the repeated triplet (i.e., showing a slightly different predictability effect). Implicit and explicit learning also varied as a function of the nature of the triplet (i.e., unrelated words, pseudowords, semantically related words, or idioms). Overall, these results provide new empirical evidence about the dynamics of multiword sequence extraction, and more generally about the role of statistical learning in language acquisition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leonardo Pinto Arata
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC), CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- CNRS, LIS, Université de Toulon, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - Laura Ordonez Magro
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC), CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
| | - Carlos Ramisch
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- CNRS, LIS, Université de Toulon, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - Jonathan Grainger
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC), CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
| | - Arnaud Rey
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (LPC), CNRS, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille Université, Marseille, France
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3
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Yeaton J, Tosatto L, Fagot J, Grainger J, Rey A. Simple questions on simple associations: regularity extraction in non-human primates. Learn Behav 2023; 51:392-401. [PMID: 37284936 PMCID: PMC10716064 DOI: 10.3758/s13420-023-00579-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/28/2023] [Indexed: 06/08/2023]
Abstract
When human and non-human animals learn sequences, they manage to implicitly extract statistical regularities through associative learning mechanisms. In two experiments conducted with a non-human primate species (Guinea baboons, Papio papio), we addressed simple questions on the learning of simple AB associations appearing in longer noisy sequences. Using a serial reaction time task, we manipulated the position of AB within the sequence, such that it could be either fixed (by appearing always at the beginning, middle, or end of a four-element sequence; Experiment 1) or variable (Experiment 2). We also tested the effect of sequence length in Experiment 2 by comparing the performance on AB when it was presented at a variable position within a sequence of four or five elements. The slope of RTs from A to B was taken for each condition as a measurement of learning rate. While all conditions differed significantly from a no-regularity baseline, we found strong evidence that the learning rate did not differ between the conditions. These results indicate that regularity extraction is not impacted by the position of the regularity within a sequence and by the length of the sequence. These data provide novel general empirical constraints for modeling associative mechanisms in sequence learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy Yeaton
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France.
- Department of Language Science, University of California - Irvine, 2243 Social Sciences Plaza, Irvine, CA, 92617, USA.
| | - Laure Tosatto
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Joël Fagot
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Station de Primatologie, CNRS-Celphedia, UPS 846, Rousset-sur-Arc, Rousset, France
| | - Jonathan Grainger
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Arnaud Rey
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille, France
- Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
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4
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Wu S, Éltető N, Dasgupta I, Schulz E. Chunking as a rational solution to the speed-accuracy trade-off in a serial reaction time task. Sci Rep 2023; 13:7680. [PMID: 37169785 PMCID: PMC10175304 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31500-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/13/2023] Open
Abstract
When exposed to perceptual and motor sequences, people are able to gradually identify patterns within and form a compact internal description of the sequence. One proposal of how sequences can be compressed is people's ability to form chunks. We study people's chunking behavior in a serial reaction time task. We relate chunk representation with sequence statistics and task demands, and propose a rational model of chunking that rearranges and concatenates its representation to jointly optimize for accuracy and speed. Our model predicts that participants should chunk more if chunks are indeed part of the generative model underlying a task and should, on average, learn longer chunks when optimizing for speed than optimizing for accuracy. We test these predictions in two experiments. In the first experiment, participants learn sequences with underlying chunks. In the second experiment, participants were instructed to act either as fast or as accurately as possible. The results of both experiments confirmed our model's predictions. Taken together, these results shed new light on the benefits of chunking and pave the way for future studies on step-wise representation learning in structured domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuchen Wu
- MPRG Computational Principles of Intelligence, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.
