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PubMed1988

Peer versus adult models and autistic children's learning: acquisition, generalization, and maintenance.

This study compared the effectiveness of a peer model and an adult model in teaching an expressive language task to four autistic boys. A BCBC design, counterbalanced across subjects, was used. After training criterion was reached, generalization of responding to an extratherapy school setting and to the home was measured. Thirteen weekly maintenance probes were conducted after training in each condition. Results indicated that all children learned through observing the peer and adult models and that few consistent differences occurred across the two conditions. The degree of generalization and maintenance of responding was consistently high in both conditions. The relation of these data to the modeling literature on autistic children and implications for developing educational programs for autistic children are discussed.

Adult↗
PubMed2003

[Learned helplessness, generalized self-efficacy, and immune function].

Generalized self-efficacy is considered one of important personality traits that determine psychological and physiological stress responses. The present study examined the interaction effects of generalized self-efficacy and controllability of acute stress on salivary secretory immunoglobulin A (s-IgA), task performance, and psychological stress responses in a typical learned helplessness paradigm. Twenty low and 19 high self-efficacy undergraduate women performed two response selection tasks one after another. In the first task, they were exposed to controllable or uncontrollable aversive noise. The second task was identical for all, but perceived controllability was higher for the high self-efficacy group than the low. Performance under uncontrollable condition was lower than controllable condition. The interaction of self-efficacy and controllability was observed only on the s-IgA variable; increase of secretion of s-IgA secretion under stressor uncontrollability was more prominent in the low self-efficacy group than the high. These results suggested that generalized self-efficacy was a moderator of the stressor controllability effect on secretory immunity.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

What can general practice learn from complementary medicine?

Complementary medicine is popular in Britain. This suggests that patients who use complementary medicine believe that there are deficiencies in the care they receive from their general practitioners (GPs). Studies of patients using complementary medicine have shown that these patients are sometimes dissatisfied with the communication skills of conventional doctors, the explanations they give for their illnesses, the dangers of modern drugs, and a perceived lack of holistic care. The patients using complementary medicine trusted their bodies' own healing potential and they generally believed that they had more control over their bodies than those patients who did not use complementary medicine. They particularly valued the longer appointment times usually given by the complementary therapists and also the in-depth discussions of their illnesses. Patients using complementary medicine tended to be those with chronic illnesses and these patients particularly valued the positive approach of, and the psychological support given by, the complementary therapists. General practitioners know that all of these aspects of care are important, but the fact that many of our patients go to complementary therapists to satisfy them should encourage us to look at our own practices to see how we as GPs can fulfill these needs.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed1984

Attributional style and the generality of learned helplessness.

According to the logic of the attribution reformulation of learned helplessness, the interaction of two factors influences whether helplessness experienced in one situation will transfer to a new situation. The model predicts that people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to global factors will show helplessness deficits in new situations that are either similar or dissimilar to the original situation in which they were helpless. In contrast, people who exhibit a style of attributing negative outcomes to only specific factors will show helplessness deficits in situations that are similar, but not dissimilar, to the original situation in which they were helpless. To test these predictions, we conducted two studies in which undergraduates with either a global or specific attributional style for negative outcomes were given one of three pretreatments in the typical helplessness triadic design: controllable bursts of noise, uncontrollable bursts of noise, or no noise. In Experiment 1, students were tested for helplessness deficits in a test situation similar to the pretreatment setting, whereas in Experiment 2, they were tested in a test situation dissimilar to the pretreatment setting. The findings were consistent with predictions of the reformulated helplessness theory.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Spatial generalization from learning dynamics of reaching movements.

When subjects practice reaching movements in a force field, they learn a new sensorimotor map that associates desired trajectories to motor commands. The map is formed in the brain with elements that allow for generalization beyond the region of training. We quantified spatial generalization properties of these elements by training in one extreme of the reachable space and testing near another. Training resulted in rotations in the preferred direction (PD) of activation of some arm muscles. We designed force fields that maintained a constant rotation in muscle PDs as the shoulder joint rotated in the horizontal plane. In such fields, training in a small region resulted in generalization to near and far work spaces (80 cm). In one such field, the forces on the hand reversed directions for a given hand velocity with respect to the location of original training. Despite this, there was generalization. However, if the field was such that the change in the muscle PDs reversed as the work spaces changed, then performance was worse than performance of naive subjects. We suggest that the sensorimotor map of arm dynamics is represented in the brain by elements that globally encode the position of the arm but locally encode its velocity. The elements have preferred directions of movement but are modulated globally by the position of the shoulder joint. We suggest that tuning properties of cells in the motor system influence behavior and that this influence is reflected in the way that we learn dynamics of reaching movements.

Adult↗
PubMed1992

Learning during general anaesthesia: implicit recall after methohexitone or propofol infusion.

