Previous errorless sequence-learning promotes subsequent SRT performance in patients with Alzheimer's Disease

Poster (2012, July 17)

Motor-learning capacities are known to be relatively preserved in Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is crucial in the context of the patient’s autonomy (e.g., Rouleau et al., 2002). However, it is important ... [more ▼]

Motor-learning capacities are known to be relatively preserved in Alzheimer's disease (AD), which is crucial in the context of the patient’s autonomy (e.g., Rouleau et al., 2002). However, it is important to determine the most appropriate techniques for such learning. In AD, implicit or procedural rehabilitation techniques would be more effective to train new skills than explicit or declarative learning methods (van Halteren-van Tilborg, 2007). Maxwell et al. (2001) showed that reducing errors during motor learning minimizes the building of declarative knowledge and would allow implicit knowledge accumulation. If errorless learning induces the formation of an implicit knowledge, this technique appears to be adapted to the learning of a perceptual-motor skill in patients with impaired controlled processes. Very few studies have investigated errorless learning in procedural learning situations, even though some data suggest that errorless learning would be efficient for learning instrumental activities of daily living (e.g., Thivierge et al., 2008). In this study we examined the acquisition of a new perceptual-motor skill in 12 patients with AD and 12 healthy older adults. We compared the impact of two preliminary sequence learning conditions (errorless vs. errorful) on a serial reaction time (SRT) performance. In SRT, the subject must react as quickly as possible to the appearance of a target on a screen by pressing the key corresponding to the position of the stimulus. The effectiveness of learning is demonstrated by a reaction time improvement when the target follows a repeating sequence. For patients with AD, results confirm that the advantage provided by prior learning occurs only in the errorless condition whereas both learning modes improve SRT performance in healthy participants. In conclusion, these results confirm that the errorless learning promotes the development of implicit knowledge and appears to be an effective method for procedural learning in Alzheimer's disease. [less ▲]

Procedural learning in Developmental Coordination Disorder

in Books of Abstract: 1st Joint Meeting of the Belgian Association for Psychological Science & Sociedad Espanola de Psicologica Experimental (2012, May 11)

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a developmental disorder characterized by marked impairments in motor skills. Despite its negative impact on daily activities and on cognitive and academic ... [more ▼]

Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) is a developmental disorder characterized by marked impairments in motor skills. Despite its negative impact on daily activities and on cognitive and academic performance, the mechanisms underlying DCD remain largely unknown. The aim of our study was to investigate the hypothesis of a motor procedural learning impairment in DCD, which would explain difficulties in motor learning and automation of novel motor skills in these children. A total of 32 children (16 with DCD and 16 typically developing [TD] children) aged between 6 and 12 years old participated in this study. Children were administered a task adapted from the traditional shapes’ mirror-tracing task. Results showed that DCD children were able to learn the skill as fast as TD children; the learning pattern of DCD and TD children in motor procedural learning is similar. But is there any generalization of a new perceptual-motor skill in DCD children? Actually, DCD children were slower during the transfer task (triangle task) than TD children; the transfer task was more difficult for the DCD children than their peers. DCD children and TD children differ in their abilities to generalize the motor schema to a new task, more complex. These results confirm the hypothesis of a motor procedural learning impairment in DCD. [less ▲]

Unimpaired Procedural visual learning abilities in children with specific language impairment..

in American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology (2012)

Purpose: According to the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH), difficulties in the Procedural Learning (PL) system may contribute to the language difficulties observed in children with Specific Language ... [more ▼]