| | - Noémi Éltető
- Department of Computational Neuroscience, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
| | | | - Eric Schulz
- MPRG Computational Principles of Intelligence, Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany
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5
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Köksal Ersöz E, Chossat P, Krupa M, Lavigne F. Dynamic branching in a neural network model for probabilistic prediction of sequences. J Comput Neurosci 2022; 50:537-557. [PMID: 35948839 DOI: 10.1007/s10827-022-00830-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/16/2022] [Revised: 07/11/2022] [Accepted: 07/13/2022] [Indexed: 10/15/2022]
Abstract
An important function of the brain is to predict which stimulus is likely to occur based on the perceived cues. The present research studied the branching behavior of a computational network model of populations of excitatory and inhibitory neurons, both analytically and through simulations. Results show how synaptic efficacy, retroactive inhibition and short-term synaptic depression determine the dynamics of selection between different branches predicting sequences of stimuli of different probabilities. Further results show that changes in the probability of the different predictions depend on variations of neuronal gain. Such variations allow the network to optimize the probability of its predictions to changing probabilities of the sequences without changing synaptic efficacy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elif Köksal Ersöz
- Univ Rennes, INSERM, LTSI - UMR 1099, Campus Beaulieu, Rennes, F-35000, France. .,Project Team MathNeuro, INRIA-CNRS-UNS, 2004 route des Lucioles-BP 93, Sophia Antipolis, 06902, France.
| | - Pascal Chossat
- Project Team MathNeuro, INRIA-CNRS-UNS, 2004 route des Lucioles-BP 93, Sophia Antipolis, 06902, France.,Université Côte d'Azur, Laboratoire Jean-Alexandre Dieudonné, Campus Valrose, Nice, 06300, France
| | - Martin Krupa
- Project Team MathNeuro, INRIA-CNRS-UNS, 2004 route des Lucioles-BP 93, Sophia Antipolis, 06902, France.,Université Côte d'Azur, Laboratoire Jean-Alexandre Dieudonné, Campus Valrose, Nice, 06300, France
| | - Frédéric Lavigne
- Université Côte d'Azur, CNRS-BCL, Campus Saint Jean d'Angely, Nice, 06300, France
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6
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Tosatto L, Bonafos G, Melmi JB, Rey A. Detecting non-adjacent dependencies is the exception rather than the rule. PLoS One 2022; 17:e0270580. [PMID: 35834512 PMCID: PMC9282578 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270580] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2021] [Accepted: 06/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Statistical learning refers to our sensitivity to the distributional properties of our environment. Humans have been shown to readily detect the dependency relationship of events that occur adjacently in a stream of stimuli but processing non-adjacent dependencies (NADs) appears more challenging. In the present study, we tested the ability of human participants to detect NADs in a new Hebb-naming task that has been proposed recently to study regularity detection in a noisy environment. In three experiments, we found that most participants did not manage to extract NADs. These results suggest that the ability to learn NADs in noise is the exception rather than the rule. They provide new information about the limits of statistical learning mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laure Tosatto
- CNRS, LPC, Aix Marseille Univ, Marseille, France
- ILCB, Aix Marseille Univ, Aix-en-Provence, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Guillem Bonafos
- CNRS, LPC, Aix Marseille Univ, Marseille, France
- ILCB, Aix Marseille Univ, Aix-en-Provence, France
- CNRS, Centrale Marseille, I2M, Aix Marseille Univ, Marseille, France
| | - Jean-Baptiste Melmi
- CNRS, LPC, Aix Marseille Univ, Marseille, France
- ILCB, Aix Marseille Univ, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Arnaud Rey
- CNRS, LPC, Aix Marseille Univ, Marseille, France
- ILCB, Aix Marseille Univ, Aix-en-Provence, France
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7
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On the role of interference in sequence learning in Guinea baboons (Papio papio). Learn Behav 2022:10.3758/s13420-022-00537-1. [DOI: 10.3758/s13420-022-00537-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/09/2022] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
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8
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Tosatto L, Fagot J, Nemeth D, Rey A. The Evolution of Chunks in Sequence Learning. Cogn Sci 2022; 46:e13124. [PMID: 35411975 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13124] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/16/2021] [Revised: 01/21/2022] [Accepted: 01/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