Forty-four patients undergoing coronary artery surgery were allocated randomly to receive an infusion of propofol or methohexitone as a hypnotic supplement to a fentanyl-based anaesthetic technique. A taped message was played to the patients, consisting of 10 words associated with prompt sentences and a suggestion for a specific postoperative behavioural response. Twenty patients (10 propofol and 10 methohexitone) (perioperative group) were exposed to the taped message during surgery and in the immediate postoperative period and the other 24 patients (postoperative group) were exposed to the tape only in the postoperative period, after return to the intensive care unit (ICU). No patient had explicit recall of any events during the period when the tape was played. The patients in the propofol group who heard the tape during surgery had significant implicit recall of the word associations compared with the equivalent 10 methohexitone patients (P = 0.004), when tested 48 h after surgery. The patients who were played the tape whilst receiving identical infusion regimens for sedation in the ICU did not demonstrate implicit recall of the word associations in either the propofol or the methohexitone groups. There was no evidence of a response to the specific behavioural suggestion during the postoperative interview. The results confirm that auditory perception can occur during clinically adequate anaesthesia, and that suppression of auditory awareness or learning is a function of both the pharmacological degree of sedation and the degree of surgical stimulation.

Anesthesia, General↗
PubMed2003

Pilot study on the factors that influence learning by general practice registrars in central Australia.

INTRODUCTION: To counter a medical workforce shortage in rural and remote areas of Australia an increasing number of general practitioners are being trained in rural and remote areas. General practice (GP) registrars train in general practice as working apprentices alongside GP supervisors. GP registrars are allocated a training advisor to oversee their progress throughout their training. Central Australian GP registrars expressed concern to their training advisor regarding certain work partnerships with their GP supervisors. The study was carried out in response to these concerns, which were raised during a shortage of GPs in the area. The aim of the study was to explore factors in the interaction between GP registrars and GP supervisors in the context of their practices that impact on the quality of GP registrar learning in Central Australia. METHOD: A qualitative research method was used to explore the subtleties and issues in relationships between GP registrars, their GP supervisors and their practices. The interview schedule comprised pairs of polarised, provocative statements to generate discussion. Topics for the interview schedule were derived from the data from training advisor visits and the literature. GP registrars in Central Australia who had completed at least one six-month term in general practice were eligible for the study. Five female GP registrars participated in the study. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and checked by the participants before the interview material became the research record. RESULTS: The interview schedule generated considerable discussion as planned. The structures that determine GP income were seen as a barrier to GP registrar learning in Central Australia. The registrars reported that the fee-for-service model prevented them capitalising on learning opportunities both inside and outside their designated general practice. The GP registrars considered their training was compromised by the need to provide clinical service during a time of workforce shortage. Adaptation to a practice was seen as an important skill for GP registrars to learn, providing this did not compromise a registrar's own ethical and professional values. Learning was optimised by agreement between GP registrars and GP supervisors on the teaching subjects, and a mix of opportunistic and planned teaching sessions. Geographical isolation was perceived to have had a significant negative impact on GP registrar learning but one GP registrar discussed how this could be turned into a positive factor. CONCLUSION: GP registrars reported learning best by providing a clinical service with ready access to a supportive GP supervisor. Workforce pressures in Central Australia at the time of this pilot study reduced the GP supervisors' ability to support GP registrars, especially in a fee-for-service model of health care. GP registrars should be placed in practices where they will receive experience, training and education rather than be allocated to areas of workforce shortage. Changes to the remuneration system for GP registrars and GP supervisors could be considered to enable GP registrars to capitalise on the learning opportunities in remote clinical practice.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

On the emergence of rules in neural networks.

A simple associationist neural network learns to factor abstract rules (i.e., grammars) from sequences of arbitrary input symbols by inventing abstract representations that accommodate unseen symbol sets as well as unseen but similar grammars. The neural network is shown to have the ability to transfer grammatical knowledge to both new symbol vocabularies and new grammars. Analysis of the state-space shows that the network learns generalized abstract structures of the input and is not simply memorizing the input strings. These representations are context sensitive, hierarchical, and based on the state variable of the finite-state machines that the neural network has learned. Generalization to new symbol sets or grammars arises from the spatial nature of the internal representations used by the network, allowing new symbol sets to be encoded close to symbol sets that have already been learned in the hidden unit space of the network. The results are counter to the arguments that learning algorithms based on weight adaptation after each exemplar presentation (such as the long term potentiation found in the mammalian nervous system) cannot in principle extract symbolic knowledge from positive examples as prescribed by prevailing human linguistic theory and evolutionary psychology.

Algorithms↗
PubMed2002

Self-regulatory learning and generalization for people with brain injury.

