Habituation and learning in a steering task

Tavoitteet. Tämän tutkielman tavoitteena on tarkastella tehtäväsidonnaisten fysiologisten vasteiden ajallisia muutoksia ja näiden yhteyttä suorituskykyyn toistetussa ohjaustehtävässä. Kohtalaisen fysiologisen virittymisen uskotaan suuntaavan tarkkaavaisuutta kohti tehtäväsuorituksen kannalta olennaisia ärsykkeitä ja siten parantavan suoriutumista, kun taas liian matala tai korkea virittyminen on haitallista tehtäväsuorituksen kannalta (Yerkes-Dodson-laki). Tämä lähestymistapa ei kuitenkaan selkeästi huomioi ajallisia muutoksia fysiologisessa virittymisessä. Tässä tutkielmassa tehtäväsidonnaisen sympaattisen virittymisen ajallisia muutoksia mallinnetaan habituaationa, jota on perinteisesti käytetty kuvaamaan orientaatiovasteiden muutoksia toistettujen ärsykkeiden passiivisessa asetelmassa. Tehtäväsuorituksen aikaista habituaatiota tulkitaan ennustettavuuden ja merkittävyyden näkökulmasta, tavoitteena kuvata oppimisen aikaisia tarkkaavaisuuden muutoksia evolutiivisesti uskottavalla tavalla. Lisäksi tarkastellaan tehtäväsuoriutumisen yhteyksiä yksilöllisiin eroihin habituaatiotahdissa ja spontaanissa (ei-tehtäväsidonnaisessa) sympaattisessa aktivaatiossa. Lopuksi habituaatiota verrataan poikkeamiin ennustetusta suoritustasosta. Menetelmät. Koehenkilöt (N = 9) pelasivat nopeatempoista ohjaustehtävää yhteensä 40 kierroksen ajan kahdeksassa eri sessiossa 2-3 viikon jakson aikana. Ihon sähkönjohtavuuden vasteita (skin conductance responses, SCR) mitattiin viidessä sessiossa perustason ja tehtäväsuorituksen aikana. Yksilöllinen habituaatiotahti määritettiin tehtäväsidonnaisten SCR-frekvenssien muutoksista sessioiden aikana. Perustasomittausten SCR-frekvenssi puolestaan ilmaisi yksilöllistä spontaania aktiivisuutta. Kierrostason SCR-frekvenssien erojen avulla tutkittiin habituaation ja oppimiskäyrämallin avulla ennustetun suoriutumisen välisiä yhteyksiä. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset. Tehtäväsidonnaisen virittymisen havaittiin vähenevän toistuvien kierrosten mittaan kaikilla koehenkilöillä lähes kaikissa sessioissa, mikä osoitti habituaatiomallin sopivan tehtäväsidonnaisen virittymisen ajallisten muutosten kuvaamiseen. Lisäksi pitkäaikainen tehtäväsidonnainen virittyminen (hidas habituaatio) yhdistyi parempaan suorituskykyyn sekä yksilö- että kierrostasolla. Korkea spontaani aktiivisuus sen sijaan yhdistyi huonompaan suoriutumiseen. Kokonaisuudessaan tulokset viittaavat siihen, että tehtäväsidonnaisen virittymisen ajalliset muutokset oppimisen aikana heijastavat tehtävään liittyvien vihjeiden prosessointia ja otaksuttavasti ilmentävät motivaatiota, joka suuntaa tarkkaavaisuutta, kun taas korkea spontaani aktiivisuus on yhteydessä huonompaan suoritukseen mahdollisesti tehtävään liittymättömän stressin häiritsevän vaikutuksen vuoksi.Objectives. This thesis aims to explore temporal changes in task-related physiological arousal and their connection to performance in repeated trials of a steering task. Moderate physiological arousal is believed to direct attention towards task-relevant stimuli, leading to performance improvements, while too high or low arousal is detrimental (the Yerkes-Dodson law). However, this approach does not explicitly account for changes in arousal over time. In this study, temporal changes in task-related sympathetic arousal are modelled as habituation, which has traditionally been used to describe changes in orienting responses to repeated presentations of non-target stimuli. Habituation during task performance is interpreted in terms of predictability and significance, aiming to describe changes in attentional processing during learning in an evolutionarily plausible manner. Furthermore, connections between performance and individual differences in habituation rate and spontaneous (task-unrelated) sympathetic activity are examined. Finally, habituation is compared to deviations from predicted performance. Methods. Participants (N = 9) played a total of 40 trials of a high-speed steering task in eight sessions over a period of 2-3 weeks. Electrodermal activity during baseline and task performance was recorded in five sessions. Change in task-related skin conductance response (SCR) frequency over trials 1-5 within sessions was used to determine individual rates of habituation whereas SCR frequency during baseline indicated individual spontaneous activity. Trial-level difference scores were used to explore habituation and deviations from predicted performance (a power-law learning curve) within participants. Results and conclusions. Task-related arousal was found to decrease with repeated trials for all participants in nearly all sessions, indicating that a habituation model was successful in capturing changes in arousal in a task situation. Furthermore, sustained task-related arousal (slow habituation) was connected to better performance both between and within participants. High spontaneous activity, on the other hand, was associated with performance decrements. Taken together, these results suggest that temporal changes in task-related arousal during learning are related to the processing of task-relevant cues and may reflect motivational states that direct selective attention, while high spontaneous activity is related to performance decrements, perhaps due to interference from task-unrelated stress

