School of Psychology, University of Leicester, Lancaster Road, Leicester LE1 9HN, UK.
Behav Brain Res. 2011 Oct 31;224(2):297-304. doi: 10.1016/j.bbr.2011.06.006. Epub 2011 Jun 12.
In a 2-D computer based search task, human participants were exposed to a compound stimulus containing both geometric and non-geometric information (a rectangle with colored walls) in such a way that a non-geometric cue, C1, was paired with a geometric cue, G1. Previous reinforcement of either kind of cue (geometric and non-geometric) resulted in second order conditioning (SOC) when the participants were tested with the cue that was never paired with reinforcement (Experiment 1). Similarly, if one of the cues was reinforced following the non-reinforced exposure to the compound, a sensory preconditioning (SPC) effect was observed (Experiment 3). These results show that associations can be formed between geometric and non-geometric cues, a finding that is incompatible with the concept of a geometric module impenetrable to non-geometric information. In Experiments 2 and 4, we found evidence for SOC and SPC using exclusively geometric cues, suggesting that the associative learning principles that apply to other domains also rule spatial geometry learning in humans. This research suggests that spatial representations can be enlarged by successively integrating information bits through the linkage of common elements.
在一个基于 2D 计算机的搜索任务中，人类参与者接触到一种包含几何和非几何信息的复合刺激（一个带有彩色墙壁的矩形），以这样的方式，一个非几何线索 C1 与一个几何线索 G1 配对。当参与者用从未与强化配对的线索进行测试时，先前强化任何一种线索（几何和非几何）都会导致二阶条件作用（SOC）（实验 1）。同样，如果在复合刺激的非强化暴露后强化了一个线索，则会观察到感觉前条件作用（SPC）效应（实验 3）。这些结果表明，几何和非几何线索之间可以形成关联，这一发现与不可穿透非几何信息的几何模块的概念不兼容。在实验 2 和 4 中，我们使用仅有的几何线索发现了 SOC 和 SPC 的证据，这表明适用于其他领域的联想学习原则也支配着人类的空间几何学习。这项研究表明，空间表示可以通过链接共同元素，通过逐步整合信息位来扩大。