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE: brain injury can result in the loss of previous learnt behaviours that affect an individual's daily functioning. The use of self-regulation helps the individual to relearn the lost behaviours by bringing him/her to self-conscious level through independent and reflective learning derived using a social cognitive perspective. The purpose of this paper is to report on clinical observations made with the use of self-regulation in people with brain injury during the relearning of lost functions. METHODS AND PROCEDURES: daily tasks were used to assess the relearning ability of the subjects pre- and post-programme. EXPERIMENTAL INTERVENTION: one-week self-regulatory training on five selected daily tasks. MAIN OUTCOMES AND RESULTS: these provisory observations would suggest that, with specific guidance for people with different needs, such as with impaired cognitive function and depression, self-regulation is effective in enhancing their relearning. CONCLUSION: Self-regulatory training is effective in enhancing the relearning of lost functions.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Early treated congenital hypothyroidism. Evaluation of school learning].

BACKGROUND: The aim of this paper was to evaluate school learning in early treated CH children in order to investigate whether and how this pathology influences school performance. METHODS: Using a sample of 50 early treated CH children who have received regular follow-up at our Institute, 20 subjects attending primary (grade) school or the final year of nursery school for assessment of school learning have been selected. Results were compared with a class/grade matched control group. Evaluations of cognitive, motor and language development, T4 level determined at birth, thyroid disorder and socio-cultural level of the family background were examined in relation to the school performance of each child. RESULTS: The evaluations showed that out of 20 CH children, 5 (25%) presented generalized learning disorders. This percentage is higher than in the normal population (3.4%). When learning disorder findings were correlated with data pertaining to motor, speech and cognitive development, socio-cultural level and thyroid disorder, it was found that children with generalized learning difficulties presented more severe motor and speech disorders, a lower intelligence quotient and a lower socio-cultural background than children achieving higher scores in school tests. CONCLUSIONS: The conclusion is drawn that early treated CH children of same age have more learning difficulties during nursery school, while they have normal learning performances during primary school.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Analysis of ensemble learning using simple perceptrons based on online learning theory.

Ensemble learning of K nonlinear perceptrons, which determine their outputs by sign functions, is discussed within the framework of online learning and statistical mechanics. One purpose of statistical learning theory is to theoretically obtain the generalization error. This paper shows that ensemble generalization error can be calculated by using two order parameters, that is, the similarity between a teacher and a student, and the similarity among students. The differential equations that describe the dynamical behaviors of these order parameters are derived in the case of general learning rules. The concrete forms of these differential equations are derived analytically in the cases of three well-known rules: Hebbian learning, perceptron learning, and AdaTron (adaptive perceptron) learning. Ensemble generalization errors of these three rules are calculated by using the results determined by solving their differential equations. As a result, these three rules show different characteristics in their affinity for ensemble learning, that is "maintaining variety among students." Results show that AdaTron learning is superior to the other two rules with respect to that affinity.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2004

Flexible teaching and learning in general practice.

BACKGROUND: Changing general practice workforce characteristics, with fewer people prepared to work excessive hours, mean that both teachers and learners need greater flexibility in their approach. OBJECTIVE: This article describes the strategies one practice has used in aiming for optimum and stimulating medical education. Issues such as finding the right match between learner and teacher, and enriching the learning environment are discussed. Personal, professional and workforce boundaries are examined, as is the maintenance of identity and integrity. DISCUSSION: Flexible teaching and learning needs to involve vertical and horizontal integration. Mentors who are thriving personally should lead by example. A nonclinical agenda is paramount. Appropriate accreditation within the training program and acknowledgment of the differences between rural and metropolitan general practice training needs further work.

Clinical Competence↗
PubMed1995

Improved learning and memory in aged rats with chronic administration of the nicotinic receptor agonist GTS-21.

The ability of two synthetic nicotine receptor ligands, TGS-21 and DMAB, to chronically enhance the cognitive function of aged rats was evaluated in three diverse tasks and compared to the cognition-enhancing effects of nicotine administration. 15 min prior to daily behavioral testing, aged 22-24 month old rats received an i.p. injection of nicotine (.02 mg/kg), GTS-21 (1 mg/kg), DMAB (2mg/kg), or saline vehicle and were tested in either one-way active avoidance pole jumping, Lashley III maze, or a 17-arm radial maze. GTS-21 pretreatment was as effective as nicotine for enhancing the acquisition of aged rats in both one-way active avoidance and Lashley III maze training. In 17-arm radial maze testing, GTS-21 improved both general learning and reference (long-term) memory to the same extent as nicotine. Although DMAB pretreatment enhanced reference memory in 17-arm radial maze testing to the same as nicotine, it did not affect general learning in this complex task and did not exert any cognition-enhancing effects in Lashley III maze training. These results indicate that GTS-21 has cognition-enhancing abilities in aged rats that are comparable to those of nicotine in a variety of behavioral tasks. Since GTS-21 acts preferentially on brain nicotinic receptors and is less toxic than nicotine, thses results further indicate that GTS-21 may have substantive therapeutic value in the treatment of age-associated memory impairment (AAMI) and/or Alzheimer's disease.