Chunking mechanisms are central to several cognitive processes and notably to the acquisition of visuo-motor sequences. Individuals segment sequences into chunks of items to perform visuo-motor tasks more fluidly, rapidly, and accurately. However, the exact dynamics of chunking processes in the case of extended practice remain unclear. Using an operant conditioning device, 18 Guinea baboons (Papio papio) produced a fixed sequence of nine movements during 1000 trials by pointing to a moving target on a touch screen. Response times analyses revealed a specific chunking pattern of the sequence for each baboon. More importantly, we found that these patterns evolved during the course of the experiment, with chunks becoming progressively fewer and longer. We identified two chunk reorganization mechanisms: the recombination of preexisting chunks and the concatenation of two distinct chunks into a single one. These results provide new evidence on chunking mechanisms in sequence learning and challenge current models of associative and statistical learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laure Tosatto
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille.,Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Joël Fagot
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille.,Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France.,Station de Primatologie, Celphedia, CNRS UAR846, Rousset
| | - Dezso Nemeth
- Lyon Neuroscience Research Center (CRNL), INSERM U1028, CNRS UMR5292, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.,Institute of Psychology, ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest.,Brain, Memory and Language Research Group, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and Psychology, Research Centre for Natural Sciences, Budapest
| | - Arnaud Rey
- Aix Marseille Univ, CNRS, LPC, Marseille.,Aix Marseille Univ, ILCB, Aix-en-Provence, France
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9
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Rey A, Fagot J, Mathy F, Lazartigues L, Tosatto L, Bonafos G, Freyermuth JM, Lavigne F. Learning Higher-Order Transitional Probabilities in Nonhuman Primates. Cogn Sci 2022; 46:e13121. [PMID: 35363923 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.13121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2021] [Revised: 02/16/2022] [Accepted: 02/17/2022] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
The extraction of cooccurrences between two events, A and B, is a central learning mechanism shared by all species capable of associative learning. Formally, the cooccurrence of events A and B appearing in a sequence is measured by the transitional probability (TP) between these events, and it corresponds to the probability of the second stimulus given the first (i.e., p(B|A)). In the present study, nonhuman primates (Guinea baboons, Papio papio) were exposed to a serial version of the XOR (i.e., exclusive-OR), in which they had to process sequences of three stimuli: A, B, and C. In this manipulation, first-order TPs (i.e., AB and BC) were uninformative due to their transitional probabilities being equal to .5 (i.e., p(B|A) = p(C|B) = .5), while second-order TPs were fully predictive of the upcoming stimulus (i.e., p(C|AB) = 1). In Experiment 1, we found that baboons were able to learn second-order TPs, while no learning occurred on first-order TPs. In Experiment 2, this pattern of results was replicated, and a final test ruled out an alternative interpretation in terms of proximity to the reward. These results indicate that a nonhuman primate species can learn a nonlinearly separable problem such as the XOR. They also provide fine-grained empirical data to test models of statistical learning on the interaction between the learning of different orders of TPs. Recent bioinspired models of associative learning are also introduced as promising alternatives to the modeling of statistical learning mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arnaud Rey
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
| | - Joël Fagot
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université.,Station de Primatologie - Celphedia, CNRS UAR846
| | - Fabien Mathy
- Bases, Corpus, Langage, CNRS & Université Côte d'Azur
| | | | - Laure Tosatto
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
| | - Guillem Bonafos
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université.,Institut de Mathématiques de Marseille, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
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10
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Zhang H, Zhen Y, Yu S, Long T, Zhang B, Jiang X, Li J, Fang W, Sigman M, Dehaene S, Wang L. Working Memory for Spatial Sequences: Developmental and Evolutionary Factors in Encoding Ordinal and Relational Structures. J Neurosci 2022; 42:850-864. [PMID: 34862186 PMCID: PMC8808738 DOI: 10.1523/jneurosci.0603-21.2021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/22/2021] [Revised: 11/08/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/21/2022] Open
Abstract