Purpose: According to the Procedural Deficit Hypothesis (PDH), difficulties in the Procedural Learning (PL) system may contribute to the language difficulties observed in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Method: Fifteen children with SLI and their typically developing (TD) peers were compared on visual PL tasks: specifically, deterministic Serial Reaction Time (SRT) tasks. In a first experiment, children with SLI and their TD peers performed the classical SRT task using a keyboard as response mode. In a second experiment, they performed the same SRT task but gave their responses through a touchscreen (instead of a keyboard) to reduce the motor and cognitive demands of the task. Results: Although in Experiment 1, children with SLI demonstrated learning, they were slower and made more errors than their TD peers. Nevertheless, these relative weaknesses disappeared when the nature of the response mode changed (Experiment 2). Conclusions: This study reports that children with SLI may exhibit sequential learning. Moreover, the generally slower RTs observed in previous deterministic SRT studies may be explained by the response mode used. Thus, our findings are not consistent with the predictions of the PDH, and suggest that language impairments in SLI are not sustained by poor procedural learning abilities. [less ▲]

Efficacy of errorless learning in the acquisition of a new procedural skill in Alzheimer's disease

Poster (2011, May 27)

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), implicit or procedural rehabilitation techniques would be more effective to train new skills than explicit or declarative learning methods (van Halteren-van Tilborg, 2007 ... [more ▼]

In Alzheimer’s disease (AD), implicit or procedural rehabilitation techniques would be more effective to train new skills than explicit or declarative learning methods (van Halteren-van Tilborg, 2007). Following Baddeley and Wilson (1994)’s assumption, Maxwell et al. (2001) showed that reducing errors during motor learning minimizes the building of declarative knowledge and would allow implicit knowledge accumulation. However, most studies on errorless learning focused on learning of face-name associations (Clare et al., , 2001), and very few studies have investigated errorless learning in procedural learning situations, even though some data suggest that errorless learning would be efficient for learning instrumental activities of daily living (e.g., Thivierge et al., 2008). The aim of this study was to examine the efficacy of an error-reducing versus an errorfull method in motor skill learning. We examined the acquisition of a new motor skill in 24 patients with AD and 24 healthy older adults matched for age, sex, and education. In this task, subjects had to follow with a reversed mouse the contour of a form (a star) displayed on a computer screen. Half the subjects learned in an error-reducing condition, and the others in an errorfull condition. After the learning phase, all the subjects had to complete a novel form. Results show an advantage for the error-reducing condition in the AD group, whereas the performance of the healthy participants did not differ between the two conditions, confirming the efficiency of errorless learning principles in AD for procedural learning situations. [less ▲]

The impact of culture on cognitive performance in neuropsychological tests.

Poster (2009, September 17)

Parental socio-educational influence on executive measures and socio-adaptative behaviours in preschooler

in Books of Conference Abstract: The10th European Conference on Psychological Assessment, (2009)

The influence of educational variables on cognitive development, and particularly on the development of executive functions, remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined the parental socio ... [more ▼]

The influence of educational variables on cognitive development, and particularly on the development of executive functions, remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined the parental socio-educational influence on both executive functioning and social/emotional behaviours in preschoolers. We administered to 77 children (2 age groups: 4 and 5-year-old) divided into two educational levels (HL vs. LL, i.e. High Level vs. Low Level of parental socio-educational status) several tasks measuring different aspects of the executive functioning (cognitive flexibility, inhibition, logico-deductive reasoning, and working memory). Questionnaires were also completed by the teaching staff in order to assess the children’s social (e.g., loneliness), emotional (e.g., anxiety), and adaptative (e.g., tolerance) behaviours at school. Results reveal that children from high socio-educational status performed significantly better on some specific verbal (fluency, verbal reasoning) and non-verbal executive tasks (deductive reasoning, inhibition) than children from lower socio-educational status (ps<.05). On the other hand, no significant socio-educational effect was found for working memory and cognitive flexibility. Regarding their social, emotional, and adaptative behaviours, LL children did not significantly differ from HL children, except for the anxiety scale, in which LL children were described as less confident than their HL peers. So, our results confirm that educational variables can significantly influence the development of specific executive functions, and that this can already be observed in preschool children. On the contrary, regarding the socio-adaptative behaviours, our results indicate that the parental socio-educational status does not seem to have a significant influence on the preschoolers’ behaviour at school. [less ▲]