Aging↗
PubMed1992

Iliad's role in the generalization of learning across a medical domain.

Medical informatics could facilitate more effective analysis and use of clinical knowledge by means of expert systems. To be most effective, such systems should be constructed in a manner which is consistent with physicians' cognitive processes. Our past five years' work with a system called Iliad indicates that it provides effective medical training and education. The current research extends our previous work by using a wider array of training and test cases. We also evaluated whether training on specific cases could generalize to improved testing performance on related cases, which featured similar complaints and pathophysiologic mechanisms, but different final diagnoses. In their junior internal medicine clerkship, students (n = 100) completed 1300 Iliad training cases covering 48 diagnoses. The findings indicated improved problem solving on the specifically trained cases as well as the generalization cases. We discuss a possible training model for expert systems such as Iliad.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
PubMed1998

[Memory, awareness and learning in general anesthesia].

Enough information concerning memory and other cognitive functions in total anesthesia is available in the literature. Some basic theories about neuronal mechanisms of memory and consciousness are known. An attempt trying to bridge the gap between psychological and biologic levels is the usage of anesthetics in pharmacologic tests enabling the study of their influence on awareness and memory in humans. With the help of this approach it is possible to inquire into the psychological mechanisms and to demonstrate the influence of anesthetics on them. 44 patients were included in the study, operated on in inhalation anesthesia. The effects of anesthesia on awareness, consciousness, learning and memory in our study sample were following: 1. No episode of awareness was observed during the study; 2. There was an improvement of the memory quotient (MQ) following total inhalation anesthesia (p < 0.05); 3. The pain threshold significantly decreased after anesthesia (p < 0.001); 4. There exists a learning mechanism in total anesthesia more efficient in the group of patients auditively learning pain related words (p < 0.05) comparing to the control group of patients auditively learning pain nonrelated words; 5. Statistical analysis of the number of remembered pain related words and pain nonrelated words revealed significantly higher number of words in the first group of pain related words (p < 0.001). (Tab. 3, fig. 6, Ref. 22.)

Anesthesia, Inhalation↗
PubMed1999

School attainments in children with congenital hypothyroidism detected by neonatal screening and treated early in life.

OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of school attainments in children with congenital hypothyroidism (CH) detected by neonatal screening and treated early in life. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Text comprehension, mathematics, reading, writing and verbal and spatial memory, as indices of school learning, were evaluated in nineteen 5- to 10-year-old children with CH attending nursery or elementary school. l-Thyroxine substitution (starting dose 8-10 microg/kg body weight per day) was initiated at a mean age of 30+/-10 days of life. The control group included 298 unaffected children matched with the CH children for age and school grade. Thirty per cent of controls were classmates of CH children. Intelligence quotients (IQ), language performances and motor development were evaluated in CH children at age 5 years, and were related to their school attainments. School performances of CH children were also compared with their neonatal serum thyroxine (T4) concentration, and with the social-cultural level of the family. RESULTS: Four out of 19 (21%) children with CH, 3 in the nursery and 1 in the elementary school, displayed a generalized learning disorder. Symbol copy, geometric copy, phrase repetition, dictation writing and spontaneous writing were particularly defective in nursery school CH children, while orthographic error recognition was defective in elementary school CH children. School learning disorders in CH children were significantly correlated with a borderline-low IQ, poor language performances and a low social-cultural level of the family, but not with motor skills or neonatal T4 concentration. CONCLUSION: School attainments of early treated CH children were within the normal range in most affected cases. However, about 20% of CH children, most of them attending nursery school, showed a generalized learning disorder. Low IQ scores and poor language performances at age 5 years were associated with defective learning, mainly in CH children living in a poor social-cultural environment. In this subset of CH children, prompt initiation of speech and psychomotor rehabilitation therapy is recommended in order to prevent subsequent school learning disorders.

Child↗
PubMed1995

Internal representations of the motor apparatus: implications from generalization in visuomotor learning.

Recent computational studies have proposed that the motor system acquires internal models of kinematic transformations, dynamic transformations, or both by learning. Computationally, internal models can be characterized by 2 extreme representations: structured and tabular (C. G. Atkeson, 1989). Tabular models do not need prior knowledge about the structure of the motor apparatus, but they lack the capability to generalize learned movements. Structured models, on the other hand, can generalize learned movements, but they require an analytical description of the motor apparatus. In investigating humans' capacity to generalize kinematic transformations, we examined which type of representation humans' motor system might use. Results suggest that internal representations are nonstructured and nontabular. Findings may be due to a neural network model with a medium number of neurons and synapses.

Adult↗