Sequence learning is a ubiquitous facet of human and animal cognition. Here, using a common sequence reproduction task, we investigated whether and how the ordinal and relational structures linking consecutive elements are acquired by human adults, children, and macaque monkeys. While children and monkeys exhibited significantly lower precision than adults for spatial location and temporal order information, only monkeys appeared to exceedingly focus on the first item. Most importantly, only humans, regardless of age, spontaneously extracted the spatial relations between consecutive items and used a chunking strategy to compress sequences in working memory. Monkeys did not detect such relational structures, even after extensive training. Monkey behavior was captured by a conjunctive coding model, whereas a chunk-based conjunctive model explained more variance in humans. These age- and species-related differences are indicative of developmental and evolutionary mechanisms of sequence encoding and may provide novel insights into the uniquely human cognitive capacities.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Sequence learning, the ability to encode the order of discrete elements and their relationships presented within a sequence, is a ubiquitous facet of cognition among humans and animals. By exploring sequence-processing abilities at different human developmental stages and in nonhuman primates, we found that only humans, regardless of age, spontaneously extracted the spatial relations between consecutive items and used an internal language to compress sequences in working memory. The findings provided insights into understanding the origins of sequence capabilities in humans and how they evolve through development to identify the unique aspects of human cognitive capacity, which includes the comprehension, learning, and production of sequences, and perhaps, above all, language processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- He Zhang
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China
| | - Yanfen Zhen
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
| | - Shijing Yu
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
| | - Tenghai Long
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China
| | - Bingqian Zhang
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China
- School of Life Science and Technology, ShanghaiTech University, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
| | - Xinjian Jiang
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
| | - Junru Li
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
| | - Wen Fang
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
| | - Mariano Sigman
- Laboratory Neuroscience, Universidad Torcuato di Tella, C1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina
- School of Language and Education, Universidad Nebrija, 28015 Madrid, Spain
| | - Stanislas Dehaene
- Collège de France, 75231 Paris Cedex 05, France
- Cognitive Neuroimaging Unit, CEA DSV/I2BM, INSERM, NeuroSpin Center, Université Paris Sud/Université Paris-Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Liping Wang
- Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, People's Republic of China
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11
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Lazartigues L, Mathy F, Lavigne F. Statistical learning of unbalanced exclusive-or temporal sequences in humans. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0246826. [PMID: 33592012 PMCID: PMC7886115 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0246826] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/03/2020] [Accepted: 01/27/2021] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
A pervasive issue in statistical learning has been to determine the parameters of regularity extraction. Our hypothesis was that the extraction of transitional probabilities can prevail over frequency if the task involves prediction. Participants were exposed to four repeated sequences of three stimuli (XYZ) with each stimulus corresponding to the position of a red dot on a touch screen that participants were required to touch sequentially. The temporal and spatial structure of the positions corresponded to a serial version of the exclusive-or (XOR) that allowed testing of the respective effect of frequency and first- and second-order transitional probabilities. The XOR allowed the first-order transitional probability to vary while being not completely related to frequency and to vary while the second-order transitional probability was fixed (p(Z|X, Y) = 1). The findings show that first-order transitional probability prevails over frequency to predict the second stimulus from the first and that it also influences the prediction of the third item despite the presence of second-order transitional probability that could have offered a certain prediction of the third item. These results are particularly informative in light of statistical learning models.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura Lazartigues
- Department of Psychology, Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL, Nice, France
- * E-mail:
| | - Fabien Mathy
- Department of Psychology, Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL, Nice, France
| | - Frédéric Lavigne
- Department of Psychology, Université Côte d’Azur, CNRS, BCL, Nice, France
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12
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Rey A, Bogaerts L, Tosatto L, Bonafos G, Franco A, Favre B. Detection of regularities in a random environment. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove) 2020; 73:2106-2118. [PMID: 32640871 DOI: 10.1177/1747021820941356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022]
Abstract
