A compilation of cognition-related news & information edited by M. G. Saldivar
I’ve long been interested in the various way in which data is visualized, from charts and graphs to dynamic interfaces like Web sites. The NY Times reports on a new Web-based software tool that allows users to visualize data in exciting new ways.
For those interested in data visualization and especially user interface design, I recommend the works of Ben Shneiderman (quoted in the Times article), Edward Tufty and Jakob Nielsen.
Although the idea that instrumental learning can occur subconsciously has been around for nearly a century, it had not been unequivocally demonstrated. Now, a new study published by Cell Press in the August 28 issue of the journal Neuron used sophisticated perceptual masking, computational modeling, and neuroimaging to show that instrumental learning can occur in the human brain without conscious processing of contextual cues.
The study’s abstract reads as follows:
How the brain uses success and failure to optimize future decisions is a long-standing question in neuroscience. One computational solution involves updating the values of context-action associations in proportion to a reward prediction error. Previous evidence suggests that such computations are expressed in the striatum and, as they are cognitively impenetrable, represent an unconscious learning mechanism. Here, we formally test this by studying instrumental conditioning in a situation where we masked contextual cues, such that they were not consciously perceived. Behavioral data showed that subjects nonetheless developed a significant propensity to choose cues associated with monetary rewards relative to punishments. Functional neuroimaging revealed that during conditioning cue values and prediction errors, generated from a computational model, both correlated with activity in ventral striatum. We conclude that, even without conscious processing of contextual cues, our brain can learn their reward value and use them to provide a bias on decision making.
According to Noam Chomsky’s linguistic theories, humans have evolved to possess an innate, biological set of grammatical “building blocks” of which recursion — the ability to insert one phrase inside another — is perhaps the most fundamental. But an isolated Amazon tribe speaks a language without recursion, and they are, in the words of cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, “a bomb thrown into the party” of modern linguistics.
Live Science (via MSNBC) reports on research suggesting that ‘baby-fied’ versions of the words for mother and father (such as mama and dada in English) often are the first words a baby speaks not simply because babies spend so much time around their parents, but also because many languages have mother-words and father-words that are ‘baby friendly.’
Researchers at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music and Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences have developed a unique test for perfect pitch, and have found surprising results.
Their research shows that perfect pitch—the ability to recognize and remember a tone without a reference—is apparently much more common in non-musicians than scientists had expected. Previous tests have overlooked these people because without extensive musical training it’s very difficult for someone to identify a pitch by name, the method traditionally used for identifying those with perfect pitch. The new test can be used on non-musicians, and is based on a technique to discern how infants recognize words in a language they’re learning.
If there is one thing experts on agree on, it is that kids learn best when they are allowed to make mistakes and feel the consequences. So Mom and Dad hold back as their toddler tries again and again to cram a round peg into a square hole. They feel her pain as playmates shun her for being pushy, hoping she’ll learn to back off. They let their teen stay up too late before a test, hoping a dismal grade will teach her to get a good night’s sleep but believing that ordering her to get to bed right now will not: kids who experience setbacks rather than having them short-circuited by a controlling parent learn not to repeat the dumb behavior.
But not, it seems, all kids. In about 30 percent, the coils of their DNA carry a glitch, one that leaves their brains with few dopamine receptors, molecules that act as docking ports for one of the neurochemicals that carry our thoughts and emotions. A paucity of dopamine receptors is linked to an inability to avoid self-destructive behavior such as illicit drug use. But the effects spill beyond such extremes. Children with the genetic variant are unable to learn from mistakes. No matter how many tests they blow by partying the night before, the lesson just doesn’t sink in.
Knowing the words for numbers is not necessary to be able to count, according to a new study of aboriginal children by UCL (University College London) and the University of Melbourne. The study of the aboriginal children – from two communities which do not have words or gestures for numbers – found that they were able to copy and perform number-related tasks.
The AP (via USA Today) reports on the continuing scholarly debate over the effect of video gaming on various aspects of cognition and learning:
Researchers who gathered in Boston for the American Psychological Association convention detailed a series of studies suggesting video games can be powerful learning tools — from increasing younger students’ problem-solving potential to improving the suturing skills of laparoscopic surgeons.
One study even looked at whether playing World of Warcraft, the world’s biggest multiplayer online game, can improve scientific thinking.
The conclusion? Certain types of video games can have benefits beyond the virtual thrills of blowing up demons.
Metacognition refers to the awareness of one’s knowledge in different areas. The more comprehensive and accurate this metacognitive knowledge, the better one is able to reflect about his or her own actions and behaviors. “Theory of Mind” (ToM) deals with very young children’s understanding of mental life and the ability to estimate mental states.
A new study in the journal Mind, Brain, and Education detects a systematic link between children’s “theory of mind” as assessed in kindergarten and their metacognitive knowledge in elementary school.
Wolfgang Schneider, Ph.D., of the University of Wurzburg examined 174 children who were either three or four years of age at the beginning of the study in order to investigate the relationship between early ToM and subsequent metacognitive development. Children were tested at four measurement points, separated by a testing interval of approximately half a year.
Language abilities assessed at the ages of three or four years made significant contributions to the prediction of metamemory scores at the age of five. ToM facilitated the acquisition of metacognitive knowledge. Early ToM competencies also affected the acquisition of metacognitive vocabulary, which in turn had an impact on developmental changes in metacognitive knowledge.
ToM development is characterized by a growing insight into inferential and interpretive mental processes. Declarative metacognitive knowledge is usually scarce in young elementary children but increases considerably over the school years, predicting academic performance.
“An important reason to study metacognitive monitoring processes is because monitoring is supposed to play a central role in directing how people study,” Schneider notes. “Our research affects issues of cognitive intellectual development and can be used to develop training programs, particularly for young children, to ensure adequate metacognitive processing in educational contexts.”
