Servant Mathieu, Cassey Peter, Woodman Geoffrey F, Logan Gordon D
Department of Psychology, Center for Integrative and Cognitive Neuroscience, Vanderbilt Vision Research Center, Vanderbilt University.
J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2018 Mar;44(3):440-464. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000454. Epub 2017 Sep 21.
Automaticity allows us to perform tasks in a fast, efficient, and effortless manner after sufficient practice. Theories of automaticity propose that across practice processing transitions from being controlled by working memory to being controlled by long-term memory retrieval. Recent event-related potential (ERP) studies have sought to test this prediction, however, these experiments did not use the canonical paradigms used to study automaticity. Specifically, automaticity is typically studied using practice regimes with consistent mapping between targets and distractors and spaced practice with individual targets, features that these previous studies lacked. The aim of the present work was to examine whether the practice-induced shift from working memory to long-term memory inferred from subjects' ERPs is observed under the conditions in which automaticity is traditionally studied. We found that to be the case in 3 experiments, firmly supporting the predictions of theories. In addition, we found that the temporal distribution of practice (massed vs. spaced) modulates the shape of learning curves. The ERP data revealed that the switch to long-term memory is slower for spaced than massed practice, suggesting that memory systems are used in a strategic manner. This finding provides new constraints for theories of learning and automaticity. (PsycINFO Database Record
经过充分练习后，自动化使我们能够以快速、高效且轻松的方式执行任务。自动化理论提出，在练习过程中，加工方式会从由工作记忆控制转变为由长期记忆检索控制。近期的事件相关电位（ERP）研究试图验证这一预测，然而，这些实验并未采用用于研究自动化的典型范式。具体而言，自动化通常是通过在目标与干扰项之间具有一致映射的练习模式以及针对单个目标的间隔练习来进行研究的，而这些正是先前研究中所缺乏的特征。本研究的目的是检验在传统研究自动化的条件下，是否能观察到从被试的ERP中推断出的由练习引起的从工作记忆到长期记忆的转变。我们在3个实验中发现确实如此，有力地支持了理论预测。此外，我们发现练习的时间分布（集中练习与间隔练习）会调节学习曲线的形状。ERP数据显示，间隔练习向长期记忆的转变比集中练习要慢，这表明记忆系统是以一种策略性的方式被使用的。这一发现为学习和自动化理论提供了新的限制条件。（PsycINFO数据库记录）