Regularity detection, or statistical learning, is regarded as a fundamental component of our cognitive system. To test the ability of human participants to detect regularity in a more ecological situation (i.e., mixed with random information), we used a simple letter-naming paradigm in which participants were instructed to name single letters presented one at a time on a computer screen. The regularity consisted of a triplet of letters that were systematically presented in that order. Participants were not told about the presence of this regularity. A variable number of random letters were presented between two repetitions of the regular triplet, making this paradigm similar to a Hebb repetition task. Hence, in this Hebb-naming task, we predicted that if any learning of the triplet occurred, naming times for the predictable letters in the triplet would decrease as the number of triplet repetitions increased. Surprisingly, across four experiments, detection of the regularity only occurred under very specific experimental conditions and was far from a trivial task. Our study provides new evidence regarding the limits of statistical learning and the critical role of contextual information in the detection (or not) of repeated patterns.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arnaud Rey
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | | | - Laure Tosatto
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Guillem Bonafos
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
| | - Ana Franco
- Center for Research in Cognition & Neurosciences, Free University of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
| | - Benoit Favre
- Institute of Language, Communication and the Brain, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Laboratoire d'Informatique Fondamentale, CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
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Elbaz A, Yeshurun Y. Can rhythm-induced attention improve the perceptual representation? PLoS One 2020; 15:e0231200. [PMID: 32298272 PMCID: PMC7162507 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0231200] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/18/2019] [Accepted: 03/18/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Temporal attention can be entrained exogenously to rhythms. Indeed, faster and more accurate responses were previously found when the target appeared in-phase with a preceding rhythm in comparison to when it was out of phase. However, the nature of this rhythm-induced attentional effect is not well understood. To better understand the processes underlying rhythm-induced attention, we employed a continuous measure of perceived orientation and a mixture-model analysis. A trial in our study started with a sequence of auditory beeps separated by a fixed inter-beeps interval in the regular (rhythmic) condition or by variable inter-beeps intervals in the irregular condition. A visual target–a line embedded in a circle–followed the sequence. The ‘critical’ interval between the last beep and the target was chosen randomly from several possible Inter-Onset Intervals (IOIs), of which only one was in-phase with the rhythm. The target was followed by a probe line, and the participants were asked to rotate it to reproduce the target’s orientation. The measure of performance for a given trial was the difference in degrees between the orientation of the target and that reproduced by the observer. We found that guessing rate was lower with regular than irregular rhythms. However, there was no effect of rhythm type (regular vs irregular) on the quality of representation (measured as the variability in reproducing the target). Furthermore, the rhythm effect was present only when rhythm type was fixed within a block, and it was found with all IOIs, not just the in-phase IOI. This lack of specificity suggests that these results reflect a general effect of rhythm on alertness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Asaf Elbaz
- Department of Psychology & Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel
- * E-mail:
| | - Yaffa Yeshurun
- Department of Psychology & Institute of Information Processing and Decision Making, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel
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14
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Rey A, Minier L, Malassis R, Bogaerts L, Fagot J. Regularity Extraction Across Species: Associative Learning Mechanisms Shared by Human and Non-Human Primates. Top Cogn Sci 2018; 11:573-586. [PMID: 29785844 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2016] [Revised: 10/21/2017] [Accepted: 02/06/2018] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Extracting the regularities of our environment is a core cognitive ability in human and non-human primates. Comparative studies may provide information of strong heuristic value to constrain the elaboration of computational models of regularity learning. This study illustrates this point by testing human and non-human primates (Guinea baboons, Papio papio) with the same experimental paradigm, using a novel online learning measure. For local co-occurrence regularities, we found similar patterns of regularity extraction in baboons and humans. However, only humans extracted the more global sequence structure. It is proposed that only the first result that is common to both species should be used to constrain models of regularity learning. The second result indicates that the extraction of global regularities cannot be accounted for by mere associative learning mechanisms and suggests that humans probably benefit from their language recoding abilities for extracting these regularities. We propose to use a comparative approach to address a series of remaining theoretical questions, which will contribute to the development of a general theory of regularity learning.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arnaud Rey