Tracking an occluded visual target with sequences of saccades

Gaze behavior during visual tracking consists of a combination of pursuit and saccadic movements. When the tracked object is intermittently occluded, the role of smooth pursuit is reduced, with a corresponding increase in the role of saccades. However, studies of visual tracking during occlusion have focused only on the first few saccades, usually with occlusion periods of less than 1 second in duration. We investigated tracking on a circular trajectory with random occlusions and found that an occluded object can be tracked reliably for up to several seconds with mainly anticipatory saccades and very little smooth pursuit. Furthermore, we investigated the accumulation of uncertainty in prediction and found that prediction errors seem to accumulate faster when an absolute reference frame is not available during tracking. We suggest that the observed saccadic tracking reflects the use of a time-based internal estimate of object position that is anchored to the environment via fixations.Peer reviewe

Temporal Pattern Models for Physiological Arousal During a Steering Task

Peer reviewe

Development of Associations between Elementary School Students’ Mindsets and Attentional Neural Processing of Feedback in an Arithmetic Task

The aim of this study was to examine the development of the associations between elementary school students’ mindsets and the attentional neural processing of positive and negative feedback in math. For this, we analyzed data collected twice from 100 Finnish elementary school students. During the autumn semesters of their 3rd and 4th grade, the participants’ general intelligence mindset and math ability mindset were measured with a questionnaire, and their brain responses elicited by performance-relevant feedback were recorded during an arithmetic task. We found that students’ fixed mindsets about general intelligence and math ability were associated with greater attention allocated to positive feedback as indicated by a larger P300. These associations were driven by the effects of mindsets on attention allocation to positive feedback in grade 4. Additionally, 4th graders’ more fixed general intelligence mindset was marginally associated with greater attention allocated to negative feedback. In addition, the effects of both mindsets on attention allocation to feedback were marginally stronger when the children were older. The present results, although marginal in the case of negative feedback and mainly driven by effects in grade 4, are possibly a reflection of the greater self-relevance of feedback stimuli for students with a more fixed mindset. It is also possible that these findings reflect the fact that, in evaluative situations, mindset could influence stimulus processing in general. The marginal increase in the effects of mindsets as children mature may reflect the development of coherent mindset meaning systems during elementary school years.Peer reviewe

The Link Between Flow and Performance is Moderated by Task Experience

Flow is an intrinsically motivating (i.e. 'autotelic') psychological state of complete absorption in moment-tomoment activity that can occur when one performs a task whose demands match one's skill-level. Flow theory proposes that Flow causally leads to better performance, but empirical evidence for this assumption is mixed. Recent evidence suggests that self-reported Flow may not be linked to performance-levels per se, but instead to deviations from anticipated performance (the so-called flow deviation, or F-d effect). We aimed to replicate and extend these results by employing a high-speed steering game (CogCarSim) to elicit Flow, and specifically focused on the moderating effects of learning and task experience on the F-d effect. In a longitudinal design, 18 participants each played CogCarSim for 40 trials across eight sessions, totaling 720 measurements across participants. CogCarSim reliably elicited Flow, and learning to play the game fit well to a power-law model. We successfully replicated the F-d effect: self-reported Flow was much more strongly associated with deviationfrom-expected performance than with objective performance levels. We also found that the F-d effect grew stronger with increasing task experience, thus demonstrating an effect of learning on Flow. We discuss the implications of our findings for contemporary theories of Flow.Peer reviewe

Flow Experiences During Visuomotor Skill Acquisition Reflect Deviation From a Power-Law Learning Curve, but Not Overall Level of Skill

