Direct and Indirect Measures of Learning in Visual Search

Doctoral thesis (2013)

In this thesis, we will explore direct and indirect measures of learning in a visual search task commonly called contextual cueing. In the first part, we present a review of the scientific literature on ... [more ▼]

In this thesis, we will explore direct and indirect measures of learning in a visual search task commonly called contextual cueing. In the first part, we present a review of the scientific literature on contextual cueing, in order to give the readers of this thesis a better general idea of existing evidence and open questions within this relatively new research field. The aims of our own experimental studies presented in the succeeding chapters are the following ones: (1) to replicate and extend the findings described in the various papers by Marvin Chun and various colleagues on contextual cueing of visual attention; (2) to explore the nature of memory representations underlying the observed learning effects, especially whether learning is actually implicit and whether memory representations are distinctive, episodic and instance-based or rather distributed, continuous and graded; (3) to extend the study of contextual cueing to more realistic visual stimuli, in order to test its robustness across various situations and validate its adaptive value in ecologically sound conditions; and (4) to investigate whether such knowledge about the association between visual contexts and “meaningful” locations can be (automatically) transferred to other tasks, namely a change detection task. In a first series of four experiments, we tried to replicate the documented contextual cueing effect using a wide range of various direct measures of learning (tasks that are supposed to be related to explicit knowledge) and we systematically varied the distinctiveness of context configurations to study its effect on both direct and indirect measures of learning. We also ran a series of neural network simulations (briefly described in the general discussion of this thesis), based on a very simple association-learning mechanism, that not only account for the observed contextual cueing effect, but also yield rather specific predictions about future experimental data: contextual cueing effects should also be observed when repetitions of context configurations are not perfect, i.e., the networks were able to react to slightly distorted versions of repeating contexts in a similar way than they did to completely identical contexts. Human participants, we conjectured, should therefore (if the simple connectionist model captures some relevant aspects of the contextual cueing effect) become faster at detecting targets surrounded by context configurations that are only partially identical from trial to trial compared to those trials where the context configurations were randomly generated. These predictions were tested in a second series of experiments using pseudo-repeated context configurations, where some distractor items were either displaced from trial to trial or their orientation changed, while conserving their global layout. In a third series of experiments, we used more realistic images of natural landscapes as background contexts to establish the robustness of the contextual cueing effect as well as its ecological relevance claimed by Chun and colleagues. We furthermore added a second task to these experiments to study whether the acquired knowledge about the background-target location associations would (automatically) transfer to another visual search task, namely a change detection task. If participants have learned that certain locations of the repeated images are “important”, since they contain the target item to look for, then changes occurring at those specific locations should lead to less “change blindness” than changes occurring at other irrelevant locations. We used two different types of instructions to introduce this second task after the visual search task, where we either stressed the link between the two tasks, i.e., telling them that remembering the “important” locations for each image could be used to find the changes faster, or we simply told them to perform the second task without any reference to the first one. We will close this thesis with a general discussion, combining findings based on our review of the existing research literature and findings based on our own experimental explorations of the contextual cueing effect. By this we will discuss the implications of our empirical studies for the scientific investigation of contextual cueing and implicit learning, in terms of theoretical, empirical and methodological issues. [less ▲]

Working memory in 5-to-7 year-old children: Its structure and relationship to fluid intelligence

Scientific Conference (2011, August 24)

Working memory (WM) has been predominantly studied in adults. The insights provided by these studies have led to the development of competing theories on the structure of WM and conflicting conclusions on ... [more ▼]

Working memory (WM) has been predominantly studied in adults. The insights provided by these studies have led to the development of competing theories on the structure of WM and conflicting conclusions on how strongly WM components are related to higher order thinking skills such as fluid intelligence (GF). However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent the theories and findings derived from adult data generalize to children. The purpose of the present study was therefore to investigate WM in 5-to-7-year-old children (N = 161). Specifically, we examined different structural models of WM and how its components, as defined in these models, are related to GF. Our results suggest that children draw on both domain- general and domain-specific processes when performing memory span. Crucially, our findings indicate that domain-general processes result in a core storage capacity that primarily explains the relationship between WM and GF. Based on these observations we discuss the theoretical and methodological issues that arise when children’s WM is investigated. [less ▲]

Children's working memory: Its structure and relationship to fluid intelligence

in Intelligence (2011), 39(4), 210-221

Working memory (WM) has been predominantly studied in adults. The insights provided by these studies have led to the development of competing theories on the structure of WM and conflicting conclusions on ... [more ▼]

Working memory (WM) has been predominantly studied in adults. The insights provided by these studies have led to the development of competing theories on the structure of WM and conflicting conclusions on how strongly WM components are related to higher order thinking skills such as fluid intelligence. However, it remains unclear whether and to what extent the theories and findings derived from adult data generalize to children. The purpose of the present study is therefore to investigate children's WM (N = 161), who attended classes at the end of kindergarten in Luxembourg. Specifically, we examine different structural models of WM and how its components, as defined in these models, are related to fluid intelligence. Our results indicate that short-term storage capacity primarily explains the relationship between WM and fluid intelligence. Based on these observations we discuss the theoretical and methodological issues that arise when children's WM is investigated. [less ▲]

Auf den Spuren Lew Wygotskis

Book published by Robert Reuter (2009)