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
| | - Laure Minier
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
| | | | - Louisa Bogaerts
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
| | - Joël Fagot
- Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive, CNRS & Aix-Marseille Université
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15
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Malassis R, Rey A, Fagot J. Non-adjacent Dependencies Processing in Human and Non-human Primates. Cogn Sci 2018; 42:1677-1699. [PMID: 29781135 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/14/2017] [Revised: 03/13/2018] [Accepted: 03/14/2018] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Human and non-human primates share the ability to extract adjacent dependencies and, under certain conditions, non-adjacent dependencies (i.e., predictive relationships between elements that are separated by one or several intervening elements in a sequence). In this study, we explore the online extraction dynamics of non-adjacent dependencies in humans and baboons using a serial reaction time task. Participants had to produce three-target sequences containing deterministic relationships between the first and last target locations. In Experiment 1, participants from the two species could extract these non-adjacent dependencies, but humans required less exposure than baboons. In Experiment 2, the data show for the first time in a non-human primate species the successful generalization of sequential non-adjacent dependencies over novel intervening items. These findings provide new evidence to further constrain current theories about the nature and the evolutionary origins of the learning mechanisms allowing the extraction of non-adjacent dependencies.
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16
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Santolin C, Saffran JR. Constraints on Statistical Learning Across Species. Trends Cogn Sci 2018; 22:52-63. [PMID: 29150414 PMCID: PMC5777226 DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2017.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/10/2017] [Revised: 10/13/2017] [Accepted: 10/16/2017] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Both human and nonhuman organisms are sensitive to statistical regularities in sensory inputs that support functions including communication, visual processing, and sequence learning. One of the issues faced by comparative research in this field is the lack of a comprehensive theory to explain the relevance of statistical learning across distinct ecological niches. In the current review we interpret cross-species research on statistical learning based on the perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that characterize the human and nonhuman models under investigation. Considering statistical learning as an essential part of the cognitive architecture of an animal will help to uncover the potential ecological functions of this powerful learning process.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chiara Santolin
- Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Carrer Ramon Trias Fargas, 25-27, 08005 Barcelona, Spain.
| | - Jenny R Saffran
- Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1500 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705, USA
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17
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Siegelman N, Bogaerts L, Kronenfeld O, Frost R. Redefining "Learning" in Statistical Learning: What Does an Online Measure Reveal About the Assimilation of Visual Regularities? Cogn Sci 2017; 42 Suppl 3:692-727. [PMID: 28986971 DOI: 10.1111/cogs.12556] [Citation(s) in RCA: 65] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/01/2016] [Revised: 07/18/2017] [Accepted: 09/01/2017] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
Abstract
From a theoretical perspective, most discussions of statistical learning (SL) have focused on the possible "statistical" properties that are the object of learning. Much less attention has been given to defining what "learning" is in the context of "statistical learning." One major difficulty is that SL research has been monitoring participants' performance in laboratory settings with a strikingly narrow set of tasks, where learning is typically assessed offline, through a set of two-alternative-forced-choice questions, which follow a brief visual or auditory familiarization stream. Is that all there is to characterizing SL abilities? Here we adopt a novel perspective for investigating the processing of regularities in the visual modality. By tracking online performance in a self-paced SL paradigm, we focus on the trajectory of learning. In a set of three experiments we show that this paradigm provides a reliable and valid signature of SL performance, and it offers important insights for understanding how statistical regularities are perceived and assimilated in the visual modality. This demonstrates the promise of integrating different operational measures to our theory of SL.