Flow is a state of "optimal experience" that arises when skill and task demands match. Flow has been well studied in psychology using a range of self-report and experimental methods; with most research typically focusing on how Flow is elicited by a particular task. Here, we focus on how the experience of Flow changes during task skill development. We present a longitudinal experimental study of learning, wherein participants (N = 9) play a novel steering-game task designed to elicit Flow by matching skill and demand, and providing clear goals and feedback. Experimental design involves extensive in-depth measurement of behavior, physiology, and Flow self-reports over 2 weeks of 40 game trials in eight sessions. Here we report behavioral results, which are both strikingly similar and strong within each participant. We find that the game induces a near-constant state of elevated Flow. We further find that the variation in Flow across all trials is less affected by overall performance improvement than by deviation of performance from the expected value predicted by a power law model of learning.Peer reviewe

Flow Experiences During Visuomotor Skill Acquisition Reflect Deviation From a Power-Law Learning Curve, but Not Overall Level of Skill

Flow is a state of “optimal experience” that arises when skill and task demands match. Flow has been well studied in psychology using a range of self-report and experimental methods; with most research typically focusing on how Flow is elicited by a particular task. Here, we focus on how the experience of Flow changes during task skill development. We present a longitudinal experimental study of learning, wherein participants (N = 9) play a novel steering-game task designed to elicit Flow by matching skill and demand, and providing clear goals and feedback. Experimental design involves extensive in-depth measurement of behavior, physiology, and Flow self-reports over 2 weeks of 40 game trials in eight sessions. Here we report behavioral results, which are both strikingly similar and strong within each participant. We find that the game induces a near-constant state of elevated Flow. We further find that the variation in Flow across all trials is less affected by overall performance improvement than by deviation of performance from the expected value predicted by a power law model of learning

Improved Auditory Function Caused by Music Versus Foreign Language Training at School Age : Is There a Difference?

In adults, music and speech share many neurocognitive functions, but how do they interact in a developing brain? We compared the effects of music and foreign language training on auditory neurocognition in Chinese children aged 8-11 years. We delivered group-based training programs in music and foreign language using a randomized controlled trial. A passive control group was also included. Before and after these year-long extracurricular programs, auditory event-related potentials were recorded (n = 123 and 85 before and after the program, respectively). Through these recordings, we probed early auditory predictive brain processes. To our surprise, the language program facilitated the children's early auditory predictive brain processes significantly more than did the music program. This facilitation was most evident in pitch encoding when the experimental paradigm was musically relevant. When these processes were probed by a paradigm more focused on basic sound features, we found early predictive pitch encoding to be facilitated by music training. Thus, a foreign language program is able to foster auditory and music neurocognition, at least in tonal language speakers, in a manner comparable to that by a music program. Our results support the tight coupling of musical and linguistic brain functions also in the developing brain.Peer reviewe

Improved Auditory Function Caused by Music Versus Foreign Language Training at School Age: Is There a Difference?

In adults, music and speech share many neurocognitive functions, but how do they interact in a developing brain? We compared the effects of music and foreign language training on auditory neurocognition in Chinese children aged 8-11 years. We delivered group-based training programs in music and foreign language using a randomized controlled trial. A passive control group was also included. Before and after these year-long extracurricular programs, auditory event-related potentials were recorded (n = 123 and 85 before and after the program, respectively). Through these recordings, we probed early auditory predictive brain processes. To our surprise, the language program facilitated the children's early auditory predictive brain processes significantly more than did the music program. This facilitation was most evident in pitch encoding when the experimental paradigm was musically relevant. When these processes were probed by a paradigm more focused on basic sound features, we found early predictive pitch encoding to be facilitated by music training. Thus, a foreign language program is able to foster auditory and music neurocognition, at least in tonal language speakers, in a manner comparable to that by a music program. Our results support the tight coupling of musical and linguistic brain functions also in the developing brain.</p

Neurotypical Adults employ Distinct Cognitive Mechanisms compared to Adults with ADHD during a Sustained Attention Task with Gestalt Stimuli

Sustained attention is a fundamental cognitive ability that influences various aspects of human functioning. Studies of the neural correlates of attention commonly treat sustained attention as an isolated construct, however in any ecological context, sustained attention interacts with other executive functions such as inhibition of interference and processing of complex hierarchical stimuli. We have thus constructed a protocol to probe the interplay between these cognitive processes during visual attention task. We contrast putative typical vs atypical attention by comparing 18 healthy participants with 53 adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, for whom difficulties with sustained attention are a core symptom and thus constitute a natural experiment condition. Our behavioural and brain-imaging analyses demonstrate distinct neural patterns in bottom-up visual processing and attention allocation mechanisms in ADHD and Control groups, highlighting different cognitive strategies utilised by adults with ADHD and healthy participants in tasks requiring sustained attention