Dieses Buch ist das Ergebnis eines pädagogischen Projektes welches im 2. Semester des akademischen Jahres 2008-2009 von Studierenden der Universität Luxemburg im Rahmen des zweiten Moduls „Socio-Cultural ... [more ▼]

Dieses Buch ist das Ergebnis eines pädagogischen Projektes welches im 2. Semester des akademischen Jahres 2008-2009 von Studierenden der Universität Luxemburg im Rahmen des zweiten Moduls „Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Learning“ der Transdisciplinary Curriculum Line „Learning as a social and cultural practice“ im "Bachelor en Sciences de l’Education" durchgeführt wurde. Es enthält Beiträge zu Themen der Lernpsychologie, der Entwicklungspsychologie, sowie der Erziehungswissenschaften. [less ▲]

Becoming a teacher... Ou un portfolio de développement professionnel au centre d’un Bachelor en Sciences de l’Education à l’Université du Luxembourg

in Actes du 21e colloque de l’ADMEE Europe (2009)

Integrating Mahara as an e-portfolio system and social network in the BScE (slideshow)

Presentation (2009)

Auf der Suche nach Lew Wygotski

Book published by Robert Reuter (2008)

Dieses Buch ist das Ergebnis eines pädagogischen Projektes welches im 2. Semester des akademischen Jahres 2007-2008 von Studierenden der Universität Luxemburg im Rahmen des zweiten Moduls „Socio-Cultural ... [more ▼]

Dieses Buch ist das Ergebnis eines pädagogischen Projektes welches im 2. Semester des akademischen Jahres 2007-2008 von Studierenden der Universität Luxemburg im Rahmen des zweiten Moduls „Socio-Cultural Perspectives on Learning“ der Transdisciplinary Curriculum Line „Learning as a social and cultural practice“ im "Bachelor en Sciences de l’Education" durchgeführt wurde. Es enthält Beiträge zu Themen der Lernpsychologie, der Entwicklungspsychologie, sowie der Erziehungswissenschaften. [less ▲]

A la rencontre de Lev Vygotsky

Book published by Université du Luxembourg (2007)

Ce livre est issu d’un projet pédagogique réalisé au second semestre de l’année académique 2006-2007 par des étudiantes et étudiants de l’Université du Luxembourg, dans le cadre du deuxième module ... [more ▼]

Ce livre est issu d’un projet pédagogique réalisé au second semestre de l’année académique 2006-2007 par des étudiantes et étudiants de l’Université du Luxembourg, dans le cadre du deuxième module : «Introducing Vygotsky (1896-1934): Mediation and the ZPD» de l’unité d’apprentissage «Learning as a social and cultural practice» du programme d’études du Bachelor Professionnel en Sciences de l’Education (BPSE), dispensé par la Faculté des Lettres, des Sciences Humaines, des Arts et des Sciences de l'Education. Il contient des contributions originales sur des thèmes variés du domaine de la psychologie des apprentissages, du développement et de l'éducation. [less ▲]

L'autorité du "bon professeur": évaluation des attitudes et comportements favorables au respect des règles

Scientific Conference (2006)

L’autorité est une caractéristique d’un rapport social et elle présuppose le respect réciproque. La présente recherche vise à relever les attitudes et comportements d’un enseignant favorables à son ... [more ▼]

L’autorité est une caractéristique d’un rapport social et elle présuppose le respect réciproque. La présente recherche vise à relever les attitudes et comportements d’un enseignant favorables à son autorité. Selon Rey (1999), ni une attitude de supériorité, ni une attitude de proximité ne sont favorables à l’autorité d’un enseignant, mais plutôt celle qui permet de résoudre de façon convaincante et satisfaisante cette dialectique entre éloignement et proximité, appelé ici « positionnement à distance ». Cette attitude est favorable au sentiment de l’élève d’être respecté par son professeur, ce qui engendre le respect des règles établies par l’enseignant et donc la reconnaissance de son autorité. Nous proposons ici d’évaluer laquelle de ces trois attitudes est perçue par les élèves comme la plus favorable à l’autorité. Nous avons ainsi établi des définitions opérationnelles de ces attitudes en les associant à trois catégories de comportements: communication congruente/non-congruente, mode de réaction non- affirmatif/affirmatif/hostile et traitement juste/injuste. Afin de vérifier l’hypothèse d’un lien étroit entre positionnement à distance et le couple respect-autorité, nous avons réalisé des entretiens semi-dirigés auprès de jeunes adolescents d’un établissement d’enseignement secondaire technique du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg. Les résultats obtenus suggèrent que les adolescents interrogés accordent de l’importance au fait que le professeur les respecte et qu’il adopte un positionnement à distance. Selon leur propre évaluation, c’est le sentiment d’être respectés par le professeur qui les conduit à respecter ses règles. Cependant, les propos des jeunes soulèvent également l’importance d’un rapport de négociation, d’une zone de tolérance et de flexibilité par rapport à la loi et au savoir, ainsi qu’un ensemble de représentations du système scolaire qui semblent s’éloigner de la définition des missions et des finalités de l’école et rapprochent l’autorité à leur interprétation du « bon professeur ». [less ▲]

Analyse des besoins pour le projet 'e-Learning pour les langues' de Quattropole (French manuscript)

Report (2005)