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Affiliation(s)
- Noam Siegelman
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
| | - Louisa Bogaerts
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.,Cognitive Psychology Laboratory, CNRS and University Aix-Marseille
| | - Ofer Kronenfeld
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
| | - Ram Frost
- Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.,Haskins Laboratories.,BCBL, Basque Center of Cognition, Brain and Language
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18
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19
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Toro JM, Hoeschele M. Generalizing prosodic patterns by a non-vocal learning mammal. Anim Cogn 2016; 20:179-185. [PMID: 27658675 PMCID: PMC5306188 DOI: 10.1007/s10071-016-1036-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/08/2016] [Revised: 09/08/2016] [Accepted: 09/09/2016] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
Prosody, a salient aspect of speech that includes rhythm and intonation, has been shown to help infants acquire some aspects of syntax. Recent studies have shown that birds of two vocal learning species are able to categorize human speech stimuli based on prosody. In the current study, we found that the non-vocal learning rat could also discriminate human speech stimuli based on prosody. Not only that, but rats were able to generalize to novel stimuli they had not been trained with, which suggests that they had not simply memorized the properties of individual stimuli, but learned a prosodic rule. When tested with stimuli with either one or three out of the four prosodic cues removed, the rats did poorly, suggesting that all cues were necessary for the rats to solve the task. This result is in contrast to results with humans and budgerigars, both of which had previously been studied using the same paradigm. Humans and budgerigars both learned the task and generalized to novel items, but were also able to solve the task with some of the cues removed. In conclusion, rats appear to have some of the perceptual abilities necessary to generalize prosodic patterns, in a similar though not identical way to the vocal learning species that have been studied.
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Affiliation(s)
- Juan M Toro
- ICREA, Pg. Lluis Companys 23, 08019, Barcelona, Spain.,Center for Brain and Cognition, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Roc Boronat, 138, 08018, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Marisa Hoeschele
- Department of Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090, Vienna, Austria.
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20
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Poulin-Charronnat B, Perruchet P, Tillmann B, Peereman R. Familiar units prevail over statistical cues in word segmentation. PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH 2016; 81:990-1003. [DOI: 10.1007/s00426-016-0793-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/13/2015] [Accepted: 08/10/2016] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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21
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Mathy F, Fartoukh M, Gauvrit N, Guida A. Developmental Abilities to Form Chunks in Immediate Memory and Its Non-Relationship to Span Development. Front Psychol 2016; 7:201. [PMID: 26941675 PMCID: PMC4763062 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00201] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2015] [Accepted: 02/02/2016] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
Both adults and children –by the time they are 2–3 years old– have a general ability to recode information to increase memory efficiency. This paper aims to evaluate the ability of untrained children aged 6–10 years old to deploy such a recoding process in immediate memory. A large sample of 374 children were given a task of immediate serial report based on SIMON®, a classic memory game made of four colored buttons (red, green, yellow, blue) requiring players to reproduce a sequence of colors within which repetitions eventually occur. It was hypothesized that a primitive ability across all ages (since theoretically already available in toddlers) to detect redundancies allows the span to increase whenever information can be recoded on the fly. The chunkable condition prompted the formation of chunks based on the perceived structure of color repetition within to-be-recalled sequences of colors. Our result shows a similar linear improvement of memory span with age for both chunkable and non-chunkable conditions. The amount of information retained in immediate memory systematically increased for the groupable sequences across all age groups, independently of the average age-group span that was measured on sequences that contained fewer repetitions. This result shows that chunking gives young children an equal benefit as older children. We discuss the role of recoding in the expansion of capacity in immediate memory and the potential role of data compression in the formation of chunks in long-term memory.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabien Mathy
- Bases Corpus Langage UMR 7320 CNRS, Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis Nice, France
| | - Michael Fartoukh
- Bases Corpus Langage UMR 7320 CNRS, Université Nice Sophia-Antipolis Nice, France
| | | | - Alessandro Guida
- Centre de Recherches en Psychologie, Cognition et Communication, Université Rennes II Rennes, France
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