Context dependent learning in the serial RT task

This study investigated the development of contextual dependencies for sequential perceptual-motor learning on static features in the learning environment. In three experiments we assessed the effect of manipulating task irrelevant static context features in a serial reaction-time task. Experiment 1 demonstrated impaired performance after simultaneously changing display color, placeholder shape, and placeholder location. Experiment 2 showed that this effect was mainly caused by changing placeholder shape. Finally, Experiment 3 indicated that changing context affected both the application of sequence knowledge and the selection of individual responses. It is proposed either that incidental stimulus features are integrated with a global sequence representation, or that the changed context causes participants to strategically inhibit sequence skills

Intentional Binding Is Driven by the Mere Presence of an Action and Not by Motor Prediction

Intentional binding refers to the fact that when a voluntary action produces a sensory outcome, action and outcome are perceived as being closer together in time. This phenomenon is often attributed, at least partially, to predictive motor mechanisms. However, previous studies failed to unequivocally attribute intentional binding to these mechanisms, since the contrasts that have been used to demonstrate intentional binding covered not only one but two processes: temporal control and motor identity prediction. In the present study we aimed to isolate the respective role of each of these processes in the emergence of intentional binding of action-effects. The results show that motor identity prediction does not modulate intentional binding of action-effects. Our findings cast doubts on the assumption that intentional binding of action effects is linked to internal forward predictive process

Sensory information in perceptual-motor sequence learning: visual and/or tactile stimuli

Sequence learning in serial reaction time (SRT) tasks has been investigated mostly with unimodal stimulus presentation. This approach disregards the possibility that sequence acquisition may be guided by multiple sources of sensory information simultaneously. In the current study we trained participants in a SRT task with visual only, tactile only, or bimodal (visual and tactile) stimulus presentation. Sequence performance for the bimodal and visual only training groups was similar, while both performed better than the tactile only training group. In a subsequent transfer phase, participants from all three training groups were tested in conditions with visual, tactile, and bimodal stimulus presentation. Sequence performance between the visual only and bimodal training groups again was highly similar across these identical stimulus conditions, indicating that the addition of tactile stimuli did not benefit the bimodal training group. Additionally, comparing across identical stimulus conditions in the transfer phase showed that the lesser sequence performance from the tactile only group during training probably did not reflect a difference in sequence learning but rather just a difference in expression of the sequence knowledge

A Set-Oriented Numerical Approach for Dynamical Systems with Parameter Uncertainty

In this article, we develop a set-oriented numerical methodology which allows us to perform uncertainty quantification (UQ) for dynamical systems from a global point of view. That is, for systems with uncertain parameters we approximate the corresponding global attractors and invariant measures in the related stochastic setting. Our methods do not rely on generalized polynomial chaos techniques. Rather, we extend classical set-oriented methods designed for deterministic dynamical systems [M. Dellnitz and A. Hohmann, Numer. Math., 75 (1997), pp. 293--317; M. Dellnitz and O. Junge, SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 36 (1999), pp. 491--515] to the UQ-context, and this allows us to analyze the long-term uncertainty propagation. The algorithms have been integrated into the software package GAIO [M. Dellnitz, G. Froyland, and O. Junge, Ergodic Theory, Analysis, and Efficient Simulation of Dynamical Systems, Springer, Berlin, 2001, pp. 145--174], and we illustrate the use and efficiency of these techniques with a couple of numerical examples

Mirror Neuron System and Imitation learning of sequences and rhythms \u2013 An event-related fMRI study

Mirror Neuron System and Imitation learning of sequences and rhythms \u2013 An event-related fMRI stud

Planning not to do something: Does intending not to do something activate associated sensory consequences?

Item does not contain fulltextThe present fMRI study investigated the central assumptions of ideomotor theory that actions become associated with their sensory consequences. Furthermore, we tested whether sensory effects can also become associated with the voluntary omission of an action. In a training phase, participants had to decide between executing an action and not executing it. Both decisions were followed by a specific effect tone. In the test phase, the participants had to carry out actions without hearing the effect tone. They either had to decide whether to execute an action or not or were instructed to execute an action or not. Our results reveal an increased activity in the auditory cortex elicited by responses that formerly elicited a tone namely, self-chosen actions and self-chosen nonactions. Moreover, we found binding effects for stimulus-cued actions, but not for stimulus-cued nonactions. These findings support ideomotor theory by showing that a link exists between actions and their effects. Furthermore, our data demonstrate on a neural level that effect tones can become associated with intentionally not acting, therewith supporting the idea of a binding between the voluntary omission of an action and its effects in the environment